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From a selfish point of view I welcome the delay in launching JWST, at least until there’s a chance of any clearing in this interminable cloud cover to observe it. The JWST will get to L2 before I see any stars again…!
Alex.
Thanks Nick,
It’s certainly a balancing act! That would be useful advice for the Equipment and Techniques News, if not submitted already.
Clear skies,
Alex.
Hi Michael,
My C11 is mounted on my Losmandy G11. A local amateur has offered me his side-by-side bar similar to this model
ADM D Series Side By Side Bar With Dual Load Saddles – Rother Valley Optics Ltd
to add my 4-inch apo refractor. I haven’t taken the plunge.
The separation between the OTAs provided by this specific bar is probably too small for your ‘scopes.
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi all,
Eric Frappa has now added the observed chords to the Euraster website and fitted them to a DAMIT shape model
euraster.net – 2021 European Asteroidal Occultation Results
Clear skies,
Alex.
Thanks Tim,
I missed that, in between all the Pallas reports. The paper contains the barest mention of occultations. I suggest posting your message to IOTAoccultations and UKoccultations, to bring it to a wider audience. Also the taster video:
Meet 42 Asteroids in Our Solar System (ESOcast 243 Light) | ESO United Kingdom
Cheers,
Alex.
About 1/3rd of Leeds’ citizens are wearing facemasks on public transport and in shops. I recently had a mini-break in Liverpool, travelled by coach and I was the only passenger wearing a mask. I made my choice; other passengers made theirs. I don’t mind wearing a mask at the AGM.
I hope the IoP won’t be directing spotlights at the audience and view screens as done previously. We’ve been spoilt by meetings on Zoom and YouTube, seeing the speakers’ excellent slides in all their glory, instead of squinting through the Bortle 9+ glare of the brightly lit lecture theatre trying to glimpse the washed out screens. Heaven help a speaker who shows a deep sky image. Please switch off the spotlights and dim the theatre lighting during presentations.
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Nick,
So if Betelgeuse ever goes bang we’ll have to look out for alpha Orionid meteorites… 🙂
Alex.
Good suggestion. Along that line, have a look at:
https://britastro.org/sites/default/files/10-KONRAD_a%20portable%202016.pdf
and results from its use: (11 MB PDF)
https://www.iota-es.de/JOA/joa2017_2.pdf
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Tim,
I have one of these heater bands around the collar of the corrector plate of my C11
RVO Heater Bands With Integrated Controller – Rother Valley Optics Ltd
and a dew shield (made from a black foam exercise mat) over the heater band and ‘scope tube.
Apart from a few nights during our glorious summer, the heater band is switched on before an observing session and kept running until close of play. No more misty optics…
Cheers,
Alex.
Thanks Daryl,
The photo is now kept inside my copy of Deep-Sky Wonders (from Melvyn’s library). It would be interesting to hear if any VSS members met Scotty at the 1990 meeting.
Clear skies,
Alex.
Hi Mike,
I’ve been getting these on my video meteor cameras, just as you describe – a series of satellite flares from the same location in the sky. To be honest, I haven’t checked their identity, whether Starlink or otherwise (e.g. on Heavens Above). These flares, and the processions of satellite chains, are becoming so common I often delete the video clips, although I have saved a couple for presentation purposes.
Oh the joys of the modern Vermin of the Skies.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Bill,
Thanks to data from NEMETODE members David Anderson (Dunure), Denis Buczynski (Tarbatness) and William Stewart (Ravensmoor) we can confirm the following: Its ground track
showing it travelled approximately S to N, descending from 97 km altitude to 66 km. It had an absolute mag. of about -3.
Its radiant was at RA 13h 34m, Dec 5.1, amongst the Virginid / antihelion source. Its Vg was slow, ~18.5 km/s – confirming your assessment!
We have a Q3-quality solar system orbit which is very similar to the alpha Virginid (AVB) stream.
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Denis,
Sally was on my trip to see the 2002 total solar eclipse from Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. She was accompanied by her son. We had wide-ranging chats on various topics, from visual observing to German pronouns…
If I remember correctly, her father wanted her to have a good education, she went to the best schools and she studied the classics. A lady who was so talented and always modest.
Alex.
Here’s the Sat24 image from 15:00 UT yesterday which shows the cloud cover that masked views of the fireball from southern England
Cheers,
Alex.
Hi Richard,
Here’s its IMO Fireball Event webpage
Fireball event (imo.net)
but almost all observers don’t mention any sound. Is it the same event?NEMETODE members didn’t detect it on radio, but more checks awaited…
Cheers,
Alex.This is very sad news. I met Ron on numerous occasions and he delighted in explaining the aurora, discussing solar observing and monitoring variable stars, mentioning his well-travelled career as a civil engineer – and his distrust of computers! 🙂
He felt that an engineer should be able to solve problems by working from first principles and their professional training, rather than relying on the integrity of a computer program. This philosophy meant that he didn’t use e-mail, but it was nice to receive letters from him.
Here’s a link to his article on the ‘Jam-Jar Magnetometer’
He liked drawing and always had a sketchbook to hand. I’m proud that I have one of his watercolours of Holyrood Palace and Calton Hill, Edinburgh.
With the passing of Ron and Dr Dave Gavine we have lost, within a year, two of Scotland’s great contributors to British amateur astronomy.
Hi Bill,
Great to see your spectrum of this Ursid. We measured its Vg to be 33.6 km/s (medium speed) and the IAU MDC lists the Ursids’ parent to be comet 8P/Tuttle – why does that remind me of Benny Hill? 🙂
It’s a Jupiter-family comet with a period of 13 years. Well worth reading up about this interesting comet which can make relatively close approaches to Earth.
I’ll check if we got multi-station captures at the times you’ve listed and I’ll reply offline.
Cheers,
Alex.
