Gfamily

As far as I can tell, there is no good knowledge of the mass of the asteroid. The best estimate comes from a mathematical model of the solar system that interprets ephemeris data to determine how interactions between Asteroids allow calculations of masses The asteroid itself is included in the paper for the 2010 version of the model (though that itself notes that the mass is 'unrealistic'). Later iterations of the paper do not include the asteroid in their tabulations. Using a clearly unreasonable value for the mass as a basis for hypothesising the existence of ultradense matter (almost 4x the density of the most dense element) is umm, a stretch! A paper containing the density calculation https://arxiv.org/pdf/1203.4336.pdf Another paper giving the tabulated mass (not included in later versions) https://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.4419.pdf

I believe the film (not necessarily the best film ever, but one of many people's top 5) is available on the Channel 4 Catch Up service for the next few days. Spoiler for the Film Name under this link ETA - Ooops, accidentally given away that it's associated with a film.

Can you find some elsewhere? They look similar to those used in better made cassette tapes.

Not sure about whether people take their own scopes I understand that High Legh openng depends on the weather, but if you go to their website you can send them your phone number and they'll put you on a list to be messaged if they're running a Friday evening session. It's a bit further away for you, but I know that Liverpool AS always meet at Pex Hill (Widnes) observatory on Wednesday evenings, and people do take their own gear.

Hi Rob Depending on where you are in Cheshire, you may well find yourself local to one of several Astronomy Societies, which can be a good way of finding fellow astronomy enthusiasts. There are clubs in - Chester, Macclesfield, High Legh, Wincham & Pickmere and South Cheshire and my own club, the Mid Cheshire Astro Group who meet near Delamere Forest. If you look on the excellent GoStargazing.co.uk website you can see where and when they meet. https://gostargazing.co.uk/stargazing-events-future/

The RSPB are looking to know more about the practice, and have set up a website where you can let them know about where there have been heather burns. https://upland-burning-rspb.hub.arcgis.com/pages/report-a-burn

It looks like the Brian Cox / Jeff Forshaw book is down to 99p on Google Play Books for today anyway.

No problem - BTW, well done on the 'place appropriate' name of your observatory - like like like !

The interview includes a comment that the number of PNs is significantly lower than would be expected given the population of suitably sized red giant stars. If I heard it correctly, if almost all red giants of the right size were to generate a PN, we'd expect to see far more of them. Also, (admittedly less convincingly) the observation is made that if the first two PNs studied by JWST show that a multiple star system is required to explain their structure (structure that was not previously obvious), then it may be more than a coincidence. But given the populations argument above, it may indeed be more than a coincidence. Hence, further analysis is required.

Details from the Liverpool AS website https://liverpoolas.org/event/martin-mere-wwt-star-party/ Details from the WWT/Martin Mere website https://www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/martin-mere/whats-on/star-party-with-liverpool-astronomical-society Booking required - tickets £10.

When do Planetary Nebulae form? I've always read of them as being the last stage of smaller Red Giant stars; their outer layers being puffed off at their end of life. However, a listen to a recent Awesome Astronomy Podcast seems to suggest that 'it's a bit more complicated than that'. An interview with Dr Robert Wesson covered the results of the JWST imaging of the Southern Ring Nebula (one of the Initial Release images) and more recent imaging of M57 'our' Ring Nebula. An article here about the JWST results that Dr Robert Wesson worked on, suggesting that PNs form within multiple star systems. https://scitechdaily.com/webb-space-telescope-reveals-mysterious-arcs-intricate-details-in-the-remains-of-a-dying-star/ and a copy of the recent paper on Arxiv. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.09027.pdf Further investigations are clearly required

Ok I've used astrometry to identify the three brightest stars as HD199770 HD197407 HD197559

Can you give the RA/Dec ?

Photo on PC desktop (imaged after a Lovell Lecture talk) Image on Laptop (using an 'oil painting' filter)

Yes, took advantage of an offer a couple of years ago and look forward to getting the bi-monthly magazine, which has articles for the different special groups as well as a section for young astronomers. It usually has up-to-date news on research etc, so is valuable in that regard. One difference to the 'newsagent' monthly magazines is that it's very light on adverts - which, is likely to appeal to some readers.

Just to be clear, (and apologies if this is obvious), the t adapter has two parts - one is a ring with the internal t-thread, the other will be specific to your camera mount. You buy them both together If you do an ebay search for " t mount for <insert camera make and model here>" you will get the one you want.

It makes more sense (or at least, it's easier to see what's going on) if you use this ESA slider image that shows both the NIRCam image (as above) and the MIRI image. https://esawebb.org/images/comparisons/potm2307/

You might do better if you change your telescope type - a newt may be more amenable than a cat.

Given that it looks like Stellarium is using a photo based image of the stars, I'd put that down as being an internal reflection of Vega.

Ah, but not all systems are immediately conducive to allowing indoor practice. I was asked to help someone out with a Celestron SLT today - my first experience with this scope. Unfortunately, because (I assume) it works on relative displacements between whatever three bright 'alignment' stars are selected, I wasn't able to do a fake sorry indoor alignment .

It's worth noting that if you use the Point And Track with the SynScan app, it doesn't update the telescope position details onto Sky Safari. I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned that you can run the SynScan app in 'Emulator mode' so you can practice linking that app with the Sky Safari app. Also, when using Sky Safari to find your targets, it can often be useful to adjust the 'Star Magnitude' until it only shows the stars you can see through the eyepiece. That is how I make sure I'm seeing what I want to look at.

One thing I particularly like about the Synscan app is that it has a 'Point And Track' capability. This means you can use the scope for tracking without having to do an initial align. If you can see your target (Moon, planet, brighter target) you can find it in the app's catalogue, point the telescope at it (using the finder if necessary) you can then simply use the Point And Track option. The scope then knows what its future movement will be across the sky, and can track it.

I may have posted this already - it's one of my most favourite Private Eye cartoons ever. Apologies if anyone is seriously offended

Trying to imagine the gravitational attraction between - - some imaginary mass and some ordinary mass - two pieces of imaginary mass - three pieces of imaginary mass!

For those of us that could get here early, we've had an unexpectedly clear clear evening. For the first hour or two, typically half the sky was cloudy (which half varied as the clouds moved) but by about 10:30 it was pretty clear all over. As it was the evening before the Star Party proper, there were some 'non Astro' guests staying, and they were delighted to be shown some of the treasures of the night sky - almost as much as we were delighted to be able to share the views with them. I do hope we get some reasonable viewing once the party starts proper, but I think we may have had the best night already.