tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-148955852024-03-07T20:13:29.021+00:00davep's astronomyGetting back into observational astronomy...<br />
(and some not-quite-observational-astronomy stuff too)Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.comBlogger410125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-75683424878083453172009-08-05T09:51:00.003+01:002009-08-05T10:05:55.970+01:00#MeteorwatchHere's one for your diary:<br /><br />Following on from the success of <a href="http://www.astronomy2009.co.uk/index.php/news-mainmenu-37/22-announcements/109-twitter-moonwatch" target="_blank">#moonwatch back in May this year</a> (an event which attracted people such as <a href="http://twitter.com/maggiephilbin/" target="_blank">Maggie Philbin</a>, how cool is that?!), <a href="http://twitter.com/NewburyAS/" target="_blank">Newbury Astronomical Society</a>, in association with <a href="http://www.astronomy2009.co.uk/" target="_blank">IYA2009UK</a>, are going to run <code><strong>#meteorwatch</strong></code>.<br /><br />The event will happen on the night of the 11<sup>th</sup> and 12<sup>th</sup> of August, coinciding with the expected peak of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids" target="_blank">Perseids meteor shower</a>.<blockquote>The Twitter Meteorwatch will start at 21.30 BST on the 11th of August and will continue through to the evening of the 12th of August. Amateur and professional astronomers from the US and other countries are invited to join in and take over from the UK, when the sun comes up here, helping make the event run for over 24 hours and be truly international. The event will close in the UK, in the early hours of the 13th of August 2009.</blockquote>See <a href="http://newburyas.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/twitter-meteorwatch/" target="_blank">the main page for the event</a> for more details, and be sure to follow <a href="http://twitter.com/NewburyAS/" target="_blank">@NewburyAS</a> over on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a>.<br /><br />Now that I've got <a href="http://twitpic.com/7jcbs" target="_blank">an Android phone</a>, which runs a twitter client (<a href="http://twidroid.com/" target="_blank">twidroid</a>), and now that I've got a laptop with a WiFi connection, I should be in a good position to take part. All being well, weather permitting, I'll be out in the garden, doing my best to add to <code><strong><a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23Meteorwatch" target="_blank">#meteorwatch</strong></code></a>.<br /><br />See you there?Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-41597841061912810742009-05-12T22:58:00.004+01:002009-05-12T23:06:22.318+01:00Google Sky Map on AndroidJust recently I acquired a new mobile phone, one running <a href="http://www.android.com/" target="_blank">Android</a> (in my case a HTC Magic) and I've had a quick look around for some astronomy software but didn't find much.<br /><br />Then, this evening, I noticed <a href="http://twitter.com/astronomyblog/status/1776662635" target="_blank">this tweet</a> from <a href="http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/index.shtml" target="_blank">Stuart</a> and went and did a little digging about and finally found it.<br /><br />I'm stunned.<br /><br />Rather that try and explain it, I'll just go with Google's video explaining it:<br /><center><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p6znyx0gjb4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p6znyx0gjb4&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></center><br />The one warning I would give is that it takes quite a while for the application to start. It <em>will</em> look like your phone has hung (and, if you try and do something, you'll probably be told the application is taking too long and would you like to force an exit or wait) but just wait a little, it's simply slow to start. Once it's running it's nice and snappy.<br /><br />If you've got an Android phone and astronomy is this thing I'd call this a "must have" application — even if you do know your way around the sky.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-11108109716324078532009-03-17T15:49:00.003+00:002009-03-17T16:07:37.899+00:00Colour Lubitel Star TrailsI've done some <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/tags/?show=Star%20Trails" target="_blank">star trails</a> with my <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/gear/#Lubitel166B" target="_blank">Lubitel 166B</a>. Initially I'd been using black and white film — first <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Lubitel%20Star%20Trails" target="_blank">on Ilford FP4+ 125</a> and then one <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Pleiades%20and%20Hyades" target="_blank">on Ilford HP5+ 400</a> — but I've been meaning to have a go with colour for a while now.<br /><br />Back on <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20081122" target="_blank">2008-11-22</a>, while doing some observing at <a href="http://www.lincolnshire.me.uk/gallery/v/Woodland+Waters/" target="_blank">Woodland Waters</a>, I finally did some using <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/tags/?show=Fuji%20Provia%20100F" target="_blank">Fuji Provia 100F</a>. I'm rather pleased <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22" target="_blank">with the results</a>:<br /><center><a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22,2008-11-22-21-13-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22/tn/2008-11-22-21-13-00.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a><a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22,2008-11-22-21-49-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22/tn/2008-11-22-21-49-00.