Gfamily

If anyone's got a spare mount (alt az preferred) that they'd be willing to bring to lend out for the weekend I'd be grateful. We're arriving from a couple of weeks in France, and when I was packing I remembered everything (scope #1, scope #2, eyepieces, camera, other camera, laptop, dust blower, flattener. Solar filters, bahtinov mask. Intervalometer, spare 2032 button cell even), but forgot the tripod and mount! 😕🤬🤡 I'll be happy enough sharing mrsG's binoculars, but if there's someone with a spare tripod and mount, I'd be grateful. We're on pitch 28. And if anyone needs a spare 2032 button cell, pitch 28 has at least one going spare.

Here's a post by a professional astronomer about it. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-recently-discovered-gas-cloud-near-andromeda-stumps-astronomers/ As described, this was initially detected by one team, and verified separately by another observer. A follow up paper https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/acaf7e#artAbst

One of the points when this was originally identified, is that this is a wide angle (almost 10° wide) field image taken using narrow band filters for long exposures. In the old phrase; "Pick two of the three" - there are not that many professional instruments that can manage such widefield imaging (without having to take multiple images and mosaicking them) - it is very hard to get auth to allocate multiple hours of time on any target.

I'm not an EAA user, but as a primarily visual user, a neat feature of the AZ GTi (or 'e') is the point and track capability, so if you can manually find a target that's in its internal catalogue, you don't even need to do an initial alignment - just set it up so the bubble mount is level select the target in the app find the target in the scope - manually or by slewing (finish with an 'up and right' to remove the backlash and it the Point and Track button. it'll track the target from then on.

I bought direct from an US ES sale a few years ago with no problem. A lovely 25mm eyepiece for $25 plus a little for shipping. Was concerned I might get stung for duties etc, but it wasn't a problem. Only after I'd ordered it did I realise it was a 2" ep, so it cost as much again to get the 2" diagonal in UK. Haven't used it much, but the combo works very well for terrestrial use with my little refractor (I can cope with a L/R reversal)..

There's a new version (8) of Virtual Lunar Atlas released to mark its 20th Anniversary. It doesn't show specific phase views (that would take at least 14 views per feature), but it's pretty clear. Not available as an App - but ... https://ap-i.net/avl/en/download

Ian Morison* has a blog called "Astronomy Digest" which covers a lot of basic details for imaging, processing and all aspects. What's particularly useful is that he's covered imaging with the Sony A5000, so the A6000 will be very similar. https://www.ianmorison.com/the-sony-a5000-apsc-mirrorless-camera-an-astrophotography-bargain/ An external Intervalometer will be very useful (about £12-£15 on ebay) and, with this, the best setting to use is to shoot Manual using Bulb mode on BRK-C. This is intended to be used as a Bracket Mode , but the main advantage is that the combination means that it doesn't take a Dark Frame image after each shot. Here's an image of C2022 E3 ZTF that I took using the A5000 camera and a 72mm F/6 scope. (24x 13s exposures stacked in DSS). It's not the best by a long way, but it shows what's easily possible. * formerly Gresham Professor of Astronomy, worked at Jodrell Bank, great speaker and very knowledgeable.

Not sure how long this will be available at this price, but the e-book version of Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is currently available on Google Play and on Kindle for £1.99 rather than the list price of £19.99 Google Play https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Michael_J_Neufeld_Milestones_of_Space?id=FbqXAwAAQBAJ Kindle https://www.amazon.co.uk/Milestones-Space-Smithsonian-Michael-Neufeld-ebook/dp/B00KEC1Y8Q Edit, Hi Mods - if there's a better place for this post, let me know.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee had a meeting today to discuss the issues of Noise Pollution and Light Pollution. The discussion on Light Pollution (including a question from Lord Martin Rees) is about an hour long, and includes representatives from the Institute of Lighting Professionals and other organisations. https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/c518f605-9151-41a8-a8a0-19f87e8b5a78?in=11:17:46 @SteveNickolls it's probably worth pointing your MP to the link - because it's clearly recognised that there's much to be done, and the government should be active in the process of reducing light pollution levels. I have to pass on my thanks to Neill from gostargazing.co.uk who let me know that the HoL Committee were meeting today.

Mrs G has seen Neptune through 10x50s - under definitely darker skies though, so Uranus will be easily visible

Check how your local area is responding, and promote, promote, promote...

Planets are over-rated (apart from Saturn and the Moons of Jupiter)* but with a scope like yours there's plenty of DSOs that are worth looking at. M81 and M82 in Ursa Major are good, as are the many open clusters in Cassiopeia and around. We're coming up to prime Galaxy season, starting with the Leo triplet - and the galaxies above the bowl of Virgo. As we get to the Summer months, there's the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, as well as the planetary nebulae, the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, and the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) in umm, Vulpecula ?? As has been suggested, if you look for the 'tonight's best' on any app, it'll give you a worthwhile list of what to look out for from your location for the evening. * OK - not a fair comment, but with your 150mm aperture, you have more light gathering capability than is absolutely necessary for the brighter planets - in principle, you will be get less diffraction limited with a bigger aperture, but manytimes, our seeing is atmospherics limited rather than diffraction limited.

