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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.
I had people commenting on the recent nice line of three bright stars – aka Mars, Pollux, Castor.
As for folk afraid of the dark, the attached image shows my neighbours are recreating Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation lights. They have every light on in the house, intensely bright through paper-thin blinds or none at all, and floodlight their garden in multi-colours.
Apologies if I’m not monitoring mag 16 29P/SW1 for outbursts, etc.Thankfully, this ‘spectacle’ isn’t on display all night, every night. Perhaps a la Chevy, the National Grid has asked them to reduce the loading on the local electricity network?
Alex.
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Good luck, Bill.
The Lyrids can produce bursts of activity, but to be honest, they’re usually a disappointment for me.
Alex.The US administration is led by bellicose businessmen who have, at best, an ambivalent attitude towards science and academic rigour. Fields such as climate studies and climate change are ‘fake news’ so it was no surprise that the chainsaw-wielding FRS would slice through NOAA.
NASA was bound to be next and I hope funding isn’t withdrawn from the MPC which punches above its weight in solar system studies. Pro-Am collaboration feeds astrometry and occultation data into refining the orbits of comets, minor planets, TNOs, etc. enabling the ephemerides in Horizons. There’s other ephemeris services, such as IMCCE’s Miriade.
The MPC manages the naming of minor planets, let’s hope this doesn’t attract a DEI-related tirade from the White House.Distinguished BAA member Colin Ronan is credited as science consultant to the 1960s Children’s puppet sci-fi series on Talking Pictures TV on Saturday mornings.
Rather bad timing for me – I was concentrating on recording an asteroidal occultation centred on 19:52 UT and sensor board failures meant a couple of my meteor cameras are currently hors de combat.
However, I saw the concentric rings forming at high elevation to my north, transforming into a jellyfish as it progressed to the east and its tour de force was an impersonation of a bright pale blue spiral galaxy. Your images and videos portray it very well.
More space junk, yet a spectacular sight.
Alex.
Thanks Andy,
It looks good for the larger deep sky objects. I’ll keep to my 5-inch Mak and DSLR for solar disc imaging.
Enjoy your ‘scope.
Alex.
Andy,
Your image of M42 has captured plenty of subtle details across the nebula and surrounding regions
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20250316_121626_297821b7e8358325
Impressive!
I think this model has a 12-bit sensor. I’ve seen deep sky and whole disc solar images taken with another smart ‘scope which has a 10-bit sensor. In a few examples when you enlarge the palm-sized image they lose details in the sunspots, etc. I can’t say if the difference is due to the greater tonal range (12-bit vs 10-bit), aperture, focal length, image scale and/or image compression and processing.
I look forward to seeing solar disc images with your new ‘scope to compare results with other smart ‘scopes.
Alex.
I’ve been observing this ‘for one night only’ event for some time. Yesterday evening I tried the 5-inch Taylor-Mak GoTo. The red dot finder worked OK until it was mounted on the ‘scope, then it refused to work. Aligning on Venus took quite some time – my kingdom for a standard finderscope. I eventually got the planet in the 25mm eyepiece which presented nice views of its crescent.
I slewed across to Jupiter; its pointing was many degrees out (perhaps my numpty knowledge of using the hand controller). After several minutes I located Jupiter and its four Galilean moons. Impressive sight. On pressing a button to align, the ‘scope shot off again, umpteen degrees away. More minutes spent recovering the planet…then the wrong key pressed again… 🙁
By this time I had a headache and wet knees from kneeling on the lawn to find Jupiter and Mars. I gave up with modern technology, brought a coffee table outside, plonked my Edmund Astroscan on it and had no problems finding all three bright planets. I had no patience or energy left to star hop to Uranus… 🙂
Alex.
I captured it on a couple of my south-facing video meteor cameras – UK000J (RMS) and Leeds_SE (UFO). The composite still image is from Leeds_SE and its 20s video can be viewed at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l6sqzoyORg
From my location it travelled from R to L.
Alex.
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Very nice video.
I wonder how an insurance claim would go against Space-x?
or lodge a claim with DOGE (Department of Geophysical Events)
Storm’s cousin, Janice Cowan, sends the following note:
Is there anyone from the BAA who would like to say a few words that intends to attend please? I am finalising organisation by the end of this week Friday 21st Feb.
Please let her know if you’re planning to attend. Janice’s contact details are available from the BAA Office or send me a PM.
Alex.
Hi James,
Another method of lunar imaging with a DSLR is to take a series of still images and stack them. In this example from 2011 I used my venerable Canon EOS 500D to take 19 images of the Aristarchus region and stacked them in RegiStax. The large 14-bit(?) well depth of a DSLR allows you to capture the subtle tonal changes across the lunar maria.
Alex.
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Wonderful to see this photographic record before the jet age and commercialised eclipse tours. Travellers dressed in their finery during the long adventure, rather than in today’s casual wear.
I say chaps, how about playing quoits at the Winchester Weekend or the Christmas Meeting? 1900s dress code not obligatory.Richard Austin has set up a fundraising page in memory of Storm:
With a little over two weeks to go until Storm’s funeral, I wanted to let you know that I have set up a fundraising page in his memory, with the proceeds to go to the Celia Cross Greyhound Trust.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/remembering-richard-storm-dunlop
As you are probably aware, along with astronomy and meteorology, Storm’s other passion in life was his greyhounds. Storm has known the Celia Cross Greyhound Trust for many years, and they were fantastically supportive after his life changed during 2024, taking in both Roxy and Vinny at short notice.
In related news, and should you wish to do so, to advise you that any flowers brought, or sent, to the funeral itself have to be sustainable, i.e. only natural materials that are biodegradable.
