Gfamily

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.

I think it's a fair question - if you consider a dSLR, the lens produces an inverted image on the sensor, but what's saved (or output to the image capture software) is restored to the 'correct' alignment, so a piece of dust at the bottom of the sensor will actually affect the top of the output image. If you're using an astro imaging camera it's not obvious (to me at least) whether the same 'correction' applies. However, as you point out - masking a corner of the sensor will clarify for the OP how to relate the sensor position to the camera output.

Liverpool Astronomical Society, in conjunction with Liverpool Library and World Museum have arranged a day to mark the 50 years since the last Apollo mission. 10th December - 9:30 to 3:30 - free for all. There will be talks, activities, and Solar Observing (weather dependent) on the roof. It is hoped that 8 or 9 local astronomical societies will be there.

I get a redirect to a security enrolment page. I'm not going to follow it.

If you want to come in to Liverpool on Saturday 10th, there is a "50 years since Apollo 17" day at the Central Library and World Museum. There are talks etc, and it's hoped that there'll be 7 or 8 Astro societies from around the area. It's being organised by the Liverpool AS, but if you drop by the Mid Cheshire AG table I'll say hello. If you and your son are into camping - I can thoroughly recommend going to a Star Party with your scope. These are particularly good for people sharing advice, showing how they use kit and the like.

There is a Livestream - though it's currently offline https://video.ibm.com/channel/b4dEcL3bJKW Saw some lovely images yesterday Was amused by the info panel

Thanks for that; it's an interesting thought. My 'perspective' is that if the distance between the Earth and the Sun is scaled to 1 inch (the length of the tip of your thumb), then 1 light year is 1 mile (1.6km) and the nearest star is 4.2 miles (6.7km) away. When Bessel measured the parallax of the star 61 Cygni in 1838 it was the equivalent of measuring the parallax of something about 13 miles (21km) away just by comparing the view using the left eye and then the right.

There's been a recent thread about what people's favourite magazine, and to be honest, it's very much a personal choice. Unfortunately, it seems that the magazines on newsagents' shelves are usually released in plastic wrappers so you can't easily browse them to see which you prefer If you have a local astro society it may be worth getting in touch and seeing if anyone can bring some examples along to have a look at.

Which begs the question of when will the universe know that across the scale of the universe there is nothing else but photons - of course this can never be 'known' - at least not under the current cosmology.

Space is a measure of the separation between objects Another measure is the separation between events, and this is what we call time. Relativity tells us that they aren't independent - or at least people who understand relativity tell us this. One of the ways of understanding the expansion of the universe is that there is a 'scale factor' that determines how the space between objects is increasing as time progresses. I don't understand this either. ETA - But I have a telescope that shows me things, and other people have other devices that show me other things. And they give me joy (and sometimes a pretence of understanding).

I can see one way that that could be true ... Let us suppose that there are two options There is a real universe with laws and stuff - and we're in this. This Universe is real and exists. We are living in a simulation on some superior intelligence's super computer. We're all here, all existing, all interacting, all seeing, all detecting, all experiencing the simulation's laws and stuff If we are in the simulation, it's not likely that there's only one instance of the simulation - what would be the point of that? So, we expect that if it were a simulation, there are multiple simulations. Even if there are only two, that makes it a 2:1 shot that the universe is illusory - if 100, then it's 99% likely that we live in a simulation, and our experiences are illusory. Personally, I don't think there's any evidence that we do live in a simulation - but it's something to consider for a different perspective.