davep's astronomy

Yet another cloudy night, yet another night of not getting out and observing. So, while messing about on my computer, I happen to wander over to Google's blog search facility and see what's been said about Pluto at the moment. It's actually kind of fascinating to see what random people, often not involved in astronomy, have to say.

Some people seem to be annoyed that the discussion is even taking place at all, Shining City Atop a Hill has this to say:

Another question... why are we wasting resources on this discussion? In the end who really cares right?

It makes me wonder if the author thinks pretty much all of astronomy, hell, all forms of classification, are a waste of resources. And, of course, the final question is slightly ironic given that you've probably got to care a little to even write about it.

Over on this blog the author seems to ask a similar question, but in a slightly more forceful way:

F**k You. We're paying all these brilliant scientists gobs and gobs of cash to f**k around and decide whether something is important enough to be called "a planet"?

I'm guessing that's an example of someone who does care — with a passion.

Of course, if there's one thing worse than scientists wasting the vast sums of money they get paid, it's having mad scientists wasting vast sums of money:

For the next two weeks a group of mad scientists will be meeting in Prague. Their goal: to define just exactly what constitutes the legal definition of a planet. Like a denizen of congressional staffers, cloistered away deep within the bowels of the capitol building, these mad scientists may well legislate poor Pluto out of existence!

I can see it now, all those astronomers sat around, each stroking a long-haired cat, plotting the slow and overly-complex demise of poor Pluto. Does anyone have the phone number for Mike Myers? Imagine him playing the part of almost 3,000 evil astronomers!

An Astronomer — Earlier Today
That said, in the same blog, we then find the suggestion that the whole Pluto debate is actually an anti-US political stunt:

The spectre of international politics has raised its ugly head at the IAU convention. Pluto was originally discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, an American. (Pluto is the only planet to be discovered by an American.) Current anti-American feelings among these snooty Euro scientists (because of the Iraq war, among other things), may play a role in Pluto's chances to remain a planet. I suppose if Pluto is demoted from planet to a mere Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) or "ice dwarf" -- it will George W. Bush's fault (of course!)

I have to admit that that's a new one on me.

Some people seem to be concerned about the idea of history being erased:

do we erase the past 75 years of Astronomy teaching for the purpose of a technicality?

The same author goes on to wonder:

And if so, can we apply this to other sciences?

almost as if this sort of thing has never happened before in any science.

One thing that I did turn up was probably the most damning evidence against Pluto yet:

Apparently scientists have discovered a meteor that's even further from the sun than Pluto, and there's debate as to whether or not it can be considered to be the 10th planet of the solar system.

There's a meteor furhter from the Sun than Pluto? Well, there we go, what more needs to be said?

However, there is a very compelling argument in favour of Pluto retaining its current status and I found it on Sara Reinke's blog:

What makes me the most depressed about the Pluto debate, I guess, is that as things like that change, I feel really old. I can roll with the punches, learn new things, keep up with all the latest and greatest in science and technology, but that doesn't make it easy. I still watch "I Love the 80s" on VH-1 with a forlorn sort of fondness, yearning for those simpler times, the salad days when Miami Vice was a TV show, not a movie, and a Flock of Seagulls wasn't just something you'd find on the beach.

Put like that, and as a child of the 80s myself, I'm starting to wonder if my not really caring either way makes sense — might it be that it makes me a traitor to my generation?

But, thankfully, I've got the words of anneneil to drag my back to reality:

And I apologize to the nytimes and pluto for the above image.... it is actaully a solar eclipse but so much cooler than any picture I could find of pluto

I mean, really, who really wants non-photogenic planets?

But, wait a moment, then I see worrying news via Propaganda Pipeline:

Today the President for Life of Pluto and all its outlying provinces condemned recent Earthling scientific claims that Pluto is not truly a planet.

"For too long, you arrogant Earthlings have tried to dictate what constitutes a planet. No Earthman can tell we Plutonians whether our rock is a planet or not," President Glik stated in his speech. "Do we tell you how to run things on Earth? No. But perhaps it is time we should."

And just when I thought I'd finally made up my mind...

Finally taking my tongue out of my cheek, I think the last quote really should go to Dr Jim:

Science is about revision and correction, irrespective of people’s beliefs and historical relevance. Yes Pluto was a great discovery, with a great story. Yes it captured the public imagination with its tightly held secrets and unimaginable distance from the sun; but unless we intend on turning planetary science into a new religion, it needs to be treated according to the science, and a few old, stubborn scientists need a slap in the face and told to wake up.

No matter how you feel about the debate I'm guessing that those are words that anyone interested in astronomy, at any level, can agree with. Except... is the "retain the status" crowd really mostly populated with "a few old, stubborn scientists"?

File Under: Pluto, IAU.

Having a moan obviously works — just a little earlier I managed to get out and view AA904 using the Solarscope.

Very impressive. So impressive that I dashed back into the office to get a pencil and some paper so I could sketch it and..... yes, of course, the brief gap in the clouds moved on and I've not seen the Sun since. Shame really, it's been quite a while since I last did a close-up sketch of a sunspot and 904 is a good candidate for working on those skills.

File Under: Sun, Solar Observing, Sunspot 904, Active Area 904.

Despite yesterday's optimism I've not had a chance to observe active area 904 today. The sunny spells that were forecast yesterday haven't happened — it's been overcast all day.

It's sort of frustrating given that July was a great month for clear days but had pretty low activity and this month has got off to a pretty bad start in terms of weather but we've got one of the best displays for a while.

