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Hi Gordon,
In terms of the 8″, moving it would likely be easier if it had wheels. Try an internet search on “Dobsonian wheelbarrow handles”. In particular check out the images. They look fairly straightforward to construct, just two pieces of wood each with a wheel on the end. Some examples are used on Skywatcher scopes albeit larger than yours.
David.
Hi James,
This probably answers your questions https://luntsolarsystems.com/theres-more-to-the-eye-than-specifications/
David.
I have just commenced my first year of Honorary Membership so I guess I’ve managed to slide under the wire on this one. I have to say that if Honorary Membership had been whipped away just before I achieved fifty years I would have been more than a little miffed. Without doubt I would have roundly cursed the President, Trustees and Council and called down dire imprecations upon their heads, then continued with my membership regardless.
I do feel that fifty years of membership is worthy of recognition if not reward. To my mind an acknowledgment in the Journal would be sufficient, it happens now and presumably does not cost anything. Regarding badges and tie pins, would I wear one? Probably not, very few people wear badges nowadays and being retired the only time I now wear a tie is at funerals.
As to cocoa and Horlicks, no thanks but a glass of a good single malt would be an acceptable substitute…
Of course, the real issue that needs to be addressed is that the Association is not attracting sufficient members to cover costs so what ever initiatives are looming, lets hope they are successful!
I managed to get an image of Mars in the early hours of October 7th battling a quite blustery wind.
By chance I had an image from the end of August, pre dust storm, at nearly the same central longitude. The two are placed side by side here for a before and after comparison.
Attachments:
Hi Paul,
If PIPP doesn’t work you could try GIMP. It is what I used for the animation of my new observatory posted a few weeks ago. I used the Windows version but I understand it is available on multi platform including UNIX.
David.
I guess the point is whether the overall site traffic has dropped off as well. If the updates have fallen more than the overall views then perhaps there is an impediment.
Personally I do find I’m ‘liking’ less frequently. The reason is simple, the need to login every time to do anything other than just view. On the old site I could idly scan through the gallery when ever I felt like it and ‘like’ images there and then because the old site kept me logged in. Nowadays I have to log in to do anything. This takes me away from the gallery to login and then go back to to the gallery to find the image again before ‘liking’ it. Often its just too much faff!
There may be a psychological element here, if it had always been this way perhaps I would not be saying this but as it is I feel this is definitely a backward step.
Is there any possibility of retaining logins? After all the BAA is not a bank, the security implications are not profound particularly since even when logged into the site if you want to change your SheepCRM details it is necessary to login to that separately.
Regarding BBCodes I find this site useful. I generate the relevant example, copy and paste it into the text and tweak as appropriate.
David.Paul,
If you click on “Discussion Forums” on the front page you get a tab for Private Messaging. However this thread https://britastro.org/forums/topic/private-messaging-members suggests it is not necessarily working particularly well.
Should you want to try it by messaging me, feel free to do so.
David.
I’m not a double star observer myself but I seem to recall that Zeta Her was often touted as a ‘fast’ binary (period 34.5 years). A quick internet search suggests the separation is currently 1.5″ but not changing significantly. However the PA is changing by 5deg per year so maybe that change is detectable over a period of say two years.
Your best bet is to contact the Deep Sky Section which has a double star group. Their Newsletters may also be of help here as they generally include double star info. The link is:- https://britastro.org/document_folder/baa-document-store/sections/deep-sky-section
How do I amend one of my forum posts? I see some contributors have managed it but how to do it eludes me.
Any guidance gratefully accepted.Thanks, David.
Hi Ross,
I well remember 50+ years ago standing out under a starry sky and trying to identify the constellations for the first time. Very confusing but I got there in the end and so will you. The good news is that there are now facilities available to help you that weren’t back then.
There are two steps to success. Firstly you need to know what’s ‘up’ at the time you are looking. For this you will need a smartphone app, planisphere or a current popular astronomy magazine with a star chart in it.
Secondly, you need to pick out an easy to find, bright pattern. In the northern sky the Plough will be useful. At this time of year if you look towards the SW you should see Orion just after dark. Once you’ve identified the bright pattern you can use it as a signpost to other constellations.
This is obviously just a brief overview. The BAA has produced a pair of tutorials which go into more detail and will hopefully help you. They are available here and here.
Lastly this article lists the ‘Starting Out’ tutorials in a logical manner which as a beginner you may find useful.
Best wishes, David.
