From: owner-utah-astronomy-digest@lists.xmission.com (utah-astronomy-digest) To: utah-astronomy-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: utah-astronomy-digest V1 #2 Reply-To: utah-astronomy-digest Sender: owner-utah-astronomy-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-utah-astronomy-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk utah-astronomy-digest Tuesday, December 14 1999 Volume 01 : Number 002 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 14:19:33 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) Odd Day Off the subject but interesting... Today is an odd day, meaning that all of the digits are odd, 11-19-1999. The next odd day after that will be 1-1-3111 (well over a thousand years away), which we will never see. Days such as 4-13-89 have both even and odd digits, thus, it is neither odd nor even. The next even day will be 2-2-2000 (the first one since 8-28-0888). Now you have a reason to celebrate today as it will be your last odd day on earth!!! Have a nice Odd day! - -- LucyBlue@Softhome.net ICQ #10306498 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius Smooth Blue Collie http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/4637 Moon Shyne Catalina 22 - #5315 - GSL Utah http://www.angelfire.com/pq/LucyBlue - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 15:14:10 -0700 (MST) From: Mark Dakins Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) Odd Day > > Off the subject but interesting... > Today is an odd day, meaning that all of the digits are > odd, 11-19-1999. The next odd day after that will be > 1-1-3111 (well over a thousand years away), which we > will never see. Days such as 4-13-89 have both even > and odd digits, thus, it is neither odd nor even. > The > next even day will be 2-2-2000 (the first one > since 8-28-888). Now you have a reason to celebrate > today as it will be your last odd day on earth!!! > Have a nice Odd day! > Oh, if only I could bring myself to believe it :-) Mark Dakins - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 12:54:33 EST From: DrCutis@aol.com Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) The Great Astronomy Slide Giveaway Hi, I would be very interested in a boxed set of slides. I grew up in San Diego, and went to Palomar as a kid and loved the "old black and white" images! I am a dermatologist with a huge number of skin slides and since dermatology is a very "visual" specialty, whenever I give a lecture, I bring lots of slides to show. It would be really interesting and a good change of pace to include some great astronomy slides in my talks. I give talks in schools, BYU, U of U, and dermatology meetings. Anyway, let me know.....I could come and pick them up since I know where you live. As an aside, I was the one who bought that property next to you, but then sold it to a Brown (?Aaron). I hope is a good neighbor, I saw he built a house. Carpe noctum. - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 07:49:22 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Hansen Planetarium: Mars lecture] Patrick, I hope it's okay for me to forward this stuff to the list... Cyn FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Richard Cox November 24, 1999 Phone: (801) 531-4926 NASA SCIENTIST TO DISCUSS MARS EXPLORATION / COLONIZATION Hansen Planetarium announces that Anthony Griffith, Exploration Operations Lead in NASA's Exploration Office, has generously agreed to present a free public lecture at the University of Utah's Fine Arts Auditorium from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. the evening of Wednesday, December 1, 1999. The subject of the talk will be the exploration and eventual colonization of Mars. Tickets will be required for admission. Free tickets are available from the Hansen Planetarium, the Utah Museum of Natural History and the University of Utah Student Union. Mr. Griffith's talk will be especially well timed, happening only two days before NASA's Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to land on the Red Planet. The landing is currently set for just after 1:00 pm MST the afternoon of Friday, December 3rd. To help the public enjoy and be informed about the landing, Hansen Planetarium will provide free live NASA Television coverage of all landing day activities via its in-house closed circuit television system from 10 am to late evening. - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:32:12 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Hansen Planetarium: Geminid meteor shower] COMET PARTICLES MAY STREAK IN MID DECEMBER The Earth will be centered in a swarm of comet particles the night of Monday the 13th and the morning of Tuesday the 14th of December. All through the night, brief, needle-like streaks of light will cut across the sky as Earthlings are treated to the annual Geminid meteor shower. The Geminids usually treat viewers who are away from city lights and smog to nearly 100 streaks per hour. Unlike November's much talked about but short lived meteor shower which was primarily visible only from Europe and North Africa, December's show is predicted to still be going strong when Utah's spot on the planet rotates into position. According to Hansen Planetarium's Patrick Wiggins, "Most of the meteors will be a brilliant white, but the nice thing about this particular shower