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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.Interesting stuff, Stewart. I see Eddy Muyllaert had it at 13.9 vis on Dec 28, but Ian’s latest data on Dec 29-30 showed it has faded. So another normal outburst….
The newspaper refers to 3rd birthday celebration and mentions Whitby (twice).
This must refer to Chichester’s camera shop, Whitby’s. It still operation and has been going over 40 years according to their website: https://www.whitbys-imaging.co.uk/Perhaps Mr Whitby?
Good to see some familiar names, including Helen Usher, on this paper on the Sequential Fragmentation of C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) After Its Near-Sun Passage on ArXiv today.
A paper covering one of the talks, “Alexander Dalgarno and the development of astrochemistry” by Prof. John H. Black, is available on ArXiv.
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.
