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In reply to: Any Good Comets Visible For Small Telescopes?
Hi David,
I had a great view of that comet and NLC too on the night of Friday/Saturday, 2020 July 10/11. That night was one of the best observing experiences of my life. A stunning naked-eye comet and really dynamic and bright NLC.
Sadly we don’t have anything like that at the moment. The brightest comet around in the northern sky is probably C/2022 E3 (ZTF). It is around 13th mag at the moment so probably too faint for a small telescope but we hope that it will reach 6th magnitude in late January next year when it will be moving rapidly across the sky under the pole.
The best places to go to get an idea of the current state of comets in the sky is Jonathan Shanklin’s site here:
https://people.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/
and our Comet Section image archive here:
https://britastro.org/cometobs/
For the latest images of C/2022 E3 scroll down to near the bottom of the list and then click on the “gallery” link.
We’re always happy to receive observations of comets so please let me know how you get on.
In reply to: Just Curios, What’s Your Smallest Scope?
I have a planetary image in the gallery taken with a 2.2mm f/1.8 refractor …
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20191209_191900_36b00eba365581f4
Perhaps this is cheating, but it is still a refractor telescope by essentially all definitions.
Mine’s a 60mm ED doublet (Altair 60EDF). I never cease to be amazed at just how much I can see with this little telescope. I’ve seen shadow transits on Jupiter. I can see Titan (Saturn) and often Rhea. I can also see the Ring Nebula with a bit of averted vision.
Attachments:
Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.
Topic: Observation Frequency
I’ve observed Mercury seven times in total this year (January, February) with a telescope. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it more than twice in one year with a telescope. Unfortunately it’s a bit low for me at the moment.
Telescopes: One Newtonian, three Maksutov Cassegrains, seven refractors, and a large SCT.
Hello everyone,
my name is Andrea and I’m from Italy.
This is my first post on this forum since I’ve joined the BAA this spring. I hope my message finds you well.
I’m not really sure if this is the best section to make a post about this topic or if it would have been better to put it on the “History” forum. Anyways I’ll give it a go here.I’d like to know more about an antique Steinheil Muenchen refractor telescope that I’ve recently found on a local website for buying and selling astro-gear. I’m really interested in buying it, as I’m quite fascinated by its history, but I have to admit that I’m not an expert in ancient telescopes (this would be my first one) and so I hope that some of you can help me!
Under this message you’ll find attached some photos that the seller has shared.The instrument is 70mm in aperture and bears the serial (I think) number 8915. We don’t know in which year it was made. It comes with several accessories and in particular three eyepieces of different (and unknown) focal lengths. The telescope is complete with a lens cap and a removable black mounting block has been added to allow its use with some modern mount, since the original one is absent. The seller has told me that the instrument is usable, but probaly in need of some cleaning and restoration. I haven’t personally seen it yet, because it’s a two and a half hours drive from my hometown to the seller location.
The seller doesn’t know how much he should ask me for it (he has received wildy different quotes) and I don’t know how much to offer. Can you guys give me a quote?
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you!
Kind regards,Andrea
3056 x 3056 pixels, 36.7 X 36.7mm chip. Suitable for all wide field applications. The reason I am selling it is that it’s too heavy to mount on my 20inch newtonian (f3.5), but would be perfect for an SCT or Astrograph on a fork or German equatorial mount with counterweights.
I bought it 2 months ago from Crni Vrh Observatory (MPC observatory code 106) who used it for their asteroid survey. It is in perfect working order and they gave it a full check up before shipping. The chamber was purged and refilled 2 years ago, so you won’t have problems with condensation or ice crystals. Apogee offer this as a lifetime free service anyway. You ship it to Andor in Belfast, they refill the chamber with argon gas, and send it back to you for free. I am asking £1480 which is what I paid for it 2 months ago.