is that many are often yellow, green, orange, blue and even red". "Most people know these lights as shooting or falling stars," said Wiggins. "They're actually meteors -- tiny bits of rock, most no larger than a grain of sand -- that burn up and turn to ash when they strike the Earth's extreme upper atmosphere high above our heads." Wiggins said most meteor particles are thought to have been left behind by comets. In the case of this shower the identification of the parent body remained a mystery for many years. It wasn't until 1983 when a NASA satellite discovered a small asteroid, now named 3200 Phaethon, which is now thought by many to be a dead comet and the long lost parent body of the Geminids. As telescopes and binoculars restrict the view of the sky they should not be used to view this or any meteor shower. According to Wiggins, "Probably the best meteor observing equipment consists of a lawn chair, a few blankets and some munchies". As with most meteor showers, the Geminids will probably be most active after midnight, however many meteors may be seen in the early evening as well. A few Geminids may also be visible a few nights before and after the predicted peak, but their numbers on those nights could be fewer as the Earth will then be less centered in the comet particle swarm. For information on the Geminids or other astronomical subjects, call the Hansen Planetarium's STARLINE information service at (801) 532-STAR. * * * - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 07:34:44 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Calendars / Net access / More slides] Hi, Seems our publications department has a bunch of 1999 calendars left over and needs to get rid of them by year's end. Believe it or not the nearly out of date calendars have been very well received by the schools our outreach program has visited. Teachers and students don't want to use them as calendars. Rather, they want them for the many "pretty pictures" that look nice when cut out and hung on classroom walls. Alas they all have to go away before the end of the year or they will be shredded and our outreach program will not visit enough schools by then to get rid of them all. So, if any of you out there would care to grab a bunch of calendars to give out at schools (or most anywhere else you'd care to give them out) please let me know so I can arrange pickup (like maybe at Wednesday night's NASA lecture at the U). On another matter, a member of SLAS tells me he's looking for free email (not web) access via a local (SLC) dial up. All of the "free" email I've heard about lately requires one to first sign up with an ISP (for a fee). I know there used to be a place offering free email via a SLC number without going through an ISP but can't remember who. If you can help with this please let me know. Finally, you might remember the 10 thousand or so astronomy slides we came across recently and which the UVAA took off our hands. Well, believe it or not, a similar quantity of additional slides has just turned up. So, as before, they're there for the asking. Just ask. I'll even deliver. :-) Carpe Noctem! Patrick :-) - -- Patrick Wiggins Hansen Planetarium Education Department email: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu voice: 801.531-4952 - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 16:43:42 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Mars landing on cable] Forwarded from Patrick: - -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Mars landing on cable Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 16:32:40 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Reply-To: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu To: c@landing I just got off the phone with A T & T Cable (formerly TCI) and they have agreed to carry the NASA-TV coverage of the Mars landing tomorrow. Live NASA coverage starts at 10 am with the landing set for 1:15 pm MST. Depending on what part of the AT&T system one is watching, it will either be on channel 24 or the channel on which Animal Planet is usually carried. Many thanks to AT&T for helping the public experience this historic event. Carpe Noctem! Patrick :-) - -- Patrick Wiggins Hansen Planetarium Education Department email: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu voice: 801.531-4952 - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 13:46:09 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Poll: Should Mars Missions Continue?] - -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Poll: Should Mars Missions Continue? Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 13:29:35 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Reply-To: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu To: c@poll USA Today Poll There have been 25 U.S. and Russian missions to Mars since 1962. Of these, 11 have failed and four did not have complete missions. Should the missions continue? Yes: 72.9% No: 27.1% Total Votes: 12102 You can still vote on this poll at: http://www.usatoday.com/hphoto.htm - -- Patrick Wiggins Hansen Planetarium Education Department email: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu voice: 801.531-4952 - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 23:09:04 -0700 From: "David Oswald" Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Poll: Should Mars Missions Continue?] On 6 Dec 99, at 13:46, Alyxandra K. MacLeod wrote the following in regards to: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Poll: Should Mars Missions: > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Poll: Should Mars Missions Continue? > Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 13:29:35 -0700 > From: Patrick Wiggins > Reply-To: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu > To: c@poll > > USA Today Poll > > There have been 25 U.S. and Russian missions to Mars since 1962. > Of these, > 11 have failed and four did not have complete missions. Should > the missions > continue? > > Yes: 72.9% > No: 27.1% > > Total Votes: 12102 > > You can still vote on this poll at: > > http://www.usatoday.com/hphoto.htm > I'll voice my response here. It turns out I had this exact discussion with a co-worker today. We both agreed that the embarrassment of losing two craft in three months could be damaging to the program. But we were divided on the need for the continued project. His argument was that we don't really need to know what color the rocks are on Mars. My own view is that there is a need for the continuation of such projects for the following reasons: My own personal need to know how things work. Yes, I'm a tinkerer, and I like to understand how everything works; people, machines, computers, the laws of physics, biology, medicine... and the universe. I suppose that alone isn't reason enough to hurl $165 million dollar labs into the heavens, but it's a start. Science's understanding of the universe. By understanding the universe better we come closer to defining the nature of our universe's physical laws. And by so doing we innovate, open up new possibilities, and solve old problems. I doubt that sending a probe to Mars is going to help us to get closer to the first millisecond of the universe's existance, nor will it help us to draw closer to a unified theory, but it does take us in the right direction; the direction of acquiring additional knowledge. Public support. Though there are many failures, there are also a few successes. Beaming pictures of red rocks down to us earthlings is a fantastic publicity stunt. People simply go nuts over the thought of seeing what it's like on other planets, and seeing what crazy devices we dream up to explore another planet. Even if the thing is expensive and unnecessary from a learning standpoint, the public support that a successful landing can muster goes a long way toward keeping funding coming into the sciences. A successful landing gives people something concrete to look at, and keeps the public approval for government spending on all space programs high. Real-world innovation. Many of the techonologies that have become commonplace in our lives are owed to innovations that were born of the space era. Just as automobile racing develops technologies that eventually find their way into consumer automobiles, innovations that make space exploration possible eventually find their way into our laptop computers, our ski parkas, and our beverage containers. There are very few "things" in our modern world that haven't benefited from innovations developed in either the space race or the arms race. Well, we don't have any arch-enemies anymore, so the burden on space technology is all the more substantial. I'm sure that I've left out some of the most important reasons to gain a better understanding of the red planet. But I'm just a layman who enjoys looking up once in awhile. Dave Oswald - -- David Oswald | doswald@xmission.com A person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned 60 or 70 times as much as one who hasn't. -- Mark Twain - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 07:47:50 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Poll: Should Mars Missions Continue?] I agree with the need to continue our exploration of not only mars, but also of our solar system and even beyond. I was listening to NPR this morning on the drive in to work, and they were going to wait two weeks before they labeled this latest mars mission a 'failure.' And I thought, why would they do that? I'm sure they have learned a great deal of information from this attempt, and have gained insight on things they would do differently next time, and what their limits are. Perhaps they can learn enough from these latest experiences so that the next time a probe is sent to mars, or any other planet, the instruments will work and send back the desired information. I would not consider the missions 'failures', rather they are experiences which will bring a great deal of needed information in the future, regardless of what kind of information that is. Space exploration has helped us gain many technologies which would not otherwise be available. The desire to learn and grow is a basic human desire and it will continue no matter if the space program is cut or reduced or not. I hope space exploration continues and grows in the future. I would love to see more probes and even manned missions reintroduced into the routine of space exploration. Cynthia - -- LucyBlue@Softhome.net ICQ #10306498 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius Smooth Blue Collie - ---- Moon Shyne Catalina 22 - #5315 - GSL Utah - ---- http://www.xmission.com/~lucyblue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 