Gary Poyner

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Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 307 total)
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  • in reply to: Nova Tauri 2026 [Posted 20260808] #642391
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    And still rising – 8.77V on Aug 11.215

    Might get it in bins tomorrow morning!

    Gary

    in reply to: Nova Tauri 2026 [Posted 20260808] #642361
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Slightly brighter this morning…

    Aug 10.2056 9.41V Slooh Canary 2

    Gary

    in reply to: Nova Tauri 2026 [Posted 20260808] #642354
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    This morning the Nova was magnitude 9.84V on Aug 09.1979 UT, using Slooh Canary 2 telescope. Bright field though, with the waning crescent Moon about 7 degrees away.

    I’ve entered the observation into the VSS database using N Tau 2026. This is the first observation in the VSS DB, so please continue to use this until an official designation is announced – which I will then announce here.

    A chart and sequence is available from the AAVSO using N Tau 2026. Mike Poxon (AAVSO chart team) very quickly added a sequence yesterday afternoon, after some nagging from me. Good bloke is Mike P.

    Gary

    • This reply was modified 5 days, 11 hours ago by Gary Poyner.
    in reply to: Nova Tauri 2026 [Posted 20260808] #642351
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    This will be the first classical Nova discovered in Taurus since XX Tau – Nova Tau 1927 (I think).

    Gary

    in reply to: Nova Aql 2026 #641885
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Nova Aql 2026 now has an official standard VS designation – V2104 Aql.

    Gary

    in reply to: Nova Aql 2026 #641879
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    I have a V measure from Slooh Australia of 11.300V on Jly 3.458 UT, and an unfiltered measure from Slooh Tenerife on Jly 3.913 UT of 10.927CV. Still haven’t measured it visually though, which is frustrating (although I have seen it but without a sequence to measure it by)

    Gary

    • This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Gary Poyner.
    • This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by Gary Poyner.
    in reply to: Owen Brazell #636641
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Shocking news.

    I first met Owen at the BAA Winchester weekend. Sometime in the early 80’s we had a vigourous disagreement about a Supernova we were both observing from a partially dark location at King Alfreds college. After that we got on pretty well, and I (mostly) enjoyed his acidic wit! I didn’t see him that often, but when I did I enjoyed our chats.

    RIP Owen.

    Gary

    in reply to: Dr Allan Chapman RIP #633792
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    I too was at that BAA meeting Denis, and remember that wonderful talk without slides. To be honest, he didn’t need slides, as he painted a perfect picture of his subject verbally. A truly wonderful gift. He was quite unique!

    Gary

    in reply to: 2025 – how was it for you? #632907
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Happy New Year!

    A better year than 2024 in Birmingham…

    I had 129 observable nights, but only 16 where it was clear dusk to dawn.

    Best month April with 17 nights, and worst (unusually) October, where I had 6 nights. Weather forecasts for my area were incorrect on cloud cover details for 50 nights throughout the year.

    I made 9,196 visual Variable Star observations and 2,937 single shot CCD Variable Star measures throughout the year using a variety of remote telescopes around the world.

    Gary

    • This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by Gary Poyner.
    • This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by Gary Poyner.
    in reply to: EF Peg – tricky photometry #631181
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Hi Ian, Tony,

    There hasn’t been a whole lot of t/s on EF Peg over the years – probably because of the difficulties with the close comparison star.

    Taichi Kato measured the superhump period during the 1991 superoutburst as 0.08705d (Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, Volume 54, Issue 1, 25 February 2002). The Porb is 0.0837d, so yes, the superhump period is longer than the orbital – as expected.

    Ian Miller obtained a good run during the 2009 superoutburst (the first observed since 2001). I’m trying to find Ian Millers Psh in my files, but I don’t seem to have it for some reason. If you have Peranso, then you could get Ian’s data from the VSS database and look at it to see if the Psh has changed.

    Every time my PC updated the Bios I required a new code from Tonny, so I gave up with Peranso.

    Gary

    in reply to: EF Peg – tricky photometry #631163
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Hi Ian,

    Yep, it’s very tricky to measure. It’s easier visually. Unscrew your camera…;-)

    Gary

    in reply to: DX And #631060
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Hi Ian,

    I’ve been looking at your t/s this afternoon, and it does indeed look interesting. Good stuff!

    UGSS stars tend to get overlooked for long photometric runs (with all the t/s effort saved for UGSU stars), and this has certainly been the case with DX And over the years. Keep up the monitoring if you can.

    Gary

    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Many thanks Jeremy. It is a fabulous book, and that article is very intersting.

    Loved the YouTube videos. Not seen them before.

    Gary

    in reply to: Conservation of a 17th century telescope #630843
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Fascinating. Thanks for posting the link Alex!

    Gary

    in reply to: HT Cas – Behaviour? #630794
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    That’s exactly what it is Ian – orbital hump just prior to eclipse. I’ve seen these before visually, and it can take you by surprise!

    Gary

    in reply to: Oval sun halo #629923
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    James,

    Is this a Circumscribed Halo? If the Sun was 50 degrees or less above the horizon, that would explain it.

    Nice photo.

    Gary

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by Gary Poyner.
    in reply to: Preparing for the next eruption of T CrB #629226
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Interesting graphics from NASA in this article. The accretion disc appears to be around the wrong star, with the erupting T CrB occuring in the outer regions of the disc. Wow!

    The Mark Garlick cartoon at the top looks good though – as one might expect from him.

    Gray

    in reply to: Preparing for the next eruption of T CrB #628110
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Not wishing to get people’s hopes up, but this interesting ATel #17041 was released just a few moments ago.

    Gary

    in reply to: Solar Section Newsletters download links missing #627788
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    But Robins point on logging in each time is well made. It’s maddening! Why can’t we stay logged in if we want to?

    Gary

    in reply to: 2025 BAA-Handbook #627106
    Gary Poyner
    Participant

    Hi Paul,

    If you’re now a digital subscriber to the BAAJ, you will no longer receive a hardcopy Handbook. These are downloaded from here…

    https://britastro.org/document_folder/baa-document-store/the-baa-archives/baa-handbooks

    Gary

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 307 total)