An excellent idea - and I've emailed my MP to let him know about it. He's previously been encouraged to join the parliamentary group on Dark Skies, which he's declined to do, though he has said that he's asked to be put on their email list (whatever that is). It's good to see that the FAS (Federation of Astronomical Societies) has sent out an email notice to Astro Societies about the petition, so hopefully it'll get some traction with club members.

Let's not have this derailed - got to keep focus (apologies) I'd suggest including an embedded copyright message in any 3d designs you submit in future (says someone who has no idea how these things work - but kind of think the last few layers could leave an indented message)

I checked recently as someone contacted me through our Astro Society, and as of Friday there were 4 pitches still available - none with EHU I'm afraid, but if you can be self contained, there are some free. I can confirm that Astrocamp is a very friendly Star Party - and a good Podcast too,

To be fair, we have a narrower spectral response than other species - snakes have IR detectors that they use for prey detection, and some insects have sensitivity well into the near UV, which many flowers 'use' to lead insects to their pollen/nectar. On the other hand; as primates, we seem to have a wider spectral discrimination than other mammals, who often seem to have a reduced capacity for colour vision. To modify your quote - Life is clever at using the resources it needs!

Somehow your link to the Giottos blower is actually a link back to this page.

For general use, my personal advice would be to go for a pair that isn't going to be a burden - so look at a small pair that is more likely to be picked up before he goes out. My favourite pair is probably my Pentax Papillio II binoculars - mine are the 8.5x21 (they also come as a slightly lower power 6.5x magnification). Their unique feature is that they have a very close focus - down to about 0.5 metres. So, not only can you use them for looking at the usual birds in trees etc, you can just as easily use them for looking at bees on flowers close up. I sometimes use them in museums so that I can get close up views of the exhibits in their glass cases - so it's valid to think of them as long distance microscope as much as a close distance binocular. Their optical quality is what you would expect from Pentax - but their price is lower than you'd expect (Jessops currently have them for £99 / £109 depending on power). Review here If your dad has an interest in Astronomy, then these really don't have the aperture - but for general use, they are more versatile than most binoculars.

Unlikely you'd consider one if you were considering the other. Vendor details removed to avoid their embarrassment

Good to know anyway. Thanks for the update - still overcast here.

It's being reported that Aurorae are being seen as far south as Oxford - and maybe more. It's cloudy where we are, so if you get images, do share...

Yes, an interesting question. As it happens, my biggest single Astro purchase was my Meade LS8 SCT, and that's the scope I'd miss least. Optically it's fantastic - particularly since I had it serviced at Orion Optics, but it's big and heavy, and although it's meant to be self aligning, it's not quite the 'switch it on, and in 5 minutes you'll have impeccable GOTO etc' that's promised. Also, if you only want to see part of the Pleiades or the famous Perseus double one and a half cluster, it's ideal - but the Narrow FOV is a bit of an issue. So, in the hypothetical event - I'd maybe have a couple of grand to consider what to buy with, but I'm generally happy with my 72mm Frac for widefield, and my 127mm Mak for narrow field observing, so I'm not sure what I'd actually do.

I don't know if anyone here follows the Channel 4 series "New Life in the Sun", but their follow up "Where are they now?" series has just broadcast the update on Astrofarm France, picking up on the setting up of the Astronomy Centre in the Charente area of France. Founded by Andrew and Sue in 2016, it is now just run by Sue and her son Joe - Andrew returned to UK and passed away in 2019. It now alternates between a residential site for Astronomy (around New Moon) and a small recording studio (around Full Moon). A good watch, and if you're quick you can see me in the background at one point. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-new-life-in-the-sun-where-are-they-now/on-demand/72388-004

An advantage of buying directly from local dealers is that it keeps local dealers in business. They have a wider stock range than just from ZWO, and they have a wealth of experience that we as users and consumers can call upon when we're not sure what we need. Not only that, they often have a back room full of assorted connectors, gadgets and whatchamacallits that we don't have, but we find we need. As far as ZWO are concerned, I'm sure they find it a lot more economical to deal with dealers rather than with individuals - but they keep their stock available for customers who don't have local dealers available to them.

I have a feeling that Noether's Theory states that angular momentum would not be conserved if systems were not symmetrical under rotation. If c varied by angle of propagation, rotational symmetry would be broken and angular momentum would not be conserved. Since angular momentum is conserved, i am confident that c does not vary by angle of propagation. I don't expect anyone will be willing to accept my view without looking into it further, but if anyone can give a rigorous rebuttal I'll be happy to agree.