Posts Made By: ROBERT MOORE

iOptron Announces Caroline Moore as the Young Astronomer of the Year

You can reedthe rest of the story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20090206/bs_prweb/prweb1965644_3

We are so proud of her

Bob

U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision
By Becky Iannotta and
Tariq Malik
posted: 11 February 2009
6:00 p.m. ET

This story was updated at 7:28 p.m. EST.

WASHINGTON - Iridium Satellite LLC confirmed today that one of its satellites was destroyed Tuesday in an unprecedented collision with a spent Russian satellite and that the incident could result in limited disruptions of service.

According to an e-mail alert issued by NASA today, Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite slammed into the Iridium craft at 11:55 a.m. EST (0455 GMT) over Siberia at an altitude of 490 miles (790 km). The incident was observed by the U.S. Defense Department's Space Surveillance Network, which later was tracking two large clouds of debris.

"This is the first time we've ever had two intact spacecraft accidentally run into each other," said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It was a bad day for both of them."

The collision appears to be the worst space debris event since China intentionally destroyed one of its aging weather satellites during a 2007 anti-satellite test, Johnson told SPACE.com. That 2007 event has since left about 2,500 pieces of debris in Earth orbit, but more time is needed to pin down the extent of Tuesday's satellite collision, he added.

"We're tracking more than 500 pieces of debris which pose an additional risk to satellites," said U.S. Navy Lt. Charlie Drey, a spokesperson for the U.S. Strategic Command which oversees the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.

In a prepared statement, the Bethesda, Md.-based Iridium characterized the incident as a "very low probability event" and said it was taking immediate action to minimize any loss of service. Iridium, which operates a constellation of 66 low Earth orbiting satellites providing mobile voice and data communications globally, said its system remains healthy and that it would implement a "network solution" by Friday.

"Within the next 30 days, Iridium expects to move one of its in-orbit spare satellites into the network constellation to permanently replace the lost satellite," the statement said.

The 1,234-pound (560-kg) Iridium 33 satellite involved in the collision was launched in 1997; the 1,984-pound (900-kg) Russian satellite was launched in 1993 and presumed non-operational. It did not have a maneuvering system, NASA said.

Iridium's spacecraft circle the Earth along a near-polar orbit once every 100 minutes and fly at a speed of about 16,832 mph (27,088 kph), the company states on its Web site.

An unprecedented crash

Johnson said outdated spacecraft, rocket stages and other components break apart in space every year, but there have only been three relatively minor collisions between such objects in the last 20 years. Never before have two intact satellites crashed into one another by accident, he added.

The debris created in Tuesday's collision is being tracked to assess its risk of damaging other satellites and the International Space Station, which is currently home to two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut.

The space station flies at an altitude of about 220 miles (354 km), well below the impact point between the Russian and U.S. satellites 490 miles (790 km) up. Johnson said that only a very minor portion of debris from the two clouds is expected to descend across the space station's orbital path.

"We believe that the increased risk above the normal every day background risk is very, very small," Johnson said

NASA's orbital debris experts are also assessing the threat to other spacecraft. The agency's Earth Observing System satellites, which orbit at 438 miles (705 km), "are of highest interest for immediate consideration," NASA said in its e-mail alert, a copy of which was forwarded to Space News, a sister publication to SPACE.com.

Drey told SPACE.com that the first hint of the collision came when Iridium officials contacted a U.S. Strategic Command support office to report that they had lost contact with one of their satellites.

"Shortly after, our space surveillance center reported that they had observed multiple new objects in low orbit," Drey said. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network continuously tracks more than 18,000 separate man-made objects and debris at any given time, he added.

Tuesday's collision is the latest in a series of satellite woes in recent weeks.

Last month, the nascent Eutelsat W2M telecommunications satellite failed in orbit just five weeks after it launched into space. Another communications satellite, ASTRA 5A owned by SES Luxemburg, also failed and was adrift in orbit. The loss forced its operators to warn the owners of neighboring satellites to be prepared for the remote possibility of having to maneuver their spacecraft to avoid a collision with Astra 5A.

NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office also released an update last month on Russia's Soviet-era satellite Cosmos 1818 stating that the spacecraft appeared to spew a cloud of debris on July 4, 2008 that may be the result of leaking reactor coolant from a debris strike or fragmentation.


SPACE.com Senior Editor Tariq Malik contributed to this story from New York City.

