Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

Hawksmoor

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,255

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Hawksmoor

  1. Hawksmoor

    DIY put together wide-field camera

    By Hawksmoor,


    Imaging Equipment
    I am a hoarder so never throw away stuff that might come in useful.  Being a tad environmental I try to re-purpose, re-engineer and re-use old kit that I purchased  back in the day when I was gainfully employed.  My old pre digital SLR lenses were first connected to my  DSLR with a shiny new adaptor but then fell into disuse when I realised my EOS lenses performed better. 
    Now retired, with more time and reduced cashflow, I decided that rather than modding my DSLR, if I could attach my old lenses to my QHY5L-ii mono and colour cameras, I had the makings of a wide-field camera that would be more sensitive to H-alpha.  BUT - old Hoya lenses have male 42mm 1mm thread connections and modern 42mm kit comes with 0.75mm threads.  Try as I might none of the UK suppliers or even  China appeared to have an appropriate adapter. In the end I found what I wanted - a 42mm(1mm) to T2 adapter on the RAF internet site based  in Belarus.  I already had the spacer and the C/CS connector I needed to complete the camera.  After placing my order the adapter arrived in the post from  'Sergei' in Moscow. A very nicely engineered bit of kit! How a meerkat could make such a brilliant thing with small furry paws escapes me!
    I do enjoy messing about in my shed with old bits and pieces!
    I briefly tested the camera the other night in less than good conditions and it appeared to work delivering an image roughly 6 degrees square. The weather is forecast fair for tonight so  I might try it out properly on the realm of galaxies in Virgo. 
    Ever onwards and upwards!
     


  2. Hawksmoor
    Wasted a couple of hours this morning obtaining video clips of sunspots in white light through my scope. Finished taking the shots, all appeared well. Just got my kit put away before a rain shower. All accomplished before lunch, I thought. This afternoon, when I came to look for the files on my laptop, nowhere to be found! Must not have registered the files or some dumb trick best known to man and IT savants. I am a complete numpty!!!
  3. Hawksmoor

    Pantomime Season

    By Hawksmoor,

    Toot an I have just returned from a short tour of Turkey. Part of the itinerary involved very early pre-dawn starts. Looking out from our hotel balcony on the 4th. December at approximately 04.20 I saw what I thought was a comet . Oh no it wasn't, oh yes it was! At first I thought it was a first glimpse of Comet Catalina. It was approximately south east and close to the horizon. The twin tails appeared to be as they should be pointing away from the sun. But then I returned home to Suffolk and viewed Catalina through my big bins. My comet was much too bright and much lower in the sky than Catalina. So either we spotted a new comet or more likely the con-trail from a twin engined jet flying away from us at an acute angle. Oh no it wasn't, oh yes it was, oh no it wasn't
     
    Anyway I managed to photograph what ever it was with my Canon compact camera. You can make your own minds up!
     

  4. Hawksmoor
    I like a bit of recycling and so, after I realised that I had not used my old ETX90 RA for at least two years, I decided to get it out of its fabric carry-case and give it 'the once over'. I have to say that little scope is a robust little beggar and optically as sound as the day my partner Toot purchased it for my fiftieth birthday. The fork mount is definitely passed its sell by date but the OTA is definitely too good to waste sitting on a shelf in a bedroom.
    So today I decided to remove the OTA from the forks so that I could use the ETX on my recently acquired Star Adventurer equatorial mount or otherwise piggy-back on my 127mm.refractor. Being a bit cautious, I consulted the relevant pages of Mike Weasner's site and after a bit of a rumage around to find the right sized imperial allen key, I threw caution to the wind and set about separating the scope from the forks.  Once the four hex screws were removed it only required a bit of brute force to slide the two bits apart. 'Houston we have separation' and the jobs a good un!
    The next part I really enjoyed, a quick trip to Maplins to buy a flight case to house said OTA. I really like pulling out the precut sections of foam etc. However, I have relunctantly come to the conclusion that I have run out of items of furniture in our sitting room behind which I can  hide the now seven flight cases from Toot. I have also covered most of my backyard with sheds and if I put anymore stuff in the loft, I will inadvertently convert my house into a bungalow.
    I'm really pleased that I shall be using the ETX again. It will be good for imaging brighter comets and white light solar work.  Hopefully, I will be able to use it to watch the transit of Mercury.
    On a more positive note, less cash or space intensive, a piece of transmission diffraction grating film arrived mail order from Israel this morning. So next week on rainy days I will be working on my Mark2 DIY filter or the 'VCS'  (aka a very cheap spectrometer).  I made the COAA version using an Epson printer to print lines on acetate sheet and this works quite well  (image in one of my albums) but number of lines per millimetre limited by the printers operating parameters.  I have been reading Jeffrey L Hopkins 'Using Commercial Amateur Astronomical Spectrographs' published by Springer.  It is an excellent practical read on spectroscopy particularly suitable for someone like me.  I sit firmly on a spectral line somewhere between 'reasonably untechnical' and 'complete numpty'.

