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When I heard about UK Spaceports I envisioned mini versions of the Kennedy Launch Complex. I believe that the Scottish spaceports will be vertical launches, whereas the Cornwall spaceport will release a rocket from under the wing of a 747 aircraft. These first launchers are for putting CubeSats and similar small payloads into Earth orbit, joining the growing number of launch service providers.
It’s good if this provides training and careers for UK engineers and scientists, although we’ll have to rely on NASA, SpaceX, ESA, et al for mainstream heavy lifting to the ISS, the Moon and deep space.
A recent manned flight to the edge of space was investigated by the FAA as to whether it deviated from its approved flightpath. Let’s hope we don’t start dropping any debris onto our friends in France, Portugal, Norway…
Alex.
The website – aided and abetted by SheepDip? – reverted to displaying my full name (again, again,…). After several attempts to access my online profile and getting “Oops…” error messages I logged out, rebooted my computer, logged in and after two more attempts I was able to edit my profile and reset my Display Name.
Let’s hope it doesn’t start displaying a member’s date of birth, bank account details, etc.
Alex.
…and the BBC did it again this morning, showing some nice circumpolar star trails but failing to point out the single meteor in the image(s). Rather misleading for the general public.
Alex.
My C11 at f/10 and Watec 910HX camera caught the tiny ghostly disc of Uranus up to about a minute before disappearance at the dark limb, then it was swamped by the thin cloud and glare from the gibbous Moon.
Alex.
Jeremy, thanks for the reminder.
I’ve attached the worldwide list – from Occult software.
Cheers,
Alex.Hi Andy, all,
Yes, I also typed in a couple of paragraphs on another thread, then made the fatal mistake of clicking on Edit to correct some typos – and whoosh, my posting had gone – although the thread header had added my invisible contribution to the count of the voices / replies.
As others have advised, take copies as you write to the BAA Forum in case your text vanishes when using this award-winning website – or hope for a time machine to take us back to the old website…
Clear skies,
Alex.
Orion capsule returning to Earth for splashdown off the west coast of the USA. Coverage on NASA TV
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public
Alex.
Hi,
This is my third – and final – attempt to post a comment. During my two previous attempts I vieweed them, clicked on Edit to change some punctuation – and my messages vanished! Argh! (Gone to a parallet universe?)
Try again…again…
The human eye and brain combine to help us perceive scenes with wide ranges of brightness and contrast. My 8-bit video of the occultation is a low quality representation of the view recorded by my biological sensor. I pondered whether to expose for the limb (and have a faint Mars) or for Mars (and have a washed out limb. I chose the latter.
Most observers who submitted composite images (bigger well depth, etc) mentioned that in their Comments. Almost all publicity images from HST and JWST are nothing like the original – we expect that and accept it. Likewise, many submissions to astrophotography competitions have been heavily processed – a combination of good seeing, a well-collimated ‘scope and the observer’s skills with image processing software.
It’s also nice to see members’ images that are ‘straight out of the can’.
Clear skies,
Alex.
Tip – Save a copy of your message to the Forum before clicking Submit.
Hi Giovanni,
We discussed the lunar occultations of Uranus and Mars in this thread
https://britastro.org/forums/topic/occultation-of-uranus-during-lunar-eclipse
and we have a thread for the imminent occultation of Mars
https://britastro.org/forums/topic/full-moon-occults-mars-on-2022-december-8
The DB and RB are relatively long-duration events, about 35 s, so any measurements from amateur images or timings will be approximations to the high-quality NASA JPL ephemerides
https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/ephem.html
Clear skies,
Alex.
Hi Duncan,
The dynamics of solar eclipses are very well known, although that’s no reason why you shouldn’t measure the obscuration for yourself.
The Observers’ Challenge and the BAA Handbook listed the obscuration percentages for various locations, whereas the article in the October Journal gave the magnitude values (fraction of diameter obscured by the Moon). Some casual observers were put off by the small obscuration percentages, not realising that the magnitude values signified impressive partial phases. I prefer that ‘eclipse magnitudes’ are quoted in eclipse work.
Some teams observe total solar eclipses to measure the Sun’s radius, aiming to determine any evidence of long-term change in its diameter, e.g.
‘Estimating the Eclipse Solar Radius from Flash Spectrum Videos’ in
https://www.iota-es.de/JOA/joa2022_2.pdf
(17 MB download)
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi,
Locations in Asia for the Uranus occultation (txt file)
Lunar diagram showing locations’ chords.Computed by Occult.
Cheers,
Alex.
Attachments:
Hi,
World map for Uranus event attached.
A month later, on December 8, Mars will be occulted by the Full Moon. (World map attached) and see p. 39 of the 2022 BAA Handbook. Observers in the British Isles will be well placed to see it, although it’s an early hours show.Alex.
Hi Dominic,
Have a look at this message on the IOTAoccultations forum
https://groups.io/g/IOTAoccultations/message/72766
and the discussion thread.
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Peter,
If you look at the region (from about 155 deg. to 170 deg.) in my earlier limb profile, I think it also matches the images from other observers’ high-resolution stills and GIFs.
Alex.
Hi Peter,
Here’s an extended profile for York at 09:53 UT. If we look at too wide a limb segment, we’ll get bamboozled with all the peaks and troughs.
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Paul, all,
I attended yesterday’s TA AGM and the illumination in the church hall was ‘spot on’ (pun intended). Dark enough to clearly see the presenters’ impressive graphics, with enough light filtering through the curtains that there wasn’t a safety hazard.
(Thanks to William Stewart for giving me a lift from-to Birmingham New Street station. Even then it was a long day, 16 hours 50 minutes door to door).
Clear skies,
Alex.
Many thanks for recording the AGM business proceedings and the very interesting talks. Our speakers spend a lot of time assembling their presentations, yet I see that the IoP continues with its policy of floodlighting the audience and directing spotlights at the display screens, washing out the finer details. Thumbs up to Nick James when I attended last year’s AGM, who kindly reduced the intensity of the illumination. (I’m slowly developing cataracts, and extraneous light impairs my viewing).
This ‘light trespass’ isn’t unique to the IoP, London. At other venues organisers and attendees have been aghast when I’ve suggested that we close the blinds and dim the lights. However, at last Saturday’s autumn meeting of the SHA in Birmingham, they only retained the inobtrusive safety lights on the theatre steps, so we could all enjoy the fine graphics on the screen.
It’s much clearer for me to watch talks on YouTube, and the few meetings I now attend are to meet friends and contribute documents to the BAA’s archives.
Clear skies,
Alex – The Commission for Dark Lecture Theatres 🙂
Limb profiles often require some mental gymnastics. Transposing the plot L-R, so that the PA (Watts Angle) increases from L-R, gives the attached image. Does it match James’ Silhouette?
It’s tricky to identify the required PA when we need to work from the N point of lunar images presented at various orientations, such as from my alt-az mounted Mak.
Alex.
