Search Results for 'Join'

[Mr Michael Alan Frost]

Denis,

So sad to hear about Rob’s passing. He was the chairman of the Coventry & Warwickshire Society when I first joined in 1985, and was very welcoming and friendly. I remember him lecturing to C&WAS about his observing from Conder Brow. He seemed to drift away from C&WAS and from astronomy in general over the years, although he would from time-to-time turn up for a meeting. I’m sure we’ll commemorate him in the Coventry society at our next meeting.

Mike Frost

[Stewart John Bean]

I have come across a paper by Kato et al “Photometric study of new southern SU UMa-type dwarf novae

and candidates: V877 Ara, KK Tel and PU CMa”  

So I am occasionally imaging PU CMa as it may be coming up for a superoutburst in January/February. The other two will be better placed in the spring. 

In the meantime, I have joined G Poyner and IL Walton in following V1159 Ori.

[Callum Potter]

The Senior Manager of Public Astronomy at the Royal Observatory Greenwich has asked if we could circulate this role that they are looking to fill:

JOB: Support Astronomer (Zero Hours) – Royal Observatory Greenwich, London [Closing Date: 15 January 2022]

We are looking for individuals who have a passion for astronomy, enthusiasm for observing with telescopes and experience in astrophotography to join the Science Learning and Public Engagement department at the Royal Observatory Greenwich as Support Astronomers.

Find the job description here

Support Astronomers are critical to the delivery of our observing programmes, including public observing activity, the acquisition of telescope astrophotography images and other projects. As well as supporting telescope-based activity, post holders deliver planetarium shows to varied audiences. Work opportunities will usually be in the evenings, often after dark, or during the daytime at weekends. Those with availability in the daytime on weekdays will be offered a broader range of work.

Work opportunities will often be irregular, requiring a certain amount of flexibility and responsiveness within realistic limits. Work opportunities will usually be offered 1 month in advance, unless we are seeking emergency support.

Pay: £12.24 per hour plus holiday pay

Closing date: 15 January 2022

To apply follow the link above.

[David C Rayment]

I would also like to add my thanks to the team who put together the streaming of the Christmas Lecture.  Having missed the last few due to rail engineering works and then SARs-Cov 2, it was a pleasure to have been able to watch this event live on-line.

As a supporting member of the Natural History Museum (BM) I feel privileged to have twice had the opportunity to join a small group visiting the behind-the-scenes work area at the NHM where the meteorite collection is kept.  On both occasions we were shown specimens by Dr Caroline Smith who was excellent in her explanations of these different types of visitors from outer space.

Professor Sara Russell’s mention of the analysis of meteorites through the electron scanning microscope and the x-ray by-product from firing the electrons reminded me of another visit to the NHM where the group on that occasion was able to handle one of the solar panels from Hubble which was brought back to earth by the space shuttle.  These panels, which are basically as thin as crisp or peanut wrappers, have small impact holes. The scientist fire the electrons at the impact holes which reveal the structure of those holes and from the x-ray by-product the scientist are able to tell if the impact material was natural or man-made.  If the impact material was man-made it was likely to be rocket fuel and through the spectral analysis they could determine if it came from an American or Russian rocket due to the different chemical compositions of the fuel used.  I forget the exact ratio of man-made material to natural material but, if memory serves me correct, it was around forty five percent to fifty five percent.  My understanding is that rocket fuel is less of a problem nowadays due to most satellites being placed in geostationary orbits.

The talk by Professor Heymans was excellent and interesting Sky Notes as always.

Many thanks,

David C Rayment.

[David C Rayment]

harvard edu also gives reference to the BAA Journal:  1986 96, 5 P299 by Peter Johnson, so should be on the BAA archive DVD.

Apparently joined BAA in December 1940.

[Simon Bakewell]

Hello all,

I have just joined the BAA and I am also a novice to astronomy.     I bought a dobsonian skywatcher last year and have plenty to learn!   Are there any observing sessions run by the BAA in the Yorkshire area at all?

Thanks

Simon

[Nick Hewitt]

I had fully intended to be there in person – I had a ticket!- but was “inconvenienced”. So it was marvellous to join by Zoom, the quality was excellent and the event most enjoyable.

[Richard Miles]

Hello there Jeremy – I don’t have an answer but I see the photo is by a certain Mike Peel.

A chap of the same name used to be a BAA and VSS member. Is this the same MP, and has he rejoined if so I would be very pleased to know that. Mike used to live in Lancashire.

Might you try and contact the photographer to see if he has anymore info.

Richard

[Bill Barton]

David Sellers has just published a comprehensive biography of Charles Thomas Whitmell (1849-1919) a school inspector and amateur astronomer from Leeds.

