[Tim Haymes]

I saw one demonstrated at the Amateur Astronomy Centre, Todmorden.  Visitors were able to take pictures of the moon easily through their 16″ Meade – Thanks to Peter Drew who invited me over.

[Tim Haymes]

Thank you Grant

UT: 2019-07-26,  0007Hr 53s     RA 19h 44m 27s,  DEC -06d 53′ 54″ (J2000)
rate of motion: 1’arc/min,   magnitude 10 to 13 erratic

[Tim Haymes]

Thanks for the tip Grant.  I need to ask around to see who has a copy, and who might offer to solve it for me.

I did download a command line program IDsat, but it assumes i know the ID. And the data input was hard going. So looking for a more user friendly solution.

Cheers, Tim

[Tim Haymes]

The weather was better for me, and I recorded 16 event in 3 hrs. Thanks for the challenge Paul – it was a good night apart from some drifting con-trails.

 https://youtu.be/bD-4hmdg1DI

[Tim Haymes]

I was also concerned by updates and stability, I now run most of my astro software on HP W10  i5 recycled business laptop from CeX, with card reader, DVD, one USB3 and 2xUSB2, 250Gb SSD.  No problem. The card reader provides extra capacity for data.   I can avoid unexpected updates by keeping it in airplane mode.  It will update when reconnecting to the internet, so i keep an eye open for the “feature updates” and just allow them to install when the laptop is not in use. I also set the  “no install” period to include night hours”.

So I find W10 fine, I ignore the fancy patchwork shortcuts. I put all the apps in the tray. It looks like W7. There is also a registry hack that will put the seconds display into the clock if you so wish (I found it on the internet). In the system folder there is Internet explorer. You can use this instead of Edge if you prefer it. 

The windows 10 OS is better designed on timing issues, there are fewer, or better controlled interrupts (compared to XP and W7). This would benefit software requiring UT, and the reliable timing of fast data collection.

Ive not used linux or Wine.

[Tim Haymes]

There were two readings I took recently that prompted my question.  Thank you all, and I am pleased that i can feel confident of an improvement as the night goes on for the reasons given.  My two readings were on March 29th
2103 UT  (Sun -21)  SQM  19.8
2315 UT (Sun -33)  SQM   20.2

The best sky readings here is 20.3

Cheers

[Tim Haymes]

I didnt see the program, but a quick search of the internet indicate you are not alone thinking this:

https://www.space.com/25179-hubble-constant.html

“As of January 2018, measurements from multiple telescopes showed that the rate of expansion of the universe is different depending on where you look. The nearby universe (measured by the Hubble Space Telescope and Gaia space telescope) has a rate of expansion of 45.6 miles per second (73.5 kilometers per second) per megaparsec, while the more distant background universe (measured by the Planck telescope) is a bit slower, expanding at 41.6 miles per second (67 km per second) per megaparsec”

This could be a significant observation. 

[Tim Haymes]

On this subject I use:    https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=9&lat=6724317&lon=-84999&layers=B0FFFFTFFFT
I have compared my measured SQM-L readings at places in Berks/Bucks and Oxon and find a reasonable good correlation with the map in the range 20.2 to 20.9.  I use the LP map to spec out places to observe from. Ive not done an Orion count from the 20.8 locations, but i hope to do this.

[Tim Haymes]

This is a really nice image showing an egress at eclipse.  Thanks for sharing Steve.  I was clouded out

[Tim Haymes]

I didnt have much trouble finding the star with WAT-910HX and 30cm.  I did a goto to a nearby bright star, focused, synced and then offset to Xanthippe and there it was !  Just where skymap plotted it. This was about 45 min before hand as i didnt want to risk having a problem and no time to sort it. I did a dummy recording and was OK.  The asteroid was detected  at mag 13.5.  (star at 11.9). The asteroid moved closer and then “star gone”. The video recorded a duration of 5.70 seconds at 25fps in good conditions.  Some observed chords are now on EURASTER.NET 

Sorry some of you had some bad luck with technical issues. It was a clear night here, but seeing stability was abysmal. The ARPS section has received over 12 observations.

[Tim Haymes]

The IOTA North America web site has many useful publications and links to occultation observing techniques. There may not be much info’ on the use of USB-CCD planetary cameras in these publications.  Only with Windows 8 and 10  does the timing facility of these systems become more reliable (another story).  Anyway we are not looking for exact UT for 104 Tau to help solve the double star question.  (in my view).  We will use a light curve measured from an AVI recording.

