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Yes, I heard it this afternoon in Sidmouth. Thought it was gunfire practice off Portland. Apparently heard as far away as Normandy. David
I think Norman Lockyer’s son Jim was more of a photographer than himself. The NLO were recently given his 1898 Kodak portrait camera (bellows camera with roll film) which he used to take meticulous photos all mounted and dated in his albums. We now have six or seven of these which are a magnificent record of the social life of an astronomer of the day! There is a whole album devoted to the 1927 NLO Solar Eclipse trip to Richmond, Yorkshire where they set up their campsite at the Oliver Duckett mound:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1927MNRAS..87..668L
David
Great work Tracey! You need one of these! The Sky at Night team brought along a portable electron microscope to the Norman Lockyer Observatory a few years ago and found a micrometeorite on our roof. A bit smaller than yours I guess, about 20 micron in size!
David
Maybe at the Kings Observatory in Richmond Park? I know they had some magnetic huts there and were involved in the testing of scientific instruments.
David
Probably the best person to contact would be Nic Bonne who runs the Tactile Universe https://tactileuniverse.org/ Nic is a visually impaired professional astronomer who has made a series of 3D printed tactile objects of planets, moons, galaxies etc. Last year at the NLO we ran a one day Tactile Astronomy Day for our local charity Moor Vision https://www.moorvision.org/ We were able to offer NASA braille constellation charts, lunar craters made out of plaster of paris, planets on a string to show scale of solar system and letting students feel a telescope, lens and eyepiece. It was as a rewarding experience for those helping as it was for the visually impaired.
David
Caught it through clouds here in East Devon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWW3F5nAho&feature=youtu.be
David
I caught it between 22:01h -22:23h UT last night with a C8. Cropped 39x30s sequence here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLNgdQheto&feature=youtu.be
David
I came across this Mars map that pre-dates Schiaparelli’s from Patrick Moore’s Guide to Mars 1956. Lockyer Land became Hellas, and the Kaiser Sea became Syrtis Major.
David
At around the time Lowell’s “Canals on Mars” story was evolving, H.G,Wells was studying biology at the Normal School of Science, apparently he attended a few of Lockyer’s astronomy lectures which no doubt seeded his ideas for “War of the Worlds”.
David
Way back in 1963 the late Donald Barber the last professional astronomer at NLO believed there was life in the Venusian atmosphere. By his observations of bacterial growth on his photographic plates which coincided with inferior conjunctions of Venus he deduced these organisms had been blown to us by the solar wind. He even sent the bacteria away for analysis, which were unable to be identified! Article here:
http://shadetreephysics.com/Barber%201963.htm
David
Hello Ed,
Here at the Norman Lockyer Observatory we have a wifi signal that reaches our domes and the surrounding grounds outside. Folks with telescopes set up as well as those imaging from the telescopes in the observatory can transmit their videos/ccd images to our lecture theatre projector via Radmin, Anydesk or Teamviewer, so people can watch in the warm! Sadly, not at the moment because of Covid, but we can still broadcast via Zoom.
David
David, we can offer to live stream from the Lockyer telescope (6.25″) – the one that Lockyer used to discover Helium on the Sun. We have a good broadband connection at NLO.
David
Compiled from images using 28mm – 300mm lens, 100mm f/6 refractor, 50cm f/4 newtonian from Salcombe Regis & NLO, Sidmouth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q35MKbjnWZM
David
Norman Lockyer Observatory members gather for the first time since lockdown for a news bulletin on Comet Neowise for ITV’s News at Ten.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ciG0yTR6Q4
David
This is a comparison of raw spectra taken 8 days apart showing depletion of sodium emission but increase in C2 and CN.The comet looks like it has now lost its golden colour and images are picking up more blue/green in the coma perhaps due to this increase?
David
Clear here again tonight! Also just realised that my Canon has been imaging at f/27! Wondered why I wasn’t getting the ion tail recorded, hope to do better now!
David
Comet Neowise caught in single 20s exp. with Ricoh Theta camera last night
https://theta360.com/s/jOGdKcj6M9KsLhWHUK5I5aqwq?utm_source=app_theta_twitter&utm_medium=social
David
