[John Cook]

This huge GRB was detected by our VLF flare monitoring observers as an unusuall SID, and is reported in the October edition of our monthly Radio Sky News. a Brief account will appear in the annual summary in the journal.

[John Cook]

2021 was not a very good one here in the Midlands for solar observing, with just 174 days when a drawing was possible. December was a real disaster, with only one day free of cloud long enough to take a look – and then it was blank! I lost three days of radio recording due to equipment problems, so not too bad.

[John Cook]

Hello Nick,

I have just yesterday put my renewal for SKy & Telescope in the post as I usualy do, so I hope that it will get to the right address.

John.

[John Cook]

Tiny suspots are often just a small part of a larger ‘active region’ seen only in non-visible wavelengths. Looking at the space weather bulletin for that period, region AR12836 does appear to move from longitude 57 to 62 degrees. The bulletin is prf2392, and can be found at ftp://ftp.swpc.noaa.gov/pub/warehouse/2021/Weekly/PDF/ and shows other activity as well. I wonder whether the dark spot that we see does appear to move as the magnetic structure that caused it changes under the surface? They certainly can often be seen to rotate from day to day.

[John Cook]

Auroral curtains can certainly reflect radio waves, and are often used by radio amateurs to make contacts at VHF. There has been suggestions that meteors can produce VLF signals, but I have not received any reports of such reception. Having just had an amalgam dental filling, I will let you know if it starts working as a diode!

[John Cook]

The long distance between meteor trails / aurora and ground level means that there would be a long delay between the visual and acoustic, and so difficult to correlate. I have read that the strong electric fields associated with aurora can lead to static discharges on things like pine needles, leading to a crackiling noise. My only two experiences of the aurora were not accompanied by static noise, although I do remember hearing howling dogs at 2AM in Alaska while watching a good display nearly 30 years ago!

[John Cook]

I can confirm that my Journal has just arrived (Thursday 12:30). Thanks to all of the team.

[John Cook]

I managed a total of 182 visual observations of the sun, a little lower than my record of 198 set in 2014. Due to surrounding obstacles, I have only a couple of solar observing ‘windows’ each days, particularly in the winter. I do however have 366 days of radio data for detecting solar flares. A slow start earlier in the year, but cycle 25 has started to become more active in the autumn.

I did watch the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction getting closer, but then the clouds stopped play on the final day!

[John Cook]

Living on a modern housing estate with houses closely packed, I do my winter solar observing through an open upstairs window. It does limit the times that I can observe, but it also provides some protection from the wind. With an 80mm refractor, it can easily be moved to suit the sun’s position. Seeing will always be limited by looking over adjacent roof tops with the central heating on, but it usualy does work fine. I did get a look around Mt Wilson back in 1991, but no solar viewing then!

[John Cook]

Likewise, I am also clouded out here in the midlands, so looking forward to a clear spell perhaps in the morning.

[John Cook]

I have heard that nitrous oxide levels have also decreased dramatically over Italy recently, so perhaps less air pollution too.

[John Cook]

Thanks for those pictures, that was the first BAA meeting that I attended, shortly after joining. I very much enjoyed it.

[John Cook]

Some very good results, it will be interesting to see how they compare with visual rates. Given the weather, radio might have been the better option this year!

[John Cook]

These satellites sound like a real problem for all aspects of astronomy. At least they are clearly different to the real meteor reflections, and so can be ignored. It is good to know that the predicted meteor peak was detected and recorded.

[John Cook]

I have been in touch with Alan regarding his solar observations and also an interest in the radio work. Perhaps you could say hello from me, and appologise for my delay in responding to his updated solar activity longitude charts. They are of great interest, but I am very busy at the moment and have not had much time to compare with my own. I’m afraid that I would not be able to get to any Nottingham meetings.

Thanks.

[John Cook]

A very interesting paper, thanks for mentioning it. I will bring it to the attention of the meteor recorders within the radio astronomy group. One item of direct interest to me is correcting for the varying day length through the year in our solar flare (SID) observations. Dealing with small number statistics is rather tricky!

[John Cook]

Sorry, that should be https://radio-space.co.uk/forum/

[John Cook]

Have a look at the Radio Astronomy Group’s meteor-scatter forum, on

https://radio-spave.co.uk/forum/

There are plenty of comments on using the GRAVES source for recording meteors.

John Cook.

[John Cook]

I managed 168 solar observations in 2018, but only 138 in 2017. My best year was 2014 with 198. The radio of course runs 365 days in most years, with just an odd day missed due to computer problems. Perhaps that is cheating, as I can record solar flares even when ther is solid cloud.

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