Search Results for 'espin telescope'

[Tim Haymes]

This is an IOTA event with a target magnitude of 11.7, magnitude drop 1.1 and maximum duration of 15 seconds at a helpful pre-midnight time ( 2339-2342 BST ) and at a good altitude in Perseus.  So a lot in its favour with the prospect of positive chords over a wide area of England, Wales and northern Europe.  Observations are invited, weather permitting of course.   Moonlight might interfere a bit, but no too much i hope.

https://www.asteroidoccultation.com/2021_10/1022_165_71604.htm

It would be worth while to observe this prediction from all parts of the UK,  to detect any secondary events that might be caused by a satellite, although none are currently known.

Its a potential visual target and certainly for video or CMOS cameras, or a star trail in a fixed instrument.  The prepoint method can be used to find the star.  Center the telescope on 7 Trianguli and wait 46 minutes.  The target should then be close to the field center. ( RA target, 03h 02′ ;  RA 7-Tri, 02h 16′ – epoch of date).

Best of luck ! – Tim.

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[Dr Paul Leyland]

I have just come across this Astronomers’ Telegram.

(NEW) ATel 14976: MASTER OT J013318.91+305213.7 – possible microlensing event in M33… https://astronomerstelegram.org/?read=14976

At mag 19-ish it should be well within range of anyone with a functioning telescope of 30cm or larger which is fitted with a decent camera.

Unfortunately my 40cm is not functioning, partly because the camera is over here in the UK for repair and, even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t want to get volcanic ash into all the gubbins.

[Dr Paul Leyland]

The aim is to create an artificial star of known size and shape. A very narrow laser beam tuned to exactly the same wavelength of sodium light stimulates fluorescence at the same wavelength from sodium in the upper atmosphere. (Incidentally, that sodium comes primarily from sea salt.)

A telescope looking at that fluorescent spot should see an immobile spot with a shape and diameter set by the resolution of the optics. In practice it sees a large shimmering moving blob because of the atmosphere. Clever software quickly works out what distortions should be made to the telescope to return that blob to its undistorted shape and very fast mechanical actuators then make the corresponding movements to an optical element. Voila, diffraction-limited images through adaptive optics.

[John Cook]

Hello Nick,

I have just yesterday put my renewal for SKy & Telescope in the post as I usualy do, so I hope that it will get to the right address.

John.

[Grant Privett]

I saw some people were having trouble with their S@T subs which raised the question: is it back where it was before the venture capitalists got their grubby mitts on it?

I recall a time when it was a superb read, catering for everyone from the new entrant to the seasoned observer, but there was a period, more recently, when it became little more than a thin comic that was 90% for newbies with a few small sops for the rest of us. They lost a lot of good writers around then.

How is it these days? 

[Callum Potter]

Hi Nick,

I had an email from S&T a few weeks back concerning their new fulfilment partner (i guess they mean the people that send out the magazine).

I’ll paste their message below – hope this helps…

Callum

====

We listen to you! Due to customer service issues with Sky & Telescope magazine, we started to look for a new magazine fulfillment partner in April 2021. After reviewing proposals and meeting with vendors, we are very excited to announce that we have selected Omeda as our new fulfillment partner.

 

We are currently in the final phase of our transition to Omeda. Starting with the December 2021 issue, fulfillment will be handled by Omeda.

 

To ensure complete and accurate data transfer from our prior vendor to Omeda, we will not be updating any fulfillment data online until September 16^th. However, the Omeda customer service team will be available to assist you beginning on September 7^th.

 

We are now in very good hands. We have a great customer service team and our customer service team lead is Jill Unger. Customer service hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm CT. Our toll free customer service line will remain the same (800-253-0245). Our new local number is 847-559-7369. You can also contact the customer service team by email at skyandtelescope@omeda.com.

 

While we will be forwarding all mail from our prior vendor, we want to provide the new postal address to you here. Please feel free to start using this address if you prefer communicating with us in writing.

 

New Mailing Address:

Sky & Telescope Magazine

PO BOX 219

Lincolnshire, IL, 60069-9806

USA

 

Online access to our subscription landing pages will be available by September 17^th. We have taken full advantage of this transition to improve user experience of the subscription landing page and payment processing systems. We now expand our subscription payment options to include PayPal. 

 

We have undertaken extensive steps to ensure there will be no interruption of service to our community. Any subscription that is due to expire with the December issue will be given a one-month complimentary extension. This extension should cover any payment delays due to mail forwarding or delivery issues. Additionally, we have made provisions to ensure that access to our subscription app will be available without interruption of service.

