Welcome to the BAA Jeremy!
The Sky-Watcher ESPRIT are good scopes so there is plenty of interesting observing available to you. Though I am sure you are aware of that from your prior time in the hobby. Joining Observing Sections is a great way to become involved and meet fellow enthusiasts. That is certainly the area that I find most rewarding.
Best wishes,
Andy
Registration is now open for the BAA’s Summer Double Bill of meetings at Warwick University on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th July 2018.
This is an unusual event in that there will be two meetings running concurrently on Saturday, the BAA Summer Meeting and the first day of a two day joint meeting of the BAA Variable Star Section and the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).
There will be a full programme of talks for both meetings and a conference dinner for all participants on Saturday evening. Accommodation is available in single en-suite rooms on the Warwick campus.
Information about the meeting and how to book can be found at https://britastro.org/summer2018.
We expect heavy demand for this event so book early to ensure your place.
Hi Eric,
I hope you join in, it’s a fasciating aspect of meteor observing!
Cheers,
Bill.
Melvyn’s family have now arranged refreshments after the funeral at Wakefield Crematorium. They have provided the following directions:-
After the service, guests are invited to make their way to The Milnes Gaskell Function Room which is adjoining Howarth Funeral Services at 125 Denby Dale Road, Thornes, Wakefield WF2 8EB. Howarth Funeral Services is shown as Thornes Parish Church of Saint James on online maps, but it is the adjacent building.
Parking is limited immediately outside the venue but there is parking available at the edge of the park opposite. A road off the roundabout leads up to the Premier Inn and there are a couple of small car parks on the left of the road. People will then have to cross the dual carriageway to get to the function room.
Alex.
Hi,
I tried to renew my membership for 2017-17, but it was trying to force me to sign up to Pay Pal! No option to just pay via Pay Pal without signing up
Is there any better way, as I have no desire to join Paypal.
By the way, the online form still says 2016-17, but I have given up in that (as I got no reply from either from the forum or the BAA Office).
I hope someone can be of help.
John
Hi Marc,
Welcome to the BAA spectroscopy forum. It is great to see someone with your experience joining us.
As you will have seen from some of the earlier posts to the forum, several of our members have recently acquired low resolution spectrographs such as the Alpy and LISA. It would be helpful if you could explain whether, and how, such low resolution devices can make a useful contribution to the VV Cep campaign. The analysis Ernst has been describing clearly requires high resolution H-alpha observations. If low resolution observations are useful, I am sure some of us would contribute.
Regards,
David
I am delighted to announce that this morning our Member’s Pages reached a significant milestone. The 100th Member’s page since we went live last November was uploaded to britastro!
It belongs to Marc Trypsteen, one of our newest members who joined just a few days ago. Welcome on board, Marc! I wish you a long a fruitful membership of the BAA.
Many thanks to everyone who contributes to BAA Member’s Pages. I always enjoy looking at your work and learning about what interests you.
All the best,
Jeremy
Just a bit to high for my R ~ 9000 echelle. I am not sure I will finish the R ~ 20000 in time but if I do I will join in. I am sure some LHires III users will join you.
Regards Andrew
Hi Ernst
Good to have you join us!
Steve
Hi Kevin
Welcome to the BAA and to the BAA Solar Section. Just drop me an email to solar@britastro.org so I have your email address and I can send you any information you require and H-alpha report forms. I would welcome your H-alpha observations. What instrument(s) are you using?
Hi Kevin,
Welcome to the BAA!
yes – just contact the section directors of the sections you are interested – you can use the contact forms on the website, or the email addresses in the back of the Journal.
You will be most welcome to the Deep Sky Section!
Cheers, Callum
Hi all,
I’m sure this is a daft question, but I’ve just joined the BAA (long time observer, first time member) and I see a lot of mention in the paperwork about “joining” different observing sections. I’ve got particular interest in solar (both radio and visual imaging in H-alpha) as well as comets, and deep sky imaging (just starting with that really). So what’s the process for “joining” a section? Is it just a case of emailing the section director?