Visual impressions would also be nice too, if no video camera is available. All observations sent to the BAA Lunar Section will be acknowledged. 

http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/NA/

[Tim Haymes]

Hello Lars,

Thanks for publicizing this occultation. The dark limb reappearance for an observer in Aalborg is 0304h 12s UT and the cusp angle in 29 S.   Someone with some experience in Lunar occultations who is able to use a planetary camera (or team up) would be equipped to record the star appearing. The observer would need a field of view of say 1/3 degree to be sure of including the limb where the star appears. I would suggest a frame rate of 25fps or 30fps. from 0303 to 0305 hrs. If this is successful  then we can do some photometry – i would need a copy of the AVI or SER file. 

There is only one previous recording of the star being occulted (by Brian Loader – NZ) and it was not double, or not time resolved. We seek further recordings. This event  is one of the last few opportunities, then the saros ends in 2019.  If you are Lunar observer (Imager?), perhaps your experience can help others observes to record the occultation.  I am too far South to attempt this.

Good luck and clear skies – Tim (Reading, UK)

[Tim Haymes]

I removed this comment because the picture was uploaded OK

[Tim Haymes]

I imaged it last night with a Canon 60Da (105mm lens) and LPR filter – very red in the single frame (see inset).  The magnitude is effected by the CCD and filter response and I made it about 8 – Sorry not very scientific, but clearly a remarkable object.

[Tim Haymes]

Wokingham Council have replaced the Sodiums (but left a few high P ones) between Reading and where I live. I am above the lights and see the down-lighting. Its very effective, and I assume many lamps in the Wokingham area (about 5 miles away) are also upgraded. I have not seen any further deterioration in light pollution due to LED lights at my location.  Im on the dark end of Bortle-5  (SQM 20.3).  I continue to use LPR filters for wide angle imaging and I dont think this will ever change.  Given what has been said here, close proximity of these lights and their shear brightness is a serious problem for astronomy.

[Tim Haymes]

Perhaps the transient was in only 1 frame?  Does the colour brightness differ in the 3 filters (out of interest)?

[Tim Haymes]

Assuming the date was April 14.95 and searching within 5′ arc:

No known minor planets, brighter than V = 20, were found in the 5.0-arcminute region around R.A. = 13 30 00, Decl. = +47 10 00 (J2000.0) on 2018 04 14.95 UT.  using  https://minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/mpcheck.cgi

Nothing  here either: http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

Did you take more than one image ?

– Tim

[Tim Haymes]

Nick,
Ahh yes,I see.  BTW:  The  author has now extend the event list to include 14th mag stars.  I observed one the other night. Not many nights pass when there isnt an opportunity to observe a prediction.  We also have predictions for Comet Nuclei
(not in this list though).

Tim

[Tim Haymes]

Hi David

Lunar occultation times are sent to the IOTA European Collector with a copy to the Lunar Section. The collected and checked observations are made available to researchers in a database that can be read with free software (Occult4). Some of it is on VizieR.  http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR

Asteroid Occultation observations ( sub-section of ARPS ) are collected in a similar way by IOTA (International Occultation Timing Association).  Observations are used to create asteroid profiles or accurate astrometry which is published yearly by researchers.  Timings are on the EURASTER.NET webpage.

The BAA Sections involved in occultation timing act as a conduit between amateur and professional.  By the same means research groups can request observations from the observing Sections.

Occultation observations are also published in the BAAJ, Lunar Section Circular, and the observing section webpages.

Best wishes,  Tim
(Occultation coordinator for Lunar Section, and the Asteroid and Remote Planets Section)

Asteroid and Remote Planets:  https://www.britastro.org/section_front/8
Lunar:    https://www.britastro.org/section_front/16
Asteroid results:  http://www.euraster.net/

[Tim Haymes]

Any home brew project is susceptible to misunderstandings in how the time stamp is applied, and you need specialised timing equipment to unravel what is going on at frame and field level.  For this reason i would not necessarily go down a DIY route. I would  buy a VTI that is fully characterised.  There are many, but the two in common use by occultation observers is the GPSBOXSPRITE2 by Blackboxcamera (london) and the IOTA VTI V3  by Videotimers (US).  Both these derive the time from GPS and produce time stamps at field level.  Ideal for our proposes.

I recently used a WAT-910 HX and recorded a Gemind lunar impact (30cm F/4).  It had already been picked up by a 1 m scope but I was able to find the exact frame to 0.02s,  and it was there (just). A good example of the importance of coordinated time.

Nick said that frame buffering can effect timeing.  It does and a full description for various cameras in general use is published by G Dangl     http://www.dangl.at/ausruest/vid_tim/vid_tim1.htm

The project described at ESOP36  (thank Alex) probably has been tested now, and verified, and similar  components should work in the same way ( i guess) – best of luck with the project, and please report any occultations you time to the Lunar Section. They are very useful 

[Author]

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