  5. Hawksmoor

    Puss in Bootes

    By Hawksmoor,

    The early hours of the 8th of January were not for the faint hearted. Although the ambient temperature was well above freezing the wind chill here on the UK east coast was significant. After a couple of hours outside I needed a hot cup of industrial strength Marmite to thaw out my inner self. On a positive note the sky was clear of cloud and significant moonlight. I thus set foot to first view Comet Catalina through my big bins and then photograph it.
     
    The comet was far too low in the north east for me to use my big refractor- so bins it was. I store my dustbins in a fenced enclosure on the north side of our house, sounds grand but isn't, and so balancing my bins on the bin enclosure fence I discovered that the comet had conveniently raised itself above Arcturus such that said balanced bins pointed straight at the comet. In the past I have not found comets to be so accommodating.
     
    I must say with the street lights off after midnight, my 80x11 bins did a good job of showing the comet albeit quite a small image. With averted vision I could clearly see the spread of light between the two tails. Nice!
     
    I then spent an hour and a bit with fixed tripod, Canon 600D DSLR and EOS 18-55mm lens, snapping away like a good-un! Twenty or so RAW images later, raw- well the wind was, I returned to the warmth of our house. Today I have done what my partner, Toot, describes as 'cheating' using a number of software programmes to collate and enhance my snaps. I have attached the resultant annotated image for your inspection!
     
    The reasons why I like comets a lot!
     
    They are truly exotic denizens of the deep.
    Their astronomical configuration, position and luminosity are constantly changing in real time.
    They are often hard to locate, they disappear and sometimes reappear.
    They are very old but have the appearance of youth.
    Their performance is unpredictable.
    They are sometimes spectacular and always exquisite.
    They travel alone.
    They are evaporated and reinvigorated by sunlight.
    They are driven and destroyed by gravity.
    They might have created all life on earth and may one day end it.
     

  6. Hawksmoor

    Antares

    By Hawksmoor,

    Every year in June the red super-giant star Antares becomes visible from our south facing bedrooms and over the roof tops. This year Saturn can be seen just above the claws of Scorpius,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,quite a sight without binoculars or a telescope.
     
    I managed to get a nice photo with my little Lumix compact camera balanced on the window-sill. The minimal light pollution after midnight and the lightly applied assistance of APS providing all the help this inexpensive camera needs to capture this star 600 light years distant and nearing the end of its pre-supernova existence.
     

  7. Hawksmoor

    Chasing the Eclipse

    By Hawksmoor,

    As the weather forecast -Lowestoft seafront for the 20th March - was for cloud, cloud and more cloud, my partner and I set off for predicted 'clearing skies' in rural Lincolnshire. This required an early morning call at 4.30am. Strewth this was just like being back at worK! Anyway after quick coffee and cereal, we leapt into rhe 'family wagon' and headed at a brisk pace north west. It was a dark and stormy morning, but as we approached our favoured observation site, a recently manured field twixt Gedney and Holbeach in Lincolnshire, the clouds began to evaporate. As we set up our camera and laptop the sun suddeny appeared through and between the clouds. Donning our eclipse glasses we assumed our default nerd personae and were approached almost immediately by a journalist and photographer from the local newspaper. Clearly, we were a two for the price of one photo opportunity. A number of passing and local folk enquired as to our purpose and state of mind. Many were genuienely impressed by the live view image on my Canon DSLR, of the moon moving infront of the sun.
    We managed to capture some nice images and video of the eclipse. After packing our kit in the back of the car we adjourned to the near by tea room for mushrooms on toast and hot chocolate. At midday, we set off back home to Lowestoft.
    Days later the memory of the eclipse still lingers, as does the smell of manure in our car!

  8. Hawksmoor

    Man Flu

    By Hawksmoor,

    Have been coughing and sneezing my way through February. When you add "am I feeling up to setting up my scope" to "are there clouds" to "is there too much moonlight" ?? Its all too easy to leave the scope in its box and rack up in front of the fire.
    Anyway, the 21st February presented a fine clear night and I enjoyed imaging the ‘king of planets’.