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22,2008-11-22-22-36-00.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Lubitel%20Star%20Trails%20-%202008-11-22/tn/2008-11-22-22-36-00.jpg" style="border: none;" /></a></center>Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-62623731703247966462009-03-12T16:54:00.006+00:002009-03-12T23:04:47.449+00:00Twittering the International Space Station Close EncounterAs I'm sure many people will know by now, at 2009-03-12 16:39 UTC the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html" target="_blank">International Space Station</a> had a <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/2009/03/12/iss-crew-may-need-to-evacuate-possible-debris-hit/" target="_blank">close encounter with some debris</a>. I won't bother going into any serious detail about that, I'm sure that, by the time you read this, others will have gone into this in much more detail.<br /><br />The thing that I find really interesting about it is that I even know anything about it, right now, right at this moment, as I type this. And the reason I know about it is I use <a href="http://www.twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">TweetDeck</a>.<br /><br />I'm not sure who posted about it first, whose "tweet" I saw first, but I first saw mention of the problem about 50 minutes before the closest approach of the debris (this is where TweetDeck comes in, I always have it running on a screen, very handy). From then on I was able to follow links, get more information (including checking what "11:39 CDT" was in real money), get a live audio feed from the station via <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/" target="_blank">NASA TV</a>.<br /><br />And then, as 16:39 UTC came about, and the feed from the ISS had gone quiet, the tweets from the people I follow pretty much went quiet too. There was a moment, a fascinating moment, where I really felt like I was doing the same thing as lots of other people who share my interests and concerns — we were all just watching and listening and wishing the crew of the ISS well.<br /><br />And then the moment passed and we could hear the ISS talking again (first in Russian, then in English) and there was an obvious huge sigh of relief.<br /><br />Two things really stand out for me:<ol><li>It's amazing that I was able to follow it at all. That's some incredible transparency. The fact that I could listen to the conversations taking place, how amazing is that? (and that's leaving aside the technology involved in making that happen)</li><li>By the time the danger for the ISS had passed the BBC news site had just managed to get a "BREAKING NEWS" banner on the front page. It wasn't until after the danger had passed <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7940431.stm" target="_blank">that a page for the story appeared</a>. By then, for me, via twitter, it was "old news".</li></ol>Here's the <a href="http://www.twitscoop.com/twits/search?q=ISS" target="_blank">TwitScoop graph for mention of the ISS as of the time of writing</a>:<br /><center><a title="TwitScoop graph for mention of the ISS as of the time of writing" href="http://www.twitscoop.com/twits/search?q=ISS" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/weblog/images/twitscoop-iss.png" /></a></center>Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-52636045844931724082009-03-11T15:53:00.002+00:002009-03-11T16:00:52.475+00:00SPA Convention 2009: Photographs<a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=SPA%20Convention%202009" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/SPA%20Convention%202009/tn/2009-03-07-10-27-25.jpg" align="right" style="border: none;" /></a>Last night I processed some of the photographs I took at the 2009 <a href="http://www.popastro.com/" target="_blank">Society for Popular Astronomy</a> convention. You can see the photographs over in the album <strong><a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=SPA%20Convention%202009" target="_blank">SPA Convention 2009</a></strong>.<br /><br />I hope to do a report on the day some time soon (although time is against me at the moment) but, for now, I'll say it was an excellent day. I managed to attend all the talks and each one was enjoyable and fascinating.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-25562344810262134922009-03-06T14:37:00.003+00:002009-03-06T14:55:29.258+00:00Thee Years of Sunspot Counts<a href="http://wiki.astronomer.me.uk/doku.php/tools:solarscope" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/tools/Solarscope.jpg" align="right" /></a>It's now three years <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2006/03/finally-observation-albeit-small-one.html" target="_blank">since I decided to make a point of doing sunspot counts as often as possible</a> (I say "now", I'm actually <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20060301" target="_blank">a few days late</a> make a note of this).<br /><br />While weather, and other things, do often get in the way, I've managed to <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/solar/" target="_blank">log 378 observations</a> so far. The <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/solar/graphs/" target="_blank">sunspot graphs</a> are coming along pretty nice too (even if they are a bit flat due to the solar minimum).<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/by-sunspot/" target="_blank">sunspot/active area observation list</a> is starting to get pretty long now and, at some point, I might have to think about reworking it so it pages or something. On the other hand the <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/by-sunspot/timeline/" target="_blank">active area timeline is doing fine</a> (and it shows rather nicely just how quiet things have been of late).