Whitmell was elected to the BAA on 1895 November 27 and the RAS on 1898 December 9. He went on the eclipse expedition to Navalmoral, Spain, in 1900 where he met Lucy Foster. They subsequently married in 1903. Lucy shared Charles’ passion for astronomy and she joined the BAA in her own right on 1902 February 26.

The usual price is £27:00, but David has kindly offered a discounted price of £18:00 to BAA members. To get a copy please apply by email to Magavelda Press: magavelda@ntlworld.com

Further information about the book can be found at http://www.magavelda.co.uk/books/9780954101312.htm

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[Grant Privett]

As its water soluble I am hoping the rain over the next couple of days will flush some residue away away and beyond that I am hosing the joint to free up some of the debris left – even if it will wet every thing for a day or two. May have a bash with a cloth soaked with meths or white spirit. Its going to be a week or so until things are dry enough to try bonding again….

[Alan Snook]

I used 3M 4200 marine adhesive sealant when I set up the 3.5m dome (see small ads in the back of JBAA Dec 2019). This was at the recommendation of the dome manufacturer – Sirius in Australia. Get it from some chandlers. The bottom edge of the GRP panels was abraded a little with wet ‘n’ dry to key the surface. I did the work in Sept 2020 and so far it has kept the water out. I got through three tubes of the stuff. However I fear your joint may now be contaminated with mastic, window sealant etc; you will surely need to remove all traces from both the GRP walls and the concrete before using the 3M product or it will be good money after bad,

[Alex Pratt]

Test-Bed Telescopes and Flyeye – monitoring the skies for Near Earth Objects

ESA – New ESA telescope in South America to search for asteroids

New telescope at ESO’s La Silla joins effort to protect Earth from risky asteroids | ESO

Alex.

[Grant Privett]

A long while ago, when I first joined the BAA in the early 70’s, there was an Artificial Satellite Section.

From what I recall, they made observations, recorded timings, did calculations and refined the orbits of satellites.

At some point, the Section folded – perhaps as the excitement and novelty cooled in the post-Apollo era and the photographic surveys took over.

My question would be: when was that?

More generally, I wonder how many other BAA members occasionally set aside some time in their observing sessions to try to image a probe out at a Lagrange point, glimpse a bit of space history like Vanguard 1 (launched 1958) or follow a Tesla hurled into interplanetary space. Does anyone else do this sort of thing or is it just those who remember, first hand, the excitement of men stepping on to the moon and the first images of the craters on Mars.

[Callum Potter]

There are certainly a lot of anecdotal stories from Orkney of people who have heard the aurora.

Rebecca Marr of the Uni of the Highlands and Islands writes:

Many accounts talk of the sound of the lights.  The Sami name guovsahasat has been translated by some as ‘the light you can hear’. A 1906 dissertation on the lights by Lane Cooper says:

‘It is a very general belief in certain countries – for instance in the Orkneys, in Finmark, and among the Indians of the territories around Hudson Bay – that the aurora is accompanied by a particular sound, somewhat resembling the rustling of silk. The Lapps, who also believe in the existence of this sound, compare it to the ‘cracking’ which may be heard in the joints of the reindeer when in movement.’

Callum

[Tim Haymes]

I was browsing predictions further north and i see the asteroid named for the late Neil Bone is occulting a v12.6 star on night Feb 26/27 at 0124h 30s UT.  (7102) was the subject of “Project Neil Bone” a low phase angle study in 2010.  https://britastro.org/sites/default/files/Bone.pdf

http://ukoccultations.info/UKOCL/20210227_043864_summary.html

Some locations close to the mid-path are:  Kilmarnock, Keilder Observatory, Morpeth.  The path width is about 30km and the star is UCAC4 532-043864.   RA/Dec (2000) 07:57:51 +16:19:09,  R-mag 12.1.  Maximum duration is given as about 2 seconds.

Observers in the vicinity might care to look for the star disappearing briefly as the dim asteroid passes across. Those further a field between the red lines also have a chance. The uncertainty is in the orbital elements of the asteroid.

Clear skies….

Tim
(ARPS – Occs)
Map credit – Occultwatcher software and Google maps, prediction by J.Talbot using Occult4.

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[Gordon Dennis]

Here’s what’s going wrong I believe.  After editing the install script per Appendix A, I get this result when I try to run it; plainly, it’s a pathname issue, as it cant find the pathname to the python interpreter.

I’m a little cautious about fixing this.
Executing python -c “import sys; print(‘n’.join(sys.path))” gives this result:

I don’t understand why there are apparently two different python.exe files. Maybe because the machine once had python 2.7 on it?

