Nick James

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 20 posts - 521 through 540 (of 971 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582550
    Nick James
    Participant

    That doesn’t look very stable Mr. Poyner. The cat looks to be a Brummie relative of bagpuss.

    in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582540
    Nick James
    Participant

    Blimey, it really was a long time ago. I had some hair then.

    Nick.

    in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582536
    Nick James
    Participant

    I had to wait until it was almost daylight for it to clear my house roof but here it is. I’ll need to dig out my nova patrol films from 1989 to see the last time I got it this bright.

    in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582530
    Nick James
    Participant

    THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 138 1988 Mar 26 14.32UT.
    Telecom Gold 72:MAG60138
    Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16, Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke,
    Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Telephone:(0256)471074.Int:+44256471074
    Telex:265871(MONREF G) Quote”72:MAG60138 ATT G.HURST”in FIRST line.
    ——————————————————————-
    TAV0226+39 = VAR OBJ IN AND
    M.Mobberley and G.Hurst report confirmation of the new object
    announced on E137. Available magnitude estimates (some re-reduced):
    1988 Feb 12.802UT,(11.5pv M.Mobberley 85mmFL f2 Tri-X
    Mar 15.835UT,( 9.0pv N.James 55mmFL
    1988 Mar 21.900UT, 10.0pv D.McAdam 305mmFL f4 K2415
    21.913UT, 10.0pv D.McAdam 305mmFL f4 K2415
    25.844UT, 10.8pv M.Mobberley 0.36-m f5 refl. Tri-X
    25.844UT, 10.6v G.Hurst 0.44-m refl.
    N.James, Chelmsford, reports the object is not present on patrol
    photos with the following limiting magnitudes:
    1986 Dec 6, 10; 1987 Feb 20, 10; Oct 17, 11; Nov 14, 11;
    1988 Jan 20, 11; Feb 12, 11.
    G.Hurst reports a revised position from analysis of the discovery
    photos:
    RA 02h26.3m DEC +39 50′(1950)
    There is no candidate on Atlas Stellarum to an approx limiting
    magnitude of 13.8B. (1969 Aug 9).
    Preliminary sequence:
    Comp RA(1950) DEC(1950) mv Source
    A 02 27.6 +39 57 6.8 CSI
    B 02 26.3 +39 47 8.7 M34 Transfer
    C 02 25.7 +39 39 9.3 do.
    D 02 25.9 +39 39 10.2 do.
    E 02 25.6 +39 43 10.6 do.
    F 02 26.2 +39 47 10.8 do.
    G 02 26.3 +39 49 11.2 do.
    The discovery has been communicated to the Central Bureau by telex
    and as yet, no independent results have been announced.
    Guy M Hurst

    in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582529
    Nick James
    Participant

    I’m sure Guy won’t mind me posting this here. This is from my archive as downloaded using a 1200 baud modem…

    THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 137 1988 Mar 24 19.04UT.

    Telecom Gold 72:MAG60138
    Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16, Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke,
    Hants, RG22 4PP, England. Telephone:(0256)471074.Int:+44256471074
    Telex:265871(MONREF G) Quote”72:MAG60138 ATT G.HURST”in FIRST line.
    ——————————————————————-
    VARIABLE OBJECT IN AND= Q1988/18
    D.McAdam, Telford, reports his discovery of a variable object in
    And. The stellar object, of mag approx 10.5pv is present on two
    photos taken on 1988 Mar 21 at 21.36UT and 21.55UT for the UK
    Nova/Supernova Patrol. The position is:
    RA 02h26.5m DEC +39 50′(1950)
    The object was not present on photos of Jan 22 and to date no
    variable or asteroid candidate has been found.
    Observers with a clear sky tonight are urgently requested to check
    the field and report their findings by e-mail using ‘EXPRESS’.
    Guy M Hurst

    in reply to: PQ And in very rare outburst #582527
    Nick James
    Participant

    I remember Dave from the old TA days. A great guy. I chased up a few of his suspects back in the late 80s. I remember discussing the TA/VSS computer archive with him when computers weren’t quite what they are today.

