Gfamily

I remember the predictions of a very quiet Solar Cycle for #25. https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-forecast-update Yet it looks like we're potentially heading for the most active cycle on record.

You can take any image and add straight lines to it to make separate 'zones' for different types of program shortcuts Then, in Windows Explorer, right click on the image and select the 'Set as desktop background' menu item. Then drag the icons into the appropriate area

If you have a laminator, it is easy to print onto paper and make a fairly resilient mask that way. I made my own yesterday - used an online generator which i printed out and laminated. I then cut out the white bits with a craft knife and steel rule. I then cut around the mask, leaving 4 tabs that I can use with an elastic band to attach to the OTA (a 72mm refractor in my case)

Haven't been able to find any ray diagrams for it, but there's information here that might be of interest https://joseph-tang.blogspot.com/2017/11/tair-3-300mm-telephoto-lens.html https://allphotolenses.com/lenses/item/c_857.html http://photohistory.ru/1207248188998898.html (in Russian)

Try this page http://www.astronomycafe.net/FAQs/q1890x.html And this formula cos(A) = sin(d1)sin(d2) + cos(d1)cos(d2)cos(ra1-ra2)

This isn't the reason.

It's because the daytime ecliptic is low in the winter and high in the summer. Conversely, the nighttime ecliptic is high in the winter and low in the summer. When you saw the sun it was in the daytime, and when you saw the moon it was nighttime.

This link works https://www.eso.org/public/products/papermodels/papermodel_0005/ (15 hour construction time!). But your link was useful as it also gave a link to constructing a paper model of an ALMA dish https://www.eso.org/public/products/papermodels/papermodel_0001/

... that Saturn's moon Titan made a very rare transit of the Crab Nebula. This allowed the Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope to make an X-Ray image of Titan's atmosphere, data which was later used to help interpret the data captured during the descent of the Huygens probe in 2005

I can't give any specific advice, but would point out that NZ is known as 'The Land of The Long White Cloud' for a reason. We were there for 3 weeks in December a few years ago, and only had two evenings where we could do any astro - and one of those was clear for just 30 minutes. By the way, if you go to the Christchurch Museum, they have an element of the scale model of the Solar System that was created at Otford in Kent for the millennium. On the scale of the model, Christchurch is the right distance for the location of Ross 154 in Sagittarius.

I got a Manfrotto 028 Tripod on ebay a few years back and it goes to over 7ft There's currently one on sale with about 15 hours remaining https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325465606999 I was lucky that there were two similar auctions going on at the same time with about 5 minutes between their closing time - the first went for considerably more than the second, and I was bidding on the second one so paid less than £75. As a tripod it's intended for Studio use, but works well outside - very solid and rather heavy as a result.

Apparently, the computer network used by the Atacama Large Microwave Array was the victim of a ransomware attack in October, and is only now coming back on stream. It's estimated that the effective loss could be valued at over £1.5m per week. Cyber security matters. https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.2.20221212a/full/

We bought a copy and had it signed by Andy when he was doing a signing at Jodrell Bank a couple of weeks ago. They have an exhibition of selected images on display for the next few months. It's an extra reason for going.

Turns out it's a bit more complicated than that...

MrsG caught me imaging Mars a few hours before the occultation. By 'eck it was cold. Not the weather for getting first light on a new camera

The last visible in the UK was something like 70 years ago, so two in 120 years is still 'pretty rare'. Globally, I guess they are more frequent than that, but (like total solar eclipses), for a specific location they are relatively rare

This evening saw Chris Lintott give the December Lovell Lecture at Jodrell Bank - he's very good! The next Lovell Lecture is on 19th January. Given by Prof Christopher Conselice and will be Origins: The Big Bang To Intelligent Life And Everything In Between. https://www.jodrellbank.net/events/professor-christopher-conselice-origins-the-big-bang-to-intelligent-life-and-everything-in-between/

The box we had from them last week says "May Contain Snow" - haven't dared open it yet.

For the Moon, you shouldn't have any problem getting it in the field of view, but for planets, it'l be worth boosting the exposure or the gain right up high. The focus is likely to be way out, so the image of the target will be bigger (and more diffuse) than you might expect, so boosting the gain should allow you to see the out of focus image - even if it's slightly outside the field of view of your sensor. ETA - once you know roughly where the focus point is, it'll be time to switch to a nearby bright star and use a Bahtinov mask to refine and lock down the focuser.

What are you trying to focus on? Start with something bright - the Moon if it's visible, or Jupiter (or even a distant streetlight). If you know you have something bright properly centred in the field of view, then you can start adjusting the gain and the exposure to get the image on the screen.

You shouldn't need a dedicated polar scope illuminator - just shine a red-light torch roughly across the open end of the polarscope and move it around - it should illuminate enough for you to see the polar clock reticule. ETA - the Star Adventurer is compact enough so you should be able to do this comfortably.

The gift shop at Jodrell Bank has both on sale. Probably not a helpful answer, but you never know... 😉

If all your older devices were set up to use TeamViewer using the old router, but your new laptop was only set up under the new router, that might explain why the old router can't get remote access to it. Might it be worth a try to swap over your home network router to the old one and reinstall TeamViewer on the new laptop? Not confident at all that it'll work, but you never know.

Via the FAS website I've asked the FAS newsletter editor whether they're happy for the newsletter to be shared wider than just members of associated societies. Back copies are already available to all on their website, so I don't expect that they will say "no"

If people are interested in visiting the Kielder Observatory, here's some lessons learned from our recent visit to the NE of England. The Observatory is at the top of a 2km track, for pre-booked vehicles only, and the carpark at the bottom is £2 for 1 hour (not long enough) or £5 for all day. (that said, we were there on a cold November Friday and took 90+ minutes and we didn't get a ticket having only paid for 1 hour). Make sure you have plenty of coins as payment is by cash only. Away from the towns, phone signals are fleeting, so don't expect to be able to look things up unless you're lucky. It's a nice walk up though - with signs on the way up representing the distances to the planets - Neptune by the Car Park, and the Sun near the top. If you're not on an arranged visit, there's not a lot to see at the Observatory itself. It's a lovely building in a great site, but there's not a visitor centre or any facilities as such. We stayed at the Bellingham Camping and Caravanning Club site, which is about 25 minutes from the Car Park - the campsite is very positive about its location in a Dark Sky area - it minimises the amount of lighting across the site - and it holds its own Astronomy Star Parties. We took our binoculars and small refractor, but only managed a short session of observing as the rain swept through at very regular intervals.