The full Anaconda result is also shown here:

I think if you could advise me which pathname to specify (and where) that ought to fix this problem..
Many thanks
Gordon

[Jeremy Shears]

I am posting this information, provided by Tonny Vanmunster, about a free webinar tomorrow on using the Peranso 3 software. Tonny has developed this software for period analysis of variable star and other light curves. I have used Peranso for many years and have recently upgraded to Peranso 3, which was released over the Christmas hols. It’s a super piece of software!

Note the webinar starts at 16.00 UT

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear colleagues,

The below might be of interest to some of you. Gabriel Neagu (AAVSO ambassador) is hosting a webinar tomorrow to showcase the new Peranso 3 software. I will join him during this session. We will demonstrate the power of Peranso using several real-life light curves, including some of the data mining work that Gabriel and colleagues are doing using Peranso.

In you are interested to join this free webinar, you can connect through Zoom:

Meeting ID = 912 8822 1402

Passcode = 351389

The invitation has also been posted on some Facebook groups (Cataclysmic Variables, Variable Star Astronomy, etc), where you can find more information.

Best regards

Tonny

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[Tracey Snelus]

Hello Bill 

Thank you for the feedback. I am running on windows 10. I seem to have resolved the issue with the HD version of the UFO capture. There is an option to ignore blackouts and by selecting that I am now able to run successfully although discussion with SonatoCo they didnt think that this would have been a resolution but I have proven it by checking and unchecking the options which allows me to either replicate or eliminate the issue that I had. 

I have been running the system for one week now with some good captures. Within the first 5 minutes of switching the system on I caught a nice bright meteor. I have tweaked the settings so that most of the detections that I have are genuine apart from the odd aeroplane and what I think are either bats or birds given the times of the detections early evening and dawn. I have now refined my profile for accuracy and started the run through the UFO analyser to make sure that I am able to perform the analysis correctly. 

With regards to Nematode network I will certainly be joining in, I have used the site and technical notes along the way which I have found to be incredibly useful in getting me this far. 

[Callum Potter]

You should find that the BAA is an affiliate organisation, so any BAA member would be able to join the AAS as an amateur member.

Callum

[Michael E. Marotta]

A new initiative to include amateurs in the professional organization is being launched at the 237th Meeting, 10-13 January 2021. In 2016, Amateur status was added to the membership categories. Now, the AAS is extending its initiatives for inclusion by actively seeking engagement at the conferences. Ahead of that, an ad hoc committee of correspondence was launched by several AAS members. We held our first meeting online on 16 December.

Speaking to the group, AAS publicist Rick Fienberg underscored the fact that when the AAS was founded in 1899 a significant fraction were amateurs. However, the birth of astro-physics with spectroscopy meant that by the early 20th century the communities already were diverging. Amateurs fell away. Then, by the 1990s, amateurs were equipped with CCD cameras, spectrographs, and now are doing good science in collaboration with professionals. It made sense for the AAS to open its arms to the amateurs in 2016. Now we have 300 Amateur Affiliates. Also, the AAS recently purchased Sky & Telescope magazine. That being as it may the AAS opened the membership to amateurs ahead of a defined rationale. So, in the summer of 2019, the Board of Directors created a task force to develop a coherent set of programs and benefits.

An 8 August 2018 press release said:  As long as amateurs do not depend on the field of astronomy as a primary source of income or support, they are now welcome to join the AAS as Amateur Affiliates.

Applicants are required to be a member of an affiliated organization, such as an astronomy club that belongs to the Astronomical League; the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO); the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP); the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO); the Society for Astronomical Sciences (SAS); the International Meteor Organization (IMO); the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA); the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA); or the Citizen Science Association, to name a few. 

Dues for Amateur Affiliates will be $52 for 2019. Inaugural benefits include reduced registration fees to AAS meetings, access to the AAS family of journals, and the annual AAS Wall Calendar. Additional programs and opportunities are expected for this group once a critical mass is established for survey and feedback purposes.

The Session Notes from the Convention Schedule –  Jan 14 2021 6:50PM –  Amateur Astronomers Meet & Greet

“Recognizing the increasingly important role of backyard stargazers in astronomical research, science advocacy, and public outreach, the AAS recently created a new membership class: Amateur Affiliate. Subsequently the Society became the owner/publisher of Sky & Telescope after the magazine’s former owner went out of business. As 2021 begins, the AAS has about 300 Amateur Affiliate members. Many of them, as well as many S&T readers and other amateur astronomers who haven’t yet joined the Society, have registered to attend AAS 237. If you’re among them, please join us for this virtual get-together. (Others interested in meeting an engaged group of astronomy enthusiasts are welcome too!) In addition to getting to know each other, we’ll hear from Rick Fienberg, AAS Press Officer and former S&T Editor in Chief, about how the AAS plans to bring professional and amateur astronomers closer together for our mutual benefit. You’ll also have an opportunity to offer your own ideas about how the AAS can be more supportive and encouraging to amateur astronomers.”