[Mike Harlow]

This all-sky view does show R Lyr as significantly brighter than the blue stars beta and gamma Lyr which are listed as a magnitude brighter. I guess a meteor camera is even more red sensitive.
Do you have an image you could share?
Mike.

Attachments:

1. 

   cal_20240314-scaled.jpg
   

[Mike Harlow]

Just a small correction. In the all sky image on page 6 the cross marks the centre of the field NOT T CrB. Corona Borealis is at the top of the image, easy enough to find starting from Arcturus…
Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

But ‘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.

[Mike Harlow]

Hi John,
I’ve had this problem before as well. Upload an image, type in all the details, save and then…nothing, blank! I soon realised that, in my case anyway, it was that the image file exceeded the 2Mb limit. Reducing the file size below 2Mb solved the problem.
Hope that helps?
Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

So I can watch a video from 1972 but not 2023?!

[Mike Harlow]

Are there videos of the talks so we can all enjoy them???

[Mike Harlow]

Nice piece on Spaceweather.com about this: https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=15&month=04&year=2023
So +/- 16 days from perihelion is the best time to image it.
Mike.

• This reply was modified 12 months ago by Mike Harlow.

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks Martin,
I thought it was a bit weird when the all-sky camera in New Mexico suddenly said it was in Utah Desert! But still looks like there is some commissioning work to do before we can start using them again.
Looking forward to seeing more of your comet images!
Mike.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by Mike Harlow.

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks David,
I’ve now had a detailed reply from Mladen explaining the situation, so all is good. Looks like they will be back in action next week as you mention above.
Thanks,
Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

I’ve summarised my observations for 2022 on my members page which might help to put your observations above in context:

https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20221219_161104_da146741d971c02c

Mike

[Mike Harlow]

Just had a quick look at the object through the objective prism and as Robin has shown above there are strong H alpha and beta emission lines.

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks for the info Robin, very interesting.

Looks like going back to silver is the best option for the UV!!!

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

Hi Bill,

I had a Hi-Lux coating put on my 12 inch mirror by Orion Optics a few years ago and it is still in good condition.  I haven’t examined it recent for pinholes but it still looks uniformly bright despite several years outside in the observatory. So I’m happy with it.

One thing that may be an issue is the reflectivity in the UV and IR, outside the ‘visible’ range.  When doing spectroscopy I get the impression I’m not seeing as far into the UV or IR ends as I did when using just a plane old aluminium coating.  I haven’t quantified this and it’s not really a significant problem but maybe something to investigate?  I did contact Orion Optics to ask what the reflectivity was beyond their specified range of 400-700nm but the customer service person didn’t seem to understand the question(!).  

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

Yes, much fainter than I was hoping for but still bright enough for a low resolution spectrum:

Very broad hydrogen lines dominated by H alpha emission.

Mike.

[26cm, 3 degree objective prism on 30cm F/6.8 astrograph.  6 x 15 seconds at ~23:30BST 13th June 2021]

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks Nick, very nice video! Picks up the fact that some satellites were on slightly different paths (slightly north or south) as Stan noted earlier.

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks Stan et. al. good to see you got some images of the event.  I should have realised that meteor cameras would be picking these things up all the time.

I’m reliably informed that the pass included Starlink 2261 which passed through Delphinus at 01:07 from my site in Suffolk.

Thanks again for everyone’s feedback; they are interesting events to witness if somewhat disturbing for deep sky imagers.

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

Thanks Hugh, that’s a really interesting summary of recent changes…I’m glad I was seeing something real!  It will be fascinating to see what it does next…

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

I’m still taking spectra of the nova whenever possible and the latest one from last night seems to suggest that the helium lines are coming back.  Can anyone confirm this?  I’m no expert on novae but I can’t remember seeing one like this before.  Can anyone explain what it’s doing and has this sort of behaviour been seen before? And it appears to be creeping up in magnitude again!

Thanks,

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

Ideal conditions last night to try for a higher res. spectrum; no wind and low humidity.  The result is on my members page and shows some nice detail at the blue end of the spectrum.

Mike.

[Mike Harlow]

An image from 23:30UT last night (10th)…nova at centre of 25 x 25 arc minute frame, north up. It may seem like overkill to image a mag 5.3 nova with a 30cm telescope (!) but I’ll be able to follow it as it fades back to mag 18,19 or less with the same set-up.  Should make a nice sequence…maybe even an animation…!?

I did look but couldn’t see it naked-eye. But it was very nice through binoculars and the 4 inch F/5 finderscope on the main telescope. 

Mike.

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