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Posted by Richard Miles at 09:37 on 2012 Nov 06
Morning Tony,Several folk are doing exoplanet transits and a paper by Darryl Sergison entitled "High precision photometry: detection of exoplanet transits using a small telescope" was accepted for publication a few months back so should be appearing in the Journal soon. Hopefully Darryl’s fine work will encourage many others to observe these transit events.I suppose one implied question in what you write is: "Should we coordinate the work on exoplanets that BAA members are doing?" The observing methods used have a lot in common with eclipsing binary observations and also with determining asteroid rotational lightcurves. I don’t believe that exoplanet, work is so different that it requires the setting up a new observing section however. We could from time to time highlight people’s work in the Observers’ Forum part of the Journal as a start.Do members have any views, I wonder?Richard Miles
Posted by Phillip Hudson at 22:27 on 2012 Nov 05
Letting the public see what is being discussed on the forum is a great idea. It may well wet the apetite of the public to get more involved possibly increasing the membership which would be great for everyone.
Posted by Nick James at 20:53 on 2012 Nov 05
Thanks for your views Nick.They are certainly valid and I agree that we have a difficult balance. The BAA does some really great things and we want to encourage as many people as possible to become members. We’re working on ways that will allow non-members access to a limited number of services so that they can see what we do but which will control access beyond a certain point so that there are still significant benefits in being a member.We are definitely sensitive to the fact that there has to be a clear benefit arising from membership and recognise that there are pros and cons here. Making the forum visible read-only to non-members was just one of the ideas mentioned at the last Council and we have a lot of scope to fine-tune this or even turn it off altogether depending on the reaction/feedback that we get.Nick.
Posted by Nick Atkinson at 17:41 on 2012 Nov 05
This needs to be thought through. Anything that encourages a wider interest in astronomy should be welcome. However I see this as creeping agenda and will lead to some members thinking that there is little value in continuing to be members. When I look at who is logged in I see far more "guests" rather than members. Is our membership increasing or are we not in fact seeing is, a fall in numbers?I think it would be better to encourage some of the guests become full supporters and I do not think this is the right way to achieve this.
Posted by Richard Miles at 16:08 on 2012 Nov 03
Yes, it’s fascinating to watch and try to understand what is going on here. To better picture this I’ve analysed the key images including the jpegs shown recently from the WIYN and by JPL from Gemini North.You can find the result at:http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Documents/168P_Oct26-Nov2a.pngAlthough we use the term ‘fragment’ it is probably more accurate to use ‘condensation’ as those labelled ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’ in the Figure are probably transitory in nature coming and going as lumps disintegrate releasing gas and dust. The main secondary body is ‘a’ and we shall see how long this persists in the coming weeks.
Posted by Denis Buczynski at 10:07 on 2012 Nov 03
There has been further evidence of the break up of this comet with news of observations from the Mauna Kea in this press release. "Using the National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s Gemini North Telescope on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, we have resolved that the nucleus of the comet has separated into at least four distinct pieces resulting in a large increasein dust material in its coma." http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-349Denis Buczynski
Posted by Nick James at 19:14 on 2012 Nov 02
The WIYN blog image of the 168P fragment has been removed from their site but the Faulkes Telescope team have put it on their latest blog posting here:http://bit.ly/QZlt7hThis post includes some more recent images of the fragment taken with FTN. Richard Miles has processed these to show the features more clearly:http://www.britastro.org/~rmiles/Documents/168P_2012Nov02.pngI obtained an image last night with a much smaller telescope (Celestron 11) so there is no sign of the fragment as it is well below the resolution of that system. Even in that aperture the comet is an interesting object:http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/168p_20121101_ndj.jpgNick.
Posted by Nick James at 19:08 on 2012 Nov 02
The thinking behind it is that there are sometimes discussions that may be of a wider interest (imaging techniques, particular objects etc.) and that it may help to raise the Association’s profile if these are available to non members, search engines etc. As Callum says, we can fine tune this depending on feedback received.
Posted by Callum Potter at 17:19 on 2012 Nov 02
Hi Tony,access can be controlled on a category by category basis, so it could be possible to have some categories visible without logon, and others not.Callum
Posted by TonyAngel at 14:22 on 2012 Nov 02
Sorry Gary I misread! A questions then.Would it be possible to have two copies of Kunena running – the forum software – so that there could be a public area for potential members and members to post and read, as well as a members only area? This would enable two way "conversations" that will hopefully lead to more members. Looking from the potential members point of view there is nothing more frustrating than reading a forum and not being able respond. It would also allow members to raise and discuss what may be considered internal matters privately – this current discussion being one of them.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 13:03 on 2012 Nov 02
TonyAngel wrote:
Yes it would be a good idea that the general public can ask and discuss various astronomical topics, but I do believe that there ought to be an area of the forum that is dedicated to members.The general public can’t post to the forum, just read what members have posted. The forum remains a member only utility.Gary
Posted by TonyAngel at 10:48 on 2012 Nov 02
I am not sure about this. Yes it would be a good idea that the general public can ask and discuss various astronomical topics, but I do believe that there ought to be an area of the forum that is dedicated to members. On which subject matters to divide I have not yet given much thought to.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 09:33 on 2012 Nov 02
I certainly don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I don’t see any advantages to be gained from it either! I’m interested to know the thinking behind it though.Gary
Posted by Nick James at 20:54 on 2012 Nov 01
I got some photometry on this again tonight but haven’t reduced it yet. On Tuesday it was:2012-10-30.84 – V=14.18, Rc=12.32, Ic=10.26 i.e. around 4 mags fainter in V than Ic. Most unfiltered CCDs at the moment will probably get it around the Rc value.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 09:10 on 2012 Oct 29
David,Thanks for showing an interest. I can remember a time when a possible Nova would have been quite the news! How times change.It still has it’s ‘PNV’ designation, and I haven’t seen details of a spectrum anywhere. Lots of observations and images of course, but without a spectrum it remains a ‘possible Nova’ (PNV).It is an extremely red object, and unfiltered CCD images are showing the Nova much brighter than visual or V band. The difference between I&V band photometry is around 4 magnitudes at the moment (latest data from Nick James using Sierra Stars on Oct 26.11 UT is 10.25I & 14.32V).There are some images – including a multi-band animation from Denis Buczynski – on the VSS web pages.Gary
Posted by Nick James at 20:44 on 2012 Oct 22
Bob,Fantastic stuff again. You really have an effective system there.Nick.
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 16:36 on 2012 Oct 22
Yes the image was guided. I use a 9×50 finder scope that has a adaptor fitted where the eyepiece would go. This then allows me to use my QHY5 camera with this finder for guiding.I also use PHD which if you don’t know. Is free and possibly the best free guiding software there is.Thank you for you comments.