File Under: Sun, Solar Observing, Sunspot 904, Active Area 904.

Yesterday, while posting a link to the IAU blog, I said that it would be:

Worth reading to keep an eye out for that popular topic, but also worth reading anyway.

In a post on the blog today I see:

Seed magazine links here, but predicts that you will be able to find out if Pluto is a planet here. No, you won't! I think this is an incredibly unimportant topic, it's not what this meeting is about and I will not mention it at all. Well, not any more, that is.

While I can appreciate that it's a relatively unimportant topic I am left wondering what the actual motivation behind that decision is.

Am I, for example, really so wrong for being interested in that subject as well as the other posts that are being made?

Is it really so terrible that one particular subject has caught popular attention?

I'm finding it hard not to view that sort of attitude as a bit of a swipe at those of us who try and popularise an interest in astronomy at the vaguely-interested and amateur level. Can anyone out there explain to me why I shouldn't view it that way?

File Under: IAU, Pluto, Popular Astronomy.

In case you've not seen it yet, there's a weblog from the IAU 2006 General Assembly. Worth reading to keep an eye out for that popular topic, but also worth reading anyway.

File Under: IAU.

Despite having a moan this morning I actually managed a very brief look at active area 904 late on this afternoon. Sadly conditions were such that there was no point in getting the Solarscope out to have a look but I did manage to see one of the spots associated with the area with the naked eye (via eclipse shades, obviously).

The forecast for tomorrow is now suggesting that we might have some sunny spells here so there's a chance I might actually get a better look. After that the outlook doesn't appear to be too good for the rest of the week.

File Under: Sun, Solar Observing, Sunspots, Active Area 904.

Typical! We get the first really large sunspot for quite some time and what happens here? Cloud, rain, cloud, rain, more cloud, some more cloud and even more cloud.

The forecast for today seems to be wall-to-wall cloud.

At least Ian and Peter seem to be having some fun.

File Under: Solar Observing, Sun, Sunspots.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald the original tapes of many of the Apollo missions have gone missing:

THE heart-stopping moments when Neil Armstrong took his first tentative steps onto another world are defining images of the 20th century: grainy, fuzzy, unforgettable.

But just 37 years after Apollo 11, it is feared the magnetic tapes that recorded the first moon walk - beamed to the world via three tracking stations, including Parkes's famous "Dish" - have gone missing at NASA's Goddard Space Centre in Maryland.

A desperate search has begun amid concerns the tapes will disintegrate to dust before they can be found.

I can imagine that the "Moon hoax" kooks will make quite a bit of this.

File Under: Apollo, NASA, Moon, Moon Hoax.

Yes, yet another timeline. The idea for this one was prompted by a conversation I was having with Tim and I realised that, in my own logs, I've got all the sunspot/active area observing data that's needed to get a nice overview using a timeline display.

Without too much effort I had an active area timeline up and running.

File Under: Sun, Sunspots, Active Areas, Timeline, Simile.

After my first play with Timeline I started thinking that it could be a useful tool for displaying upcoming events in astronomy — especially events that can be observed. As a member of the Society for Popular Astronomy I thought it might be just the sort of thing they'd find useful for their website.

A couple of weeks back I had a chat with Jeff (the SPA's webmaster) and then approached the heads of the observing sections to see who had data that could be used (and which made sense on a timeline). Everyone seemed to think it was a good idea and I received plenty of data. So, after a bit of coding, I finally got a working SPA observing calendar up and running.

Hopefully this will be of some use to amateur astronomers, especially those in the UK (apologies to non-UK readers).

Thanks go to Jeff, the heads of the observing sections at the SPA and also to SIMILE for making timeline generally available.

File Under: Calendar, Society for Popular Astronomy, Timeline, Simile.

According to an article on SpaceWeather today:

Just when you thought it was safe to read your email, a new Mars Hoax is spreading. The widely circulated message claims "the Red Planet is about to be spectacular. On August 27th, Mars will look as large as the full Moon." Fact: On August 27, 2006, Mars will be on the other side of the solar system, 385 million km from Earth and very dim.

Please, no, not again!

Although, that said, I do wish people would stop calling it a "hoax". It's not really a hoax, it's out-of-date, it over-hypes (and in some versions misrepresents) an event that did actually happen, it's stupid and it misinforms people — but I can't help but think that it doesn't make sense to call it a hoax.

Unless, that is, someone has evidence that whoever sent it out first this time actually intended to deceive people?

Thanks to Tim for the heads-up about the story on SpaceWeather.

File Under: Mars, SpaceWeather.

A little earlier this evening I headed out with the 905 to have a quick session observing Jupiter. Towards the end of the session I kept hearing something wandering about on the lawn. This isn't unusual, my cat often joins me and, when he's not rubbing up against the legs of the tripod, he's bouncing around the garden making all sorts of noises.

But this noise was different.

I had a look around and, finally, saw an odd shape that didn't look quite right — some sort of bump on the lawn. Finally, I turned on a light and this is what I found:

Apologies for the quality of the image but it was taken with my mobile phone.

Cute eh?

File Under: Hedgehog.

If Stuart found We Like The Moon a little weird I wonder what he'll make of this:

Moon

File Under: Moon, Video, Weird, Bizarre.

Kaustav recently introduced me to Timeline — a facility that does for timelines what Google Maps does for geographical data.

At first I thought it was a neat curiosity but I soon realised that it could be used to give another view into my observing logs. After some playing around with the timeline API (some of the documentation is lacking so a bit of code-reading was required), and after writing an XSL file for use with Sablotron that took my log source files and produced a timeline XML data file, I finally had a working timeline view of my logs.

