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Constantino Sigismondi has sent me the link to the international workshop on Betelgeuse.
This is a “virtual” workshop in which Most of the speakers are beamed in via telecon, so the quality is a bit variable….
Constantino Sigismondi has sent me the link to the international workshop on Betelgeuse.
This is a “virtual” workshop in which Most of the speakers are beamed in via telecon, so the quality is a bit variable….
Indeed, it’s sloppy calling aurorae “auroras”. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Latin motto being dropped from the new RAS logo.
On the other hand, it’s gratifying to see astronomy featured on Royal Mail stamps.
A workshop was organised by Prof. Costantino Sigismondi in Italy a couple of weeks ago to discuss Betelgeuse’s dimming. I’m told that a video of the event will be posted on its website, but it’s not there yet. Worth keeping an eye out for. In the meantime I have asked Constantino for more info…
According to a very recent paper by Constantino Sigismondi, his analyses of its light curve variously predict minimum sometime between Jan 22 and Feb 1. Time will tell whether reality bares this out.
Paul, I shall be seeking photometry that has the best possible SNR with a suitable time resolution (mutually exclusive!) to refine the ca 3.2 h period. To do, this I will be combining your data with other observers to get as long a baseline as possible. So please process your photometry with this in mind. If this is not suitable for the database (bearing in mind Andy’s guidance), then please send the data to me directly.
The upshot of all this is that 30 sec exposures are not really long enough, so stacking will help. But the real answer is to get your autoguider on line; I wish you luck with that. I have used 120 sec integrations with a C11, but which are not really long enough. Another observer is using 240 sec integrations.
A new BAA VSS visual chart for Betelgeuse has been prepared by John Toone and is available in the original article on the fading of this star. Unusually, this is an 80 degree chart, which includes many of the bright stars in the winter sky. You can also download the chart directly from the VSS website.
The latest observation in the BAA VSS database has the star a mag 1.6 (Gary Poyner, Jan 28, visual).
Further observations are encouraged to see whether the fade is actually bottoming out.
Good to hear you are getting CV data on U Leo, Paul. Hopefully you will be able to continue to get some runs during Feb.
Jeremy
Indeed, David. Variable stars are of course fascinating and I am hoping the Beeb will now make a New Year’s Resolution to make this a weekly event…..
I enjoy hearing about what other’s make of star patterns. There is a lovely chapter in Skylight Nights where the young Leslie Peltier gets up in the small hours to view an unfamiliar region of the night sky. He makes up his own constellations, but none coincide with the “standard” ones.
I tried to find Orion’s Arrow the other night, but even knowing what to look for, I struggled. Clearly I lack Mrs Basey’s imagination! Or perhaps it was that I was distracted by Betelgeuse’s faintness and that it might go supernova.
…I had it at CV = 16.0 last evening (Dec 23).
It’s getting harder for me to observe: if I don’t get it shortly after dusk it’s slipped below my local obstructions. I hope others will be able to follow into Jan so we can keep track on the recovery.
This paper by Arne Henden outlines how you can determine the faint limit of a CCD image (see page 75 for Arne’s paper). As Arne points out: “the devil is in the detail”.
This is for special projects. In other cases one should stick with the sequence for the reasons Gary gives.
Gary Poyner reports that HR Lyr was very faint last night (Dec 13.799, V = 16.63). He notes this is the faintest in V since 2016 Sep.
The light curve shows that HR Lyr has faded rapidly since the beginning of the month: just over 1 mag in 6 days.
How faint will it get? Let’s keep watching to find out…..
Jeremy
Thanks to everybody for arranging a superb meeting yesterday. Three brilliant talks; really good Sky Notes, Nick!
Really interesting, Robin.
Congratulations on receiving your gong at yesterday’s BAA meeting in London. Well deserved!
Hello Kevin,
I generally eyeball my data to see if there are any strange data points. Looking at the measured errors can also give a clue as to what might be happening- as can having a look at what is happening to the Check star at the same time. I’d be vary wary of any automated process for cleaning data.
But be careful about being too enthusiastic about deleting data as the results might be real!
Jeremy
I enjoyed seeing your light curve, Kevin.
You can submit the data as “Clear” filter (abbreviated to C).
For some purposes (like time series photometry of cataclysmic variables), C is perfectly acceptable (when you use a filter, you lose some of the light, so your signal to noise deteriorates). However, for many applications a filter is much preferred as it’s easier to compare data from different observers.
Many thanks everyone for your replies – also some I received offline.
I’ve ordered the Celestron NexYZ
Go well!
Jeremy
