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In reply to: Filters
I’ve uploaded a presentation to youtube based on a talk Patrick gave about lunar vulcanism on 1984 June 2. My audio cassette was almost beyond hope when I first played it, but a bit of processing cleaned the sound up a little bit. I still had to add subtitles to make it bearable though…..and this involved 10,000 words over 50 minutes! I’ve inserted slides which Patrick either used, or which are of the same craters…… The end result is very clunky, but it does give an impression of what one of his pro-vulcanism talks was like to attend. Denis Buczynski was the meeting chairman and can be heard at a few points. This was one of the many talks Patrick gave to BAA affiliated societies during his Presidency, which ended just four months later. It was a joint BAA Lunar Section/Affiliated Society talk, but the only people who travelled from southern England to Lancaster& Morecambe to be there were myself, Patrick, and Andrew Elliott! Patrick, Denis and myself were the only Lunar Section committee members there!
The subtitled audio/slideshow can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au7biniFu-gMartin
In reply to: More meteor spectroscopy
Hi Bill,
That makes sense, in as much as something odd at the blue end in the reference spectra gives you trouble correcting the continuum. Do you know what the rough continuum shape should be for meteors? Any speculation on my part would more than likely be wrong.
I’m not sure if this will help, but sometimes I use BASS to process my spectra. This creates the response correction in a slightly different way. You still use your spectrum and a reference spectrum, but once you’ve done the division you use your mouse to select specific points on the divided spectrum. BASS then joins the dots to create a smooth response curve. I’m not sure if that would give you a way to create a response curve avoiding the dips or peaks.
Instrument and atmospheric correction is a tricky area. I’ve been struggling with it myself for the better part of this year, but I think I’m about there with my latest spectra.
Fascinating work you are doing. Like you say you can get lots of useful information even without the continuum correction.
Best wishes,
Andy
In reply to: Powered USB Hubs
Hi Andy,
Back in 2003 I faced the same issue with my C14/Paramount/SBIG ST9XE system, some 35 metres from the indoors PC I wanted to use. The Paramount was controlled via a serial port in those days, and the JMI focuser was just voltage controlled. I simply extended the wires by 100 feet! However, the camera was USB 1.1 so that was the real problem…. I solved it by purchasing a USB extender manufactured by Icron and marketed by Scene Double. This consists of two boxes, named REX and LEX. LEX sits indoors by the PC and REX sits on the telescope plinth. The LEX box is powered, the REX is not. They are joined by a single Cat 5 cable under the lawn. There are 4 USB ports on the outdoor Icron REX so 4 USB inputs can be used, although I usually use just one. Of course, USB 1.1 is very slow these days, but, the system still works, after 12 years outdoors and with the outdoor REX box a bit rusty now! Icron still make these units and Scene-Double still sell them. They are not cheap, BUT, when something has worked flawlessly for 12 years, in all weathers, that’s pretty good. The current webpage can be found here, with USB 2 and 3 systems now:
http://www.scene-double.co.uk/USB-extenders/
Of course, you are just talking about a distance more than 5m, whereas my system is 35m, so you may not need such an expensive overkill solution, but, that’s the system that has proved reliable for me.
Martin
In reply to: Goodacres
Hi James,
As you know, I have tried to reply to your query via the BAA Forum, but every time I reached this post, the website logged me out! Don’t know what the problem was, but it only affected your post, so I replied via e-mail. However, things seem to be working today, so in case others are interested, here is my response:
As far as I am aware there is no link between Robert and Walter, but it certainly merits further investigation and I shall be very interested in what you discover. There is an entry on Walter G. in the Biographical Dictionary of Astronomers, but personal information is sparse (see below). There is also an obituary by W.H. Steavenson in the MNRAS, 99(4), 1939. pp. 310-11, but again it gives little away about Walter’s personal life: born in Loughborough in 1856, moved to Finsbury Park when he was seven, joined his father’s business (William Goodacre & Sons) on leaving school, married Frances Elizabeth Evison in 1883.I think you will have to go to ancestry.co.uk to investigate further, if you have not done so already.Sorry not to have more concrete leads.Very best,BillPS: here is the relevant passage from the Biographical Dictionary:“Goodacre was born at Loughborough, but in 1863 the family moved to London, where his father founded a carpet manufacturing business.Walter Goodacre established a branch of the family business in India and visited there frequently for 15 years. He succeeded his father as head of the firm in London, remaining in that position until his retirement in 1929.”
In reply to: Jupiter and Venus approaching conjunction
Hi All,
I knew I wouldn’t be able to view the conjunction from my observatory after dark due to horizon obstructions so decided to image the pair in broad daylight. My image was taken at 16.29UT under the blazing Sun.
Later as it went dark I joined members of my local astronomical club on a nearby hill (not many of those in Essex) and was treated to the conjunction in a dark blue sky. Venus and Jupiter hung in the sky majestically above a bank of thunder cloud which was occasionally lit up by lighting. Great sight!
I guess observers in East London / South West Essex were in the rain!!