The £20 shipping is for standard post which can take 3 weeks, but faster methods are available. The camera comes with power supply, USB cable, mounting plate, mounting adapter, and 3 spare fans. If you are not familiar with Apogee cameras, I posted the link to the S&T revue below. I have used them for 20 years and apart from replacing a fan occasionally, have never had a problem.Please contact me on mgedawson@gmail.com, phone +352 621 291849
Sky & Telescope review by Denis de Cicco: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Apogee%27s+Alta+U9000+CCD+camera%3A+the+first+astronomical+camera+with+…-a0169309135
Apogee U9000 specs: https://www.observatorij.org/News/U9000.pdfAttachments:
Topic: Globular Cluster Marathon
Many of you know that I have been imaging small planetary satellites of the gas and ice giants. My stamp collection is now almost full in that the remaining ones are below magnitude 22.0 at best. Some of you may be aware of https://britastro.org/section_information_/deep-sky-section-overview/observing-programmes/globular-clusters/the-gc-marathons-part-i-galactic-globular-clusters which I wrote a couple of years back. Unfortunately, a couple of links there were broken when the BAA site was updated but http://www.astropalma.com/Projects/GC_Marathon.html still works.
Accordingly, I have now started imaging GCs and will eventually put them in the BAA gallery and my personal web pages. I have only managed 14 out of 158 so far but hope to pick up a few more in the next week while Sgr et al. are still visible. At least twenty are too far south for a telescope in La Palma and a few more are visible only in the IR. To summarize: only 10% have so far been done.
I urge others to join in this escapade.
In reply to: CG Dra: a VSS campaign
Gianni, it is getting more and more difficult indeed. Where I live (Bortle 8-9) I can barely see anything at all, yet still visual astronomy is possible with a night vision device. Even through a small refractor it is possible to see Markarian’s chain, M1 and other wonders via IR-filtered view, so not everything is lost. I don’t think I would manage to collect these 20K+ observations had not the telescope been fully automated. Building “robotic” observatory was really the key for me, so the telescope might as well be somewhere else under the dark and steady skies, as I don’t touch the hardware at this point. The romance of having hands-on hardware experience is lost, but this allowed me focus on data pipelines, processing and, also, trying to understand the physical nature of the star, which is more intriguing than messing with the hardware for me. I think if you’re really after building light curves then accessing a remote observatory is a plus.
Max
In reply to: Possible fade of RY Sagittarii
Coincidentally I am in the last week of my holiday in Cornwall. And also coincidentally I have brought my telescope! The skies here on the Helford estuary are very dark, especially to the South, but there is a lot of high cloud tonight in the South.
Dave
I have just issued this BAA Alert via email.
John Toone (BAA VSS, Shropshire) has reported RY Sgr fainter than normal, at visual magnitude 8.0 on Aug 29 (compared to 6.2 on Jul 8) and has suggested that it might be at the start of a fading episode. Several other observers have also reported the star as being fainter of late. Further observations are urgently requested to determine whether this is the beginning of a deep fade or just a deep pulsation minimum.
RY Sgr is a yellow supergiant of the R Coronae Borealis class. As is typical for the class, its light curve is characterised by a sudden drop in brightness from 6th mag to mag 12 to 14 over a few weeks before gradually brightening over the following several months. The interval between these fading episodes is irregular. The fading is due to the presence of dust clouds of carbon obscuring the star.
RY Sgr is also a pulsating variable, with a semiregular period of 38 days, mag ca 6.5 – 7.5. Observations over the next few days will confirm if the current fainter state is due to one of these pulsations being faint, or the start of a genuine fade. Contributions by observers will help to resolve this question.
The southerly declination of RY Sgr is a challenge for UK-based observers (RA 19h 16m 33s, DEC −33° 31′ 20″), but not impossible for those in the southern part of the country with a good southerly horizon. Observations could be made with binoculars or a small telescope. Observers from countries further south are naturally encouraged to observe the star too.
