Helen

Hello Ash 🤗, If you are quick you can sign up for the free futurelearn/Open University 'In the night sky:Orion' course. It's a 4 week course which started nearly 3 weeks ago. But it is only 3 hours a week and you can do it at your own pace. You also keep access for 2 weeks after the end of the course. The group currently doing it are really friendly (I'm a mentor on it) https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/orion/6/todo/63722 Future learn do lots of great courses. Helen

Interesting article here https://paper.li/astronomie#/ Helen

Hello again Steve 🙂 If it was 6:15 then you certainly saw the Starlink trail - I was watching it from just up the hill from you!! The stream were travelling parallel to the horizon at about 50 degrees. I must admit I found it quite eerie, it was almost like a sci-fi film where the alien enemy sends a whole troop of ships after the hero. Surely, as a planet we can't allow tens of thousand of these to ruin our night sky, and our serious study too...🥺 Helen

Let us know how you get on 🙂 I did it once under Tony's instruction at a workshop - it turned out we just missed one (someone in Spain reported an event, but it was between exposures on our run 🙄). His software was still in development at the time (summer 2018) Helen

Actually this might be useful http://www.lunarimpacts.com/lunarimpacts.htm Helen

Hi, Tony Cook at Aberystwyth University was working on software for autodetection. His contact details are here https://pure.aber.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/tony-cook(357fe66c-d016-4ca3-a386-0182b2e5d05c).html Might be worth a quick email 😉 Helen

Are you still on budget Dave? It took an hour before we went over - the builders decided they needed a bigger skip!! Well worth it though 🙂 Helen

Hello, and welcome back! The number of opportunities in astrophysics is not great, but that does not mean you shouldn't aim high! I'm currently a postgrad - studying comets. I'd suggest learning to program in python (and particularly astropy) would be a good place to start - most astro programming seeems to be going that way. I haven't tried this, but it looks interesting (I think you could take more time though!) https://paper.dropbox.com/doc/Software-Engineering-and-Science-An-Interactive-Textbook-with-Applications-to-Astronomy--Ap8F0jfcVdmRoDLAgZbgdZJ0Ag-hRMFdoEaLvzZFgE8ZvOp6 You could also get involved with some of the https://www.zooniverse.org/ projects. LCOGT/Faulkes Tel;escope provide education resources and projects you can try. https://lco.global/education/ http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/ See what you think 🙂 Helen

Miraculously I managed a quick shot on Monday - we'll see whether I can manage it again! People seem to be enjoying the course though - I suppose its something good to do on a cloudy night Helen

Sorry, yes, the idea is to download the picture, add some lines between the stars to make a picture of something, and then invent a 'mythology' to go with it... Helen

On the OU course there is an activity to design your own constellation, and a story to go with it. I thought it might be fun here too, as its cloudy.... Have fun! Helen

Thanks Ron, I'll pass your good wishes on (she has some health challenges at the moment). Happy new year to you and Patricia 🤗 Helen (and Mike!)

On the question of alignment, I added a little plumbers tape to the filter thread which allowed me to vary the rotation of the filter in the filter holder while still being secure. Helen

We (well my friend Jean) made SteveL a full size proper Jaffa cake when his birthday was during a starparty. It took a bit of testing to get the jelly flavour right, but was epic when done! No argument over whether it was biscuit or cake 😋. I think even Olly would have approved! Helen

I'm mentoring on the OU Orion futurelearn course and one exercise is to photograph Orion each week (ideally from same spot at same time) to see how it's position changes. I thought I'd lead by example! I had a few challenges! Cloud and trees being most significant. So a bit of imagination required. I ended up just taking a shot with my mobile phone from inside the back bedroom. I wasn't holding out much hope, but.. the night sight mode on my pixel 2 proved rather impressive 😎 (no post processing at all!) Chances of seeing Orion 4 weeks in a row???? Helen

Just a quick reminder that this course is now live 😎 Helen https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/orion

Astro Airbnb Peter??? 😉🤔

Thanks for letting us know Grant 😎. Happy New Year to you and the family 🤗

We bought the smaller version for our 11-year old godson. Auntie Helen managed to get it set up with him, and we worked through projects 1-4 (controlling led lights) to get his confidence up. A bit fiddly, but the instructions are pretty good, so hoping he'll be able to carry on (he's in Leeds so I can't just pop in..). I tried to reassure his non-techy Dad that it would be fine if they just followed the detailed instructions. It was good to see him engaging though 🙂 Let us know how you get on @Stu Helen

My husband lives life on the edge... Here's a bag he bought me 😋 And some notebooks But to fully redeem himself... Spoilt as usual 🤗 Helen

You could add some wheels to the pillar Chris 😉 Have fun! Helen

Some accessories for my mirrorless Sony (thanks Glen). Hoping the mask helps speed up focussing, and it will be interesting to see how well the Hoya RA54 filter deals with light pollution/background. Helen

It is an introductory course, so a lot of it will be familiar to seasoned astronomers. But hopefully some new insights for everyone 😁 This will be my first course being a facilitator (there are 3 of us) - so be gentle with me! But seriously, I hope to encourage the same helpful, community spirit we have here on SGL. It will be fun I"m sure 😎 Helen

Thanks John It is fascinating hearing the different sky stories from across the world! Helen

Open to everyone John 😁 Helen