Program
Northeast Astro Imaging Conference
Rockland Community College
Ellipse Auditorium
April 16th and 17th, 2009


Beginner

How do I get started? This level covers the basic concepts and techniques for taking good images, calibrating them and performing essential processing steps. It discusses equipment fundamentals and operation, including the choice of camera, telescope and mount.
This year, NEAIC will have a series of getting started breakout sessions on: Choosing a Camera, Choosing a Mount, Choosing a Telescope and Choosing Imaging and Image Processing Software.


Intermediate

Now that the imager has overcome the initial "celestial Snapshot" and pretty picture phase, how does he create images like the ones he sees in the magazines and on the web? This level covers techniques and methods used to overcome the next great hurdles of focusing and tracking. Talks at this level address the issues of how to get the best performance out of the equipment and how to use more advanced image processing techniques to squeeze more data out of the raw images.
Special for this year is a series of talks devoted to the use of a DSLR as an astro camera. These include talks by Gary Honis on how to modify a commercial DSLR, Mike Unsold on DSLR control and Jerry Lodriguss on DSLR imaging and image processing.


Advanced

How do the "big guys" do it? Its not all about the equipment, the top imagers know how to use it and how to process the results. This level covers more advanced techniques of imaging and guiding, and processing and the use of filters and telescopes of multiple focal lengths to create images of stunning beauty. Also discussed is remote, unattended imaging over the Internet.
Tony Hallas, Steve Mazlin and J. P. Metsävainio will be talking about advanced imaging issues such as noise remote imaging and 3-D image processing.

one fifth of the seats are sold out, Get your reservations before they are all gone. goto http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/NEAIC2009ReservationRequest.pdf

Hi Folks,

The 2009 NorthEast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC) schedule is now been set.
NEAIC will be held on April 16th and 17th, the Thursday and Friday right before NEAF.
The event will be held in the beautiful Ellipse Conference Facility at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY.

This year NEAIC will feature:

Tony Hallas, (Noise in CCD Images)

Gary Honis (Modification and cooling of DSLR cameras for astro imaging)

Imelda Joson (Getting Your Images Published)

Warren Keller (The 5 S's of photoshop)

Jerry Lodriguss (Processing your DSLR Astro-images)

Steven Mazlin (Remote Imaging both North and South of the Equator)

J. P. Metsävainio (3D Image Processing)

Olivier Thizy (Amateur High & Low Resolution Spectroscopy)

Dave Snay (Introduction to Astroimaging)

Mike Unsold (Remote Control of Your DSLR)

Alan Holmes (Differential Guiding)

Steve Walters (Imaging Workflow)

and others...

We have nearly two dozen exhibitors lined up, and, of course, immediately
following NEAIC is two days of the North East Astronomy Forum, with
over 100 more vendors.

Please join us! Registration is now open.
For more details, see http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/index.htm

Thanks,

Bob Moore

Hi Folks,

The 2009 NorthEast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC) schedule is now been set.
NEAIC will be held on April 16th and 17th, the Thursday and Friday right before NEAF.
The event will be held in the beautiful Ellipse Conference Facility at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY.

This year NEAIC will feature:

Tony Hallas, (Noise in CCD Images)

Gary Honis (Modification and cooling of DSLR cameras for astro imaging)

Imelda Joson (Getting Your Images Published)

Warren Keller (The 5 S's of photoshop)

Jerry Lodriguss (Processing your DSLR Astro-images)

Steven Mazlin (Remote Imaging both North and South of the Equator)

J. P. Metsävainio (3D Image Processing)

Olivier Thizy (Amateur High & Low Resolution Spectroscopy)

Dave Snay (Introduction to Astroimaging)

Mike Unsold (Remote Control of Your DSLR)

Alan Holmes (Differential Guiding)

Steve Walters (Imaging Workflow)

and others...

We have nearly two dozen exhibitors lined up, and, of course, immediately
following NEAIC is two days of the North East Astronomy Forum, with
over 100 more vendors.

Please join us! Registration is now open.
For more details, see http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/index.htm

Thanks,

Bob Moore

Hi Folks,

The 2009 NorthEast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC) schedule is now been set.
NEAIC will be held on April 16th and 17th, the Thursday and Friday right before NEAF.
The event will be held in the beautiful Ellipse Conference Facility at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY.

This year NEAIC will feature:

Tony Hallas, (Noise in CCD Images)

Gary Honis (Modification and cooling of DSLR cameras for astro imaging)

Imelda Joson (Getting Your Images Published)

Warren Keller (The 5 S's of photoshop)

Jerry Lodriguss (Processing your DSLR Astro-images)

Steven Mazlin (Remote Imaging both North and South of the Equator)

J. P. Metsävainio (3D Image Processing)

Olivier Thizy (Amateur High & Low Resolution Spectroscopy)

Dave Snay (Introduction to Astroimaging)

Mike Unsold (Remote Control of Your DSLR)

Alan Holmes (Differential Guiding)

Steve Walters (Imaging Workflow)

and others...