Cheers
Kevin
Hello Nick,
thinking about this again, I do remember a bit more condensation in the first year after installation of the observatory. I suspected that some moisture was coming out of the concrete base upon which the dome sits. I gave it several coats of concrete sealant paint which stopped that – I put another layer down every couple of years, just to be sure (and to give it a nice aesthetic finish!). I also made sure the join between the bottom fibreglass flange and the concrete base is properly sealed with exterior grade door sealant. I renew this periodically, again just to be sure.
All the best,
Jeremy
Thanks for sharing that link Tony …. reading it makes me want a physical copy to join such books as Ouse’s Silent Tide by C.F. Farrar and Amateur Astronomer’s Handbook & Observational Astronomy for Amateurs by J.B. Sidgwick, Thanks to Martin too for the Video link , Yes I still enjoy Will’s films too 🙂
In answer to Robin’s question, “No, I don’t”. One has to be careful to distinguish between a comment (i.e. a response to the paper) and the groundrules defining how the comment can be made. The issues I am raising refer to the groundrules – once these are defined one can then move on to formulating the comments themselves.
There would appear to be a sub-text inherent in Robin’s remark however – that the Forum would be a better place to discuss papers than the Journal. In this I would fundamentally disagree with him. The protocol for writing, submitting, refereeing and reviewing “learned papers” is well-established throughout the scientific community, and proceeds by the open publication of the paper and its comments in the relevant Journal. By doing so, a reader of the original paper can readily access all parts of any subsequent discussion, and the final conclusion, and thus be sure that the information given in the paper is accurate and reliable (or not, as the case may be). A Forum discussion, on the other hand, is a transitory thing with no firm link to the original paper and so a later reader may not be aware that a discussion has even occurred, let alone what the final judgement on the paper was. It must also be born in mind that the reader may not be a member of the BAA and so even if they think to consult the Forum they probably will not be able to join in the discussion, as this requires a log-on to be established. The only way in which the Forum scores over formal publication is “turn-round time”, but even so this may not be an actual advantage as knowing that there will be a delay before your response is published should encourage a contributor to do the research and carefully think through their submission rather than just bash off a quick reply.
Regards,
Steve
Dr Ann Bonell has become the 40th speaker to join Astrospeakers. Ann’s topics are on the history of astronomy, including “Ladies of the Night” about lady astronomers at a time when it was not the done thing for a lady to be an astronomer.
Newtown Astronomy Society have also registered and you will find their details by clicking the map at E10. At their meeting on 10 September there was a talk by Dr Tony Cook, “Cook’s tour of the Moon”.
Graham
John Glasby’s 1971 ‘Variable Star Observers Handbook’ was a treasure to me in the years between my first VS observations (1975) and joining the BAA and the BAAVSS (1978). Lots of controversy about Glasby of course, but I found this book invaluable.
Sidgewick’s 1971 edition ‘Observational Astronomy for Amateurs’ rarely left my side in my early observing days too, along with his ‘Amateur Astronomers Handbook’ of the same year. I still treasure those books.
My 1965 Ladybird book of Astronomy remains in pristine condition, and I guess this must have been the first book I used with my first telescope in 1965, closely followed by Nortons 1950 epoch star atlas.
Gone very nostalgic now…
Gary
Sorry I couldn’t join you for a drink Wayne but I hope you find your BAA membership worthwhile and useful. We are all here to help if you ever need any advice on anything astronomical.
Stewart Moore, BAA Council
Hi,
Thanks for the paper info. It’s an interesting read. Jenniskens makes reference to the same object in his book Meteor Showers and their parent bodies. He ends the section on the Quadrantids with the same sentiment, that it’s not quite a done deal yet.
Yes, I’m very pleased that after a little evangelising 😉 others have joined in the new pursuit of “Survey Video Meteor Spectroscopy”. It’s taken me 7 years to refine the system but I think its now gone from novelty to utility and that’s great. It is indeed a powerful tool and who knows what it will turn up in the coming years. The regular showers are interesting enough BUT its the sporadic population where I believe the real surprises will be.
I think I mentioned “family groups” elsewhere and I’m pretty sure I’ve started to see this. Initally three spectra caught my eye. These were all from different observers over several years. That has now gone up to six sporadics with very similar properties so theres something going on!
cheers,
Bill.