 

Thanks for being a Sky & Telescope subscriber and we look forward to ongoing enhancements to our services and the magazine in the coming years.

[Daryl Dobbs]

According to the TESS database for the US Trademark and Patent Office the registered address for the Sky & Telescope trademark is: AAS SKY PUBLISHING, LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY D.C. 1667 K ST, NW, SUITE 800 WASHINGTON D.C. 20006

The American Astronomical Society who owns the IP rights have just renewed the S&T trademarks they own. You could try contacting S&T through their owners the AAS;

Contact Us | American Astronomical Society (aas.org)

[Nick Quinn]

Has anybody managed to renew their S&T subscription recently?

I have received several renewal letters in the post with the URL http://skyandtelescope.org/renew. That doesn’t work and the main subscription web page is set up for new subscriptions only, there is no way for current subscribers to renew. I have emailed customer service a couple of times but received no reply.

I have found this page: https://subscriptions.skyandtelescope.com/Renewals/ but it doesn’t accept UK formatted ‘zip’ codes!

I am considering posting my payment to them but even that seems to be inconsistent as the renewal letter has an address in Boone, Idaho whereas the enclosed envelope is printed with Palm Coast, Florida.

Nick Quinn

[Nick James]

I missed these predictions so didn’t get to see it but my NW sky/telescope monitoring camera did. It looks like it was a pretty amazing sight. A still from the video is here and the video is here. 

[Martin Lewis]

Hi Peter,
It’s good to have a convention to make images easier to compare images and can’t see a reason not to stick with the existing arbitary one rather than change it after several centuries. Jupiter with a GRS at the bottom and a Mars with Syrtis Major at the bottom – to me they just don’t look right.

It is arbitary whether it has been chosen to be north up or south up but south up is the existing astronomical convention. In the northern hemisphere that’s the view in an inverting telescope but from the southern hemisphere that is the view in an non-inverting set up. There is no such thing as the right way up or wrong way up just the conventional way up and the unconventional way up.

I am intruiged by your comment that you see visually a view with North at the top when you view through an SCT with no diagonal. Surely an SCT with two mirrors should give an inverted view. I though it was only through a diagonal that  you would get a non-inverted view but it would be mirrored L-R.

Cheers, Martin

[Michael E. Marotta]

It was a significant action by the AAS to do this. See the above posts about Cambridge University Press curtailing its line targeted to amateurs and then consider what it would have meant for the RAS to buy it. I mean that: RAS, not BAA. If you have a Ph.D. in astronomy and you teach at a university, you cannot (necssarily) be a voting member of the AAS: you can be an educational affiliate. (I am an amateur affiliate. I edit for the History of Astronomy Division. I cannot vote or propose a session topic or deliver a paper or even have a poster at a convention without sponsorship by a voting member.) The AAS is for professional researchers. So, their purchase first of Sky & Telescope and now of Willmann-Bell signals deep commitment to new directions.

I serve on an AAS committee for professional-amateur engagement. The committee was approved three years ago, given a chair eighteen months ago, and formed this past January. Nothing happens quickly at the AAS. So, this action to acquire Willmann-Bell was highly significant. They are to be congratulated for taking the action as it is in service to the amateur community.

[Ernesto Guido]

We performed some follow-up of RS OPHIUCHI 2021 outburst through a TEL 0.1-m f/3.6 astrograph + CCD located in the Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, Australia (MPC code Q56) and operated by Telescope Live network.

On images taken on August 09.42, 2020 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart (approximate R-filtered magnitude about +4.8; images were saturated in 10-second exposures) at coordinates:

R.A. = 17 50 13.20, Decl.= -06 42 28.2

(equinox 2000.0; UCAC4 catalogue reference stars for the astrometry).

Our image is available here: https://tinyurl.com/rsoph2021 or below

With kind regards,

Ernesto Guido, Marco Rocchetto & Adriano Valvasori

https://telescope.live/

[Daryl Dobbs]

seems to be fading quickly, easily visible in my 20×70 binoculars on Wednesday 28th but last night the 1st August  I couldn’t see it. Was going to get my telescope out but clouds rolled in just as I set up. 