  10. Hawksmoor
    Due to a flare up of arthritis in my back and hip have been unable to take advantage of the breaks in the clouds which have been infrequent to say the least. Have spent my time downloading images from the ESO archive and practicing the use of image processing software. Have managed to start using IRIS which appears to be the least accessible of the free image processing software I've tried to date. Quite humorous trying to follow the French - English translations.:)
  11. Hawksmoor
    Tonight Venus was very close to the crescent Moon with Jupiter sailing above and to the south. I took a quick snap with a compact camera perched on top of our car. Really doesn't do the scene credit. Very beautiful even though in competition with the glare from the street lights.

  12. Hawksmoor
    Have returned from Hospital after back surgery. Have got a few aches and pains but otherwise I think the good old NHS has fixed my spine!! Whoopee-do I shall be able to use my big bins again!! Am unable to get outside stargazing for a few weeks but hopefully towards the end of November I should be able to use my telescope and relatively new planetary camera to capture Jupiter! I have noticed that its still raining!
  13. Hawksmoor
    February the 4th. 2013:
    I get all my kit out, set up and ready to go. My laptop is performing Ok, it doesn't like the cold, and the QHY 5v driver has loaded without a hiccup. I can see Jupiter shining in a rapidly darkening sky. The BBC weather forecast for Lowestoft said clear skies excellent seeing between 17.00 and 18.00 which coincides with the GRS being visible. My cup floweth over! As an extra Jupiter 2 software has informed me that shortly after there will be a transit. Photo opportunity or what?
    Then I notice that Jupiter has acquired a halo, I quickly capture three 2 minute clips and then the planet disappears with the failing light. After an hour my laptop and I take refuge in the warm kitchen. After a further hour I finally give up and disassemble my scope and put all the bits and pieces away. Do my eyes deceive me or has the sky now cleared? Grrrrrrrrr! I think I will give Jupiter a rest!
    The AutoStakkert freeware processing software made a brilliant job of rescuing my clips from the recycle bin and I did retrieve one or two grainy images. I would recommend AutoStakkert to anyone who has only used Registax, its much simpler and quicker to use.

  14. Hawksmoor

    Enthusiasm

    By Hawksmoor,

    Last night, I stood and watched as my ten year old grandson looked through my old 10x50 binoculars and found for his first time; the Andromeda Galaxy and then the Pleiades. Looking out into space and back in time is and should always be very exciting! He was very pleased with himself. Binoculars are a great way into astronomy for the younger child. Negligible set up and minimal supervision required - wide variety of observeable treats and maximum time taking in the view! Have set him a challenge to find the monthly binocular highlights in my astronomy magazine and am looking forward to his reports..
  15. Hawksmoor

    Full Moon

    By Hawksmoor,

    [ATTACH]237[/ATTACH]
    The Universe is a great place! In the last week I have watched as Comet Garradd sailed serenely past the Coat-hanger asterism, I've seen a magnificent rainbow whilst visiting Sheffield, and on the road back to home in Lowestoft we headed from day into night as the Moon and Jupiter climbed slowly upwards from the horizon.
    Weather and moonlight permitting, in the coming week I hope to see the new supernova.:)
  17. Hawksmoor
    Bodging around with aluminium off-cuts in my shed

    I thought it would be useful if I could piggyback my cameras and smaller scopes on my 127mm. refractor mounted on a NEQ6 Pro. The weight would not exceed the maximum load and I already had an extension bar which would enable me to balance the different set ups.  I had some bits of aluminium in the shed and time on my hands.
    Now, I know the workmanship is bit ‘here and there’ but I do not possess a pillar drill or much patience. I do however; have lots of nuts and bolts from Poundland and gallons of Gorilla Glue.  The fixing-plate cost very little and kept me amused for a couple of days - so as of this moment, I’m pleased with it!  Whether it works imaging wise remains to be seen and looking at the clouds overhead it might be sometime before I get to find out.






  18. Hawksmoor

    Transformer

    By Hawksmoor,

    Christmas upright Armchair Astronomer 'transforms' into horizontal Settee Astronomer without any visible expenditure of energy as Moon obliges by rising almost directly in front of his sitting room window. I could get to like this 'indoor astronomy' as it offers a warmer winter alternative for the older stargazer.

