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Posted by Richard Miles at 19:59 on 2011 Jul 11
Welcome indeed. Do you have any specific interests you wish to follow up on? Also, are you considering attending any of the BAA’s meetings in the near future? There’ll be lots of folk around who would no doubt be pleased to assist and encourage you. The Winchester Weekend, which is now held in Sparsholt College, is a particularly good venue to learn what’s going on in amateur astronomy these days as it takes place from Friday-Sunday before Easter each year and people have lots of opportunities to chat and recharge their batteries so to speak.Richard MilesDirector, Asteroids and Remote Planets Section
Posted by Richard Miles at 19:50 on 2011 Jul 11
Thoroughly recommend Richard Baum’s book – Lee Macdonald reviewed the book in JBAA, Vol. 119, No. 2 (2008 April). It is a mine of information and a good read at the same time. Richard is one of our pre-eminent wordsmiths and this realy shows through in this particular book of his.Re. the comment about the BAA Sales List stocking individual members’ books – I don’t believe this has ever happened as it would not be right for the Association to favour one author’s work as opposed to another author’s. Also, there would be so many items and what would happen to copies which were not sold?Instead, we do have a link to Amazon.com on the BAA website (or we did last time I looked for it). Anyone navigating to Amazon from the BAA website ‘earns’ a small sum of money for the Association and this gradually mounts up.Richard
Posted by Richard Miles at 19:32 on 2011 Jul 11
Evening Eric,I saw Brian Warner’s response to your query and would support his comments, viz. that the 14" Celestron EdgeHD OTA would be a good choice. There is supposed to be a special telecompressor lens for this OTA soon. As to mount – here you would be better off with a fork mount to avoid the meridian telescope flip which causes a discontinuity in flatfielding of the CCD camera before and after the meridian flip. It is a great regret that Celestron have never made a fork mount and that their standard OTAs do not have support attachments on both sides of the tube. Presumably the bolt holes exist – maybe someone who has such an OTA will comment about putting one on a fork mount.Richard
Posted by Gary Poyner at 17:59 on 2011 Jul 11
It has indeed – and it’s now only £3.50 (reduction of £1.50). An absolute bargain!Gary
Posted by Roy Hughes at 17:44 on 2011 Jul 11
Seems to have made it (back?) to the shop… via the "Click Here to access the other items." link
Posted by D Gray at 10:08 on 2011 Jul 11
Dear Callum & All,I pretty much took the remark as tongue in cheek but thought it rather unfortunate in the fear that it might be taken by some that the book was a mere ghost tale. However please excuse my harshness.Richard Baum has told me personally that the work involved took a great toll, as we can gather from the last paragraph of the Preface page 12:-In conclusion the deepest debt of all is owed to my wife Audrey for her patience, tolerance, sacrifice, and unremitting assistance over the years I researched the book. Without her support it could not have been completed. Her death before it was finished robbed me too soon of a very special companion in whom I could confide all things. My remarks on the BAA site were more of an explanation of my infrequent visits than a complaint, as I suspected our line was the cause. Over the weekend I have been at the home of our eldest son Stuart and found that the site worked much quicker and smoother there than in my more rural location. His line we find is some three times faster than mine; but my skies are far better so I will have to await BT / The Government getting their hindquarters into gear! Regards,David.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 09:28 on 2011 Jul 11
Paul,Contact the Director Roger Pickard. He’ll have spare copies I’m sure.His contact details can be found on the VSS web pages under ‘Meet the VSS’.Gary
Posted by Gary Poyner at 20:11 on 2011 Jul 09
Yes Algol is a good target, but a naked eye one of course. Eclipse predictions appear in the BAA Handbook, or can be downloaded from the VSS web pages.A nice binocular star – and a good object to start with – is R Sct. You can get a chart for this from the BAAVSS web pages. One observation every 7 days is more than enough. It has to be one of the easiest variables to find and identify. Good luck to you Paul, and anyone else who has been reading these exchanges and decides to have a go for the first time – but remember it’s a bug that bites deep :-)Gary
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 07:47 on 2011 Jul 09
Thank you Gary,We need more people. Like you. To help and encourage people like me!I suppose another good target star to begin with, when he’s visible from August. Is Algol.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 21:57 on 2011 Jul 08
It really is the easiest method to do, and has always been regarded the best for beginners. You don’t need to work anything out at the telescope, just make the estimate. It’s just simple division, addition and subtraction to reduce the estimate to a magnitude. I can help you with that once you have secured your estimate. Just send me an e-mail and we’ll crack it!The Pogson method requires a bit more experience, as it requires you to recognise tenths of a magnitude. That’s not hard either, but harder if you’ve never done it before.Have a go, and let me know how you get on. My e-mail is…garypoyner@blueyonder.co.ukDon’t be put off by the numbers.Good luck,Gary
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 21:27 on 2011 Jul 08
Thank you Gary.I will try. But I have to tell you. Mathematics isn’t my strong point. It’s this fractional business, for estimating the magnitude of the variable, that really makes me nervous. Is there an easier method I wonder?