I probably still need to do some work — I think the look and layout could be improved a little — but so far I'm pleased with the result and I'm impressed with how simple it was to get up and running.

I'm also thinking about adding some extra bits to the page: having controls that let you easily jump to the first or last observation might be handy, also having some sort of "bookmark" system for significant observations might be useful too.

File Under: Timeline, Astronomy, Observing Logs, JavaScript, Sablotron.

Do you like a mystery? Do you like the Moon? If so, you might appreciate this thread on the SPA BB.

And how nice is that sketch?

File Under: Copernicus, Lunar Crater, Society for Popular Astronomy.

Happy Tunguska event day.

File Under: Tunguska.

It seems that accidental observations of Jovian events is something I'm prone to at the moment. Just a couple of weeks ago I "accidentally" observed a shadow transit and then, last night, I managed to "accidentally" observe the start of a transit by Europa.

Makes me wonder what I could get done if I was organised and prepared... ;-)

File Under: Jupiter, Transit, Europa.

A couple of days back I got round to acting on my search for data that can be used to see how well I'm doing with my sunspot counts.

The Solar Influences Data Analysis Center (part of the Royal Observatory of Belgium) have a sunspot data download page with all sorts of handy things available. I've now set up a system that lets me grab daily sunspot data for any given month, as it becomes available. I've also modified the code that displays my counts on my site so that the SIDC data is displayed side-by-side with my counts so I can compare the numbers.

You can see an example of this in the figures for May. There are differences, in some cases rather large differences (I expected this), but I was also heartened to see that the general trend in my counts seems to follow the "official" numbers.

File Under: Sun, Sunspots, Solar Observing, Solar Influences Data Analysis Center, Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Despite working with rather lowly equipment I've found myself getting more and more fascinated with solar observing — just the simple act of doing a sunspot count as often as I can has me rather enthralled.

This evening I was looking around the net for a source of sunspot numbers held in a sensible format¹ with a view to writing a small tool that would auto-compare my counts with the "official" ones to see how well I was doing. During that search I stumbled on The Solar Weather Browser.

SWB is available for Windows, MacOS and various types of Unix (including GNU/Linux, of course) and it seems to be an amazing bit of software. Think of it as the solar equivalent of the Virtual Moon Atlas.

If anyone out there is interested in following what's going on on the Sun and they want a tool that lets them view it in all sorts of ways (with the ability to travel back in time too) then they they should give SWB a serious look.

File Under: Sun, Sunspots, Solar Observing, Astronomy Software, Solar Weather Browser.

¹ I'm still looking. I've got one or two candidates but a source that publishes an RSS feed or some other form in XML would be really handy.

Luna, the magazine of the Lunar Section of the Society for Popular Astronomy is today's entry over on LPOD.

File Under: Luna, Moon, Society for Popular Astronomy.

I've just uploaded a new addition to my astronomy site: a page of solar graphs. The graphs are updated each time I record a new solar count.

At the moment I'm not really sure that they're that useful or have a sensible purpose. I guess, if nothing else, over a long period of time, I'll be able to see for myself how solar minimum turns into solar maximum.

File Under: Sun, Solar Observing, Sunspots, Graphs.

I finally had my 100^th observing session last night, and it was quite a treat too.

Early in the evening the skies were looking pretty clear (just some thin cloud and haze around, the Moon had a bit of a halo) but still very bright. However, I noticed that Jupiter was placed such that I'd be able to see it from my back garden (it's mostly been out of view for me this apparition because it never rises about my house and it's very difficult to observe from the front of the house). Given that not a lot else was going to be visible at a reasonable hour I decided to get the 905 out and have a look at Jupiter.

At first the image was pretty awful but, as the 'scope cooled, things improved. I could see three Jovian moons, two some distance either side of the planet and one quite close. As I watched and waited for steadier moments I kept noticing a very clear, dark and well defined spot near the north pole of the planet. Given that I was unsure if I was seeing things I swapped eyes, rotated the eyepiece, shifted the 'scope around a bit — anything to eliminate some artifact from something. The image of a dark spot persisted.

I then came into the office and fired up Starry Night Enthusiast 4.5 and zoomed in on Jupiter and, sure enough, there it was: the dark spot I was seeing was the shadow of Ganymede! Not just my first ever sight of a shadow transit but a totally accidental find too.

I first noted it in my log at 21:58UT (I estimate it was just over ½ way through the transit — I've not checked the times anywhere yet) and last caught sight of it at around 22:15 (when I finished making a rough sketch of what I was seeing so I could check things later on). After that some cloud got in the way and by the time it had cleared (around 22:50UT) I couldn't make the shadow out any more.

It was a really enjoyable experience. Not only had I seen a transit, I'd "discovered" it by accident — that sort of made it all the more special.

Edit: I've now published the observing session notes.

File Under: Jupiter, Shadow Transit, Ganymede.

Last Friday evening I had a bit of a fiddle with the code behind my online log system and ended up adding a facility that generates some simple statistics about the logs.

As of today's solar observing session I've had 99 observing sessions. One more to go and I'll have made it to 100 sessions. Just like when I filled by first log book, I know that it's somewhat arbitrary as a measure of progress, but it still feels like some sort of milestone. It's also interesting to note that over ½ of those sessions have involved the Solarscope — that confirms that I've made more solar observing sessions than anything else. That's not really surprising given that it's much easier to find a clear moment during the day than it is during the night.

File Under: Astronomy, Observing Logs, Milestones.

