The Journal
of the British Astronomical Association
Volume 121,
No.6: 2011 December
Summary
contents page
Detailed contents: Notes and News / Articles / Observers' Forum /
Reviews / Letters / Meetings / BAA Update
Cover
images - the aurora is back!
Images of the aurora seen from
Scotland and southern England in August and September. Top:
2011 Sept 10/11, Thurso, northern Scotland: Stewart Watt.
Bottom left: 2011 Sept 26/27, Whitstable, Kent: John Kemp.
Bottom right: 2011 August 05/06, Thurso: Gordon Mackie.
See Ken Kennedy’s Aurora Section report in Notes and News on page 323.
From your new President (Bill
Leatherbarrow)
/ The aurora is back! (Ken
Kennedy)
/ Exmoor - Europe’s first
International Dark Sky Reserve
(Steve Owens) / More supernova
discoveries for BAA members(Stewart
Moore) / Draconid meteor outburst successfully observed (John W. Mason) / Solar Section (Lyn Smith) / The
comets of 2012(Jonathan Shanklin)
/ Venus in 2011–2012: first interim report (Richard McKim)
New BAA President Bill Leatherbarrow
Refereed
papers
The 2010 perihelic
opposition of Jupiter observed from Barbados ... Damian A. Peach
The
year 2010 was set to be a memorable time for Jupiter enthusiasts. After
years of being placed low in the sky for northern hemisphere observers,
the giant planet would finally move north of the celestial equator.
Better still, the opposition of 2010 presented observers with Jupiter
at its largest apparent angular diameter since the opposition of 1963.
This made an opportunity that was too good to be missed, so I
arranged to stay on the tropical island of Barbados in hope of
obtaining many excellent images, as had been possible there on previous
visits.
GrepNova:
a tool for amateur supernova hunting ... Dominic Ford
This paper presents
GrepNova, a software package which assists amateur supernova hunters by
allowing new observations of galaxies to be compared against historical
library images in a highly automated fashion. As each new observation
is imported, GrepNova automatically identifies a suitable comparison
image and rotates it into a common orientation with the new image. The
pair can then be blinked on the computer’s display to allow a rapid
visual search to be made for stars in outburst. GrepNova has been in
use by Tom Boles at his observatory in Coddenham, Suffolk since 2005
August, where it has assisted in the discovery of 50 supernovae up to
2011 October.
Noctilucent cloud over Britain &
western Europe, 2009–2010 ... Ken Kennedy
Record amounts of
noctilucent cloud were reported in the 2009 season, but they were
significantly fewer in 2010. Weather conditions in the UK and Europe
may have been poorer in 2010 but increasing solar activity may also
have had the effect of reducing the number of nights on which NLC was
observed. This report presents observations of NLC received in 2009
& 2010 from western Europe and the British Isles.
The unusual case of ‘asteroid’ 2010 KQ:
a newly discovered artificial object orbiting the Sun... Richard Miles
Observational evidence is presented which demonstrates that object 2010
KQ is artificial in nature and is almost certainly the upper rocket
stage of a Russian Moon probe. The only possibilities identified are
the rocket stages associated with the launches of Luna-1 (1959
January
2), Luna-4 (1963 April 2) or Luna-23 (1974 October 28).
The Minor
Planet Center has renamed the object RK252A5.
Precursor
outbursts and superoutbursts in the SU UMa-type dwarf nova NN
Camelopardalis ... Jeremy Shears et al.
We report photometry
of three outbursts of NN Cam in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The 2007 event
started with a normal outburst, lasting about 4 days, which was a
precursor to a superoutburst lasting at least 13 days. Both the
precursor and the superoutburst had an amplitude of 4.9 mag above mean
quiescence. Superhumps with a maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.22
mag were detected during the superoutburst.
The
first confirmed superoutburst of the SU UMa-type
dwarf nova SDSS J083931.35+282824.0... Jeremy Shears et al.
We report unfiltered
CCD photometry of the first confirmed superoutburst in 2010 April of
the recently discovered dwarf nova SDSS J083931.35+282824.0. From a
quiescence magnitude of ~19.8 it rose to 14.0, an outburst amplitude of
at least 5.8 magnitudes. Only the plateau phase of the outburst was
observed, during which superhumps with peak-to-peak amplitude of up to
0.28 magnitudes were present, confirming this to be an SU UMa-type
dwarf nova.
Click here to
obtain a PDF file of
any of these articles
BAA Update
The
2011 BAA
Winchester weekend ... Ann Davies
BAA Awards & Medals for 2012 ... Ron Johnson
- Ordinary
Meeting, 2011 January 26, held at
the RAS meeting room, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1
... David Arditti
Why not join us at a BAA meeting near
you? Meetings are open
to all and you will be made very welcome. Click here for
the latest Meetings Diary
Reviews
Exoplanets
by
by Sara Seager (Ed), assisted by Renée Dotson, with 34
collaborating authors
University of Arizona Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8165-2945-2. 282, Pp
xviii + 526, $35 (hbk).
Reviewed
by Richard Miles
The complete guide to the Herschel Objects: Sir William Herschel’s star
clusters, nebulae and galaxies by
Mark Bratton
Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-76892-4. Pp xiii +
584, £45.00 (hbk).
Reviewed
by Nick Hewitt
Mapping the Universe: the interactive history of astronomy by
Paul Murdin
Carlton Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84732-885-4. Pp 124, £30.00 (hbk).
Reviewed
by Bill Leatherbarrow
Deep Sky Companions: The Secret Deep by
Stephen J. O’Meara
Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-19876-9. Pp xiii +
483, £29.00 (hbk).
Reviewed
by Owen Brazell
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Dust to dust: Comet C/2010 X1
(Elenin) ... Roger Dymock
Jones–Emberson 1, the ‘Headphone
Nebula’ ... Stewart L. Moore
A bright supernova in
Messier 101 ... Stewart L. Moore
A
spectrum of SN 2011fe ... Ron Arbour
Comet Elenin imaged by Roger Dymock on 2011 April 27
using the SSON remotely operated 0.61m f/10 Cassegrain in California.
Sky
notes for 2011 December & 2012 January by Callum Potter
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