    I’ll have a go at getting some images from here tomorrow morning but it will have to wait until the sky is quite bright.

    in reply to: Meteor LiveStream #582526
    Nick James
    Participant

    Very useful stream. It’s running fine for me.

    in reply to: Refocussing meteor cameras #582506
    Nick James
    Participant

    Ditto for me. I haven’t refocused mine for years (3.8mm, f/0.8). My main problem is spiders. Now that planes are mostly gone they are a major source of false triggers on my cams. I have a brush on a long pole for dealing with them but they don’t stay away for long. 

    in reply to: Crew Dragon launch #582504
    Nick James
    Participant

    Another thing I mentioned in Sky Notes that immediately got cancelled. 

    in reply to: baa electronic circulars #582489
    Nick James
    Participant

    Did you mean the Circulars (at the link provided by Martin) or the e-bulletins? The e-bulletins were archived somewhere but I can’t find them on this site.

    in reply to: Webinar Applause #582487
    Nick James
    Participant

    I agree. It was an inspired idea from Andy and Dominic to get these going. They have been really popular and I hope that we can continue them in some form even when things get back to normalish.

    in reply to: -5.4 exploding fireball #582486
    Nick James
    Participant

    It was going left to right in my south facing camera so the ground track is east to west.

    in reply to: C/2020 F8 (SWAN) #582479
    Nick James
    Participant

    I’m just resurrecting this thread since it started with a post from me on May 2nd tentatively predicting a nice comet for around about now but with, hopefully, sufficient caveats that members wouldn’t be disappointed if it fizzled. The first post in the thread included a chart for May 20 and this morning I managed to get an image here which matches the field if not the splendour. C/2020 F8 is probably somewhere between mag 6 and 7 at the moment and it is certainly not an easy object but it is there and if you are up early it is worth searching out. It goes under the pole at midnight on May 26 and from then on it will be better in the evening but it is now fading. Images received will appear in the Comet Section archive here.

    in reply to: -5.4 exploding fireball #582478
    Nick James
    Participant

    Eric has provided me with his data. The geometry is not very favourable since our stations are too close together but here is the ground track. It was out over the English Channel off the north coast of France.

    in reply to: -5.4 exploding fireball #582475
    Nick James
    Participant

    Just let me have the M_ CSV file from UFO Analyzer. All my meteor data is here and an example file which includes this event is here.

    in reply to: -5.4 exploding fireball #582471
    Nick James
    Participant

    I caught it from Chelmsford and would be happy to run the other stations’ data through UFO orbit to get a groundtrack when their data is available.

    in reply to: C/2020 F8 (SWAN) #582467
    Nick James
    Participant

    David, Thanks. At the moment this is definitely not a comet for the general public to get excited about. I got it again this morning. It was much higher (5 deg vs 2.5 deg) but there was more cloud and haze so the two cancelled out. Picture attached. Bear in mind that this was with a 200mm FL lens so quite a small field of view. The comet is still quite hard to spot.

     

    in reply to: C/2020 F8 (SWAN) #582464
    Nick James
    Participant

    My great surprise too! They have lifted some quotes that I gave to a journalist who writes for Forbes magazine. The original article is here.

    in reply to: C/2020 F8 (SWAN) #582459
    Nick James
    Participant

    Here you go David. An image from Chelmsford this morning is here. It is not really world-shattering stuff but at least it is visible from here now. Not quite the as good as Rhemann’s image from Namibia.

    in reply to: Did you know ! #582427
    Nick James
    Participant

    The craters are named by an IAU committee. You could always try to get elected to it if you want to make your suggestions! Some of its decisions are controversial but most definitely not in this case.

    You can call the craters anything you want in the same way that the International Star Registry (if they still exist) will name a star after your dead hamster for a small fee. Unless you are NASA nobody will take any notice. 

Viewing 20 posts - 521 through 540 (of 971 total)