I seem to be having another one of those annoying times in regard to astronomy. The weather has been pretty awful for the last few weeks (during the night anyway) but the last two nights have been nice and clear. The only problem with this is that I'm just starting to throw off some sort of illness (one of those nondescript "bug" things that come around from time to time) and I've also got a stinking cold that developed towards the end of the first illness.

Also, to top it off, the swollen eyelid I developed back in March came back in the last few days. I went to see the doctor today and it seems like it's a Cyst on my eyelid (although nowhere near as bad as the one illustrating that article) and that it'll probably be a permanent thing. It seems the options are that I just put up with it swelling up from time to time (and treat it with a hot compress in the hope that it might make it go away) or I have some minor surgery to remove it. To just make it more fun it's in my main observing eye.

Okay, that's all the really Grumpy Old Man stuff out of the way. I feel much better for that. ;)

On a more positive note last month was my best month so far for solar observing (spotting breaks in the cloud during the day is so much easier isn't it?) and I've been really enjoying it. At some point I think I'll need to get into it a bit more, improve my methods of counting and cataloguing active areas and spots and try and write more descriptive reports.

I'm also quite taken by the idea of this solar observing binocular that Scopes'n'Skies have added to their site. On the surface they seem quite good for the price.

File Under: Moaning, Grumpy, Solar Observing.

To my eternal shame I wouldn't have realised this if it wasn't for the Bad Astronomer writing about it: not only is it the end of the world today, and not only is it Thursday, it turns out that it's Towel Day too!

Happy Towel Day everyone!

File Under: Towel Day, H2G2.

This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
— Arthur Dent

So, given that it's the end of the world tomorrow (UK time anyway), I thought I'd just take a moment to say thanks to all the other astronomy bloggers out there who read this little blog and who have provided me with amusement, inspiration and encouragement over the last year.

Annoyingly the forecast looks reasonable for the weekend so I probably had some observing coming – and it's a bank holiday weekend too.

Oh, and, if you don't mind: in the event that Eric Julien is wrong (what, really, you think he might be, or he might be having the biggest laugh possible? naaa, get out of here!) please pretend that you never read this blog entry.

File Under: Thursday, End of the World, H2G2.

It's the AGM of Newton's Astronomical Society and a little earlier this evening my son (who is 4) asked: "Are you going to your astrocomical meeting tonight?".

Sometimes, it does feel pretty comical doesn't it?

So, I headed off to Google and found that it's quite a common word. The best site I've found in that search so far is this one.

File Under: Astronomy, Comical, Astrocomical.

Last night I added a new section to my astronomy website: a Wiki. It lives at wiki.astronomer.me.uk.

There's not much there at the moment (just a couple of reviews) but the idea is that it'll be the place where I put longer articles that don't really fit well into the structure of the main site. I also plan to use it as a place to keep some of my longer blog entries (reviews, experiences, rants, etc...) that would otherwise be lost in the depths of the Blogger archive system.

Unlike most wikis I don't allow free-for-all editing (for obvious reasons) but, if you're a registered user, you can write comments in the discussion pages associated with each article.

For the geeks and nerds amongst us (what, some of us aren't geeky or nerdy?) the answer to the question you're thinking right now is DokuWiki.

File Under: Astronomy, Wiki, DokuWiki.

Further to yesterday's entry about comet 73P, I managed to get out last night and try and spot fragment B. While I did manage to spot it in the end I had a lot of trouble finding it and even when I found it the view was very unimpressive — from my location there was no way it was a "naked eye object even in moonlight".

You can read more about the hunt and what I saw in last night's log.

File Under: Comet, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

Kaustav just alerted me to this:

May 10: Component B has reportedly become brighter than component C! It is a naked eye object even in moonlight. There are also reports of arcs and jets. Bill Weir reported that, "When it slid into the FOV I was blown away. Although smaller, it looked as good if not better than C had ever looked. I couldn't believe how bright it looked even with all the Moonlight." There are signs that the outburst may already be in the decline so get this one tonight if you can!

From here.

File Under: Comet, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

While having a look on the Scopes'n'Skies website this morning (yes, I have been having a look around to see if there might be a handy way of mounting a mobile phone — sad isn't it?) I noticed a new link on the opening page for something called The Astronomy and Nature Centre.

Our Pre-owned Zones feature the largest second-user display in the UK with over 3000 used items available!

Oh no, and it's a reasonably short drive from where I live too. This is bad news.

File Under: Astronomy and Nature Centre, Scopes'n'Skies, Astronomy Equipment.

Last Friday I submitted a small number of jobs to the Bradford Robotic Telescope. So far I've had one back, it's an image of M13 in Hercules (which recently had a "close encounter" with comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3).

© Bradford University
As with previous shots, the above is simply a JPEG export from the FITS file via AVIS.

As I look at the image it's kind of interesting to think that the photons that went into making it will, at some point, have crossed paths with the Arecibo message.

File Under: Bradford Robotic Telescope, M13, Arecibo message.

On Friday night (actually Saturday morning by the time it happened), not long after posting my silly Moon images, I got an instant message via Skype from Kaustav to say that he'd got his 'scope set up, with webcam, and that it was pointing at Jupiter and did I want to try a little experiment? The experiment was to see how it would look if we started a video chat. So, we connected a voice call, fired up the video connection and this was the result:

Okay, not the best view of Jupiter — pretty terrible really, but I was impressed that it worked at all. Also, given that Jupiter is so low in the sky from here meaning that I can't see it from my observing location in my garden, that's the best view of the planet I've had so far this apparition.

