Brian Geoffrey Marsden 5 August 1937 – 18 November 2010

It is with great sadness I have to report the death of Brian Marsden. For many years Brian ran the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Centre at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Throughout this time he has been a stalwart supporter of the amateur community, working closely with Guy Hurst to ensure the quality and integrity of discovery reports from amateur astronomers. His loss will be keenly felt by the many amateurs who have benefited from his support and advice over the years.

Brian was born in Cambridge, England. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in mathematics he moved to Yale University Observatory to carry out research into orbital mechanics, in due course obtaining a PhD on "The Motions of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter". He then joined the staff of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to work on improving the calculation of cometary orbits.

In 1968 Brian succeeded Dr. Owen Gingerich as director of the International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the organisation responsible for disseminating information worldwide about the discoveries of comets, novae, supernovae and other objects of generally transient astronomical interest. In 1978 he also became director of the IAU’s Minor Planet Center. While working at CBAT computing comet orbits, he recognised the existence of a group of relatively short period comets discovered by the SOHO spacecraft which are now known as the “Marsden Group”. In 2000 he handed over directorship of CBAT to Daniel Green and 6 years later directorship of the MPC to Dr. Timothy Spahr.

Dr. Marsden leaves a wife Nancy Lou, children Cynthia and Jonathan and grandchildren Nikhilas, Nathaniel and Neena. His sister Sylvia Custerson lives in Cambridge, England.

We extend our sincere condolences to all members of his family.

David Boyd
President
British Astronomical Association

(with apologies for the incomplete earlier transmission)

Brian Geoffrey Marsden 5 August 1937 – 18 November 2010

It is with great sadness I have to report the death of Brian Marsden. For many years Brian ran the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and the Minor Planet Centre at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Throughout this time he has been a stalwart supporter of the amateur community, working closely with Guy Hurst to ensure the quality and integrity of discovery reports from amateur astronomers. His loss will be keenly felt by the many amateurs who have benefited from his support and advice over the years.

Brian was born in Cambridge, England. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in mathematics he moved to Yale University Observatory to carry out research into orbital mechanics, in due course obtaining a PhD on "The Motions of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter". He then joined the staff of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to work on improving the calculation of cometary orbits.

In 1968 Brian succeeded Dr. Owen Gingerich as director of the International Astronomical Union’s Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the organisation responsible for disseminating information worldwide about the discoveries of comets, novae, supernovae and other objects of generally transient astronomical interest. In 1978 he also became director of the IAU’s Minor Planet Center. While working at CBAT computing comet orbits, he recognised the existence of a group of relatively short period comets discovered by the SOHO spacecraft which are now known as the “Marsden Group”. In 2000 he handed over directorship of CBAT to Daniel Green and 6 years later directorship of the MPC to Dr. Timothy Spahr.

Dr. Marsden leaves a wife Nancy Lou, children Cynthia and Jonathan and grandchildren Nikhilas, Nathaniel and Neena. His sister Sylvia Custerson lives in Cambridge, England.

We extend our sincere condolences to all members of his family.

I would like to remind you that the next meeting of the BAA will be on Saturday 20th November 2010 in the new lecture room, Burlington House.

14:30    Roger Pickard, Vice President - Welcome and notices etc
14:40    A number of short talks by BAA members.
15:40    Dr Nick Hewitt - Sky Notes
16:00    Tea
16:45    Dr Roberto Trotta - "The cosmic enigma"
17.45    Close


Doors open at 14.00 and the meeting will start at 14.30 and is due to finish by 18:00. Tea will be served in the library at 16:00

Hope to see you there

Hazel

Hazel Collett
Meeting Secretary

BAA e-bulletin, 2010 Nov.10

Jupiter: The SEB Revival is beginning

A spectacular bright plume has appeared in Jupiter's faded South Equatorial Belt (SEB), and is expected to become the source of spectacular disturbances leading to revival of the belt. The small bright spot was discovered by Christopher Go (Philippines) in an image which he took on Nov.9 at 12:30 UT. He announced it immediately by e-mail, and it was confirmed 11-12 hours later by Donald C. Parker (Florida, USA) and Gary Walker (Georgia, USA), when it was already brighter.

