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Gary / Jeremy, I’ve never made a meaningful observation of anything the VSS is interested in. What sort of settings would you recommend For a DSLR at prime focus? I think the FoV will be too wide with my 80mm refractor so May have to jump right up and use my C11 and Canon 6D. I think I can get to a site with a low northerly horizon that isn’t too light polluted; but 3am though, whose idea was that?!?!?! 🙂
Thanks for all the comments and links. It is fascinating. I’m not intending to image or observe near the Sun, I was just interested to see what sort of results the serious amateur can achieve so close to the Sun. Some of the images in the article Alex links to look far too close for comfort!
Thanks.
James
Chris, that is really impressive, thank you. Looking at those dates/times on Stellarium, it is really impressive at how close to the Sun 6 degrees is. Do you take any measures to extend a dew shield of the like to reduce the glare of the Sun into the optics?
James
Yes, with fewer aircraft and fewer cars around, the sky conditions may improve.
With regards air “quality”, I’ve been watching the UK Air Information Resource and not seen any particular downward trends yet. The data below is for the last 7 days for Canterbury, but back data for several years from numerous sites around the country exist:
https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data-plot?site_id=CANT&days=7
James
There are typos in the booklet too unfortunately:
https://shop.royalmail.com/visions-of-the-universe-prestige-stamp-book
There are a few, some:
The Cambridge Star Atlas (2011), copies available for under £10.
Uranometria 2000 volume 1 (1987), copies available for £25.
Sky Atlas 2000.0 (1985), cheapest seems to be about £40 but it is lovely.
Star Atlas of Reference Stars and Non-stellar Objects (1969), copies £50.
Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas: Desk Edition (2014), copies £65 or so.
Millennium Star Atlas 3 Volume Boxed Set (2006), £600 or so…
The first two are fine; you can probably find a way to look at them all inside online somewhere. I really do like Stellarium though which is usually my first port of call, with all the added star databases loaded in.
It really is very good. Clamps the eye piece well, and really is easy to adjust and centre an object. Really good for outreach stuff.
A noisy child’s orrery I have (currently very noisy as running at 12v and not 4.5v) and the light grabber software work well. I need an external webcam ideally and not use the built in one on the laptop.
thanks for the discussion.
james
Link to a video of the set up on my dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/inv87rgfm4ht08u/IMG_1529.MOV?dl=0
I think a webcam will have sufficient sensitivity for my model; but may struggle if I put it on a scope and point at a real star.
That is another good idea. Thanks.
On an SGL thread I started on this topic, someone suggested a bit of software which uses a webcam into a PC and does real time light curves, which is brilliant and I think is the solution I’d go for. It needs Adobe Flash and I can only get it to work in FireFox, but otherwise it is very good:
http://www.planetarium-activities.org/shows/sp/lightgrapher
The other thing the SGL thread has raised, which I had thought about and won’t factor into my model, is limb darkening of the distant star. All interesting stuff:
https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/342034-exoplanet-transit-model/
James
My DIY/electronics mate thinks he can do something with an Arduino / Pi to detect and display the data real time, like this:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Plotting-real-time-data-from-Arduino-using-Python-/
I’ll report back.
James
Dr Dan Brown of Nottingham Trent University has uploaded the talk by Alan Heath to You Tube, so everyone can enjoy it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Srx6VE8UfGY&app=desktop
James
Thanks.
This is a useful guide. We are looking at designing a course for beginners in astronomy at my local society, and this may well be a helpful “curriculum” on which to base sessions or discussions. Really helpful, thanks for highlighting.
James
Thanks David. I think I have got stuck on the concept that it is the worst possible star for equatorial mounts and just assumed, without thinking, that it would be equally useless for alt-az mounts. I still struggle a but, because for less accurate alignments than the ones you are conducting, the user would be essentially pointing the scope at the same place in the sky every time they align, as polaris moves so little – I still struggle to see how this cannot introduce some kind of error, but again I think I’m over thinking it.
James
Alan’s talk last night was a great success. A fascinating trip through the solar system and what the amateur astronomer can achieve, with a number of stories from Alan’s life. Both educational and enchanting. I’ve shared many cups of tea with Alan and heard many of his stories, but he still managed to share some new ones last night. He captivated the lecture theatre which consisted of young and old, experienced observers and interested members of the public. It was a privilege o hear him speak again. Dr Dan Brown who is the Associate Professor in Physics and Mathematics at Nottingham Trent University has recorded the lecture and this will hopefully be available online in the coming weeks once he’s had chance to slice the audio and video together.
After the talk we all went down to the university’s observatory for a tour and marvel at their 16″ Meade on a Paramount – makes me envious every time I see it.
Great.
I gave a similar, though much less detailed talk to my local society a few years ago, I would loved to have been able to listen to your talk in advance of that to help me prepare. Sandra is always very helpful though so I picked her brains for ideas and images.
Thanks for sharing. Great stuff.
James