File Under: Skype, VoIP, Webcam, Jupiter.

Had another enjoyable observing session tonight until cloud stopped play. The Moon was pretty much washing out the sky so I failed to observe the comet but I did spend quite a lot of time observing the Moon (the log will probably go online early next week). At one point earlier on in the session and while the sky was still quite light, I grabbed my mobile phone and took a couple of images through the eyepiece. The first, with (if I recall correctly) the 15mm eyepiece in place, was of the whole moon:

Given that it was hand-held at the eyepiece and given that the camera in the phone (a Nokia 6280) isn't that good the image turned out better than expected (and better than the handful that I deleted at the time).

Also, just for fun, I dropped the 6mm eyepiece into the 'scope and tried a closeup on the region around Ptolemaeus:

This one's not so good but the craters are recognisable when compared to a map.

I'm going to have to crack at some point in the near future and start to play with a webcam or something.

I managed to have another good night out with the 'scopes last night (the online copy of the log should be up later). The main targets were the Moon, Saturn and, of course, Comet 73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

I started out having a look at Saturn for a while and then moved on to having a good look around the terminator of the Moon. I got quite taken in by the view of Mare Serenitatis, especially the area around Dorsa Smirnov as it stood out very well. I did consider the idea of doing a sketch of the area, or at least a feature in the area, but decided against it as I wanted to move on to finding the comet. After seeing what Jeff got up to last night I'm sort of wishing I had made the effort now.

The view of the comet wasn't quite as good as the one I had a couple of nights back — moonlight seemed to be a bit of a problem. That said, I did manage to find fragment B this time around, I even had it in the same field of view as M13. Pete Lawrence managed to catch that sight really well in this image and this image (both from this page — I've pointed to them directly because Pete's updating the page after each session).

Update: The log of the session is now online.

File Under: Comet, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, Moon, Saturn.

Last night was the first clear night that coincided with free time that I've had for a while so I ventured out with both 'scopes and a binocular and managed a good couple of hours observing before the weather got in the way.

The best part was that I finally got a look at Comet 73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3!

File Under: Comet, Schwassmann-Wachmann 3.

Further to my last post about Billy Bragg's song The Space Race Is Over, I just noticed something about it that I'd never picked up on before:

And I watched the Eagle landing
On a night when the Moon was full

I take it he didn't watch it live then?

File Under: Bad Astronomy, Billy Bragg, Lunar Phases, Apollo 11, Pedantry.

My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo and he says
"Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?

From The Space Race Is Over by Billy Bragg.

Sometimes, just sometimes, when I've not been out for a good observing session for a while (thanks to weather and other things), I start feeling a little like that about maintaining an astronomy weblog.

File Under: Astronomy, Armchair Astronomy, Blogging, Billy Bragg.

Seen via a link in this article on Slashdot, it would appear that the SciFi channel is going to create a mini-series of Erich von Däniken's book Chariots of the Gods. Sounds like it could be fun, and I can't help but think that it could provide lots of fodder for the Bad Astronomer.

That bit of "almost related to astronomy" news aside, I'm also overjoyed to read that there's going to be a spin-off from Battlestar Galactica based around life on Caprica, around the time of the creation of the Cylons.

File Under: Kooks, Bad Astronomy, SciFi, Battlestar Galactica.

Via this post on the SPA BB, it seems there's a new astronomy magazine heading our way: Practical Astronomer.

Seems like a terribly brave venture given the number of astronomy magazines available currently in the UK (and that list isn't exhaustive).

File Under: Astronomy Magazine, Practical Astronomer.

I did make it to Astroblast on Saturday although I've not had the time to write up a report of it yet, I'm hoping I might get the chance this evening or some time tomorrow. The reason for this blog entry is to point to the first observing log entries I've made away from home. The first at Astroblast itself and the second on the way home afterwards.

Okay, what I observed doesn't quite fall under "astronomy" in some sense (and perhaps would fall better under the weather category — I'll probably give it a mention over there too) but it was too good not to record and note in my log book and in the online version of my logs.

File Under: Atmospheric Phenomena, Sundogs, Parry Arc, Halo, Circumzenithal Arc.

As I first mentioned a couple of months back this Saturday is Astroblast 2006 at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy. All being well I'll be popping along so I hope to write about it some time next week.

I do wonder how many people will attend. Either I've not been paying much attention it it's not been very well advertised in the UK astronomy press (and it seems I'm not the only one to get this impression). It's also interesting (and sort of worrying) to note that I appear to be the only person who has written about it in the UK astronomy blogs.

File Under: Astroblast, Green Witch, Cambridge Astronomical Association, Institute of Astronomy.

Don't forget, tonight is Yuri's Night.

File Under: Yuri Gagarin.

Tim had much better luck with the eclipse up in Scotland. He managed to get a nice set of shots of the event.

Oh, and now everything's over, it's starting to clear up here.

File Under: Partial Eclipse, Scotland.

I managed as long as this (about 10:00 UT):

and then cloud totally took over.

Still, at least I got to see something.

File Under: Partial Eclipse.

Unlike last time this morning is starting out clear. There's a few wispy, high-level clouds around but nothing to be too concerned about.

At the moment, it's looking good for the eclipse.

File Under: Partial Eclipse.

Despite the forecast saying cloud and rain I managed to get outside last Friday night for a very brief test of the Antares 905.

As you'll see from the log entry, I didn't really get to look at much (20 mins isn't really much of an observing session) but the brief time I was out with it didn't offer any "oh no, I've made a bad choice here" moments. Quite the opposite in fact, even in that brief time I had quite a lot of fun with the 'scope.

