Before Lunik: Imagination and the other side of the Moon
A brief history of the Hansen hypothesis, its effect on the literary imagination, and a short account of some pre-Lunik conjectures about the physiography of the Moon’s far side.
Read moreA brief history of the Hansen hypothesis, its effect on the literary imagination, and a short account of some pre-Lunik conjectures about the physiography of the Moon’s far side.
Read moreThe Revd Walter Bidlake was vicar of Crewe in Cheshire for some 21 years at the start of the 20th century. He was a keen amateur astronomer with an interest in celestial photography, and took photographs of the night sky in support of T. H. E. C. Espin’s search for dark nebulae in the Milky Way. This paper describes Bidlake’s astronomical activities and life, including a high profile libel case he brought.
Read moreIn her 2014 Presidential Address, Hazel McGee describes the story of the Journal of the BAA, and introduces some of the editors who have guided the publication through its first 124 years.
Read moreJeremy Shears and Theresa Hull look at the life of one of the BAA’s lesser known early observers.
Read moreJonathan Shanklin reviews the comets of 2002.
Read moreRon Arbour presents a novel technique he has developed for cleaning the front of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.
Read moreThe results from dual-station observations of the 2012 Taurid showers are presented and discussed.
Read moreA series of spectra of the RV Tauri star R Scuti taken as it rose from a deep minimum to a bright maximum during 2013 October and November reveals major changes taking place in the photosphere and outer atmosphere of the star. This may be the first such series of spectra and demonstrates the capability of amateur spectroscopy for studying these complex stars.
Read moreThis report is the thirteenth in the annual series which gives for each comet: the discovery details, orbital data and general information, magnitude parameters and BAA Comet Section observations. The year was somewhat unusual with several bright comets.
Read moreCrater timings are made during a total or partial lunar eclipse as the Moon slowly glides through the Earth’s central shadow cone, or umbra. We have gathered 22,539 observations made at 94 lunar eclipses since 1842 – the largest collection of crater and contact timings ever compiled. In this paper we analyse these timings to derive an improved characterisation of the umbra’s size, shape, and stability over time.
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