Paul M

Ah!, we've objected on two occasions to neighbour's planning applications. A few years ago our next door neighbour to our south submitted plans for a 2 story extension on the back of the house. Given the close proximity of their building line to our boundary we were very concerned about loss of sunlight on our garden which has a good southerly aspect. I was particularly concerned about loss of half my southern horizon for observing. We were successful. They were granted a single story extension which we were more than happy for them to have. They had no use for the extension. Two of them living in a large 4 bed house. They were only building value into the property with a loss of amenity for us. Then more recently the neighbour over the back, to our west, put in plans to knock down their existing detached garage and build an attached double garage, again right along the boundary causing loss of my already limited W horizon, my "Venus Slot". Those plans were approved with a modification to the roof line. Again, 2 people living in a 5 bed house just building value in with loss of amenity for us. The bright, open aspect of our back garden was one of its attractions when we bought it so felt it was worth fighting for. We spend a lot of time pottering around out back!

That is a good point well made. The Sun will be quite low anyway. May be worth planning an observing site in advance for those with poor horizons or time limited viewing window.

I have wondered since before the onset of middle age, whether I'll ever see the sky like that ever again. You give me hope that it is just UK skies and not my eyes that limit my vision!

I'm on a 12 hour day shift. I don't get leave outside of my rota so only sickness, compassionate leave or a shift swap to choose from. Shift swaps are a source of great angst in the workforce so I'll be in work! Planning on getting a full aperture solar filter for my 127 Mak. I'm sure I'll get a chance to get a look if the weather permits. I don't take formal breaks so I have some considerable flexibility providing that there isn't some crisis in progress.

I always enter SGL via the unread posts menu option https://stargazerslounge.com/discover/unread/ . I have that as a bookmark. Then on any thread I'm interested in I either click the little star immediately to the left of the thread title for threads I've posted in or the white dot for threads I've not posted in and it takes me directly to the first unread post of the thread. Apologies if this isn't new or even helpful but it works for me and I avoid trawling through much stuff I've already seen.

Dave, what software are you using? I don't currently do Solar but with the transit of Mercury looming large in the calendar I'm thinking about getting a full aperture solar filter for my cute little 127 Mak. ISS transits would be a nice distraction until the Sun reawakens... if it ever does! Unfortunately I'm on a 12 hour day shift on the day of Mercury's foray across the Sun but I think the little Mak is ideal for sneaking a peek

From a purely aesthetic view point, I prefer the 1st image. The background seems darker and the overall result "seems" a bit sharper.

Just watching this on iPlayer. Really enjoying it. I'd given up on S&N. Maybe a live, informal astro-chat would be something they could do more often? Everything that Stargazing live could have been but mostly failed.

Yup, that's what he used. Sure my eyes were watering and he was cackling like a deranged demon!

This is a GPS module that is an accessory to the Synscan handset for the Skywatcher mount:

Last time I saw a set like that I was getting an incisor root canal done! ....or was it a lobotomy?

It's interesting to see the wide variety of individual samples. Some of my readings explain how the initial breakup at high altitude spawned smaller fragments that were still travelling fast enough to continue to melt and contort. Others were produced by explosive fragmentation at lower altitude, those are the sharp edged, very irregular specimens. And a whole array of meteorites in between! These things, like the recent Chelyabinsk event, have a habit of missing highly populated areas. Lets hope it stays that way.

Interesting. I looked round for more about this meteorite event. These two articles are interesting; the first seems to have been poorly translated into English: http://www.topo.biz/2013/02/sikhote-alin-is-an-iron-meteorite-that-fell-in-1947-on-the-sikhote-alin-mountains-in-eastern-siberia/ https://www.catchafallingstar.com/sainformationa.htm

I'm a visual observer except for an odd eclipse photo or Moon shot. However, some 31 years ago, after I got married and "left home" my mother showed me a film canister she found in the freezer and asked if it was mine ( I guess she looked inside). It was. A roll of hypered tec pan 2415!! Talk about having neither the gear nor the idea!

That's a nice job, well done I was hoping to see it rising here this morning but was clouded out