Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
This is excellent work, Alex. Thank you to you and the team, including Roger Pickard, Tracie Heywood, Terry Miles, John Fairweather and Bob Dryden, for working hard to get Melvyn’s and other observers’ obs into the VSS database. Brilliant news about King’s observations!
Only this week we were contacted by Prof Edward Guinan and his student for BAA VSS data on Betelgeuse from the 1890’s. Edward is at Villanova University and has published on the recent fade of Betelgeuse and these data will help his research.
As you say, there is likely other data out there, in observing books and elsewhere that could be very valuable. One potential source I have thought about is the English Mechanic. In the 19th century it was quite common for people to write letters to the newspaper with their VS observations. However, in many cases some details are missing. It would be quite an arduous task to go through all the editions, even though the scanned EM is available on disc. Another project for the future….
David Swan has an image on his Members page of the nova taken last night.
I’ve seen CCD and Vis observations from the early hours of this morning (30th) placing it between mag 13.5 and 13.9.
A good start Paul. Hope you get better conditions that will allow you to go a bit deeper on this target.
We can relax now because the BBC has the definitive news item on its website and this object.
Thanks David. I am glad you are maintaining your catholic tastes in print media. What a crazy article! I always remember Patrick citing Oph as the 13th sign of the zodiac in his debunking of astrology.
BTW, Cornflakes and marmelade was my inclusive short-hand for breakfast, which in my case is “Dorset cereals seriously nutty muesli”, with banana, blueberries, low fat Greek yoghurt, and semi-skimmed milk, but I thought that might sound a bit too bourgeoisie.
Fourth rebrightening, Gary? It’s hardly out of the stalls, yet!
I think the record holder is EZ Lyn, which showed 11 rebrightenings during its 2006 outburst.
Maybe we should have a VSS sweepstake on how many PQ And will undergo. I’ll say 6, but I hope there are more.
No, not really! Well done Richard! The competition was a great idea Denis. My thinking was that Holmes was infamous for his vitriolic letters which he sent to all and sundry over many years. He rubbed many people up the wrong way through this and I was thinking that Hubble might have been a recipient. But I was obviously barking up the wrong tree!
Great webinar Nick!
An Astronomer’s Telegram, ATel #13776, from the Kyoto group publishes a spectrum taken on June 2. This “showed Balmer absorption lines with emission cores, which are typically seen in dwarf nova outbursts. There are no signals of O III, which were reported in the 1988 outburst”, although they question the 1988 conclusion.
I have poor horizons from my obsy, Graeme. But I’m lucky enough to have a second, portable, set up with an AZEQ6 mount which enables me to decamp to more favourable observing locations for special events like this.
Nice work, Tim! Looks like you solved your problem, but just to say I use V-band comparison star data from the AAVSO VSP. Comps for PQ And are listed here. If you used a V-filter on your camera (which I assume is monochrome?), the resulting mags are quoted as CCD-V. If unfiltered they would be CCD-CV.
Thanks for tackling this star!
My goodness, Robin! You have certainly given this your best efforts. As you say, remarkable that you got anything given the circumstances!
Glad you enjoyed the VSS Circular, Daryl.
On the subject of Betelgeuse, we are hoping that Dr Mark Kidger, who wrote about Betelgeuse in this edition and the last one, will speak about the star during a BAA Wednesday webinar. Keep an eye on the webinar listings.
Back numbers of VSSC’s can be accessed here.
Good to see people overcoming the odds and securing successful observations of PQ And. I managed to see it this morning at about 02.25 BST. I decamped with my 12 cm refractor to a field a mile away and it’s far too low from my obsy as you can see from the angle of my telescope in the dawn sky.
James, it’s difficult to say as it’s so dependent on your specific set-up, plus we have a brightening sky to contend with. If we are going to extract photometry from images, the star and its comparisons should not be saturated. This will result in shorter exposures than you might normally consider to get a “pretty picture” (but a pretty picture would also be nice as this is such a rare event!). Thus it’s best is to bracket with a range of exposures. Also avoid saving as a file type that compresses the image, like jpg, as that will involve loss of data.
Quite right Nick!
Regarding lunar craters, one cater name after a woman was in honour one of the first women to be admitted to the RAS, Mary Adela Blagg. It is particularly fitting as Mary was an accomplished selenographer who made a significant contribution to standardising the nomenclature of lunar features. She was also a BAA Member.