The current 5 day forecast from the Met Office shows no clear nights so, unless things improve, I'm probably not going to get to have a proper play with the 905 this week.

Worse yet, the 5 day forecast is also suggesting that, once again, I'm going to miss a partial eclipse.

File Under: Antares 905, Partial Eclipse, British Weather.

A couple of days ago, when I wrote about the arrival of the 905, I mentioned in passing that the book that was advertised as being included with the 905 wasn't in the package:

No sign of the free copy of Robin's book that they advertise as coming with the setup but I'm really not going to complain about that, partly because I think I'm a bit beyond needing that particular book but mostly because they did me a nice favour in swapping the eyepieces.

I was serious, it wasn't a complaint and I wouldn't complain. S'n'S had been more than accommodating as it was.

Well, I had a package turn up today (actually, it turned up yesterday, but I didn't get it until today thanks to the fun that is the Royal Mail and recorded delivery) and, inside was... yes, you guessed it, the book, along with a cover note that says:

Dave, Sorry we missed this off your order

You really didn't need to do that! But thanks anyway.

File Under: Good Customer Service, Scopes'n'Skies.

© Bradford University
Inspired by this gallery entry over on the SPA BB I decided to have a go at imaging M64 using the Bradford Robotic Telescope. As before, the image above is simply an jpeg export from AVIS, I've not done anything else to the image other than shrink it so it fits well in this post.

M64

Yesterday I said:

Perhaps I'll get lucky and we'll have a few hours of dark before the cloud rolls in...

I didn't get lucky. By the time it was dark the sky was totally overcast. I'm not seeing a clear night on the five day Met Office forecast for my area so it looks like I won't get to try the 'scope out for a while yet.

File Under: Bloody British Weather.

Sadly I didn't get to test the 905 last night because the skies were pretty awful all evening. By the time I finished work it was almost clear, but with some haze and thin cloud (and quite a lot of spread out contrails too from what I could tell). The darker it got that evening, the thicker the haze seemed to be.

By about 21:30 I pretty much gave up on the idea of getting the 'scope out for its first test. I'd like to test it with reasonable skies.

Now, the forecast for tonight is cloud but, at the moment, the sky outside is really clear. According to the Met Office it's going to be cloud from now until at least next Monday (that's as far as the forecast goes). Perhaps I'll get lucky and we'll have a few hours of dark before the cloud rolls in...

File Under: Antares 905, Telescope Testing.

The delivery from Scopes'n'Skies turned up this morning, before I was even out of bed! Pretty good going I think, less than 24 hours from placing an order to getting the delivery.

A short while later I take the parcel over to the office. I open the end of the outer box and, inside, see a box for a Bresser 700. My heart sinks. They've sent me the wrong bloody 'scope!

Arrrggghhhh!

At that point I decide to give them a call. I can't see much point in unpacking anything because it's all going to have to go back and you never manage to pack things up the same as the supplier does. I call but just get their recorded message that suggests you call back later or send them an email.

Bugger!

Now what? Keep calling? Send them an email? Do both? At that point I decide I'll call back again in around 5mins and, in the mean time, I'll slide the 700 box out of the packing and have a quick look inside anyway, being careful not to remove much so I'll get it all back in.

Sure enough, the only thing in the main box is the box for the 700. I open it and, right away, find an envelope with instructions and extras — all of which relate to the 700.

Nuts!

Thinking that they might have recycled the box and perhaps left some bits in I have a look inside the biggest box in the 700 box. A tripod, but exactly the sort of tripod that is shown with the 700. Next I find the mount, same mount as the 700. Finally I find the OTA.

It's an Antares 905!

Lots of swearing at myself follows.

It's only then that I notice a handful of little stickers on the outside of the 700 box that say "Antares 905".

So, there we go, I do have my Antares 905 but it didn't come with the mount and tripod that appear on the S'n'S website, instead it came with the mount and tripod from a Bresser 700. To be honest, at the moment, I'm not really sure if that's a good, bad or neutral thing. I've put the tripod and mount together and it seems reasonable enough, at least reasonable enough to carry the weight of something like the 905. I really wish they'd warned me to expect this though, if only to avoid the "oh crap" moment when I opened the main packaging.

As for everything else, it's all there. The swapped eyepiece and the red-dot finder I ordered to replace the finder that comes with the 905 (which looks pretty rubbish and, in all fairness, S'n'S did warn me that it was pretty bad and I'd probably want an upgrade for it) were both in there. On top of that I found what's got to be the worst lunar map I've ever seen (which appears to be in German, I think) and also the smallest planisphere I've ever seen — although, to be fair, the planisphere is quite a handy size).

No sign of the free copy of Robin's book that they advertise as coming with the setup but I'm really not going to complain about that, partly because I think I'm a bit beyond needing that particular book but mostly because they did me a nice favour in swapping the eyepieces.

The good news is that the forecast at the moment is for clear skies tonight. So, fingers crossed, I might actually get to give the 905 a try. Of course, nothing is that simple is it? For the past few days I've had what can best be described as an annoying feeling in my right eye and, this morning, I woke up with a swollen eyelid. Yes, in the eye I use most at the eyepiece.

Grrrrrr!

File Under: Antares 905, Scopes'n'Skies.

It's a year ago this month that I took delivery of the 130M and started to get back into observational astronomy and, in that time, I've been surprised to find how often I use a binocular to observe along side, or instead of, the 130M. There's something to be said for the wide-field views and the simple joy there is to be had from sweeping large areas of sky and getting big views of big objects.

