Grant

Continuing a bit of a Solar theme, this Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Colin Stuart of https://www.colinstuart.net/ giving us his talk 'Rebel Star - The Sun's Greatest Mysteries'.  Colin an astronomy speaker and author who has talked to over half a million people about the universe, ranging from schools and the public to conferences and businesses. He has written sixteen books which have sold more than 350,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 21 languages. He has also written over 200 popular science articles for publications including The Guardian, New Scientist, The Wall Street Journal and European Space Agency.

In recognition of his efforts to popularise astronomy, the asteroid (15347) Colinstuart is named after him. In 2014 he was awarded runner-up in the European Astronomy Journalism Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He's talked about the wonders of the universe on Sky News, BBC News and Radio 5Live and been quoted in national newspapers including The Daily Telegraph and The Observer.

Having seen a couple of Colin's talks now I can't wait for this one - he is a superb speaker and he's talking are extremely informative and entertaining - definitely not one to miss!

Rebel Star – The Sun’s Greatest Mysteries

GET TO KNOW OUR NEAREST STAR LIKE NEVER BEFORE

The Sun is many things: beauty, beacon, battery, belligerent. It’s the biggest thing for light-years around and yet we actually know relatively little about it.

That’s changing thanks to an armada of new spacecraft recently lofted into the solar system to scrutinise the Sun in unprecedented detail. In a 45 minute talk packed full of jaw-dropping images and videos, I’ll be your guide on a journey deep into the heart of our nearest star.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP8 - Sunday, 5th July 2020 7:30pm BST - Rebel Star – The Sun’s Greatest Mysteries by Colin Stuart
Time: Jul 5, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Any gaps in sound are due to copyright requirements on youtube - only a couple of song clips got culled:

Reminder - this starts in fifteen minutes 🙂

Meeting details for later:

Topic: EP7 - A Closer Look at the Sun by Gary Palmer
Time: Jun 28, 2020 07:30 PM London

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This Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Gary Palmer of http://www.solarsystemimaging.co.uk/. Gary is a highly regarded solar and deep sky imager and one of the leading solar imagers in the world with images widely published in books, magazines and online. He is the author of many articles and reviews in various astronomy magazines and tv programmes and works closely, alongside many manufacturers to develop and test upcoming astronomy equipment. Gary also offers many workshops across the UK for groups and 1-to-1 via http://www.astrocourses.co.uk/ which some of you may have attended before.

Gary is going to give us a talk showcasing the various methods for capturing the Sun as well as talking through his workflow and showing us lots of processing tips and tricks touching on SharpCap, Registax, Photoshop and AutoStakkert!. He will also be discussing some of the recent innovations in equipment for solar imaging.

We look forward to seeing you Sunday, at 7:30PM. Zoom meeting details will be posted here Sunday.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP7 - A Closer Look at the Sun by Gary Palmer
Time: Jun 28, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 965 2075 5134
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Tonights meeting details:

Topic: EP6 - Hershel to Hawkwind by Peter Williamson
Time: Jun 21, 2020 07:30 PM London

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This Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Peter Williamson FRAS of http://www.peterwilliamson.co.uk/, http://www.solarsphere.events/ and http://www.astroradio.earth/. Peter is an astronomer, broadcaster and musician who created the Astro Radio station, organises the Slarsphere astronomical and music festival as well as delivering talks / workshops across the country. He is also a Deep Sky imaging consultant for the Faulkes telescope as well as many other things related to astronomy and astronomy outreach - we are very honoured to welcome him.

Peter was meant to join us at last years star party to deliver this talk but following the floods in Herefordshire the star party was cancelled so we are very pleased to be able to invite Peter to deliver this talk to us virtually! 🙂

Peter is going to deliver the talk Herschel to Hawkwind, Astronomy & Music how each influence each other.

We look forward to seeing you Sunday, at 7:30PM. Zoom meeting details will be posted here Sunday.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP6 - Hershel to Hawkwind by Peter Williamson
Time: Jun 21, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 937 4154 0897
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Meeting details for tonight:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 5 - Members Talks - Mark at Beaufort & Lunator - Visual Astronomy
Time: Jun 17, 2020 07:30 PM London

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We have a special bonus double talk for you this Wednesday at 7:30pm BST from our very own mod team!

We are also trialling a mid-week slot for these members talks. If anybody else fancies delivering a talk or partial talk, please let us know 🙂 

Talk 1 - Observing Visual Double Stars - Jewels of the Night Sky by Ian / Lunator

Kicking off is Ian / Lunator who's specialist subject is double stars 🙂 

Ian will be sharing six interesting double star targets, how to find them with star hopping and what to expect.

