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Yesterday’s meeting featured a superb line up of speakers. I’d like to thank them all for highly informative presentations. It was wonderful to be back at the Northamptonshire Natural History Society, thanks to Nick Hewitt (and his team that put on a delicious spread at lunch and kept us well supplied with tea and coffee throughout the day). The number of attendees exceeded our expectations and it was great to see old and new faces.
Here’s a pic (by James Dawson) of the speakers and organisersAttachments:
A post not about the next eruption, but about two previous ones in 1787 and 1217!
A JHA pre-print by Prof Brad Schaefer The recurrent nova T CrB had prior eruptions observed near December 1787 and October 1217 AD appears on ArXiv today: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.13668
He comments “T CrB has four observed eruptions in the years 1217.8, 1787.9, 1866.4, and
1946.1, plus one more expected upcoming in 2024.4±0.3. The recurrence
timescales are 7×81.4, 78.5, 79.7, and likely 78.3±0.3 years. With 9 eruptions
from 1217.8 to 1946.1, the average recurrence timescale is 80.9 years. I expect
additional eruptions within a year or two of 1706, 1625, 1544, 1462, 1381, 1299,
1137, 1055, 974, 892, 811, 730, 648, 567, 485, 404, 323, 241, 160, and 78 AD. ”Abstract:
The famous recurrent nova (RN) T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) has had observed eruptions peaking at a visual magnitude of 2.0 in the years 1866 and 1946, while a third eruption is now expected for the year 2024.4+-0.3. Each RN has very similar light curves of eruptions that come with a fairly even-spacing in time, for which T CrB has a recurrence timescale near 80 years. So it is reasonable to look backwards in time for prior eruptions, around 1786, and so on back. I have investigated two long-lost suggestions that T CrB was seen in eruption in the years 1217 and 1787. (1) In a catalog published in 1789, the Reverend Francis Wollaston reports an astrometric position for a star that is exactly on top of T CrB. From his letters, these observations were made on at least four occassions with both a large and small telescope, within a few days before 1787 December 28. Wollaston’s limiting magnitude for his astrometry is near 7.8 mag, so T CrB would have to have been in eruption. With other transients strongly rejected, the only way that Wollaston could get the coordinates was to have measured the coordinates of T CrB itself during an eruption. (2) The 1217 event has an eyewitness report written by Abbott Burchard of Upsberg as a fast-rising stellar point-source (“stella”) in Corona Borealis that “shone with great light”, lasted for “many days”, and was ascribed as being a “wonderful sign”. This event cannot be a report of a comet, because Burchard used the term for a star (“stella”) and not for a comet, and because Burchard had the omen being very positive, with such being impossible for comets that are universally the worst of omens. The reported event is just as expected for a prior eruption of T CrB, and all other possibilities are strongly rejected, so the case for the 1217 eruption of T CrB is strong.Just a reminder that there is only one week to go until the BAA VSS meeting at Northampton: Saturday September 2.
We have a full line-up of interesting talks for the day. The full programme can be viewed here: https://britastro.org/event/variable-star-section-meeting-2
All the speakers have confirmed they can attend, in spite of the rail strikes, plus we have an additional short talk.
I look forward to welcoming many of you at the meeting next Saturday.
Jeremy Shears
Director, VSSSorry to hear you’ve lost sight of the field of T CrB, Paul. For many it will become harder to follow as the autumn progresses, which is why it’s important for anyone that is able to access the field to continue to observe it. Towards the end of the year it becomes accessible in the morning.
I very much hope that an amateur detects the eruption- last time, 1946, it was two British observes that caught it, one a member of the BAA Variable Star Section.
Thanks sharing your data Ian. That’s quite a change!It will be interesting to see what it does next.
Indeed, flickering type variations are more prominent in B.I think Andy has hit the nail on the head here. We really do need more people standing for elected positions, as well as volunteers supporting the breadth of our activities, to ensure our Association thrives. I don’t see how not having ballots is going to help that. If anyone thinks they’d like to stand at the next ballot, or volunteering in any capacity for that matter, now’s the time to start exploring the possibility.
Whilst BBQs might be popular in Essex, up here in the north I have used a chimenea cover.
In the past I have used an upturned dustbin, as suggested by David, tho this was for a smaller mount. The EQ head was on a pier which passed through the dustbin lid, allowing the lid to be attached to the inverted bin thus providing more protection.
There is a charming article about the discoverer of SN2023ixf in the journal Science:
https://www.science.org/content/article/amateur-astronomer-may-worlds-top-supernova-hunter
Very interesting- thanks for highlighting this Max.
Hopefully you’ll get better weather from now on.
I don’t think a larger prism will help, Alan. As you suspect, it’s probably due to unstable seeing.
As an aside, I reckon I see as much detail using Baader solar film as using a Lunt Herschel wedge. I do find a solar continuum filter helps (in addition to the solar filter of course), tho the Sun turns green! It also helps to dim the image a bit, which also helps with a prism (could use a polarising filter to a similar effect- if your image is too bright it might make it harder to see detail)
Each of the planetary sections has templates on their websites on which you can draw the features and record other important details. The Saturn section has a series of templates depending on the angle of the rings (which you can look up in the Handbook). See: https://britastro.org/section_information_/saturn-uranus-and-neptune-section-overview/observing-programme/saturn-uranus-and-neptune-visual-report-forms
Regarding phases,in the case of Venus the observed phase generally differs slightly from the calculated one, a phenomenon called the phase effect: https://britastro.org/2016/the-phases-of-venus. So the phase should be drawn in at the eyepiece. The time of dichotomy can be determined from your observations and compared to the predicted time.
Great video – thanks Lars. 1969 was an exciting year for a small boy obsessed with science & technology, witnessing the Concorde flight first hand and the lunar lands, later that summer, on TV.
Well, one branch of your family certainly makes very good beer, Martin!
I limited myself to 2 pints (which I understand is the standard SI unit of a single serving of beer according to another former Papers Secretary) as there was a traction engine to drive….
Local transportation
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Now the beer
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I tried to add other posts with more pics but I got a “deprecated” message, so I will upload to my Members page
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20230409_183348_d332570a0ba2a64dAttachments:
Whilst units are sometimes conjoured up to make a good story or headline, I think they do have a place in some circumstances for engaging with, and relating to, the public. Perhaps not the SI Giraffe, but solar system debris measured in London buses might well have a place in popular culture.
Similarly for your space shuttle speed. 22x speed of sound is relatable to a certain generation who knew the Concorde cruised slightly above Mach 2. But I get your sound in space point.
BTW I was present at the British Concorde’s (002) maiden flight from Filton, Bristol, which happens to be 54 years ago today!
What a superb video! Thanks Denis.
It’s remarkably close to what my mind’s eye had conjured up – a tribute to Peltier’s magnificent prose and the drawings that accompany the chapters in Skylight Nights. What surprised me most was how close was the merry go round obsy to the house. I think it was further away at Brookhaven.