Finer charts are available at the AAVSO VSP: https://app.aavso.org/vsp/chart/?star=RY+Sgr&scale=A&orientation=visual&type=chart&fov=900.0&maglimit=9.0&resolution=150&north=down&east=right
These can be scaled as desired.Jeremy Shears
Director, VSSIn reply to: Artemis
It doesn’t look good for us in the UK.
Assuming that the launch goes ahead at the start of the 2 hour window (12:33 UTC on Monday Aug 29) the geometry for the UK is poor with the spacecraft below the horizon at night for the first week. It is above the horizon in a dark sky on Sept 5/6 when it is at declination -27 and due south around 2100 UTC but, by then, it will be a long way away and close to the Moon in the sky (not a surprise really) low in Sgr.
It gets to high northern declinations on the way back but by then it is heading for solar conjunction.
All in all I doubt if anyone will image it from here. A good opportunity to use a remote telescope I think.
In reply to: CG Dra: a VSS campaign
Thanks, Jeremy! Good test for the autonomous operation. Looks like our scripts are now handling most of the software/hardware random bugs. At this point, I simply define the object, area of the sky and the A1 telescope wakes up, cools down, homes the mount, centers the focuser, slews, begins the imaging plan when the object is visible, etc – once the roof opens. The server in London data center pulls all the FITS in the morning, does photometry and I get e-mails with BAA/AAVSO report files. No interaction required whatsoever except for to produce the charts. Hopefully just a little more effort with the web UI interface and we can begin serving time for BAA on it.
I see that for some reason the most interesting curve from August 21 with PEHs has failed to upload. I’m attaching it here.
Max
Attachments:
In reply to: CG Dra: a VSS campaign
Back from the vacation. The telescope was collecting data, 2243 observations have been made for period August 14 to 23.
August 14, 2022, State: Quiescence
Eclipse No. 71, Profile: V/N/AAugust 15, 2022, State: Quiescence
Eclipse No. 72, Profile: V/N/A
Eclipse No. 73, Profile: V?/N/AAugust 17, 2022, State: Quiescence
Eclipse No. 74, Profile: ?/H/? – Intermittent data.August 18, 2022, State: Quiescence
Eclipse No. 75, Profile: U/N/A
Eclipse No. 76, Profile: U?/N/AAugust 19, 2022, State: Rising
Eclipse No. 77, Profile: U/L/S – Accretion disk becomes bright.August 20, 2022, State: Outburst
Eclipse No. 78, Profile: U/L?/SAugust 21, 2022, State: Outburst
Eclipse No. 79, Profile: U/L/PEH
Eclipse No. 80, Profile: U/L/PEH
Post-Egress Humps developed at the peak of the outburst, peaking at phase ~ 1.125.August 22, 2022, State: Fading
Eclipse No. 81, Profile: U/L/S (brightening at a late phase due to the overall fading)August 23, 2022, State: Fading
Eclipse No. 82, Profile: U/L/S (brightening at a late phase due to the overall fading)Max
In reply to: Rev T.E.Espin’s Calver telescope :action needed
Hi John, It is good to know that someone in the local area (you) are interested in this famous old instrument. What can be done I wonder. If a contact with the company that now ownes Closehouse Estate could be made to see if they would be willing to have the telescope removed would be the first step. Does anyone know contact details for this company?
I wrote to two academics in the North East who may have had some association with the observtaory and telescope.
Dr Anne Archibold at Newcastle University Astronomy Dept, who has not replied as yet.
Dr Jurgen Schmoll at Durham University who did reply, copied below:Dear Denis,
thank you for your nice email. I am afraid I am not in possession of the 24″ telescope, but of a re-built, unfinished 17″ telescope of the same pedigree.Reverend Espin of Tow Law had initially a 17″ f/8 Newtonian in his private observatory. Later he upgraded to 24″ (shorter tube, maybe f/5 but I am not sure) on the same mount. The 17″ fell into disrepair.
