Click here if you are having trouble logging into the forums
Privacy Policy |
Please read our Terms
of Service | Signup and
Troubleshooting FAQ | Problems? PM a Red or a Green Gu.... uh, User
Blind-Cyclops
sage
Reged: 11/28/05
Posts: 489
Loc: Kitchener, ON, Canada
|
|
Glassthrower (in the Space Rocks thread) had this link to a timely report related to this new topic thread.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/08/13/nasa.asteroid.detection/index.html
Thanks Mike.
--------------------
Clear skies...
Duncan 
"Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking. Keep watching the skies!"
-- Closing line in movie spoken by newspaper report Ned "Scotty" Scott (Douglas Spencer) in the Sci-Fi movie
"The Thing From Another World", RKO Radio Pictures, 1951.
Antares (refractor) 127mm f/6.45. w/2-spd Crayford
Orion (Maksutov) 150mm f/12 w/2" EP adapter
Giro 3 (twin), 18" pier, EQ5 tripod.
Garrett 20x80mm, 410 head, 055 tripod.
Edited by oldsalt (11/03/09 04:21 PM)
|
WillCarney
member
Reged: 10/08/09
Posts: 35
|
|
One thing that is disturbing is that 30% or more of the sky is not currently being searched. There are no southern hemisphere searches going on. The fire at the Australia site has affected this I guess. They are still not back to normal. There is no funding for this either.
William
|
groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1078
Loc: Duncan, BC
|
|
Quote:
One thing that is disturbing is that 30% or more of the sky is not currently being searched. There are no southern hemisphere searches going on. The fire at the Australia site has affected this I guess. They are still not back to normal. There is no funding for this either.
William
When you say 30% of the sky isn't being searched, to the layman, that sounds like 30% of potential problem asteroids aren't even going to be discovered by current searches, but, that's just not the case. Asteroids are moving, so, one that's in that 30% today, wont be in a few weeks, it will have moved into that part of the sky that is being actively searched. The unsearched areas are typically at the high polar declinations, and, survey telescopes aren't pointing in that direction for a good reason, it's below thier horizon. That means, something up there is on a high polar trajectory, and will certainly move out of that area into the searched area soon enough. If it's actually staying up in that area, then, it's not an asteroid, because it's not in a sun orbit. If it's in a sun orbit, and up that high in declination, it'll come down into the searched area soon enough.
|
RockandIceHunter
member
Reged: 11/05/09
Posts: 11
Loc: Tucson, Az
|
|
Quote:
One thing that is disturbing is that 30% or more of the sky is not currently being searched. There are no southern hemisphere searches going on. The fire at the Australia site has affected this I guess. They are still not back to normal. There is no funding for this either.
William
There are a number of problems with that article, and the others that were released at the same time. For the most part it was a normal report that got hyped in the media for some strange reason.
The surveying they are referring to has not begun, nor has it been decided to go forward. Kinda hard to be falling behind on a program that has not been given a green light at any level.
William,
I think Rob & Gordon, who operate our sister survey at Siding Spring, would be surprised to hear that they don't exist! Their observing did get interrupted for a short time due to smoke, but they're finding NEOs and comets just as well as they always have.
We've been funded for an additional three years. Maybe you hadn't heard.
As for "falling short"? Actually, we have attained the goal set by Congress a decade ago, right on time, this year.
Cheers
--------------------
--
Richard Kowalski
Catalina Sky Survey
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
|
WillCarney
member
Reged: 10/08/09
Posts: 35
|
|
Thanks for the update. I was not aware that you guys were
back up and running. Good to here that your ok.
William
|
nightstalker
sage
Reged: 03/30/07
Posts: 252
Loc: Great South Land
|
|
True Richard  I believe that missplaced Scot and his partner in crime have been quite busy over the last few years
The fire was elswhere Will, not that it didn't destroy a lot of history in regard to astronomy down under .. all these guys are looking and finding stuff on all sides of the pond .. which is a pretty important contribution to
life on our rock .. imo
Edited by nightstalker (11/14/09 02:12 AM)
|
davidc
sage
Reged: 11/24/05
Posts: 264
Loc: Mesa, Arizona
|
|
Richard,
I've spent quite a few hours, on different occasions, listening to Rik Hill's presentations on NEO's, and his other adventures, and spent one interesting and informative night with him at the Catalina Schmidt on Bigelow. I know he would, and I back you 110% by saying that this article has nothing to stand on, especially reporting that 30% of the southern sky not being covered. I was there for myself to see how CSS, MSS, and the SSS (and Calif and N.M.) worked together. It would be interesting to hear his take on the article, but I know which way he would go with that one. I hope sometime I can go back to the Schmidt, or even visit the Stewart on MSS.
David
--------------------
13.1 Inch-F/4.8 Royce Conical Homebuilt Dob
8 Inch-F/5 Orion Dob
4 Inch Celestron Reflector Camping Scope
25mm Meade W/A Ep
13mm Orion Stratus Ep
8mm Orion Stratus Ep
2X Meade Barlow
Meade Cheshire/Sight Tube
East Valley Astronomy Club
Searching For Rainbows In The Dark
|
|
1 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: oldsalt
Print Thread
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Thread views: 226
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