Talk 2 - Visual Observing Arrangements, Procedures and Tips plus some Challenges by Mark at Beaufort

Mark is a passionate visual observer and will guide us through how he plans and arranges his observing sessions with lots of tips and some observing challenges for us all to have a go at.

Each talk is going to be around 15-20 minutes with a 10-15 minute Q&A break.

As usual, I will post the Zoom meeting details in here sometime during the day Wedesday.

See you all then!

Meeting details for tonight:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 5 - Members Talks - Mark at Beaufort & Lunator - Visual Astronomy
Time: Jun 17, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 967 7258 4139
Password: 753841

Meeting details for tonight:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 4 - Ten Ways the Universe Tried to Kill You by Steve Tonkin
Time: Jun 14, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 971 9264 2655
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This Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Steve Tonkin ( @BinocularSky )  of http://binocularsky.com/ and https://astunit.com/. Steve has been using binoculars for astronomy since the mid 1960s and, as his main observing instrument, since 2002. He is also the author of the book Binocular Astronomy.

Steve isn't going to be talking about binoculars (this time) but instead, we thought something less practice and more entertaining would make a nice treat so he will be giving his talk 'Ten Ways the Universe Tried to Kill You':

From gamma-ray bursts to asteroid impacts, an overview of cataclysmic events. This light-hearted but scientifically robust approach incorporates a lot of fundamental cosmological processes, from stellar evolution to galactic interaction. It is appropriate for both beginning and intermediate amateur astronomers.

We look forward to seeing you Sunday, at 7:30PM. Zoom meeting details will be posted here Sunday.

Meeting details:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 4 - Ten Ways the Universe Tried to Kill You by Steve Tonkin
Time: Jun 14, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 971 9264 2655
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Meeting details for tonight:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 3 - Summer Observing Challenges by Dave Eagle
Time: Jun 7, 2020 07:30 PM London

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This Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Dave Eagle of https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/. Dave is an amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor, you may have read some of his books or come across one of his talks before.

Dave is going to treat us to an overview of interesting Summer observing targets and challenges

We look forward to seeing you Sunday, at 7:30PM. Zoom meeting details will be posted here Sunday.

Meeting Details:

Topic: StarGaZine Episode 3 - Summer Observing Challenges by Dave Eagle
Time: Jun 7, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 926 4116 7425
Password: 610724

18 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

Steve's talk last week was really good as its looking  like I might miss the beginning so is it recorded so I can catch it later?

We will be recording 🙂

Meeting login details:

Topic: StarGaZine - Episode 2 - Adventures in Astro Image Processing by Nik Szymanek
Time: May 31, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 981 5860 2728
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56 minutes ago, Adam J said:

With all respect to Ian King he is wrong. There are still many application for which OSC makes no sence for comercial use cases. What about near IR imaging, what about UV imaging? What about extream low light levels?

Sorry but mono is not going any place yet.

If you actually look at the number of mono sensors that have come onto the market recently its actually higher than in the previous 10 years.

Adam

With equal respect I’m pretty certain Ian knows more about the Astro imaging market which is what is being discussed than you Adam - he wasn’t referring to machine vision or anything else but the amateur astronomy market and he is 100% correct - most new sensors for our market have been colour in recent years and most cameras we are aware of in the pipeline are colour (not all, most).

That doesn’t mean we think that’s how it should be, just the reality of how things are heading.

1 hour ago, RikM said:

Might sneak in and watch this one if I’m still welcome.
 

I take it hecklers are not encouraged? 🤣

You’re always welcome 🙂

2 minutes ago, apophisOAS said:

They said that they would realease a video last time, did they?

Roger

We certainly did (albeit, about five minutes ago!): 

Excuse the loss of the first few seconds, my bad!

I've not had time to add whizzy titles or anything to this so it's the raw recording but hopefully this will help those who missed it.

Thanks again to @steppenwolf for the fantastic talk, we would definitely like to have you back sir!

Episode of 'StarGaZine' is this Sunday at the slightly earlier time of 7:30PM.

We will be joined by Nik Szymanek who will be giving us a talk on 'Adventures in Astro Image Processing'.

Nik was present for Steve's talk and is going to build upon some of the points and questions raised so will be covering:

• Milky Way Image Processing
• Deep Sky Stacker
• Dithering / Calibrating your images
• Using Fits Liberator
• Putting together RGB and LRGB images

And more 🙂

We look forward to seeing you all Sunday - I will post meeting details Sunday lunchtime again.

Cheers,

Grant

Meeting details below:

Topic: StarGaZine - Episode 2 - Adventures in Astro Image Processing by Nik Szymanek
Time: May 31, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 981 5860 2728
Password: 318969

8 minutes ago, Blackware said:

When/where will the recording be available to rewatch ?

We haven’t quite decided the ‘where’ yet but the ‘when’ will be later this week. It will be announced with link details once available.