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Hi Martin
If you click the expand image button, and then click on the image itself you get a slightly zoomed view. Try it on your April 20th image of Mercury. it doesn’t seem to work on every image
Peter
I once used a scale to try to visualise interstellar distances, at least out to the Proxima Alpha Cen system. I would represent the Solar system as a sixteenth of an inch dot and call that 10,000,000,000 miles diameter, that’s out into the Kuiper belt. Of course we know the Solar system is vaster than this, this is just a rough estimate. The nearest star on this scale would be thirteen feet away, The Voyager spacecraft have just come off the sixteenth inch dot. I haven’t worked out how many tall Giraffes would fill the interstellar void, I don’t think I’ll bother!
The planet that can come the closest to the Earth is of course Venus around inferior conjunction when its around 25 million miles away. But Mars or Mercury could be closest to the Earth depending where Venus is on its orbit for example at superior conjunction.
Thanks for the link David. What a very interesting article, there is no doubt that the tremendous increase in light from
AT2018cow was a very powerful and unusual event, far out shining its host galaxy CGCG 137-068 as witnessed by the central image of June 20 2018 in the Sky & Telescope article. It seems there are quite a few theories flying around should be interesting to see what conclusions (if any?) are drawn from further observations.
Here is another link
What an enjoyable experience watching the meeting live, I enjoyed the Titan lecture and Sky notes. There was a bit of pixilation now and then but nothing serious. The sound was loud and clear. I hope future meetings are broadcast live giving members who can’t attend the event the chance to watch.
What a fascinating article Jeremy, when you think about it with the fabulous pitch black skies of the Australian outback, its a cert that these indigenous people who have lived there for thousands of years, would have noticed the variations in brightness of bright stars such as Betelgeuse and Antares: and may be even fainter stars?
Here in Sheffield no lightning, no rain, but persistent cloud in the south-east, set my camera up pointing in the direction of the moons rising, azimuth 123deg, kept going out every 10 minutes from 21:30 BST to about 22:45 BST, to no avail, kept looking through binoculars, nothing! The Moon became visible for a short period from here at around 23:15 BST, out of eclipse of course! any body had any luck!
Observations for May 5 21:31 in the VSS database indicate the Nova as increased in brightness to 7.34m
Peter
The Gaia DR2 parallax puts this Binary at 12675L/y so at 6.2m its absolute magnitude rivalled Rigel for a while at -6.75M, 43,000 times the luminosity of the sun. What a view and a surprise! that would have been for any life bearing planets at 32.6 L/y or nearer!
Peter
Hi Denis
That’s very sad news such an historic Observatory with its 40 inch refractor. I have just finished reading the ” The Glass Universe” by Dava Sobel, all about the lady computers at Harvard in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s. The Yerkes Observatory is mentioned quite a few times in there
Peter
Hi JR
The Moon is a great place to observe after all its our nearest detailed celestial body. So much to see at all the different lunar phases, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about it. So no its not boring to observe the Moon.
Peter
Hi James
Like Graham says its mainly clouds, so I suppose the more cloud cover, the more light is reflected off the Earth. So probably the more intense the reflection from the Moons darkside.
Peter
Hi Alex
I took a series of images of Sigma1 Tau with my Canon 1100d with a 250mm FL lens between 23:43-00 and 23:45:00UT, 0.250sec exposures, at ISO 6400, I looked through all the images the stars light was constant, But then I suppose I was aiming for a lucky shot, there was a 4sec interval between my images so I would have probably missed it!
Peter Sheffield
Hi all
Yes like David said its good to see people doing different things in Astronomy. As for how long to stay outside observing, well that’s up to the individual. After all it is something to be enjoyed and when you’ve had enough you come in! It doesn’t make anyone less of an Astronomer even if they only spend an hour or two observing/imaging or what ever. I believe that anyone who really loves Astronomy is thrilled when they are out under the stars. I myself feel as one with the universe out under the firmament even here in light polluted Sheffield!
Hi Andy
That sounds promising; up here in Sheffield we have the new LED street lights, can’t tell if they are worse or better than before. They seem to reflect more light off the ground into the air. Its the blue intense so called! security lights that really bug me. I have to close my eyes when I go out to observe until I am hidden by the side of the garage!
Peter
