2006-03-01

Finally, an observation! (albeit a small one)

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.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol :-)

Jeff Stevens said...

Joining the SPA Solar Section eh? The lure of the Coronado PST may be difficult to resist for too much longer then Dave?

Anonymous said...

I just made a solar filter for my LX200 so I could at least get some scope time in :-)

It was kind of a treat not rummaging around in the dark looking for connectors and parts!

Dave Pearson said...

Jeff, I wish. If I had the cash spare I'd buy one without giving it a second thought. For the moment anyway I think I'll be content with doing sunspot counts with the Solarscope and making my little contribution and, hopefully, learning something along the way.

Starting around Solar minimum, and at the start of a month, is a nice bonus. This way I can work my way up to the really active periods.

Matt, yeah, I know what you mean. Daytime observing is somehow a whole lot more civilised isn't it?

Ian Musgrave said...

The downside of solar minimum is that there isn't much to see. A nice smooth, uniform solar surface has only so much interest.

But there are ISS transit to catch and this years transit of Mercury!

Dave Pearson said...

As the target for a learning process I don't see that as a downside. Zero sunspots is just as informative and just as valid an observation as more then zero sunspots.

As for the transit of Mercury -- you do know I'm in the UK don't you? ;)