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So that’s around 2023 Nov 11, 2024 Nov 15 and 2025 Mar 15. I will check tomorrow.
It was in outburst last night.I enjoyed Tim Haymes’ write up in the current LSC mentioning his findings on EG Moore. Seeing the photo of EG Moore’s observatory reminds me how interested I was when I first read Moore’s article back in 1975 that he had used Beta Lights to illuminate key items in the observatory. They do not require a power supply. I couldn’t find a supply at the time.
Moore followed up with a Letter to the Edition in JBAA, 85(3), 283 (1975), https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/journals/v085i03j.pdf, about the safety aspects of these Tritium containing lights.
Betalights are still available: https://www.betalight.nl/
I also read “Betalights are generally considered safe due to their lack of electricity and spark risk, and the low-energy beta particles from tritium cannot penetrate the outer casing. In the unlikely event of a breakage, the tritium gas would disperse harmlessly, posing a minimal health risk. The self-luminous technology is reliable, maintenance-free, and certified to meet various safety and building codes”.
So, 50 years on, does anyone use them?
Congratulations Ian, David, John & Sebastian – a great result!
We like to encourage members who publish in a professional Journal to write a short, accessible, summary for the BAA Journal’s news column, highlighting their work and findings. The team has done this previously, iirc, and would be welcome to do so again.
Do contact me offline if you need additional guidance.
I remember visiting him at Pluckley in the 1980s to buy a copy of volume 1 of the Webb Society’s deep sky observing books. He was active in the Webb Soc. He wrote about Webb in the Journal in 1975: https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1975JBAA…85..426M
How do I look up the ZTF code for ER Uma? It will be something like ZTF******* Stewart
VSX lists synonyms, but not for ER UMa it seems. In the case of V1159 Ori it is ZTF22abhvjny
If you need ZTF photometry on ER UMa, you can access it from the the VSX entry on ER UMa, using the “External Links” drop down and selecting “ZTF”.
A number of people have requested sight of the web resources Chris Lloyd gave in his presentation on smart scopes for VS astronomy. I have uploaded Chris’ presentation to the VSS 2025 meeting page in PDF format: https://britastro.org/event/variable-star-section-meeting-2025
Starlink. There is an article on the front page of Spaceweather about it: https://spaceweather.com/
It was good to see everyone at yesterday’s meeting. The Northamptonshire Natural History Society were wonderful hosts. Many thanks to the speakers.
A couple of photos by James Dawson attached.
Map on the VSS website shows the location of St John’s CP: https://britastro.org/vss/NNHS_carpark_map.gif
An ApJ paper by Brad Schaefer on ArXiv today considers whether T CrB is a Type Ia SN precursor, as has been speculated. He presents evidence that it is not: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01587
He gives no revised date for its next eruption other than saying it’s likely in the next months.
In another paper he draws similar conclusions about the RN, U Sco: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01589
Just a reminder about this meeting on the History of Astrochemistry on October 16. The registration deadline of October 8 is looming.
An ApJ preprint on ArXiv today on “Elemental and Isotopic Yields from T Coronae Borealis: Predictions and Uncertainties” discusses various models of nucleosynthesis in novae, suggesting which isotopic observations during its next eruption will enable the correct model to be diagnosed.
An ApJL preprint on archive today “JWST detection of a carbon dioxide dominated gas coma surrounding interstellar object 3I/ATLAS”
Says the coma is CO2 dominated, with enhanced outgassing in the sunward direction, and the presence of H2O, CO, OCS, water ice and dust. The coma CO2/H2O mixing ratio is among the highest ever observed in a comet – the authors discuss why this might be the case depending on its origins.