The 24″ was refurbished I think in the 1990s by the late David Sinden, ex chief-optician of Grubb Parsons in Newcastle. He rebuilt the tube (change from tube to truss) and made an excellent job. This telescope has been set up at Close House and used by Newcastle Uni. Sadly Newcastle closed its Physics/Astronomy section, and Close House was taken over in ownership with the new owners not being interested in astronomy. This is how it all fell apart.
The 17″ mirror was rescued by Alan Heslop and Gordon Percival, both Grubb-Parsons until it shut. I remember both later became teachers. They reground the mirror from f/8 to f/4 and built a new telescope around it, which was never finished. When Alan Heslop passed away end of 2012, his sun asked me to move the telescope away to rescue it. Since then it is in storage. I set it up once, using a crane in my observatory as it is a heavy machine at about 1/2 ton total weight. Currently I have it half-built in my new observatory, after moving house. The plan is to find a new home for it, but there is much to do and some measures are costly – recoating the mirror alone about £500. The ancient motors are to be replaced by contemporary dual axis control e.g. by AWR electronics, but this is about £2000. All money I do not have, and I will have to team up with someone else or an interested astronomical society.
There was also a 12″ Schmidt telescope at Close House. I have the optics of this one, as the mechanics did not survive. Also the optics is damaged, the corrector plate having a large chip on the edge. So probably a display item in a Grubb Parsons exhibit, as there is a science Paper about it authored by David Brown himself, an important figure within Grubb Parsons.
Feel free to contact me again. We may also have a chat on Skype or phone if you like.
So how to proceed from here. Perhaps an online working group to discuss what can be done to rescue this telescope would be a start. I live in the North East of Scotland 40 miles north of Inverness, so any participation on the ground by myself would be impractical. A willing person in the Newcastle area would be ideal. Does anyone know annyone in the Newcastle Astronomical Society who might help?
Denis Buczynski
In reply to: Rev T.E.Espin’s Calver telescope :action needed
Yes, a great shame about the demise of this historical instrument. I have attached some images of the telescope and David Sinden with the 24 inch mirror. Perhaps Beamish museum would be a suitable home of the telescope?
Regards,
John Nichol
In reply to: Brookhaven on the market
It seems from the information in this link someone spent a lot of money renovating it, apparently it was pending sale then withdrawn?
With the amount of work carried out and since it’s a wooden built in 1870 I wonder how sound the structure is? and did that cause the sale to fall through as it is still unsold from what I can tell.
It seems the family still have the optics from Leslie’s telescopes but that depends on what source you read? The Merry-go-round observatory is interesting and it seems from the information below the MVAS had to replace the wooden structure and only use the original mechanics less the telescope which the family kept. Triggers Broom comes to mind.
https://delphoscanalcommission.com/banks-yesteryear/return-to-starlight-nights/
I managed to get hold of a copy of Starlight Nights and I found it very interesting. The AAVSO link above is a very interesting read and very informative about what is left from Peltier’s time. I wonder if America has a Blue Plaque scheme similar to the UK as Peltier’s house deservers some sort of recognition, apparently just outside the Delphos library is a statue of him?
In reply to: V482 Cyg
PSF photometry works well in crowded fields but the separation of these stars is only 2.9 arcsec so getting good enough focus and tracking to ensure that the PSF of each object is not too blended needs a bit of work with an amateur telescope from sea level in the UK. My image was at a scale of 0.28 arcsec/pix and had a star FWHM of 2.2 arcsec so the stars are reasonably well separated but that was on a night of good seeing. CMOS cameras allow selective stacking a lot of short exposures so a strategy similar to that used by planetary imagers is probably worth trying.
I ran source extractor on this image and it showed that V482 Cyg was about 0.2 mag fainter than the companion so probably about 15.2 unfiltered at the moment. The star is likely to be very red though.