We have nearly two dozen exhibitors lined up, and, of course, immediately
following NEAIC is two days of the North East Astronomy Forum, with
over 100 more vendors.

Please join us! Registration is now open.
For more details, see http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/index.htm

Thanks,

Bob Moore

Hi all,
We are getting down to the wire with only 37 days to go before the North East Astro Imaging Conference kicks off again, Get your NEAIC registration forms in before all the seats are gone. The North East Astro Imaging Conference is April 16 – 17 and is the world’s premier astro imaging conference. Every one is sure to enjoy this year’s conference with more the 20 Exhibitors and great lectures by Tony Hallas, Jerry Lodriguss, Mike Unsold, J.P. Metsavainio, and others. NEAIC is only 38 days away and SPACE IS LIMITED so get your registrations in now to reserve your slot. Registration forms can be found at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/. See you in April!

Bob Moore

Hi all,
We are getting down to the wire with only 38 days to go before the North East Astro Imaging Conference kicks off again, Get your NEAIC registration forms in before all the seats are gone. The North East Astro Imaging Conference is April 16 – 17 and is the world’s premier astro imaging conference. Every one is sure to enjoy this year’s conference with more the 20 Exhibitors and great lectures by Tony Hallas, Jerry Lodriguss, Mike Unsold, J.P. Metsavainio, and others. NEAIC is only 38 days away and SPACE IS LIMITED so get your registrations in now to reserve your slot. Registration forms can be found at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/. See you in April!

Bob Moore

Hi all,
We are getting down to the wire with only 38 days to go before the North East Astro Imaging Conference kicks off again, Get your NEAIC registration forms in before all the seats are gone. The North East Astro Imaging Conference is April 16 – 17 and is the world’s premier astro imaging conference. Every one is sure to enjoy this year’s conference with more the 20 Exhibitors and great lectures by Tony Hallas, Jerry Lodriguss, Mike Unsold, J.P. Metsavainio, and others. NEAIC is only 38 days away and SPACE IS LIMITED so get your registrations in now to reserve your slot. Registration forms can be found at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/NEAIC/. See you in April!
Bob Moore

Hi Everyone, you still have time to get in on the 2009 NorthEast Astro-Imaging Conference April 16th and 17th, At Rockland Community College in Suffern,NY

Here’s who's going to be giving talks this year

Peter Ceravolo, Sheldon Faworski, Tony Hallas, Gary Honis, Imelda Joson, Warren Keller, Jerry Lodriguss, Steven Mazlin J. P. Metsävainio, Olivier Thizy, Dave Snay, & Mike Unsold

This year we will also be holding a Thursday Evening Progam Steve Mazlin will run a remote imaging session from SSRO at New Mexico Skies and/or CTIO in Chile

Our vendor list includes:

Adirondack Astronomy, Apogee Instruments, Astronomics, Canon USA, CCDWare, Ceravolo Optical Systems, Diffraction Limited, Finger Lakes Instrumentation, Fishcamp Engineering, Images Plus, The Imaging Source, IP4AP, OPT, Optec, Quantum Scientific, Santa Barbara Instrument Group, Software Bisque, Starlight Xpress, Tele Vue Optics, Vixen Optics, Willmann-Bell, See all the new products being introduced at NEAIC 2009!

Our door prizes include:
Grand Prize: Astro-Tech AT8RC 8" Ritchey-Chrétien astrograph - donated by Astronomics
First Prize: Meade: DSI Pro III - donated by Meade Instruments
2nd Prize: Canon XSi DSLR - donated by Canon USA
3rd Prize: QSI $500.00 Gift Cert - donated by Quantum Scientific Imaging
4th Prize: CCDSoft - donated by Software Bisque
5th Prize: Starry Night Pro Plus - donated by Orion Telescopes
6th Prize: ProOptic 500mm f/6.3 Mirror Lens - donated by Adorama
7th Prize: The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing - donated by Willmann-Bell
8th Prize: Celestron NexImage Solar System Imager - donated by Celestron

Now here is the catch We only have 6 spots left and the only way to get in on this great conference is to fax your registration Form to me before Wednesday 4/15 10:00am
So if you would like to come Please E-Mail me at [email protected] & I’ll give you the fax Number

Bob