07:50:10 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) [Fwd: Hansen Planetarium: Winter] - -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Hansen Planetarium: Winter Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 16:43:14 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Reply-To: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu To: c@solstice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tori Spratling December 6, 1999 Phone: (801) 531-4945 HERE COMES WINTER It may have seemed that it was Old Man Winter who was nipping your nose and slowing the start of your car, but something else will have to be blamed. Winter officially arrives on Wednesday, the 22nd of December at 12:44 a.m. After this event, known as the December solstice, the days will gradually become longer and warmer for those of us here in the northern hemisphere, while becoming shorter and colder for those living in the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed. For those south of the equator the December solstice marks the beginning of summer. To help people better understand this natural phenomena the Hansen Planetarium will offer a free Solstice Lecture starting at 12:15 p.m. on the 21st and will have the planetarium's roof-top solar observatory open for public viewing from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. Some theories state that the holiday lights we enjoy at this time of year originated in the December Solstice ceremonies of ancient cultures. "Day after day, people watched for the Sun to rise. Each day was a little shorter, a little colder, and the night seemed to be gaining dominance of the heavens," said Hansen Planetarium's Tori Spratling "They lit fires on hillsides to encourage and help the Sun. Sure enough, every year their efforts were rewarded and the Sun would gradually creep higher in the sky. Today, we still burn lights during our winter celebration as a symbol of returning life," said Spratling. For information on the Solstice or other astronomical subjects, call the Hansen Planetarium's STARLINE information service at (801) 532-STAR. - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 14:03:17 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) SETI Hey, is anyone else doing that SETI@Home stuff? Running their software on your computer? I have a little group going, it'd be fun to add more people... Cynthia - -- LucyBlue@Softhome.net ICQ #10306498 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius Smooth Blue Collie - ---- Moon Shyne Catalina 22 - #5315 - GSL Utah - ---- http://www.xmission.com/~lucyblue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 16:18:37 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" wrote: > > Hey, is anyone else doing that SETI@Home stuff? Running their > software on your computer? I have a little group going, it'd be > fun to add more people... > Cynthia Hansen Planetarium has processed 8 packets and is working on #9. Carpe Noctem! Patrick :-) - -- Patrick Wiggins Hansen Planetarium Education Department email: p.wiggins@m.cc.utah.edu voice: 801.531-4952 - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 21:45:53 EST From: DrCutis@aol.com Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI I am. What kind of group would you be interested in beginning and what would we do....compare notes or talk philosophically about ETI? - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 07:47:52 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI I currently have a 'group' and it's called greyghosts. I could change the name, since I'm the creator of the group, to something like Salt Lake City SETI or something...? If you go to their home page and do a search in groups for greyghosts you can see it. You can actually just find the group and join, then we'd have more people doing it! It would just be fun, I think. Lemme know about the name change. It'd be great to have the planetarium in the group, too. For people who do not know, the SETI@home URL is: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ - -- LucyBlue@Softhome.net ICQ #10306498 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius Smooth Blue Collie - ---- Moon Shyne Catalina 22 - #5315 - GSL Utah - ---- http://www.xmission.com/~lucyblue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 10:04:50 -0500 From: "Heyman, Aaron" Subject: RE: (utah-astronomy) SETI Hi Cynthia, Better make sure she doesn't have something like a broken arm before you catch it. :) Aaron - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 10:09:41 -0500 From: "Heyman, Aaron" Subject: RE: (utah-astronomy) SETI Hi All, Teach me to use that reply button. My apologies. Aaron - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 15:46:15 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) Forwarded This was forwarded to me from a friend... - ----- Everyone should mark their calendars this month. It will be the Last Lunar Harrah of the Millennium: This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec.22, commonly called the first day of winter. Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth) The moon will appear about 14 % larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth) since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the moon is about 7 stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon of the year since the moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there is a snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be superfluous. On December 21st. 1866 the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory. ::::::::In lay-mans terms it will be a super bright full moon, much more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years. Our ancestors 133 years ago saw this. Our descendents 100 or so years from now will see this. Hope someone else might find this interesting. Remember this will happen December 22, 1999..... ********************************* Not verified, but only passed on Tom - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:29:25 -0700 From: "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" Subject: (utah-astronomy) Units Seth, I saw that you posted to the list but it bounced, you were talking about how many data units you've processed with SETI@home. That is cool you've done so many, over a thousand? I've done 286 on my own and I joined up only a few days after it started. Patrick, has the planetarium really only done 9? I leave my computer on 24/7 and it just runs in the background. An advantage of having a speedy computer. :) Cynthia - -- LucyBlue@Softhome.net ICQ #10306498 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Elsinore Lucilla Aurelius Smooth Blue Collie - ---- Moon Shyne Catalina 22 - #5315 - GSL Utah - ---- http://www.xmission.com/~lucyblue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 00:11:39 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) Units "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" wrote: > > Patrick, has the planetarium really only done 9? Yes. I think I'm the only one at HP running the program and my machine is usually only on a few hours a day. I understand the total amount of computing time that has been expended on SETI@Home worldwide recently surpassed 5,000 *years*! Wow! Cheers! Patrick :-) - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 09:54:05 -0700 From: "David Oswald" Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) Units On 11 Dec 99, at 0:11, Patrick Wiggins wrote the following in regards to: Re: (utah-astronomy) Units: > "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" wrote: > > > > Patrick, has the planetarium really only done 9? > > Yes. I think I'm the only one at HP running the program and my > machine is usually only on a few hours a day. > > I understand the total amount of computing time that has been expended > on SETI@Home worldwide recently surpassed 5,000 *years*! Wow! > As computers get faster every week, shouldn't there be a measure of how many processor cycles, or megahertz-hours, or something like that rather than simple years? That would remove disparity between various computer speeds. Just curious... Dave Oswald - -- David Oswald | doswald@xmission.com A person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned 60 or 70 times as much as one who hasn't. -- Mark Twain - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 18:44:22 -0700 From: Seth Jarvis Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI@Home Date Units Computers get faster every week? Hmmm... I've had mine for a year now and they're still working at the same speed. They must be defective. The total number of SETI@Home CPU-time completed currently stands at over 129,000 years, and averages over 2,000 "CPU-years" _per day_. All of the SETI@Home stats are available at: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/totals.html Yes, it is wrong to evaluate performance by looking only at time spent number crunching. A fast computer working for a short time can accomplish more than a slow computer working for a long time. The more appropriate metric is the total number of floating-point operations ("flops") performed by the CPU. Currently, there have been not quite a hundred-billion gigaflops (10^20 flops) performed in an attempt to locate ET by mathematically sniffing interstellar radio static. SETI@Home's 1.5 million participants have joined together to create the world's most powerful super-computer. Will we find ET this way? Who knows. What's really exciting is that we're onto something really exciting, i.e., using the Internet to connect millions of computers to solve mathematical problems that until recently were beyond the abilities of megabuck supercomputers. By digging around in the SETI@Home stats, you can also discover that while the average PC/Windows box completes a date unit in about 29 hours, the average Macintosh does it in about 20 hours. I have both a 350 Mhz Pentium II and a 233 Mhz iMac in my home, and the 350 Mhz beige box coughs-up a data set every 20 hours, while the lowly 233 Mhz Blueberry iMac pops out data sets every 15 hours. Hey, Bill Gates! Are you hearing this? It's the color of the boxes that makes the difference, right? I have to leave now, I've got to go buy some blue paint so I can upgrade my PC. > From: "David Oswald" > Reply-To: utah-astronomy@lists.xmission.com > Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 09:54:05 -0700 > To: utah-astronomy@lists.xmission.com > Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) Units > > On 11 Dec 99, at 0:11, > Patrick Wiggins wrote the following > in regards to: Re: (utah-astronomy) Units: > >> "Alyxandra K. MacLeod" wrote: >>> >>> Patrick, has the planetarium really only done 9? >> >> Yes. I think I'm the only one at HP running the program and my >> machine is usually only on a few hours a day. >> >> I understand the total amount of computing time that has been expended >> on SETI@Home worldwide recently surpassed 5,000 *years*! Wow! >> > > As computers get faster every week, shouldn't there be a measure of > how many processor cycles, or megahertz-hours, or something like that > rather than simple years? That would remove disparity between > various computer speeds. > > Just curious... > > Dave Oswald > -- > David Oswald | doswald@xmission.com > A person who has had a bull by the tail once has > learned 60 or 70 times as much as one who hasn't. > -- Mark Twain > > - > To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" > with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. > For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send > "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. > - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 20:16:35 -0700 From: "David Oswald" Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI@Home Date Units On 11 Dec 99, at 18:44, Seth Jarvis wrote the following in regards to: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI@Home Date Units: > Computers get faster every week? Hmmm... I've had mine for a year now > and they're still working at the same speed. They must be defective. > > The total number of SETI@Home CPU-time completed currently stands at > over 129,000 years, and averages over 2,000 "CPU-years" _per day_. > > All of the SETI@Home stats are available at: > > http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/totals.html > > Yes, it is wrong to evaluate performance by looking only at time spent > number crunching. A fast computer working for a short time can > accomplish more than a slow computer working for a long time. The more > appropriate metric is the total number of floating-point operations > ("flops") performed by the CPU. Currently, there have been not quite a > hundred-billion gigaflops (10^20 flops) performed in an attempt to > locate ET by mathematically sniffing interstellar radio static. > SETI@Home's 1.5 million participants have joined together to create > the world's most powerful super-computer. Will we find ET this way? > Who knows. What's really exciting is that we're onto something really > exciting, i.e., using the Internet to connect millions of computers to > solve mathematical problems that until recently were beyond the > abilities of megabuck supercomputers. > > By digging around in the SETI@Home stats, you can also discover that > while the average PC/Windows box completes a date unit in about 29 > hours, the average Macintosh does it in about 20 hours. I have both a > 350 Mhz Pentium II and a 233 Mhz iMac in my home, and the 350 Mhz > beige box coughs-up a data set every 20 hours, while the lowly 233 Mhz > Blueberry iMac pops out data sets every 15 hours. > > Hey, Bill Gates! Are you hearing this? It's the color of the boxes > that makes the difference, right? > > I have to leave now, I've got to go buy some blue paint so I can > upgrade my PC. Thanks for the explanation. The project is new to me so I wasn't aware of all that was going on behind it. Very interesting! Dave - -- David Oswald | doswald@xmission.com A person who has had a bull by the tail once has learned 60 or 70 times as much as one who hasn't. -- Mark Twain - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 00:03:55 -0700 From: Patrick Wiggins Subject: Re: (utah-astronomy) SETI@Home Date Units Seth Jarvis wrote: > > Hey, Bill Gates! Are you hearing this? It's the color of the boxes that > makes the difference, right? I know what you mean. After all, don't we all know that telescopes that are painted orange work much better than those painted blue? Patrick :-) - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 19:51:14 -0700 From: paulw@utw.com (Paul White - Trap D) Subject: (utah-astronomy) Geminid Meteor Shower So did anyone else get a chance to view the meteor shower peak last = night? =20 I know it was pretty cloudy in most of the state. I was fortunate = enough here to Provo to catch a glimpse through clear patches in the = clouds. All I can say is, if I was able to see as much as I did with = such a limited view, then I can only imagine what it would have been = like if the whole sky had been clear. At one point I was seeing 1-2 = (sometimes 3) per minute. I was particularly impressed by a couple of = bright blue ones which fell to the horizon with long tails (just beneath = Orion). I spent most of the time watching to the south/southeast = through the window from the comfort my living room :). My friend in Riverton said there was solid cloud cover most the night. = How were the skies north of Riverton? The show was over for me at about = 1am when a nasty storm blew in from the east. Amazingly I was able to = see a couple streaks through areas of the clouds before they got real = thick. Waiting to hear reports from others, - --Paul - - To unsubscribe from utah-astronomy, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe utah-astronomy" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ End of utah-astronomy-digest V1 #2 ********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.