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Posted by Comet Section at 01:37 on 2013 Nov 06
Hi Tony, I enjoyed looking at your comet images on your blog. I am wondering why you don’t submit them to me for the BAA COMET GALLERY archive.It would seem sense to have the images stored within the archive so that they can be referred to in future JBAA Comet Section reports.Denis BuczynskiSecretary Comet Section
Posted by TonyAngel at 20:19 on 2013 Nov 05
Spoke too soon about ISON! CBET involving the TRAPPIST team shows the gas production rates of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON) are increasing rapidly, up by a factor of two in 4 days.. mostly in the last 48 hours. They state "It looks like the outgassing of water was delayed in some way and now some deeper layer of ices may have been reached (this is theory). They currently do not think the comet is disrupting though. There are also now two new jets in CN and C2 bands.
Posted by Roy Parish at 15:07 on 2013 Oct 31
Write to Wilmann-Bell, the publishers, at http://www.wilbell.com (I think that’s it–you may want to google-search the address). They have been very helpful to me in the past.Roy Parish, USA
Posted by Roy Hughes at 10:01 on 2013 Oct 28
Curiouser and curiouser. This morning it is working fine, maybe the overnight storm shook somthing loose!!! Yes, compatibility view was enabled (why, I don’t know… Microsoft?) but toggling it on and off seems to make no obvious difference to my display. I’ve removed the baa from the compatibility list anyway.Still, it’s working now and thats the main thing.Ta, for the help.Roy.PS: The compatibility setting DOES cause the problem… but the browser needs to be re-loaded for it to show up again. It also seems to upset the "Remember me" part of the Login. I found that I was in the list of online members on the forum pages (and flashing Online box) but no ‘Welcome …’ on the Home page and I could not add to this post without re-logging in. Computers are wonderful strange, are they not!
Posted by D A Dunn at 17:52 on 2013 Oct 27
I note the page is OK with Firefox on both XP and Windows 7.David
Posted by David Basey at 12:40 on 2013 Oct 27
Roy,Although I’m using IE9 and Vista and a different screen resolution I can recreate your problem by clicking the ‘Compatibility View’ icon in the top right of the browser screen. With it off the homepage is fine, with it turned on the rightmost column heads off the screen.In fact if I drop the screen resolution to match yours the result appears to mimic your problem exactly.Might be worth trying the Compatibility View icon to see if it makes any difference.David.
Posted by Roy Hughes at 10:18 on 2013 Oct 27
Guess what, the BAA homepage has expanded yet again!This time it’s about twice the width of my display.It loads at about the right size, but then the centre column instantly expands and pushes the right hand column off the screen entirely.On further checking it seems that it is the border between the centre and right hand columns that has expanded, not the centre column itself.I’m still using IE 8 at 1024*768 on Win XP etc as before.Any thoughts?
Posted by Comet Section at 08:15 on 2013 Oct 26
This comet continues its outburst activity. The coma has increased in diameter to over 4 arc minutes as measured on images taken before dawn on 20131026 by Nick James and myself. The comet is bright at around magnitude 8. To view the latest images look at these on the Comet Gallery:http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?view=category&catid=99&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=200http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?view=detail&id=1736&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=200http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?view=detail&id=1737&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=200http://britastro.org/baa/index.php?view=detail&id=1738&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=200
Posted by Nick James at 07:27 on 2013 Oct 24
Fascinating objects are comets!Here’s my image from this morning. The coma’s over 3 arcmin in diameter now and there’s lots of detail.http://www.nickdjames.com/Comets/2013/2012x1_20131024_0506_ndj.jpgAnyone seen it visually?Nick.
Posted by Graham Relf at 10:02 on 2013 Oct 22
Finder chart is at http://britastro.org/computing/charts_comet.html complete with magnitudes and B-V of neighbouring stars for estimating purposes. You may need to reresh the page in your browser with F5.