The main problem, as many people find, is that a binocular isn't a very comfortable observing tool. While I know that there are some solutions — dedicated binocular brackets or mirror mounts for example — they've always tended to appear a little on the expensive side for my taste (the prices are understandable but I'm not yet at the point where I've got the sort of equipment that warrants spending that sort of money on just mounts — yes, yes, I know, the mount is important, but...).

With this experience in mind, for the past couple of months or so, I've been toying with the idea of getting a small 'scope that will more or less do the job of a binocular; the sort of 'scope that I can drag out into the garden in no time and which is portable enough that I can take it along to astronomical society meetings without having to drag along something that takes up a large part of the boot of the car.

While having a good look around to see what my options were (I'd set a budget somewhere around £100, a tight budget but not impossible, around the price of an acceptable binocular) I stumbled on the Antares 905 over at Scopes'n'Skies. I then spent some time searching around on Google to see if I could find any reviews of the 'scope but it seems it's pretty new so I couldn't find anything (well, apart from a boat with the same name but that didn't really help much).

After a short email exchange with the people at S'n'S I decided that I'd give it a go. So, this morning, I gave them a call and placed an order. All being well it should be with me tomorrow (here's where I should insert the usual thing about how it'll be cloudy for the next couple of weeks, but that's hardly a big deal given that it's been cloudy for the last couple of weeks anyway).

At this point, I'd like to praise the customer service of S'n'S (no, really, I don't have any connection with them other than being a very satisfied customer). The 905, as advertised on their site, comes with K9 and K25 eyepieces. I've already got 10mm and 25mm eyepieces in my collection (along with a 6mm and 15mm). In other words, the supplied eyepieces would pretty much clash with what I've already got. I asked if it would be possible to opt for something different, either of equal value or of different value and I'd pay the difference — I had my eye on a 32mm Plössl. Without any hesitation they said they'd be happy to do a straight swap. That's what I call great customer service! It's also fully in keeping with my past experiences of them, I've purchased a few items off them and I've yet to be disappointed — every time the delivery is swift and, the one time they made a mistake, they were quick and efficient when correcting it.

So, fingers crossed for a swift delivery and some clear skies real soon. I'll post a report of my first impressions once I get the 'scope and have a chance to drag it outside.

File Under: Antares 905, Scopes'n'Skies, Telescope.

...yesterday, apparently. If it weren't for Tim noticing I probably wouldn't have noticed either — which is kind of terrible really.

Giotto was such an amazing mission, there was something about it that was quite different from anything else I'd watched before (sorry, I'm too young to have watched and appreciated the first Apollo landing — besides, I was on holiday in Scarborough at the time, with no TV). As a child, reading all I could about astronomy, comets came over as such "mystical" objects while at the same time seeming to be almost in our grasp. Halley held a special place too because it's the comet that I read about the most and it was going to return "soon". The wait for Halley seemed to take ages (the 20 years that have passed seem to have flown) and the excitement of seeing something, anything, was incredible.

I spent that night watching it on TV, I think it was a Sky at Night special, along with a few other friends and fellow members of the York Astronomical Society.

Interestingly, from what I can gather, the craft is still out there and it last flew by Earth back in 1999.

File Under: Giotto, ESA, Comet Halley.

© Bradford University
Over the weekend I had my second successful result back from the Bradford Robotic Telescope. This time an image of M53.

This took a couple of attempts. I used the cluster camera for the first attempt but the field of view was far too wide and M53 was simply a small smudge in a large field. I then submitted three new jobs for M53 using the galaxy camera and with exposure times of 120,000ms, 60,000ms and 30,000ms. The 120,000ms job didn't work and was marked "Err: h/w problem" (not sure what that means, I'll have to go and read up), the 60,000ms job is the one shown above. The 30,000ms job looks more or less the same as the above except, oddly, it has the appearance of having had a longer exposure time.

I've not made any changes to the image other than to export it as a JPEG from the FITS image using AVIS.

File Under: Bradford Robotic Telescope, M53, Globular Cluster.

First they did the Earth. Then they (sort of) did the Moon. And, now, they've added Mars.

I hope they go back and do the Moon map with the same level of detail that they've given the Mars map.

Thanks to Rich Daley for the heads-up.

File Under: Google, Mars, Google Mars.

According to the BBC:

Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore, host of The Sky at Night, is being treated in hospital for heart problems.

The 83-year-old was taken to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex, on Tuesday evening.

File Under: Patrick Moore, The Sky at Night.

Yesterday morning I submitted a job to the Bradford Robotic Telescope. This morning I had an email sat waiting for me that said:

Hello, Telescope.org would like to inform you that an observation request you submitted has been completed!

That happened a lot sooner than I expected.

I've grabbed the image but haven't done anything with it yet. Here's a shrunk version:

© Bradford University
If you look at the full sized version of the image you'll see some trailing so I'm guessing that the tracking of the 'scope is off a little. Still, can't complain, as the email I received says:

Please be aware that the telescope is currently in beta testing - we are still working on the automatic focussing, tracking and cloud sensors to optimise the images. Please let us know if you think that your image could be improved - that helps us a great deal and put your request in again to get a better one! Thank you.

I think I'll have to have some more of a play with this. So far I'm rather impressed.

File Under: Bradford Robotic Telescope, M101, Pinwheel Galaxy.

Seems I'm having a bit of a Solar-oriented period at the moment. First I join the SPA Solar section, then I start trying to observe the Sun each day and do (at the very least) a sunspot count, then I create a section on my site for showing the results.