In reply to: Rev T.E.Espin’s Calver telescope :action needed
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for your interest. I can see why you are as interested in knowing the current situation regarding the telescope. I have written to member of the Astronomy group at Newcastle University, Dr Anne Archbold, to see if she can shed any light on the matter. Here is a copy of my letter:
Hello Dr Archibold,
I hope you can help with this enquiry. I am an amateur astronomer and a member of the British Astronomical Association since 1979. At present I live 40 miles north of Inverness. I have had a particular interest in the telescopes that were used by pioneers of observational astronomy in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The reason I write to you is to ask if you can shed any light on the current situation regarding the telescope used by The Rev.T.E .Espin (a founder member of the BAA and a recipient of the Jackson-Gwilt medal of the Royal Astronomical Society). He lived and worked at Tow Law in County Durham.This telescope has historical significance and was donated to Newcastle University in the 1990’s by David Sinden (who was chief optician at Grubb-Parsons and worked on the construction of the Issac Newton telescope and the Anglo Australian telescope). It was situated at the University Observatory site at Closehouse Estate west of Newcastle along side two other more modern telescopes that were owned and operated by Newcatle University. The University sold off the site and removed the two modern telescopes (still in storage at the University?).However I believe the 19th century Espin 24 inch Calver reflector was left in situ and may still be there, abandoned. Can you shed any light on the current situation regarding this telescope. I realise that this may be outside you sphere of interest and certainly the move away form Closehouse was before you time at Newcastle University, but I hope the subject and its historical aspect may interest you enough to make some enquiries about the telescope. I attach two links
1) a utube video made in 2021 showing the abandoned observatory
2) a link to the Society for the History of Astronomy webpage for this telescope whcih gives the historical background.
I hope you can find time to look at these and respond
Best wishes
Denis Buczynskihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_FRY1XAmSk
https://shasurvey.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/espin-observatory.pdf
In reply to: Rev T.E.Espin’s Calver telescope :action needed
Hi Denis,
Thanks for this. Very interesting.
I have a personal interest insofar as I was a Geology PhD student in Newcastle 1976-1979 and my supervisor was the late Dr M. Hugh Battey. I seem to recall that he was one a select few who used the telescope for their own devices – he frequently invited me to join him in observations but, alas, I never was able to. This failure I have always regretted.
I believe the observatory was located at the Closehouse Estate to the west of Newcastle – at the time this was the University’s main sports centre and I often played football there. I believe the University sold off Closehouse some years ago. I always wondered what happened to the observatory/telescopes. A few years ago at a BAA meeting in Newcastle I was told that the observatories were no more and that the telescopes were in store (= lost). Believing this, I felt the University had committed a gross act barbarity.
Closehouse is now, I think, some sort of luxury hotel. It was suggested to me that the hotel now owned what was left of the observatory but my informant was not sure. I haven’t been able to find much information about it.
Are we talking about the same place? Or has my age-addled memory failed (again)?
I would be very keen to see these items at least preserved if not restored. I would help as much as I can, but I fear this would be not much in a practical sense.
Best Wishes,
Trevor
Attached is a link to a Utube video of the abandoned observatory that was once operated by Newcastle University in the NE of England (home of Grubb-Parsons). The three domes are ina poor state (I visited in the 1980’s) with David Sinden. The tragic shame is that the most famous of the telescopes a 24 inch Calver reflector used by T.E.Espin is still in there. It was restored by David Sinden (once chief optician at Grubbs) and placed in the that observatory after restoration. The telescope was used by Espin to compile his catalogue of red stars, valuable double star measures and estimates of variable stars, amongst other ground breaking observations. The University should hang their head in shame at leaving this historic telescope to deteriorate in the way it has.In 2007 they proudly announced that the 24 inch was once one of the lasrgest telescopes in England.They could have at least dismantled it and stored it .It would only take a day to dismantle and take away. I wish I was 30 years younger, I would tackle the problem.
Denis Buczynski
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_FRY1XAmSk
https://shasurvey.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/espin-observatory.pdf
Attachments:
British Astronomical Association
Supporting amateur astronomers since 1890
