Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
During 1946, Lovell acquired an ex-military searchlight to use its strong altazimuth mount to direct Yagi aerials to any point in the sky. This formed the basis of the Searchlight Aerial that he used to study study the Giabcobinid meteor storm of October 1946.
Lovell needed timber to build the support for the Yagi array, but timber was on strict rationing post war. He described how he found the owner of a water powered saw mill in a neighbouring village who was only too happy to supply the timber. Forty years later, Lovell was still waiting for the bill – it never came, but by then his grandson was by then working as an electronics technician at Jodrell.
Today I have located that mill in Peover Superior, Cheshire. Long since disused, it is in an very beautiful spot on the Peover Eye stream.
Attachments:
Thanks for the feedback, Alex (literary rather than audio!). Sorry to hear about the poor sound.
Interesting that Tim was easier to hear. He raised the dais just before his talk. Unbeknownst to the rest of us, there is a button to raise and lower the dais). I suspect that brought the mics closer to him.
We need to check in future whether the dais mics themselves can be turned up.Eighty years ago today, 2 June 1946, was the first meeting between researchers at the new radar station at Jodrell Bank and Manning Prentice, Director of the BAA Meteor Section. This would soon lead to a fruitful collaboration on meteor astronomy between Bernard Lovell and Manning Prentice.
More in my talk at the BAA meeting tomorrow.
One of my cherished possessions is the 1938 classic book Variable Stars by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Sergei Gaposchkin. It was kindly given to me by Alan Dowdell. It had previously been part of the BAA Library when we had one. What makes it extra special is that it is the publisher’s review copy which my predecessor as VSS Director, WM Lindley, used to write his review for the Journal.
I was pleased to represent the British Astronomical Association at the unveiling of Blue Plaque in honour of Celia Payne-Gaposchkin. Report and pics in the next Journal.
Speakers included Prof Michele Dougherty (Astronomer Royal), Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Dr Shini Somara, a representative from Harvard University, and students from St Paul’s Girl’s School. They spoke very powerfully about the barriers Celia had to overcome during her career.
It was at a BAA meeting in London that Celia was introduced to Harlow Shapley who was in charge of Harvard College Observatory. Their ensuing discussion led to her PhD at Harvard.
The person that introduced Celia to Shapley was Leslie Comrie. He knew Celia at Cambridge and was encouraging her interest in variable stars as well as to explore opportunities in USA. Comrie was Director of the BAA Computing Section (the first one, fact)
Hello John,
I don’t see why this should not be possible. Might need to increase exposure to get suitable SNR for fainter targets.
VSS observer David Conner has routinely used a 50mm finder for photometry. Lots of details and links to his articles in the VSS Circular on his website: https://davidsconner.weebly.com/. I can see he doing pre use photometry on EBs below mag 11. Also examples of using a Seestar S30.Jeremy
….and we haven’t even got onto the subject of the correct way to pronounce Joule
…and paper on “Nucleus and Postperihelion Activity of Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Observed by Hubble Space Telescope” claims to be the first detection of the nucleus: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.21569
It doesn’t say where submitted but one of the authors is David Jewitt.
Some volatiles chemistry reported in this ApJL submission on ArXiv https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22034
Includes the first direct detection of methane in an interstellar object.
An A&A preprint on ArXiv today, “Evolution of the recent high-accretion state of the recurrent nova T CrB“, reviews multi-wavelength observations of the recent super-active state and subsequent 2023+ faint state in the context of changes in the accretion rate.
They note: “While T CrB clearly appears to be in the final stages before its next nova eruption, our analysis of its historical recurrence pattern suggests a significant scatter of at least 10 years around the mean ∼80-year period. Therefore, while an eruption is anticipated, the existing data do not allow for a precise prediction of its timing”.
The 80th anniversary of the detection of the last eruption falls in just over a fortnight.
PS: for those following the literature on this RN, another A&A submission today is on “Hydrodynamic simulations of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis: Nucleosynthesis predictions“.
I too built a Scotch mount in the 1970s, Nick. I was surprised how well it worked for time exposure photography. Mine was always “fully manual” with its hand-turned screw.
This was more successful than another project from the JBAA: to build a small planetarium (I think the inspiration was a paper by Harry Ford). I used Meccano for the equatorial support which held an electric motor to which was attached a ballcock. The ballcock contained a lightbulb and there were holes to project the constellations. It never really worked and heaven help anyone who tried to recognise the constellations.
A slightly more successful project was to build a lunar photometer, using a photocell, from a design by Chris Watkis. Chris lived not too far away from me, in Sevenoaks, and was a great help. I can’t remember if this was in JBAA, the Lunar Section Circular, or elswhere.
I don’t think it matters how far away the drill bit is held as the starlight is parallel, Bill.
The star would need to be in focus, so I assume if you use distance glasses, then you should wear then.
