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Always a pleasure to be reminded of that incident Nick. Many thanks. Another round of counselling coming up! 🙁
I now have two – 60w and 120w – thermal tubes located at the mirror end of the 51cm. They take it in turns to keep the primary cosy, and it seems to work OK. The one that caught fire 18 years ago was kept inside the (horizontal) tube of a 40cm. It worked like a dream for many years – until it didn’t.
I do get some condensation from the plastic roof of the observatory, but I don’t worry about it. Just cover the scope with a tarp! I’ve been using the same ‘hinged roof’ observatory/shed for 31 years now, and it’s never been an issue. My previous observatory was of the same design which I used for over 10 years and I didn’t worry about condensation in that either!
Gary
Indeed Denis. You can do so much more with an e-version!
Anytime you feel like contributing, you know where I am 😉
Gary
I saw that large Wimshurst machine when a friend and I visited him in 1980. It was enormous, and I think he had been warned by the local council not to switch it on! He had a smaller one too (his front room was a physics lab), which worked brilliantly.
Gary
Thanks for passing that sad news on Nick. I’d known him for many years, and always enjoyed our chats at Winchester.
Gary
Hello Gordon,
You can see the 2017 Christmas lecture here… https://britastro.org/video/8000
You can find videos of past meetings in the ‘Events’ tab (Videos of past meetings)
Gary
Seems a very low percentage of members actually voting. Around the 10% mark I would guess? Lets hope any future e-voting implemeted by the BAA will see this number increase. I suspect it will.
Gary
Happy New Year Jeremy, and all BAA members.
2017 has been a bad year observing wise for me – the worst since 2012 and the sixth worse since my records began in 1978. Graph here if anyone is interested.
Here are the numbers…
25 totally clear nights (50% or less cloud) and 61 partially clear (50% or more cloud) = 86 observing opportunites from Brum. These include evenings and mornings. A total of 183.6 hours were spent at the eyepiece during the year.
Best month March, 2 clear and 10 partially clear
Worst month February, 1 clear and 2 partially clear
Of the 86 observable nights during the year, 42 had Moonlight of varying irritations. The local Met office had incorrect forecasts for cloud cover on 59 nights of the year (16%). My weather owl perfoms better!
Lets hope for a clearer 2018.
Gary
It’s been above mag 11 for about two weeks now. The brightest outburst for some years occured in 2012 (10.5mv), which was the brightest it reached since 1988 (mag 8.5), so worth keeping an eye on to see if this is really a major outburst or one in a series of minor outbursts seen since the 2012 event.
Gary
Hi Nick,
The VSS hasn’t discussed this at all – but…
You might find this interesting…
Gary
The OED says…”An expert in or student of astronomy”, so that makes you an astronomer. I’m from the same mould as Andrew – I love looking through my telescope (not much of a view from Birmingham, but it’s all I have), but I also use remote telescopes with CCD’s to compliment my data. The reduction is pretty boring though! My point is that you have a love for astronomy as a science and a desire to make a contribution to it. Regardless of how you do either, you are an astronomer!
Whether Woolleys comments are valid today is debatable
Gary
I too was very shocked to hear that Glyn had passed away. On the occasions we met up at BAA meetings he was a good bloke to be with – friendly, funny and above all extremely knowledgable. He could make a great Comet too.
What with Glyn and Melvyn Taylor passing away last week, it’s not been a good month.
Gary
You might find the AAVSO observing campaigns of interest. Have a look here…
https://www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notices-for-observing-campaigns-and-discoveries
The one on DDE 48 is especially interesting as the UGSU-ER UMa type stars are pretty rare, and there is another UG star located just 4 arc mins away MASTER OT J204627.96+242218.0. Both are located in Vulpecula, so well placed now.
Gary
Yes, very often the plotted star charts from AAVSO VSP miss out stars at all magnitude levels. Far better to plot a chart using the Digitised Sky Survey as Jeremy notes. It’s good for visual observers too, but you can’t set a magnitude limit for the stars of course, just the sequence.
Gary
Indeed Jeremy, interesting and a must to try I think, but as Denis notes no substitute for the real thing!
There are obvious questions to be asked for VS observing of course – spectral response etc. etc.
Gary
Oh well, another prospective RCB bites the dust!
Think I’ll keep an eye on it for the rest of this season to see what it’s up to.
Gary
Nice one Nick. Thanks for posting!
Was hoping to see it for myself, but weather didn’t play ball.
Gary
Readers of these AG Dra pages might be interested in this pro-am campaign which has just been announced…
http://www.britastro.org/vss/aavso_alert_notice_572.htm
Although not specifically aimed at spectroscopy, you might find it of interest.
Gary