<br /><br />I hope things start to pick up this year. It would be nice to see some significant solar activity again.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-170921565370439382009-03-02T15:56:00.003+00:002009-03-02T16:02:16.766+00:00Finally Seen Comet LulinLast night, after waiting most of the week (and being defeated by cloud), I finally got to see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2007_N3" target="_blank">comet Lulin</a>.<br /><br />There was no sign of it with the naked eye but I could see it (after a little bit of searching) with my 10x50 binocular, and also with my 20x60 monocular. Not the most impressive of comets, at least not at this point. There was some obvious elongation, but I wouldn't say I could see any kind of tail. There wasn't any obvious "concentration" to it at all, it was more of a large ghostly colourless patch than anything else.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-21205850740030094612009-02-03T17:16:00.003+00:002009-02-03T17:21:53.306+00:00F-16 on MarsI'm sure most people know that there's a new <a href="http://earth.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Earth</a> available for download. I'm sure most people know that they've added Mars to the mix. I'm sure most people know that Google Earth has a really simple <a href="http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_flightsim.html" target="_blank">flight simulator built into it</a>.<br /><br />Well, it's obvious what comes next isn't it?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/weblog/images/FlyingOnMars.png" /></center><br />Okay, it's no <a href="http://www.x-plane.com/" target="_blank">X-Plane</a>, but it's still kind of fun (let's not mention the fact that the physics are probably totally wrong).Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-46210290578474393422009-01-27T09:31:00.003+00:002009-01-27T09:41:49.004+00:00SPA Convention 2009<a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=SPA%20Convention%202007" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/SPA%20Convention%202007/tn/2007-03-10-09-36-11.jpg" align="right" style="border: none;" /></a>It's that time again! The <a href="http://www.popastro.com/" target="_blank">Society for Popular Astronomy</a> have <a href="http://www.popastro.com/convention2009.php" target="_blank">announced</a> that their 2009 convention will be held at the <a href="http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Institute of Astronomy</a> on March 7<sup>th</sup>.<br /><br />Having been to the <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2005/10/spa-convention-2005-short-report.html" target="_blank">2005 convention</a> and also the <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2007/03/spa-convention-2007-short-report.html" target="_blank">2007 convention</a> (<a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=SPA%20Convention%202007" target="_blank">photographs of the day can be found here</a>), and having really enjoyed them, I'm looking forward to this one — even more so given that it's <a href="http://www.astronomy2009.org/" target="_blank">IYA</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-69662110055653454592008-12-03T09:31:00.002+00:002008-12-03T09:33:54.969+00:00Member of a UK Astronomy Society?Are you a member of a UK astronomical society? Are you interested in helping promote it a little more? If so, <a href="http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10835" target="_blank">this post on the SPA BB might be of interest to you</a>:<blockquote>As part of IYA 2009, I have volunteered to put together a Google map of astro societies in the UK (I hope it hasn't already been done but I don't think so)<br /><br />Quite a few societies are members of Fedastro, but I assume there are some that are not.<br /><br />The sort of info I need is where they meet (venue with postcode is possible), dates of regular meetings, website, contact name and email address etc.</blockquote>Sounds like an excellent idea to me.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-90129754528233550332008-11-18T09:42:00.002+00:002008-11-18T09:51:45.479+00:00Interactive ConstellationRecognise this constellation?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/weblog/images/interactive-leo.png" /></center><br />Probably not. Or perhaps it reminds you of one, but looks wrong? Chances are, if it does remind you of one, you might be thinking of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_%28constellation%29" target="_blank">Leo</a>.<br /><br />That's a screenshot of the rather nifty <a href="http://kisd.de/~krystian/starmap/leo.html" target="_blank">interactive map of Leo</a> by <a href="http://kisd.de/~krystian/contact.html" target="_blank">Krystian Majewski</a>. Using that application you can drag your point of view around and see how Leo would look from other points in space. Neat.<br /><br />If you like that you might also like his <a href="http://kisd.de/~krystian/starmap/" target="_blank">interactive map of the nearest 32 stars</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-60707560873385385052008-11-03T09:31:00.003+00:002008-11-03T09:42:26.192+00:00Astroblast 2008 - Photographs<a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Astroblast%202008" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Astroblast%202008/tn/2008-11-02-12-24-22.jpg" align="left" style="border: none;" /></a>Despite some pretty awful weather my son and myself managed to make it down to <a href="http://www.astroblast.org.uk/" target="_blank">Astroblast</a> yesterday. The new venue (Bedford School) was tricky to find — we managed to end up at what appeared to be the back gate, all locked up with a view of some of the fun in the grounds, d'oh! — but overall it was a pretty straight run down.