To top it off, last night on BBC4, I enjoyed a couple of programmes about the Sun — the edition of The Sky At Night was one of the most interesting I've seen in a long time, in particular I really liked Pete Lawrence's broken CD, screwdriver and cardboard box based device for observing the Sun's spectrum; I quite fancy building one myself.

And, finally, I read Ian Musgrave's blog entry about the solar minimum (which links to this article over at NASA). Although I knew it anyway it's still sort of nice to see that my current run of 0 sunspot counts is zero for a reason. I'm going to really enjoy starting at the bottom of the dip and working my way up.

No observation today though. I woke up to overcast skies and it's been raining since around 12:30. From the forecasts I've seen it'll be pretty much like this for the rest of the week.

File Under: Solar Observing, Sunspot Counts, Solar Minimum.

I've just done something I've been meaning to do for a while now: create an account with the Bradford Robotic Telescope. I've been meaning to do it for about a month now, ever since I saw the results that Jeff managed to get when he had a play.

This morning Tim happened to mention to me that he was having a play and that finally pushed me over the edge.

I've just submitted my first job request. I think I've started out easy by submitting a job to image M101.

File Under: Bradford Robotic Telescope, M101.

From here:

Researchers from Boston University have discovered the remnants of the largest crater of the Great Sahara of North Africa which may have been formed by a meteorite impact tens of millions of years ago. Dr. Farouk El-Baz made the discovery while studying satellite images of the Western Desert of Egypt with his colleague, Dr. Eman Ghoneim, at BU's Center for Remote Sensing. The crater was named Kebira, meaning "large" in Arabic.

File Under: Great Sahara, Remote Sensing, Crater.

As I pointed out a few days back, I'm now trying to make a point of observing the Sun at least once a day so that I can do active area and sunspot counts which can then be submitted to the SPA solar section.

Although I'm writing up my observations in my log I also wanted to keep some sort of tabular form of the counts — partly because it'll make it easier to fill in the monthly observation report, but also because I wanted the values in a form that I can manipulate without too much effort (perhaps graphing the values, or injecting them into a database or something).

Last week I quickly threw together a simple XML format for holding the data and, from now on, I'm adding my counts to files in this format. I'll be creating one file per month — you can see this month's file here.

This morning I added a new page to my astronomy site which displays the counts. It still needs a little more work, mostly just a case of adding links from each of the days listed to the related logs, but it's pretty much done and working. Probably not that useful to anyone but, as with other additions to the site, fun to work on and it gets a copy of the data "off site".

File Under: Sun, Solar Observing, Sunspot Counts.

Just had my first attempt at seeing Comet Pojmanski this morning. Very cold, down to -6.6°C at one point (although, to be fair, that's nothing compared to the -14°C Tom had to cope with), very murky on the eastern horizon.

I popped out a couple of times with the Meade 10x50 binocular to scan the right area of sky but failed to find any hint of the comet.

Still, it wasn't a total waste. It was a nice sky anyway (sort of odd seeing summer constellations in winter, kind of the reverse of when I was looking at winter skies at the tail-end of summer) and I did manage to get a look at Venus and Jupiter (whose moons were nicely visible in the 10x50s).

File Under: Comet, Comet Pojmanski, Venus, Jupiter.

Tonight has been much better than last night. It was clear at sunset (and what a view of the Moon!) and stayed clear (and still is clear).

I didn't stay out as long as I would have liked as it was very cold (by my standards anyway) and the 'scope and other items were starting to frost up. What made it worth it was the view of Saturn I had — the best view I've had since I first got the 'scope.

Unlike all other observations, this time I looked at it with the 6mm eyepiece and all the detail leapt out at me (crisp rings, shadows, Cassini Division) and pretty much stayed visible all the time. In the past those crisp and detailed moments have been the exception that I had to keep looking for; this time around they were the rule.

I've not typed up the notes yet — they should appear in today's log some time tomorrow.

File Under: Cold Night, Saturn.

After finally getting some sort of observing done yesterday afternoon I had high hopes for getting out with the 'scope in the evening. Right up until sunset the sky was pretty clear.

I finished up in the office around 18:30 or so and stepped outside to find — yes, that's right, cloud.

I then wandered into the house mumbling all sorts of things under by breath. About 1½ hours later (after an episode of Stargate Atlantis so not a dead loss <g>) I had another look out and it was nice and clear. So, I went and dragged the 'scope out into the garden, headed back into the house and layered up (it was already below 0°C), had a quick cuppa while giving the 'scope time to cool and then went back out....

....to find more cloud.

Aaaarrrrggggghhhhh!

Dragged the 'scope back into the office and gave it up as a bad job.

File Under: Annoying Weather.

After over a month without a single recorded observation (the last was on 2006-01-24) I've finally had the time and the weather to look at something and record it! Okay, in this case, it was a very brief look at the Sun, but at least it was an observation and I recorded something.

Actually, this sort of fits in well with something I did recently. I've been meaning, for a long while now, to hook up with one of the SPA observing sections. Last week I dropped a line to the director of the solar section and I've now got a bunch of information and some observing sheets sat here. From now on I want to observe the Sun at least once a day (time and weather permitting, obviously) so that, at the very least, I can do a sunspot count via my Solarscope.

Totally unrelated to the above, I notice that Megan has spotted some strange happenings over at Jodrell Bank. Perhaps the explanation is that Jupiter got knocked out of place when JB was dragged back in from the North Sea? ;)

File Under: Solar Observing, Jodrell Bank.

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