Fully endorse the view that forum posts should show on the front page.
It might be useful if there was a “More..” button at the bottom of both the News and Tutorials columns.
Regarding proper names vs. pseudonyms, I seem to recall that a couple of years ago some members were keen on the anonymity pseudonyms gave as it protected them from cropping up in search engine results.
While it will take some getting used to I do like the design overall and having worked in IT have some inkling of the amount of work that must have been involved. Well done and thanks to everyone involved.
David
Interesting that you failed to receive two consecutive issues, the same thing happened to me with the August and October journals. The December one arrived OK but a bit late. As it has happened to both of us perhaps there is an underlying issue as opposed to just bad luck
Special word for the Office who were super efficient in getting out replacements despite working from home. I seem to recall they confirmed my name and address were definitely on the lists sent to the printers.
David.
Hi Robin,
Good idea! I’ve often struggled to see the link as well. I’ll leave the default route to the experts but this is something the poster can change if they wish. See screen shot below and example link.
Bold “B” helps but the colour can be changed with the “A”. For example link here.
David.
Hi Lee,
John is correct in that usually preceding/following refers to the direction on the sky. It is particularly useful to record this on a planetary observation as it unambiguously establishes its orientation. It is convenient that the majority of planets rotate in a such a direction that celestial and planetary are broadly the same although the axial tilt may put them out of alignment. The extreme case is Uranus which ‘rolls around on its side’ and can even appear face on.
With regards to Venus I always report with celestial preceding not planetary.
There is one exception to all this. If you are using WinJUPOS software, for example to create an image measurement file, then that software uses planetary preceding and the Venus ‘P’ side is on the opposite side to other planets such as Mars and Saturn.
David.
In the March 1972 issue of Sky and Telescope, A.T. & L.G. Young discuss methods of near Sun observing revolving around keeping the Sun’s light off the primary optics. They cover in some detail the use of tube extensions and occulting disks to achieve this.
They cite the following examples:
- Using the dome to block the Sun, the 82″ reflector at McDonald observatory routinely observed at 12o elongations and down to 7o at reduced aperture.
- Using a sun shield extending 14′ beyond the dome of the 24″ reflector at Table Mountain Observatory, California the authors were able to get down to 4.5o at full aperture and 3o with acceptable aperture loss. This did need an assistant to monitor the shade’s position and adjust as appropriate.
The authors make the point that a solid tube reflector has in effect a built in sun shield.
Certainly it is desirable to keep the Sun off the main mirror for all sorts of reasons. I have a couple of times felt it prudent to curtail observations due to smoke emanating from the end of the telescope tube where an off-axis image of the Sun was burning into the woodwork! Although disconcerting there was no danger to eyesight, being off axis there was no way that the Sun’s image could enter the eyepiece on a Newtonian reflector. This happens quite some distance from the Sun and is a timely reminder that this is close enough. Personally, with my setup, I would consider even 10o too close.
Unless you really know what you are doing like Chris and have suitable equipment, again like Chris, don’t do it. You only have one set of eyes!
David.
James,
FWIW, here are my thoughts/answers.
- An eclipse is a shadow related phenomenon where one body is cut off from its primary light source by a third. So in a solar eclipse the Sun is hidden by the passage of the Moon’s shadow. The same principle applies to lunar eclipses and eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites by either Jupiter or each other. Occultations refer to bodies passing in front of each other where one is not illuminated by the other. Occultations of stars by the moon or asteroids for example.
- I would suggest the background object has to be absolutely larger. Were it smaller then this would be an occultation.
- An example where the foreground object can be absolutely larger might be found in mutual occultations of Jupiter’s satellites. Consider an occultation of Io by Ganymede for example.
There is one other question to consider, when does a transit become an eclipse? After all, in November there is a transit of Mercury not a solar eclipse by Mercury!
David.
Dominic,
I don’t think it s just a few forum posts, for example I can get it intermittently on the home page as well. Refreshing the screen normally makes it go away.
Curiously, when I entered this topic the error was not there. Hitting ‘reply’ to post this entry brought it up, previewing it made it go away again!
Best Wishes,
David
Hi Roger,
I asked the same question a while ago and the general consensus seemed to be native HTML.
Attached are some notes I made for myself and it is how I have inserted tables into the various articles I have uploaded. It is not as bad as it looks at first sight. With copy and paste the tags can be quickly inserted and it avoids the need to completely re-type the table in the editor.
Regards,
David.