Posted by Gary Poyner at 20:23 on 2011 Jul 08
Wel you won’t really be cheating using a GOTO, but it is more fun finding it yourself.Good luck, and looking forward to you posting your first VS observation here!Gary
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 19:28 on 2011 Jul 08
Hi Gary,Since writing back, I have identified the field in SMP 6 and saved it. I will of cause be cheating using GOTO, and I have charts. I have you’re chart and my Sky Map chart. I have also saved the chart with a eyepiece overlay, for my 24mm TV Panoptic and 10" RFT.I was able to find TYC 1643-1764, after first finding V Sge using WIKISKY.ORG. I then simply typed in TYC 1643-1764 into Skymap Pro6 which then, took me to the correct star field.I will endeavour to make an attempt to find, and try to observe this variable, but don’t hold you’re breath. I can see that I will have a long way to go, and a big learning curve, when it comes to making visual magnitude estimates.Thank you again for you’re help, and advice.
Posted by Gary Poyner at 19:15 on 2011 Jul 08
Hi Paul,Well if you look for TYC 1643 1764 or A2 1050 17303878, this will drop you right onto V Sge. Instead of looking for V Sge in your software, look for the 82 star (the magnitude without the decimal point). This should be easy if you go to the coordinates of V Sge in Skymap. You can then compare the AAVSO chart with your Skymap chart.I’ve just drawn up a 3 degree chart using the AAVSO software, which shows a 57 star as well. You can get it here…http://www.garypoyner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/VSge_wide.gifYou should be able to ID the field easier using this.Gary
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 17:34 on 2011 Jul 08
Thank you for the links and help.The difficulty I have is finding it. I use Skymap Pro6 and this star doesn’t appear to shown. Does V Sge have another name?
Posted by Callum Potter at 11:03 on 2011 Jul 08
Dear David,I certainly had no intention to disparage the book in any way, and am sorry if you took the comment that way.Regarding policy on stocking books written by BAA members, I would suggest writing to Council about that. Callum
Posted by Gary Poyner at 10:58 on 2011 Jul 08
Hi Paul,One easy question and one difficult. Easy first…V Sge is well placed for observation at the moment, and is a perfect star to begin VS observing with. It’s a Nova Like star which also displays eclipses. It’s ALWAYS active, and you can observe two or three times a week and you will see some variation. It’s range is 8.6-13.9 but it’s rare it gets brighter than mag 9 or fainter than 13.0 – perfect for your telescope. I have a 20 year light curve on my web pages if you want to take a look.We don’t have a BAA chart for it, but you can get one from the AAVSO. Their chart plotter is easy to use, but if you haven’t done it before it can take a bit of practice to get the best chart for you. With this in mind I have created a 30 arc minute chart with the correct orientation for a Newtonian from the AAVSO chart plotter, and uploaded it to my web page. This will be easier for you and save you messing around. We want to get you observing this star asap :-)http://www.garypoyner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/VSge_chart.gifIt’s impossible to answer your second question here – too involved. We do have literature on this subject in the VSS, so if you contact the Director Roger Pickard, he will send you the details. It’s one of those things which looks very difficult when written down, but actually quite easy to do. You might want to have a look at this brief introduction I put together years ago when I was Director of the VSS (updated in 2009)…http://www.garypoyner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/intro.htmlWe have a VSS meeting in Salford in October (details to be announced in due course), and we’d love to see you there. Bring all your mates too :-)If you want more information on VS observing, you can contact me directly. Details on the BAAVSS web pages. Cheers,Gary
Posted by Marlyn Smith at 10:50 on 2011 Jul 08
Although the Sun is fairly quiet in white light at the present time, it continues to put on a spectacular H-alpha show. Here are some images from July.
Above image by Martin Mobberley showing AR1244 and dark filament above on the 2nd at 0844 UT
Filament approaching the limb and promience hearth on the limb by Dave Tyler on the 1st at 0816 UT
Prominence by Dave Tyler also on the 1st but at 0901 UTPosted by Paul A Brierley at 06:55 on 2011 Jul 08
Sorry to be a pain, but can you recommend an easy variable, to begin with. I use a 25cm f4.8 Newtonian but I also have 10×50 glasses and a WO 66mm f5.6.I would love to know. How does one go about estimating the brightness, of a variable star? Thank you for any help you can give me.