Don Parker's images included infrared, ultraviolet, and 0.89 micron (methane) bands, and the new spot was amazingly bright in all of them, showing it to be a convective plume of cloud reaching to very high altitude. Indeed it was already visible in a methane-band image taken in poor seeing by A. Yamazaki (Japan) on Nov.9 at 14:14 UT. On its third rotation, Nov.10 from 09:00 UT onwards, images by many Japanese observers and by C. Go and T. Akutsu (Philippines) confirm that it is the brightest spot on the planet in all wavebands. Its longitude is L2 = 290 (L3 = 149). (The Great Red Spot is at L2 = 159.)

This plume has appeared inside a cyclonic circulation, called 'barge B2', which had been very dark a year ago, but turned white in 2010 May-June. (Details are in our reports:)
http://www.britastro.org/jupiter/2010report05.htm
and
http://www.britastro.org/jupiter/2010report08.htm [Figure 11].
Thus the former barge already comprised a white spot, but it was not methane-bright (up to Nov.7: Chris Go). It was still quiet on Nov.8 (Sadegh Ghomizadeh, Iran). So the much brighter plume was new on Nov.9. We had already suggested that the SEB Revival might begin with such a plume in one of the barges, as it did in 2007; the event is a striking confirmation of this hypothesis.

This rapidly brightening plume is so energetic that we can confidently expect it to develop into the SEB Revival. The SEB Revival is usually spectacular, so we can expect impressive and rapidly changing disturbances over the next 3 months, until the end of the apparition. As the SEB is so thoroughly whitened, and the outbreak has appeared in an isolated location, we can hope to see the phenomena displayed in their most complete form. Normally, disturbances continue to arise at the same source, and spread out in three branches: northern and central branches, prograding, and a southern branch, rapidly retrograding. If they develop as usual, both the central and southern branches could impact on the Great Red Spot in January. Observers should monitor all aspects of the spreading disturbances, but also monitor other longitudes, as a secondary source might also appear. Observers have the chance to make this the best-observed SEB Revival ever.

John Rogers
Jupiter Section Director
- jhr11 at cam.ac.uk -
2010 Nov.10

Comet 2010 V1

A comet has been discovered visually by Japanese amateur observers,
Kaoru Ikeya (Mori-machi, Shuchi-gun, Shizuoka-ken; 25-cm reflector at
39x; diffuse with some condensation; coma diameter 1' on November
2.831 UT and 2' on November 3.812) and by Shigeki Murakami
(Toukamachi, Niigata-ken; 46-cm reflector at 78x; coma diameter 4'
with a 2' tail in p.a. 90 deg on November 3.801; moving eastward at
approximately 2'/hr). [IAUC 9175].

The comet was magnitude 8.5 at discovery by Ikeya, and 8 the following
day. It seems to be brightening rapidly, as visual observations by
Juan Jose Gonzalez on November 4.2 put it as bright as 7.6 in 10x50B.
This may indicate that it is approaching perihelion, or alternatively
undergoing an outburst.
An ephemeris is not yet available, but one can be generated at the
NEOCP at http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/NEO/ToConfirmRA.html if
you select ObjX1. It is a morning object with an elongation of 33
degrees and moving south. It is in Virgo a few degrees from Saturn.

Further information will be distributed when the orbit is known.

Jonathan Shanklin

Director Comet Section, British Astronomical Association
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds

Ihave uploaded videos of the talks given at the 2010 October 27 meeting. These are available from the videos tab of the members' only section of the BAA website:

http://britastro.org

The videos are in Windows Media and MP4 format and they can be downloaded to be viewed on your PC or on portable devices.

The meeting programme was:

- Review of the year (David Boyd)
- Presidential address (David Boyd)
- Sky Notes (David Arditti)

If you don't have access to the members' only section you can register using the online form on the website.

Nick James ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )