Phil Fargaze

Chasing Venus is a gripping read, fully recommended. Should be made into a film.

Nice capture. Always awesome to see a star blink out behind an asteroid. I got a miss from just south of the shadow path. It`s been a busy week for occultations!

Yes a nice collection of light curves with more to follow I would think. Its going to be interesting to see what results the subsequent analysis brings up.

I could only get onto one live view because the others were clouded. However the one I was watching had Betelgeuse a bit too much saturated on the screen plus passing cloud made it unable for me to notice the actual occultation

Excellent web page set up HERE shows general info, cloud cover and some more live links. Approximate time of the event for the different locations is shown. Looking at the predictions, the mid event time is about 10 seconds in duration with a mag drop of 1 or 2.8. A keen watch will be needed because Betelgeuse might not completely disappear but it should visibly dim.

There has been an announcement for a live feed of the event, link here https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/

It will be a late night for a working day but there is talk of a live feed being arranged so I`ll keep an eye out and post details here.

Indeed, the event is predicted to be annular, so because of this there is a coordinated campaign for observers to extract the maximum scientific results. I wish I could have travelled to Spain for the event but I didn`t really get organised for it. Here are some links with some more in depth information. https://occultations.org/publications/rasc/2023/20231212Leona.htm https://www.iota-es.de/betelgeuse2023.html

I`ve been a happy subscriber for years, thanks to Steve for all his hard work. He does mention the archive here which could come in handy for getting some target suggestions.

I was a member of the SPA for a good number of years and found it very good. I enjoyed the magazine and looked forward to reading the section reports. The SPA gave me the confidence to submit my observations and I was given good support from the relevant section directors. As my observing activities changed I progressed to the BAA.

Survey completed.

There is a small star party held near the Suffolk coast, usually March and October/November. This is timed to not clash with Kelling check this link here

When I am camping at a dark site with the scope, I always take time out to just lay back and enjoy the view.

I was wondering if Alcan would be a little bit too thin. There is also zinc flashing but that can be very thin as well. I work with sheet metal, so if you are stuck I could post a piece over to you. I have 1.2mm thick aluminium (or thicker) which is quite robust but pliable or there is galvanised steel sheet starting at 0.7mm and thicker which is also rigid but pliable.

Spotted this on the Haw Wood Facebook page. "We are sorry to inform you that the reopening of Haw Wood Farm will be delayed. We had hoped to reopen to tourers on September 1st, but unfortunately the building work will not be completed by this date, and so we have had to put back the reopening until October 1st. We are sorry for any disruptions to your plans and really look forward to seeing you again soon." Fingers crossed that they will be up and running for the autumn star party. In a twist of fate, I am booked up for a family holiday for the week before the star party so I might not be able to get there anyway!