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Astroblast%202008" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Astroblast%202008/tn/2008-11-02-14-42-12.jpg" align="right" style="border: none;" /></a>Thankfully the rain didn't put too much of a downer on events and we had a fun time visiting the <a href="http://www.astroblast.org.uk/stardome.html" target="_blank">planetarium</a> and especially the rocket building workshop put on by <a href="http://out-world.co.uk/" target="_blank">Out of this World Learning</a> (if you ever get the chance to see them in action, do it, they made the whole thing loads of fun and my son really enjoyed himself — so did I come to think of it <g>).<br /><br />Like with <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Astroblast%202007" target="_blank">last year</a> I took my camera and I have <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Astroblast%202008" target="_blank">a small selection of photographs on my main website</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-88919606527645663382008-10-22T13:48:00.003+01:002008-10-22T13:52:25.245+01:00Death from the SkiesFinally! After some delay with Amazon.co.uk, it's here!<br /><br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2964368522/" title="Death from the Skies by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img style="border: none;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/2964368522_95975ab708.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="Death from the Skies" /></a></center>Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-77439833824070072272008-10-12T20:24:00.004+01:002008-10-12T20:35:29.521+01:00Finally! Some Solar Action! (Redux)<a href="http://wiki.astronomer.me.uk/doku.php/tools:solarscope" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/tools/Solarscope.jpg" align="right" style="margin-left: 1ex;"/></a>Back in <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2008/05/quiet-sun-again.html" target="_blank">May this year</a> I noted that the Sun appeared to have gone quiet again, as of <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20080508" target="_blank">2008-05-08</a> I'd not <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/by-sunspot/" target="_blank">observed a sunspot</a> since <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20080331" target="_blank">2008-03-31</a>. At that time the quiet period hadn't been quite as long as the one <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2007/12/finally-some-solar-action.html" target="_blank">I'd observed towards the end of last year</a> but it turned out to be a very long run of a blank Sun (as seen on the days I observed and with my equipment).<br /><br />Finally, today, I had my first view of a sunspot since the end of March this year. New <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?sunspot=1005" target="_blank">active area 1005</a> had <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20081012" target="_blank">two small spots visible</a>.<br /><br />It's quite nice to see a little blip on my <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/solar/graphs/" target="_blank">sunspot graphs</a>. They were starting to look a little boring. ;-)Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-92085266939396159012008-10-10T13:37:00.003+01:002008-10-10T13:47:15.003+01:00Astroblast 2008<a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Astroblast%202007" target="_blank" title="Photographs from Astroblast 2007"><img src="http://www.davep.org/photographs/Astroblast%202007/tn/2007-04-21-12-03-46.jpg" style="border: none;" align="right" /></a>Yesterday I was reminded that next month is <a href="http://www.astroblast.org.uk/" target="_blank">Astroblast 2008</a>. This year, rather than being held at the <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/tags/?show=Cambridge" target="_blank">Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge</a>, it is being held at <a href="http://www.astroblast.org.uk/directions.html" target="_blank">Bedford School</a>.<br /><br />Having attended in <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2006/04/astroblast-this-saturday.html" target="_blank">2006</a> and <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2007/04/astroblast-2007.html" target="_blank">2007</a> I'm hoping I can make it along again. The past two years have been very enjoyable events.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-11355762458656569762008-09-10T14:17:00.002+01:002008-09-10T14:22:55.507+01:00Large Hadron Collider Up and RunningWell, <a href="http://twitter.com/cern/statuses/916344337" target="_blank">that's it</a>, the Large Hadron Collider is up and running. They've had two beams go all the way round (one clockwise, one anticlockwise). Thanks to the webcast I've been able to follow it pretty much all day (<a href="http://twitter.com/davepdotorg" target="_blank">twittering as I went</a>).<br /><br />It's been absolutely fascinating. Like I said <a href="http://twitter.com/davepdotorg/statuses/916350369" target="_blank">over here</a>, I wasn't old enough to remember it (or, indeed, at the exact time, wasn't even anywhere that had a TV) but I imagine this is what watching the Moon landings must have felt like.<br /><br />Although, of course, no actual collisions have happened today (and <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/09/lhc-go-for-injection/" target="_blank">won't happen today</a>) so I guess the "main event" hasn't really happened yet. As such, perhaps today was what watching Apollo 10 felt like?<br /><br />No matter, I think this is one of those "I remember where I was/what I was doing" days.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-67641337359296285892008-09-02T14:27:00.003+01:002008-09-02T14:36:42.904+01:00AVM Microformat Generator for GNU emacsNow that <a href="http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/index.shtml" target="_blank">Stuart</a> has <a href="http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/000836.shtml" target="_blank">blogged about the AVM microformat generator</a> I thought it time to upload a little hack I did for <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/" target="_blank">GNU emacs</a> when he first pointed me at the <a href="http://www.jodcast.net/avm/" target="_blank">generation tool he'd written</a>.<br /><br />The tool is called <a href="http://www.davep.org/emacs/#Favmmf.el" target="_blank">avmmf.el</a> (<a href="http://www.davep.org/emacs/avmmf.el" target="_blank">download it here</a>) and it adds a command to GNU emacs (<tt>avmmf-insert</tt>) which prompts you for an object, talks to the AVMMF generator, gets the resulting code and pastes it into the current buffer. I'm thinking it might be handy if you're writing some (X)HTML by hand.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-26420381958167277442008-08-14T09:40:00.002+01:002008-08-14T09:43:40.476+01:00Partial Lunar Eclipse Live WebcastVia <a href="http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10142" target="_blank">this post on the SPA BB</a>:<blockquote><strong>2008 AUGUST 16 -- PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE</strong><br />Webcast live from Peter Grego at St Dennis, Cornwall<br /><br />I will be producing a live webcast of the partial lunar eclipse on the evening of 16 August on my website <a href="http://www.lunarobservers.com/" target="_blank">www.lunarobservers.com</a>. The webcast takes place from 19:30 to 22:45 UT (8:30 to 11:45 pm BST). Images are updated every 20 seconds when live (640x480 resolution). The umbral phase of the eclipse lasts from 8:36 until 11:44 pm BST. If the event is clouded out a real-time computer simulation of the eclipse will be broadcast.</blockquote>More details <a href="http://www.lunarobservers.com/" target="_blank">over here</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-14410941059774047952008-08-11T18:22:00.002+01:002008-08-11T18:24:26.946+01:00Comet PerseidNo, really, that's not a typo. <a href="http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/496/Comet-due-to-appear-in.4373195.jp" target="_blank">Keep an eye out for Comet Perseid</a>.<br /><br />;-)<br /><br /><small>Seen via <a href="http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=63225#63225" target="_blank">a post on the SPA BB</a>.</small>Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-12403744575516752432008-08-06T20:20:00.002+01:002008-08-06T20:23:32.515+01:00Building a Portal to the UniverseDo you have one or more RSS feeds whose content is related to astronomy? If so <a href="http://www.starstryder.com/2008/08/05/building-a-portal-to-the-universe/" target="_blank">Dr Pamela Gay would like to hear from you</a>.<br /><br />And, just as important:<blockquote>If you are a content provider, can you please put out a request on your feeds, your Facebook, and your twitter, to help me find the hidden content providers – the grad students telling their stories of the stars and the research scientists silently slaving over their blogs – so that I can help get their voices heard in the Portal to the Universe.</blockquote>So, if you're reading this, and you've got a way of shouting about this.... do so. Go do it now.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-38537417281904956022008-08-06T16:29:00.002+01:002008-08-06T16:34:51.645+01:0050th Anniversary of NASAVia <a href="http://twitter.com/willgater/statuses/879371593" target="_blank">this tweet by Will Gater</a>: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/50th/index.html" target="_blank">50th Anniversary of NASA</a>.<br /><br />The music is good enough (I'm finding that I'm tending towards the 1970s, which is kind of funny given that I turned 12 in 1979 — Pink Floyd and Neil Young just <em>work</em> <g>) but the thing really worth watching is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_I" target="_blank">Ares I</a> animation you get when you click on the Ares rocket in the 2000s.<br /><br />Go play with it. It's fun.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-55930985957286265902008-08-01T15:36:00.003+01:002008-08-01T15:49:56.234+01:00Today's Eclipse: A Short Photo DiaryJust to add a little <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20080801" target="_blank">to my log of today's eclipse</a>, a short photo diary of the session:<br /><br />The session didn't start out too well, the <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/tools/#Solarscope" target="_blank">Solarscope</a> went flying in the wind so I had to come up with a method of making it heavier. I <em>knew</em> all those old power supplies would come in handy one day:<br /><center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722644836/" target="_blank" title="A Quick Fix by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3199/2722644836_fdb80ff328_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="A Quick Fix" /></a></center><br /><br />With the flying 'scope problem pretty much solved, the main event got under way:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722653106/" title="Partial Solar Eclipse #1 by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2722653106_0f1fac53ef_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Partial Solar Eclipse #1" /></a><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2721834287/" title="Partial Solar Eclipse #2 by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3087/2721834287_7f622bc6ab_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Partial Solar Eclipse #2" /></a><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722662736/" title="Partial Solar Eclipse #3 by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3153/2722662736_75686f6700_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="Partial Solar Eclipse #3" /></a></center><br /><br />However, the wind picked up, so more weight was needed. This is why you should never throw away that old laptop battery:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2721847063/" title="A Further Quick Fix by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3068/2721847063_f6a5f3dc4b_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="A Further Quick Fix" /></a></center><br /><br />Soon, it got cloudy. Time to photograph my amazing solar observatory then:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722677326/" title="My Solar Observatory by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2722677326_6758d16ccf_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="My Solar Observatory" /></a></center><br /><br />Of course, because we were getting close to mid-eclipse, it wasn't a case of the whole sky being cloudy. Oh no. <em>Towards</em> the Sun it looked like this:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2721861095/" title="Towards the Sun by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3220/2721861095_befb1d42d4_m.jpg" width="180" height="240" alt="Towards the Sun" /></a></center><br /><br />Whereas behind me:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722689530/" title="Away from the Sun by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/2722689530_d72f48c38d_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Away from the Sun" /></a></center><br /><br />However, around mid-eclipse, things did clear up:<br /><center><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2721871851/" title="Partial Solar Eclipse #4 by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2042/2721871851_3e9480bc87_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="Partial Solar Eclipse #4" /></a><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/2722701900/" title="Partial Solar Eclipse #5 by Dave Pearson, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2722701900_7ccc6ae7cc_m.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="Partial Solar Eclipse #5" /></a></center><br />So it wasn't a total loss. :-)Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-4249379199992308172008-08-01T13:50:00.003+01:002008-08-01T13:56:00.667+01:00Eclipse Observing LogI've now uploaded <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/?show=20080801" target="_blank">my observing log from today's eclipse</a>. There's a handful of photographs in there too. Nothing too special, just captures of the view as seen via the <a href="http://wiki.astronomer.me.uk/doku.php/tools:solarscope" target="_blank">Solarscope</a>.<br /><br />I'll probably get around to uploading some more elsewhere at some point. I'll post here when I do.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-27663891853942262632008-08-01T10:51:00.002+01:002008-08-01T10:58:32.552+01:00The eclipse is over for meWell, that's it for me. The <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2008/08/looking-good-so-far.html" target="_blank">earlier fair weather</a> turned increasingly cloudy and, at around 10:50 BST, I was pretty much clouded out.<br /><br />I had a reasonable run though. Managed to see the very start of the eclipse and got a good, albeit short, view around mid-eclipse. You can see the updates I made <a href="http://twitter.com/davepdotorg" target="_blank">over on Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.plurk.com/user/davep" target="_blank">Plurk</a> (the latter being a new one to me but I thought I'd give it a go to see what it's like).<br /><br />I'll try and type up <a href="http://www.astronomer.me.uk/logs/" target="_blank">my log</a> later on. I've also got a bunch of photographs which I took on my <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/gear/#G9" target="_blank">Canon PowerShot G9</a>. Once I've downloaded them and processed them they'll appear <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/" target="_blank">in the photography section of my main site</a> and also <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davepearson/" target="_blank">over on my Flickr stream</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14895585.post-26352384105037681112008-08-01T08:54:00.004+01:002008-08-01T09:16:19.673+01:00Looking good so far...With about ½ hour to go to the start of the partial solar eclipse I've got mostly clear skies with just a few <a href="http://www.davep.org/photographs/?show=Little%20Fluffy%20Clouds" target="_blank">little fluffy clouds</a> floating about.<br /><br />Fingers crossed things go better <a href="http://davep-astro.blogspot.com/2006/03/clouded-out-at-last-moment.html" target="_blank">than back in March 2006</a>.<br /><br />I'll try and make frequent updates <a href="http://twitter.com/davepdotorg" target="_blank">over on Twitter</a>.Dave Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07460881163553899351noreply@blogger.com2