Bill Ward

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Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 289 total)
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  • in reply to: Greenock meeting – Astronify #622915
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    I’ve never tried it but there is even a “sonification” option in VisualSpec…. might give it a go on one of my meteor spectra…
    I imagine the solar sounds would have included some vlf recordings. To me these are the ultimate in “sound” observations.
    In a similar vein to being in the midst of a solar storm, this recording I made about 10 years ago gives the impression of listening to an enormous number of birds chirping and screeching.

    https://youtu.be/L9WHaUxfKAM?feature=shared

    It’s remarkable what’s there in the audio spectrum.

    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Wow! What an auroral display! #622881
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Here are a couple of videos from a security type camera (tilted upwards) 5 second interval between grabs. The dimmer colour is actually a lot more realistic than in the still pics plus it shows the motions…

    https://youtu.be/beqT7Oabz_0?feature=shared

    https://youtu.be/ncklGfjXi5U?feature=shared

    Bill.

    in reply to: Excellent Spring Meeting #622880
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Glad it went well, I had hoped to make it up but spent the day in bed recovering from the night before LOL, after a quick look through the images and videos as well as monitoring the radio I didn’t get to bed until about 9am!
    The aurora was going all sky full tilt as the dawn encroached. Then there was the radio activity.
    The aurora was reflecting signals from 28MHz all the way through to 432MHz, quite astonishing!

    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Wow! What an auroral display! #622879
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    …a little after thought…

    What was really cool was the fact there was a corona aurora boeralis IN corona boreralis! LOL : – )))

    in reply to: Wow! What an auroral display! #622873
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    I was astonished to see the first activity as a lovely arc, grey green in colour to my SOUTH. spanned from SE through S to SW and was below Arcturus (“see aurora in south” image). After around 20mins the first sub-storm arrived and the coronal display pointing at Arcturus was remarkable.

    It just went manic for around another 20min before breaking up. Another sub-storm began to form at ~0100BST and the process repeated. There was just the faintest hints of both red and purple in places. Although these came out dramatically in the images. The motion was easily seen as it moved over head.
    It was still going as the sky brightened. A complete whole sky display from twilight to twilight…. the stuff of legend.

    I have never seen such purple colouration so extensively before. A combination of incoming particle energy and enhancement from sunlight via fluorescence scattering from N in the upper part of the aurora. I wonder what it would have looked like in a “darker” part of the year…?

    Certainly the best I’ve seen, since the big two night aurora in OCT 2003 and Nov 1979.

    Lets hope there’s more to come!

    cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Lyrid meteor shower peak 2024 #622769
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Thanks for the info. I bought an assortment of bits before GMN even went live (this was after and IMC a few years back) and thought I’d put something together but the road to hell….
    So focused on developing the spectroscopy it was soon forgotten about, I recently found a couple of tiny board lenses in a box which prompted my question after seeing your pic. Might get around to it one day! ; – ))
    cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Lyrid meteor shower peak 2024 #622745
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Callum,
    Is your image from a GMN system? What is the camera/lens configuration are you using?
    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Lyrid meteor shower peak 2024 #622682
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    After checking this evening I only got another 2 Lyrids from last night but there was a decent fireball on the HD systems from the previous night.
    I got the zero order on another camera… just.
    I can’t guarantee it’s a Lyrid so I’ll say “suspected” for the moment. However comparing to previous Lyrid spectra it looks like it’s one.

    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: R Lyrae #622663
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Thanks for the ongoing feed back. Mike, no I didn’t keep any of the short exposure images that I was taking whilst finding Vega to test my latest system.
    As with comments Robin made, Vega was low to my NE at the time but the image you post is pretty much what drew my attention to the star, with extinction it even looked a touch brighter when compared to Vega at that point in time.
    I’ll now use it as a guide post when reviewing my meteor images!
    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: R Lyrae #622575
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Thanks for the info, also very interesting. I didn’t take any specific measurements as that was not what I was interested in but it was sufficiently bright to catch my attention.
    Just a curiosity for me.
    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: R Lyrae #622571
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Very interesting, It was just startling bright in the unfiltered ccd image.
    I’ll keep an eye out for any meteor captures that have it in frame.
    Bill.

    in reply to: Fireball 2024 04 12 #622558
    Bill Ward
    Participant
    in reply to: Preparing for the eruption of T CrB #622490
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi Alan/Robin,
    Thanks for the check/comparison shot.
    Quite fascinating!
    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Preparing for the eruption of T CrB #622484
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    How does one edit messages?
    Bill.

    in reply to: Preparing for the eruption of T CrB #622482
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    I was testing out the camera I’ll be using in my next meteor camera system and thought it would be a good idea to check what’s going on with T CrB.
    This is a single 5 second unguided exposure, binned 2×2, cropped, linear stretch and re-sized. Taken 2024 04 09 23 46 58 BST. I found a finder chart on line but I’m not 100% sure if T CrB is bright enough to be visible.
    I’ve circled what I think might be T CrB. The brightest star is Epsilon CrB for orientation. Does anyone have an image with T CrB in it to compare?
    cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Preparing for the eruption of T CrB #622225
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    I’m not an expert on such things but given our “continuous” montitoring and timestamped images it might be interesting to see how it develops it we get a couple of lucky catches.
    Bill.

    in reply to: Preparing for the eruption of T CrB #622219
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,
    Not monitoring purposefully but I like to keep an eye out for anything that might crop up in the background…
    A fortuitously placed meteor right next to CrB but no sign of the outburst yet…
    Cheers,
    Bill.

    in reply to: Fireball spectrum #584641
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Was it? Maybe I’m just too slow…

    in reply to: Fireball spectrum #584638
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Finally inspiration!

    As my old apprentice master would say “…aye, experience, one thing ye canny buy in the shops…” and how true..

    Having obtained several more very high resolution spectra of varying kinds it suddenly occurred to me what was going on with this one.

    I was also pretty sure that there was an order division but as I was expecting the distinct pattern of atmospheric near IR emissions toward the right of the spectrum, the lines present threw me off track a bit, However your division there was spot on. The issue seems to have been I bumped the focus! When this image is compared to my later ones it is clear this is the case.

    Also, one of the other secondary pieces of information that can be gleaned from the spectrum image is that since the 2nd order are so clearly present it indicates that the meteor must have been a slow one. (As well as being rich in Fe lines!) Otherwise these lines would have been overlaid or masked by the pattern of near IR emissions from the atmosphere.

    A bit rough and ready but it now all makes sense. Another mystery finally resolved!

    Cheers,

    Bill.

    in reply to: Spectra of some planet eating white dwarfs #584635
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    I certainly hope there’s more than just a shadow of our bones left ; – )

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 289 total)