Peter
Hi everyone,
I’ve just recently joined the BAA …. Some brief personal background first, if i may … I’m 44 years of age now, and have been very interested in Astronomy since before i was 10. i’ve really wanted to be a member of the BAA for many years now, but have always held myself back from joining, just feeling that my level of expertise would not be sufficient to justify becoming a member of such a historical and eminent society …. Over the years i have been a member of the SPA a couple of times, which i have valued very much although i contributed very little towards in terms of observations. I certainly did consider renewing my SPA membership recently but have decided instead to take ‘the plunge’ and realise my dream of being a BAA member, the special introductory offer did help persuade me somewhat though, i must admit!
Now i have joined I’d really like to get involved in a section or two perhaps, and i just hoped for some helpful advice to guide me in the right direction please. My interests are fairly broad and general. I know my way around the sky with the naked eye fairly well, but i am a much less experienced telescope/binocular observer. I own a greatly underused ED80 f7.5 APO telescope, a pair of 8.5x 42 and 10x 50 binoculars, and a pair of 20x 80 binoculars also. Over the years I have lacked confidence with my ED80, but now that I’ve joined the BAA i am very determined to build this confidence! Given the equipment that i have stated above could anyone recommend appropriate sections please that I may consider joining, with a view to making (over time) reasonably serious observation contributions to? I have some very limited variable star observing expeience (many years ago, naked eye observations only), and I am certainly willing and happy to challenge myself further in that direction …. But i am very intersted to know and consider any other observing options that some of you may feel i may have with my scope and bins, and limited experience.
Looking forward to perhaps hearing from some of you at your convenience …..
All the best from Stonehaven!
Donald
In reply to: Thorp Diffraction Gratings
Very interesting, David. What do you intend to do with the gratings?
Thomas Thorp was a BAA member, joining in 1892, and a leading light in the North-Western Branch, in Manchester, where he served as Vice President. A brief JBAA obituary appears in JBAA, vol 24 (10), page 503, October 1914:
We regret to record the death of Mr. T. Thorp which occurred on 13th June last at his home, Whitefield, near Manchester. He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, and resided in Manchester all his life. He devoted much of his time and attention to the improvement of astronomical instruments. His replica gratings, invented several years ago, brought him into prominence as a pioneer in this department of instrumental mechanism. Many of our members have reason to be grateful to Mr. Thorp for supplying them with prism gratings, applicable to binoculars, which have proved so serviceable in the observation of total solar eclipses. Ho joined this Association in 1892, became a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society in 1896, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1902.
All the best,
Jeremy
Hi all
I rejoined that BAA a couple of years back after 30ish years and got back in to VS work which I had always enjoyed as a young man
Thankfully Gary Poyner briefly helped me in getting the confidence I needed that my estimates were in the right ballpark – however I must aplogise Gary that I didn’t stay in touch given your obvious skills as a mentor
Despite this I’ve done a few observations, increased my scope size and also reactivated my VS’account’ which I was overjoyed to find still had some of my younger self’s estimates
At the moment I’ve got quite a few observations all recorded reasonably well but in UT and as a result I’ve got a couple of queries…excuse the naivety
1. Do we have a simple conversion tool / app for deriving the JD?
2. How long does take to put each estimate on (ballpark)
3. Are 2 yr old obs still useful
Hopefully I can get on top of the backlog and make it a bit easier to keep them up to date from now on!
thanks all for any help and pointers
Alex Thomson
Mersea Island
Colchester
Attachments:
Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw 1912-2014
Sadly, I report the death of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw in Manchester at the age of 101. She was a BAA member having joined the Association in 1990and was very active within the Manchester Astronomical Society. She was a remarkable woman who became interested in astronomy in her 60’s after the death of her husband. She travelled on Total Solar Eclipse trips around the world and was a great friend of Patrick Moore. She established a small observatory at her small Lake District cottage near Coniston. Her public life was very full and her list of honours and achievements were long and impressive. She was awarded D.B.E. in 1971 for her services to education and was elected Lord Mayor of Manchester in 1975. In 1984 she was made a Honorary Freeman of the City of Manchester (Sir Bernard Lovell was the only other living Freeman). In 1979 she became the first female president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. She served as Pro Chancellor of The University of Lancaster between 1986 and 1992 where 12 years ago an observatory was built and named after her. She played a central role in the creation of the Northern College of Music of which she was the Chairman of the governing body for over 18 years (1973-86). She was the first chairman (1967-71) of Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and for 3 years (1983-86) she was the Vice President of the Manchester University of Science and Technology (now merged with the Victoria University of Manchester).From 1973- 1987 she was chairman of the Greater Manchester County St John Ambulance. All of these achievements, and many, many more, were made despite her suffering almost total deafness and relying mainly on lip reading. She was a remarkable woman who lived a very full life and consequently the BAA has lost one of its most accomplished and colourful characters. A short obituary has appeared today in the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS at this link:An autobiography was published in 2004 by Manchester University Press entitled “To talk of many things” with a forward by Sir Patrick Moore
Attachments:
This dwarf nova was in bright outburst for about 13 days from July 1 – a light curve with observations by Ian Miller, Roger Pickard, Richard Sabo, Jeremy Shears can be seen on the VSS web site here: http://www.britastro.org/vss/css_121005.htm
At the peak of the outburst it was mag 15.9, ~4 to 4.5 mags above quiescence. Time series photometry revealed humps in the light curve, but the runs weren’t really long enough to draw definitive conclusions about their period. The humps certainly looked like superhumps, although intriguingly there appeared to be more complex structure in them towards the end of the outburst
The most recent observation was on Jul 19.957 when the star was at mag 19.2 (Ian Miller).
