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It’s maddening listening to my phone pinging ‘red alerts’ for the past two days and seeing NOAA’s red oval sweeping down the UK – whilst being tormented by incessant clouds and rain… 🙁
Alex.
A reminder about this event.
During tonight (Jan 4/5) the mag 10.8 near-Earth asteroid (433) Eros will appear to approach the outer reaches of M33. As twilight deepens on Jan 5/6 Eros will be ideally placed against the galaxy, moving away within a few hours.
Alex.
I was pleased to record quite a number of Quadrantids last night (Jan 3/4)
My provisional tally is 600+ QUAs from 6 video cameras. My N-facing cameras fared much better than my S-facing ones, greatly affected by the Full Moon.
The attached composite image is from my N-facing UK001H (RMS) camera which recorded 149 QUAs over 13 hours.
Alex.
I know I am possibly opening Pandora’s Box but there seems to be a blizzard of speculation about this comet reported on social media and I thought that perhaps some sensible conversation here would be a good idea. If people can provide links to reputable sources of observations and reporting that would be a start.
https://iauoutreach.org/comet-3I/ATLAS
Alex
Happy New Year“NASA will host a live event at 3 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Nov. 19, to share imagery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS collected by a number of the agency’s missions. The event will take place at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.”
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-share-comet-3i-atlas-images-from-spacecraft-telescopes/
“The event will air on NASA+, the NASA app, the agency’s website and YouTube channel, and Amazon Prime.”
Perhaps we’re no longer having a ‘nutty news’ section in the Christmas Meeting Sky Notes, but as expected, we’re seeing headlines like
“Stunning Dawn Spectacle: Comet 3I/ATLAS Blazes Across The Morning Sky”
Alex.
Hi Grant,
To clarify – Leonid ZHR this year is expected to be around 15, then for the years around 2031 they predict peak ZHRs will probably match those of the Perseids and Geminids – not storm levels of thousands per hour as we saw during brief periods in 1999…
But as usual with meteor streams, let’s see what observations reveal.
Alex.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this in the eyepiece, as well as recording it. Perhaps Avi Loeb is being very clever and ‘taking one for the team’? Science is becoming an ‘un-American activity’, so by promoting and supporting ga-ga conspiracy theories he’s saving Harvard from swingeing cuts in funding… 🙂
At the recent Comet and Meteor Sections meeting
https://britastro.org/event/comet-and-meteor-section-meeting
I referred to this paper:
and this presentation at IMC2025:
https://imc2025.imo.net/program/day3
Guido Jonker – To catch a falling star – IMC 2025_v2.pptx (170 MB download)
I’ll append an update if the session videos become available.
Alex.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory Observations of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13409
Alex.
Thanks Gary,
It looks a nicely crafted work of art, as well as a fine ‘scope for its day. The article says it’s on display until 2030 so I’m certain to revisit the National Maritime Museum before then.
Alex.
Chris,
The programme covers a number of interesting topics, such as changing the colour of lighthouse beams to reduce birds’ attraction to them, and the ‘buddy network’ for women to observe in safety at night.
Clear skies,
Alex.
John,
Dame Jocelyn gave the Alfred Curtis Memorial Lecture at the recent Winchester Weekend, also the keynote talk at last year’s Spring Meeting in Greenock.
Also:
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20241205_211916_23a48a700028bc1e
Clear skies,
Alex.
In this brief news item on cuts in funding to US climate science in Antarctica
the BAA’s Jonathan Shanklin (British Antarctic Survey) is interviewed from 2:10-2:50.
Excellently worded comments.
Alex.
Thanks for the additional background, Richard.
The article mentions sweet wrappers and wallpapers. A Doc Martin TV episode was based on the premise that a patient’s erratic behaviour was caused by their very old wallpaper!
Alex.
Fully agree, I enjoyed the meeting in Exeter, the tour of the DEI and the visits to the NLO.
Many thanks to Mike and the Historical Section, David and the members of NLO.Alex.
I might be in the Yorkshire Dales during the re-entry. Looks like I’ll be fairly safe up there and won’t need to take my tin hat.
Is the Symbiotic Recurrent Nova T CrB Late? Recent Photometric Evolution and Comparison with Past Pre-Outburst Behaviour
Hi Phil,
As Bill commented, perspex domes can be of varying quality and transparency. Glass can be better, although you need to consider ventilation and a heater to combat dew.
Meteor networks such as AllSky7 and FRIPON house their cameras under domes, although GMN don’t advise this because they’re concerned about calibrating the field distortions for analysis. This is of no concern if you’re monitoring meteors for your own interest.
Alex.
I had good conditions between 23:20-03:15 UT. My 4 cameras (2 RMS and 2 UFO) captured 76 meteors of which 44 were Lyrids.
A few Lyrids around 03:00 were mag -1, although conditions deteriorated then and twilight approached.
Looks like I’ll have variable cloud cover tonight(Apr 22/23). Let’s see what the Lyrids decide to do.