[Peter Anderson]

Hello Bill, Whilst your mathematics are good, the problem as I see it is that the visible disk will remain the same brightness and so has the potential for the same sort of damage if you look at the sun. However, and obviously the heat factor transmitted within the eye will be much reduced if the solar disc has a reduced angular size.  Taking my argument ad absurdium, you could reason it is dangerous to even look at the stars, but in those cases their stellar disc is not resolvable and instead you are examining a disc produced by your eye or telescope optics that is many times the actual stellar disc diameter and so a mere tiny fraction of its true surface brightness.

I think we need an expert to provide some considered and professional advice on the subject.  I feel like an ancient Greek trying to form a hypothesis just by reasoning alone.

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Nights are moderately long (though dusty and/or smoky) in these parts.

The orbital period of 0.18864 days according to AAVSO appears well determined.  What is the value of further lengthy observation runs?  Is there a suggestion that the period may be changing or are we looking for flickering in the accretion disk?

I am prepared to spend some telescope time if it is worth my while but there other calls on it too.

(Added in edit: not that it makes any difference tonight. Complete cloud cover as of about 45 minutes ago.)

[Dawson]

I’ve just watched a fascinating talk from Australia on solar eclipses from elsewhere in the solar system, and am surprised it’s only had just over 100 views:

https://m.facebook.com/astronomysa/videos/3438550399584185/

The speaker has done some fascinating calculations.

It made me think, how bright (or not) is it at midday on each of the planets? Tricky concept for the gas and ice giants but assuma the measurement was taken standing on top of the clouds. And how far would you have to be from the Sun before it was safe to look at it with a telescope without any filters?

Do watch that talk though.

James

[Bill Ward]

Hi,

ahhh,  I meant “secondary” as in some sort of corrector not a secondary mirror…  Even a “perfect” mirror will exhibit some aberrations at f2. Something to stretch it out to f4 maybe, a barlow lens basically, then the camera. I’ve got boxes of lenses to play with that I’ve accumulated over the years. However I have a small fibre fed Littrow spectroscope I built a while back sitting in a drawer. It needs a bit of tlc but offers interesting possibilities. Ultimately the mirror might just become a flux collector rather than a “telescope”, no need to worry about imaging quality then. The next problem is a suitable mount, it is a chunky piece of glass…

It’s all good fun!

Bill.

[Robin Leadbeater]

There have indeed been various discussions on the ARAS spectroscopy forum about some modern coatings (on mirrors, lenses and camera windows) which while very efficient in the visible, drop off rapidly in the UV, for example this plot for the GSO RC telescope which effectively cuts off steeply at 4000A

https://www.spectro-aras.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2398&p=13202#p13470

This has been a big issue for the UVEX spectrograph, summed up by  Christian Buil in the same thread

“What always worries me is to see reflectivity of 99%, via dielectric treatments. These things are really our enemies in spectrography when we want to go to slightly extreme wavelengths. Besides that 99%, it is only for a narrow area of ​​the spectrum – it is misleading. Long live the coating with a single protective layer, even if we are at 96% reflection in the visible.”

[Bill Ward]

Hi Eric,

LOL, Exactly! I had just returned to Uni when it came out. My first copy, which was the hardback version, fell to pieces I used it so much. Currently have a paperback copy and also not for sale ; – ))

Indeed, this one seems to cover the more modern digital side of things but a lot of it seems to be optics and personal profiles which I’m not so into, got far too many books on optics and telescope design!!!

It’s looks like and updated take on  the Solar Astronomy Handbook by Beck, Hilbrecht,  Reinsch and Volker (Willamann Bell 1995). Also excellent but with the sad demise of Willmann Bell probably only available second hand, although some dealers may have a new copy or two…

I think I’ll give this one a miss at the moment but I think I’ll go and have a wee peek, suitably filtered of course, at the sun this afternoon while the sky is clear(ish)

Cheers,

Bill.

[Dr Richard John McKim]

This is a final call for Mars observations of the 2020 opposition. There have been a few Interim reports in the Journal, and another will appear in the next issue. Now I am busy with finishing the final report. I have received a great deal of observational work from members, but it would be nice to give credit to all those others who, although posting images upon their individual member pages, have not (perhaps owing to false modesty) sent them to the Director. All observations are welcome, and sometimes an apparently less detailed one can, through luck with its timing, fill a critical gap in the record. Please find my contact details at the back of the Journal, and please state telescope, camera (if applicable) and your location when sending work to me. All contributions will be acknowledged by email. The final Section report ought to be completed and submitted to Council at the end of August, prior to the planet’s conjunction with the Sun.

 

Richard McKim, Director