We are now eagerly awaiting the next outburst of this frequently outbursting dwarf nova. It will almost certainly be a short, or “normal”, outburst lasting a couple of days. Continued monitoring is needed to determine how often the system goes into outburst, so please feel free to join it (you can upload your data to the VSS and/or AAVSO databases – and do let me know how you get on). In addition, further time series photometry during future long outbursts will be required.
For more details go to: http://www.britastro.org/vss/CSS%202126%20campaign_20140511%20(1).pdf
Go well!
Jeremy
Topic: David Scanlan
Hi All,
Thought I would make the first post in this forum section 🙂
My name is David Scanlan, been involved in astronomy since I was 11 years old (28 years now), was a member of BAA for some years but membership lapsed and have recently rejoined….its good to be back 🙂
Im am currently the Director of the SPA VSS and main interests include the Variable Stars, The Moon and Meteors. Im also a FRAS (like many here I assume?)
Look forward to chatting to you and meeting some of you in due course at a meeting etc
Regards
Dave
The observing campaign was launched at last week’s VSS meeting in York and there a write-up in the current Section Circular (VSSC 160).
On returning home from the meeting, I found the star rising to outburst (Jun 22.977) at 16.9C and 24 hours later was slightly brighter at 16.2. Since then I haven’t been able to obtain further obs.
Best of luck to anyone wanting to join in the observing fun. Do let me know how you get on.
Go well! Jeremy
Topic: New Arrival
Hi, I just joined the Association and wanted to introduce myself. I dabbled a bit back in the days of my youth but that was forty years ago and an awful lot has changed since then. But at least the stars are roughly where I left them last time I looked. I’ve just moved down to Walton-on-the-Naze on the east coast after living in London for the past twenty-five years and the clearer skies down here persuaded me to take up the hobby again. I’m particularly interested in variable star observation as it seems to me to be an area where amateurs can make a valuable contribution. It’s not an area I’m overly familiar with though and I need to get up to speed. So I hope you won’t mind too much if I pester you with seemingly inane questions. I have a NexStar 8SE on order which should arrive in the next few days and can’t wait to get started.
In reply to: Do We Really Need The Moon? (BBC2)
Posted by TonyAngel at 09:30 on 2013 Dec 12
I cannot believe it. Maggie Aderin-Pocock is going to be joint running Sky at Night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are at least a dozen top BAA members who are more suited.One viewer lost. 🙁
In reply to: Availability of the BAA forum
Posted by TonyAngel at 10:24 on 2012 Dec 09
Nick I think a balance could be achieved that could encourage guests to join and get members to use the forum more.
In reply to: My First Messier 1 in Colour.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 12:54 on 2012 Dec 08
Very nice image Paul. Well done! Hope you’ll have a go at the nebula around the variable star RR Tau for the joint VSS/DSS project!Always have to get a VS plug in do I not? :-)Gary
In reply to: Exoplanet transits
Posted by TonyAngel at 16:53 on 2012 Nov 21
I will have a look. I have looked at their site before, but it would mean joining (and paying) and I already in a few 🙂 I think that the ETD has a greater number of observations and better tools, though please correct me if I am wrong. It is also free 🙂
In reply to: Availability of the BAA forum
Posted by Richard Miles at 10:50 on 2012 Nov 10
The key is to attract more BAA members to use this forum. People’s attention is split between the various items potentially grabbing their attention, of which there are loads these days. We shall have to advertise its use more rather than leaving it as more or less a background activity – it’s a sort of competition for people’s attention and so we need to enhance the value of the forum to our members. How we might do this would be the subject of some other thread.Getting back to Nick A’s point about having this area of the BAA Web viewable by non-members might be considered a negative move, if we enhance the content of the forum then those non-members who can only read and not post their own comments will feel increasingly left out or missing out on what we are doing. Overall, that ought to make them more inclined to join the BAA, which would then further liven up the forum.Richard
In reply to: 2012 October 6 Comet Section / ARPS Meeting
Posted by Richard Miles at 10:02 on 2012 Oct 17
Oops – How about this?Looks like folk will have to manually concatenate the text for them to reach the URL.http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=809:comet-and-asteroids-and-remote-planets-sections-joint-meeting-6-october-2012&catid=68&Itemid=160
British Astronomical Association
Supporting amateur astronomers since 1890
