rockystar

I believe - though i'm happy to be corrected - that the Mobile App is just a contained view of the website; so I can't see it being pulled from the Play Store. I like nightshift too, i think it's a nice little app; though the only forecast I really use, is by looking out of the window....

All booked for March No whiskey for me this time...

works quite will for small objects: https://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_search?v=3&r=18h53m35.1&d=+33º01''47"&f=GIF didn't work too well too well for the North American Neb - guess it's going to depend on the extent of the object, and where the RA/DEC is specified for large, extended objects. Thanks again for your help, I'll keep having a play with those.

Thanks han, I'll take a look at that. I have the RA & Dec of the objects, so that should work for me.

Hi all, I've been quite for a while. Hope everyone is safe and keeping well. I've been trying to work out if i can make it to this year's event, but unfortunately it falls on the weekend of my daughter's 10th birthday, so i'm not going to be able to come. So i'm aiming for the spring one instead - is that one in March?

Hi, does anyone know of any open APIs that return images of deep sky objects? I'm specifcally (at the moment) looking for items in the NGC or IC catalog. I'm aware of, and have used, the APOD (i have it changing my desktop background eveyday), and i've had a look at the NASA & Hubble image APIs, but neither really return what i want, as they use fairly generic search strings. Ideally I'd like something where i can make a call like so: GET /image?catalog=ngc&number=7000 and then i get (probably) a url to an image of the NAN. Thanks Rocky

I'm hoping to come again - but no whisky this time! I do need to see what is happening about my daughter's birthday, as it is on the Sunday (so may have to come home on Saturday). I'm also going to hang on to see what's happening about this virus thing that's going around, before I book. If not, i will be there in March.

Could have been an Iridium flare, but not sure how many are still up there. They were communicate satellites that used to flash very brightly as their solar panels faced the sun. They were a spectacular sight if you caught a glimpse of one, just as you described, but they've been decommissioned now and started to be deorbited (Edit) Just checked, the iridium satellites are still I'm service, but the new ones no longer flare. Don't know if any of the old ones are still.om orbit.

I may not remember all of Thursday evening, but I'm pretty sure it didn't go that far. I had a great weekend, and even got to see those skies and use my telescope. Though heave dew prevented me from having as long as I'd have liked (and the fog that drifted in didn't help either) And just to echo all the thanks to Mike, Lesley and Ralph. And also to Derek and Dave for all they did on Friday night.

Well, it's lovely up here In Dumfries at the moment. Hopefully it will stay this way for three next few hours at least. I'll be there about 3.30-4. See you all soon

I know. Don't become an astronomer in the UK without eternal optimism and a full bottle of whiskey. I'll still be there, it'll only be my fourth out of four star parties I've attended where I've barely looked through my telescope

Well, it looks like two more half decent nights for those that are there early, then i arrive for 4 days of rain

Nice a clear here too. Also had a look at Saturn last night, but it's so low I have to prop my dob up to get it over the neighbour's house. Hope it's the same up there and it stays that way for the next week

This is what I was worried about with all this rain . As we got cancelled a couple of years ago because the field was flooded. Fingers crossed it will be ok. And next Thursday is when I'll be arriving, so I'll bring them clear skies with me

Cheers Mike, I've got a ground sheet to go with it (as well as the built in one) It'll all fit. It has no choice. Looking forward to it.