Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Owen,
There is an index in the February Journal for each year, but I am not sure about an overall index. Perhaps someone else will chip in if there is one?
Another way you can search is to use the magnifying glass at the far right of the menu bar. This searches the whole website, including the Journals.
I will add fixing the Journal search to the to do list for the website developer. I am sure it used to work but I can see it does nothing now.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Kwong,
The usual format is text with a tab delimiter. However, you do not need to concern yourself with the file type and layout. There are several software packages that can create a file in one of the BAA formats. These include MuniPack, ASTAP, AIJ or AIP4Win in combination with the BAA Photometry spreadsheet, and MetroPSF. This page has links to each of these software packages at the top of the page:
https://britastro.org/vssdb/notes_submissions.php
If you have a copy of MS Excel and are comfortable using it, then that might be a good option as I think you are already using AIJ. Otherwise ASTAP, MuniPack and MetroPSF are good options.
I can’t give detailed advice on the individual packages, though I am sure there are members of this forum who can give advice on choosing which to use and how to use it.
Best wishes,
Andy (BAA Photometry Database Manager)Hi Les,
Correct. Macros and other files that can execute code can be used as computer viruses, so anything like that will be blocked.
Just to add some background to BAA members who might be able to help. I developed the initial version of the photometry spreadsheet. It was then adapted to work with AIJ. As I don’t use AIJ there is only so much I can suggest, as it appears to be either a difference in the measurements file output by AIJ, or something causing NaN (not a number) in the file.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Paul,
Looking in MailChimp I can see you subscribed to the Newsletter on Sunday. So I think you must have received the email asking if you wanted to resubscribe and clicked the link to resubscribe yourself?
You won’t receive backdated Newsletters as that is not how the mailing list works. The Newsletter for the February Journal was sent last Friday. You will be sent the next Newsletter around the time the April Journal is ready to be posted.
Does that make sense?
If I have misunderstood, then it may be worth discussing this away from the forum and checking with the BAA Office if needed.
AndyMy Journal also arrived today. The paper wrapper for mine was fully sealed. If anyone else notices a problem then I can pass it along to the Journal editors and Office.
AndyHi Paul,
I have just instructed MailChimp to send you an email with a link to subscribe to the Newsletter.
Normally the BAA Office handle subscriptions to the Newsletter. However, I just had a look and MailChump won’t let us subscribe you as you unsubscribed in 2019. This is a protection given by MailChimp, to ensure organisations can’t abuse the system by sending bulk emails to people who do not want to receive them.
The email might end up in a junk/spam folder. Let me know how you get on.
Best wishes,
AndyMy Journal usually arrives a few days after the Newsletter announcing the Journal. The Newsletter went out on Friday so I am expecting my Journal sometime next week. Do you subscribe to the Newsletter?
Best wishes,
AndyI have removed the post from someone attempting to spam the forum and hopefully blocked them from trying this again. It has been reported to the website developer to see if something can be done to prevent this in future.
AndyBut ‘Astronomy Now’ are advertising the 2004 BAA Deep Sky section annual meeting…!!! It must have been a good one.
Astronomy Now, February 2024 page. 69.Ha! This happens to all of us.
I am not sure if the post was updated, but along those lines I updated a 2024 meeting today when someone pointed out the text within the webpage stated 2023.
Might it have been the thread on the BAA song? That mentions the February Journal from 1924 rather than 2024.
Both the Celestron Origin and Unistellar eVscope 2 are advertised at around £4,000. A lot more than the ZWO SeeStar S50 and DWARF II which are just over £500. Not too surprising given the Celestron and Unistellar have significantly larger apertures.
The Celestron Origin is another interesting entrant to the market. I wonder if they might offer a B&W version of the camera in future as it has a filter drawer. The filter is for light pollution filters.
Richard Berry is trying the Origin out for variable star photometry. There is the opportunity to use the green channel as with DSLRs, or all the light, depending on the goal of the observation.
The HOYS Citizen Science Project are accepting observations from ZWO Seestar 50mm telescopes, these use a colour CMOS chip. This is a research project run by Dirk Froebrich at the University of Kent, to monitor young stars.
Both of these approaches use the raw files saved by these smart-telescopes, rather than the processed images displayed on smartphones and tablets.
AndyI found Mark Stuart’s “Exploring the cosmic tapestry” very entertaining. Chris Lee’s talk on Electronically Assisted Astronomy wetted my appetite for giving this a go. I like the idea of a telescope that can be quickly and easily setup and controlled from indoors.
AndyYou can contact a member by clicking their name/image next to their forum post. This takes you to their profile page and then you can press “Contact” in the lower left.
This sends an email, so it enables contact without sharing email addresses publicly.
Cheers,
AndyHi Mike,
The Radio Astronomy Group holds lots of online meetings. They have their own page where they list them all.
https://britastro.org/section_information_/radio-astronomy-section-overview/razoom-programme
It could be useful for someone to add these to the main events page. Each meeting takes a bit of work to setup, so it is a non-trivial task to set them all up and maintain them. There is also a minor issue that as there are so many, setting them up would knock some other upcoming meetings off the list on the homepage. Something for the Web Ops Group to think about.
Best wishes,
AndyOh dear, that was really nasty accident. I hope you fully recover soon Mel.
My current observatory has an electrically driven roof. I used to have a manual one that was a real struggle and I had to get onto a bench to close it. I worried about having an accident in the night!He will be very greatly missed. I had known Roger for over 20 years. I first met him at a BAA Exhibition Meeting in Cambridge, which led to my involvement in the VSS. He did a huge amount for variable star astronomy and the BAA.
Hi Duncan,
As Gary has alluded to, you need the fainter symbol in front of both the light estimate and the magnitude, so [P and [8.4.
With normal magnitude estimates an “=” is assumed, so just 8.4 means equals 8.4.
This is all to do with the way the database verifies the data, and can recalculate magnitudes when a sequence is updated.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Andy,
I have just started my Christmas holiday, so I am not sure we will get this fixed until next year. I can see roughly what has happened, though it is a little involved.
I can see you have a family membership. However, you are both the main family member, and a second copy of you is set as the other family member, with the same email address. This could be confusing the systems and causing things to go wrong. It looks as though changes were made around July this year via the Sheep online account. Without giving out personal details on the forum, I wonder if the other family member may have originally been someone else, perhaps your wife.
To fix this we will either need to reset you back to 2 different people in your family membership, or delete the other copy of you. We might also need to delete your website account, and get you to set up a fresh one, but we will only do that if the first step does not fix this.
To avoid putting personal data on the forum, I suggest we contact each other away from the forum. I will send you an email to the address we hold on the system.
Best wishes,
Andy (BAA Systems Manager)
