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Robin: I had enormous trouble getting CN’s Scientific Amateur Astronomy section created. Some moderators (mentioning no names in order to protect the guilty) were very antagonistic but a few were equally enthusiastic. The enthusiasts won out in the end, after what one moderator described as a “💩-storm” in the moderator’s community. The descriptive text:
A forum where amateurs can discuss their contributions to fields such as spectroscopy, photometry, astrometry, interferometry, and radio astronomy. Astronomical objects of interest may include variable and carbon stars, pulsars, supernovae, AGNs, exoplanets, asteroids, and short-lived energetic phenomena such as GRBs. The presentation of quantitative observational measurements, techniques used for acquisition, and relevant ensuing discussion are especially welcome.
is entirely mine, apart from the later addition of “and carbon stars”.
Your work promoting spectroscopy there has paid dividends. Kudos!
Other areas, especially photometry but including astrometry and radio astronomy also have a productive community.
FWIW, I am also a member of SGL. Amongst my other efforts, I annotate the plentiful images of M31 and M33 to show the locations of globular clusters, LBVs and Cepheids; explain workflow in photometry, and post an annual image showing the proper motion of Barnard’s star. Each of these have had a positive response. A few “pretty pictures” afficionados have asked for, and received, catalogues of globular clusters in Local Group galaxies so that they can track down more examples in their images.
I also plug the BAA, especially the ARPS and its asteroidal photometry programme in both CN and SGL.
The lesson, I suggest, that other BAA members should follow Robin’s and my lead in creating mass-audience sub-fora and in encouraging their readers to contribute material of scientific value. Beware: it may prove to be hard work.
Paul
My site was at Albarracín. To the naked eye the corona looked golden, which I ascribed to the low altitude.
Through a 100mm spotting scope at 60x, the corona was a very pale yellow. An enormous prominence on the left (east) limb was a brilliant red. The line on the other limb didn’t extend as far out but was much longer; it was the same colour. As soon as the first Bailley’s beads appeared I stopped watching through the telescope.
We were incredibly lucky at that site. As the sun set it went behind a bank of clouds at about 40% phase. It reappeared a minute or so before totality and remained in clear sky until sunset. A few kilometres away in Teruel they had the opposite experience: clear for the majority of the partial phase and totality completely obscured.
I wish I had my “Unusual Telescopes” book with me. Towards the back there is a photo showing two people each making a pinhole camera and projection screen using only their hands.
Perhaps people reading this may like to give it a try.
The UoM has a donation facility to support Jodrell Bank, reachable from the link in Jeremy’s post.
There has been quite a bit of activity there, with 278 pages listing donations when I went there a few minutes ago.
I had planned to attend, especially since the IoA is just down the road from me but the previous day something rather important was scheduled for me.
A shame, as it sounds like it was a good event.
Paul
Hi Paul.
Do you have any particular interests in mind right now? If you let us know we may be able to give you more help and guidance.
I’ve been a variable star guy since the age of 14 when I started estimating the magnitude of delta Cephei with a mark-1 eyeball and managed to get a satisfactory light curve by folding on the known period before I took O Levels. (Incidentally, that shows roughly how old I am.) That made the VSS (Variable Star Section) a natural home for me.
Cheers,
Paul (another one)They note: “While T CrB clearly appears to be in the final stages before its next nova eruption, our analysis of its historical recurrence pattern suggests a significant scatter of at least 10 years around the mean ∼80-year period. Therefore, while an eruption is anticipated, the existing data do not allow for a precise prediction of its timing”.
Another NR which shows a scatter of about 10% of its mean period is M31N-2008-12a. The period is about one year with variability of about a month. The period so short that several eruptions have been observed.
The sample size is so small, IMO, that it is impossible to say whether this is typical behaviour.
Paul
Apparently no spare unbound copy of these three Handbooks was available when the set of Handbooks was originally scanned several years ago. This problem is now overcome, and scans of those three years will be made next week, and added to the website, eventually.
Good news!
A bit of fluff picked up when examining the PDFs: 2014 has 119 pages, which is a rather odd number. All others from 2013 to 2024 inclusive have 120.
Are you sure that the scope is in focus?
The vertical line is usually outside the cross when it is severely out of focus. Otherwise, I have no idea at present.
The other option is to explore Microsoft Teams.
Curiously enough a Linux client is available too.
Unfortunately, it seems that a Microsoft account is required before it is of any use.
To amplify what Jeremy says: I have over sixty thousand images of T CrB taken with a Seestar S50. The size of the data processing task is daunting and automation will be essential. Your proposed system has a bigger aperture and, presumably, a better quality and equatorial mount.
The SS50 has a OSC camera, with its inevitable loss of sensitivity for precision photometry. If you can fit a mono camera and a photometric filter — almost certainly Johnson V — you should be able to do markedly better than a stock SS50.
Paul
Seconded. Anyone can use any of my images taken to date, such as they are, under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
`Paul
The other big issue here is copyright. Basically, all outreach presentations will have images whose copyright is owned by the original observers. Your average local society will typically operate on the basis that nobody is going to complain about their images appearing in a talk – but as soon as you start distributing the slides online, you are redistributing people’s work and clearly need consent to do that. Within the BAA this is managed through our T&Cs, which say that any images submitted to sections or online can be reproduced in any BAA publications, but that does not extend to inviting local societies to edit and reuse the images and share them online.
Sorry if that all sounds very negative!
A possibility might be to see if any of the Creative Commons terms and conditions are usable and, if so, insist that an appropriate copyright notice be attached to the material in question before the BAA would host it.
Agreed, copyright can be a minefield with the mines laid in a swamp.
C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is no more, it has ceased to be. Bereft of life it rests in pieces. It is an ex-comet.
https://ccor.nrl.navy.mil/ccor_realtime/CCOR1_realtime_MinBckgnd.mp4 for a video of its demise.
I think that is Venus. Rotated image so north is at top and tried matching objects. Alas Mercury seems to be behind our planet.
Hey, you can see my house from there!
Well, La Palma anyway. Tenerife and Gran Canaria show up particularly well, likely because the former still has snow on Teide which fell from storm Therese whereas the latter, as the name suggests, is the biggest of the Canary Islands. El Roque, on La Palma, also has snow on it which is why La Palma is easily visible despite it being relatively small.
Incidentally, that storm dumped 419mm of rain on me which is about nine months typical rainfall. A significant amount came through the roof and ceiling. 8-(
According to units(1), 1HP = 745.7W and 340kW = 456HP. The discrepancy is a factor of 4.7.
I am prepared to believe that bus engines have become markedly more powerful since the last published measurement made quite a few decades ago. Car and motorbike engines certainly have.
Already mailed Paul. Albondon is relatively close to La Palma (close by UK standards anyway, though still a 2-day journey in each direction) and although shipping would not be cheap, it should not to be too expensive — especially if I rent a van and drive/ferry over there and back myself.
A vacant concrete pad at Tacande Observatory already has power and ethernet laid on. It is big enough to hold a 4m diameter dome.
Arrangements have been made. In the fullness of time a ~4m dome will be planted on that pad ready to host a 0.4m RC telescope.
Sorry to hear about this. I hope the kit finds new worthy homes.
Likewise.
Already mailed Paul. Albondon is relatively close to La Palma (close by UK standards anyway, though still a 2-day journey in each direction) and although shipping would not be cheap, it should not to be too expensive — especially if I rent a van and drive/ferry over there and back myself.
A vacant concrete pad at Tacande Observatory already has power and ethernet laid on. It is big enough to hold a 4m diameter dome.
Paul (another one).