Posted by Mark Jones at 13:50 on 2013 Oct 10
Hi William,Thank you for this excellent explanation. I’ve been studying the satflare website link and I am pretty sure this is what I saw. I’m actually near Leamington Spa but it doesn’t make much difference. My estimate of the object’s position was a little crude and looking at the positions on the sky map I think in my head I had put Pegasus the right-way up when saying ‘north-east’ (i.e. above and left). Looking again at the angle of Pegasus to the horizon at that time it was certainly more like ‘north-west’ and therefore the satellite you’ve identified seems to fit the bill. Interesting to see such a thing. It was something like magnitude -2 when I first spotted it, a little less than Jupiter perhaps. As I say it was immediately obvious as being a ‘new star’ in the wrong place.Thanks again,Mark
Posted by Sheridan Williams at 17:59 on 2013 Oct 09
I have a comprehensive answer to this question and if Martin and others would like a copy, please email me at: britastro@clock-tower.com.Sheridan WilliamsDirector of the Computing Section(Responsible for the Handbook)
Posted by William Stewart at 08:45 on 2013 Oct 09
Hi Mark,Not sure where you were observing from but I have assumed it was from somewhere near Manchester.I suspect you saw a flare (reflected sunlight) from a geosynchronous satellite.In the weeks either side of the equinox the sun, earth and satellites in geosynchronous orbits all lie roughly in the same plane and under such circumstances sunlight falling on solar panels and antennae on the satellites is reflected back in the direction of the earth at times close to "local midnight" for the satellite i.e. when it is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. These reflections are most spectacular just before the satellite passes into the earth’s shadow or just after they exit it. On earth they appear as a slowly brightening (and then fading) flare as the earth’s rotation carries the observer through the projected spot of reflected sunlight. This would have been the case for a geosynchronous satellite in that part of the sky at around the time of your observation on the 08th October 2013.Being geosynchronous, it’s orbital period matches the earth’s rotation period and hence any motion across the sky would be difficult to see without optical aid. Your reported position is somewhat north of the main belt of geosynchronous satellites but there are a few that have non-zero orbital inclinations and hence oscillate north and south during each orbit.I’ve checked to see if I can identify the particular satellite but have so far drawn a blank – was it definitely to the NE (ie above and to the left) of Gamma Pegasi? I have a potential candidate (http://www.satflare.com/track.asp?q=90084#TOP) 5 degrees to the NW (ie above and to the right). For this particular satellite, it passed above the earth shadow and hence would have remained in sunlight.Geosynchronous satellites are typically about the size of a small bus (not counting the solar arrays) and are about 36000 km above the earth. They are visible to the unaided eye under the circumstances described above and hence are believed to the most distant man-made objects that can be seen without optical aid. Hope this helps.William
Posted by Grant Privett at 09:33 on 2013 Oct 06
The new BBC head, Tony Hall, previously of the Royal Opera House, has announced a 20% increase in arts programme funding at the corporation. I think we just found out how they propose to raise the money. I really like the BBC, but the predominant mindset at the place is that an appreciation of the artistic world rounds and builds the character, while understanding science, maths or technology makes you a nerd and the subject of veiled derision.
Posted by Nick Hudd at 12:46 on 2013 Oct 05
The format has become a little odd since Patrick’s death. Lucie Green is an excellent presenter but the impression is that she has been given a role "bolted-on" to the rest. It needs one central presenter, but without any changes to the current personnel. Chris Lintott and Lucie Green doing a "double-act" looks odd. One of the non-physicists may be the best choice for presenter, though I would not be unhappy with one of the professional scientists either. Lucie Green, Chris Lintott, Pete Lawrence – all would fill the central role. Brian May? John Culshaw? They know the medium and could probably do the job. It needs to remain relatively low-level. Emulating Patrick’s enthusiasm may well need an amateur astronomer (but perhaps professional media person). NOT Brian Cox – perfectly OK but too bland.Since I re-adopted astronomy as a hobby on retirement, I am astonished just how popular it is. There are few people who have no interest at all in itNick Hudd
Posted by Nick Atkinson at 20:01 on 2013 Oct 04
I had been tempted to solder the new USB into the printed circuit. Luckily I did not attempt this but persevered and found Short Wave based in Christchurch. I had already bought a new USB from Maplin Electronics and handed this over to him. He took a look and said that it was repairable but with modern boards soldering irons are likely to lift the connections. I now have a fully functioning CCD camera within 24 hours. This was not an easy task as the board was double sided but using a hot air iron he was able to extract the damaged terminal and replace it.Short Wave are a company I would happily endorse. They are also specialists in Video Cameras.
Posted by M C Butcher at 11:18 on 2013 Oct 04
For those interested a copy of the image is included in the latest Deep Sky Section Newsletter.Martin Butcher
Posted by John Kerr at 17:36 on 2013 Oct 02
The correct URL is here(i.e. no http…)
Posted by James Lancashire at 01:04 on 2013 Oct 02
The link for the petition at change.org is BBC petition
Posted by Robin Leadbeater at 16:24 on 2013 Sep 30
Hi Bill,Yes I did something similar back in 2005 but yours are better. http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/spectra_20.htmI was pleased to get anything at all and then moved on.There does not appear to be many if any doing it as part of routine monitoring.CheersRobin