  19. Hawksmoor
    Toot and I had a great time in Norwich last night. Dr Michael Foale CBE gave a talk about his life as an astronaut to a packed audience at the University of East Anglia. What an accomplished, kind and measured man. A couple of hours in his company passed very quickly. He has great interpersonal skills and although we only spoke to him very briefly, both my partner and I felt we had 'met him' rather than just 'heard him' speak. 
    What an exciting, if not at times scary, life and career he has had?
    Highlights include:
    a spacewalk to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope's computer from a 386 to a 486 ( I had one of each but I only had to fetch them from Currys) stopping the MIR space station from spinning out of control after it had been hit by a supply vessel commanding the International Space Station There were many children in the audience who were very interested in space and science. Dr Foale encouraged them to do what they were good at, pursue their dreams and not to be deterred by setbacks.  He paid particular care to encourage girls to pursue careers in science and aerospace.
    He very kindly - let anyone who wanted to - have their photograph taken with him. A long queue of excited children formed down one side of the Lecture Hall.
    "Dr Foale, I could tell you that the photograph is for my grandchildren, but really its for me"  said a very excited and pleased old man.
    If you get a chance to hear him speak and/or go to events organised by ISSET or a 'Pint of Science'  - go for it!

  20. Hawksmoor
    'Calculating the Cosmos' by Ian Stewart and 'The Universe Next Door' a New Scientist compilation are both extremely enjoyable reads and have kept me going in between the'dark clear nights' here on the east coast.  So having time on my hands this summer, I prepared a digital image and poem in 'homage' to two of my favourite pursuits: reading books on cosmology I barely understand and eating shellfish most people tend to avoid. 
     
    'Winkles in the fabric of Space-Time' - mixed media - George Roberts - June 2018
     
    "If there were winkles in the fabric of Space-Time
    At the Planck scale squid and plaice would rhyme
    If the Universe and Albert Einstein could spin on one sharp pin
    Might each sardine simultaneously be alive and dead in it's tin?
    Perhaps dark matter would even cease to matter?
    If cod, god and gravity were resolved in batter".
     
    George Roberts from the book 'A Brief History of Gastropods'
     

  21. Hawksmoor

    Christmas Day Dip

    By Hawksmoor,

    Invited by two of our children and grandchildren to meet them, early on Christmas morning, on the beach at Southwold for a swim. Had serious misgivings about this: as I dont do getting up early,  I do not have a wet suit and recently have been under the weather.   Anyway as my partner does have wet suit and was keen, a few bah-humbugs thrown in my general direction got me out of my 'toastie slumber chariot' before 8:00 UT and by 10:00 we were at the water's edge. There had been a hard frost overnight   but by the time we entered the water, the air temperature was a balmy 2 deg C . I managed a brisk 2 minutes before I fully realised why in previous years I had restricted swimming in the North Sea to the months of June, July, August and September.  
    Enjoy your Boxing Day Stargazers
    George thankfully no longer in the North Sea and in Lowestoft
     

  22. Hawksmoor
    Having completed the excellent and free Future Learn - Open University short course - 'Data to Insight' (University of Auckland) I finally got around to doing something with the copious amounts of data churned out by my SDR LVST (The Lowestoft Very Small Telescope) meteor catcher. I decided to first apply my 'forensic intellect -Dr Lecter'🤓 to the 2016 Perseid Shower (I had a set of data collected from the 4th to 16th of August). 
    Having done a bit of reading - an American paper from the 1990s - 'Statistical properties of meteors from a simple passive forward scatter system' by D D Meisel & J E Richardson  and the excellent - Detection & Analysis of Meteors by RADAR (Using the GRAVES space surveillance transmitter) by Dr David Morgan 2011, I decided to have a go at 'gaining some insight from the data', even though I'm more at home with a sketch book than a calculator.  As I'm fully aware that many SGL members are former scientists and engineers - please be gentle with me and some of the 'broad -brush' simplifications and approximations I have made.  I'm quite prepared to believe that I have made many school boy errors both in principle and detail!
    I have organised the data using the accepted categories for meteor reflections - Over dense O, Under dense U and Transition T. 
    I have filtered and manipulated the observations to create data sets:
    O+U (including T) Cleaned source set) O-T (O excluding T) Subset U+T (excluding O) Subset  O+T (excluding U) Subset Creating the subsets was all a bit hit and miss and the procedure developed on an iterative basis. (As my partner is often known to say about my more off centre ideas "It might be getting a bit Goldilocks and the Three Bears")
    The 'full monty' including my interpretation of the data is on my LVST site:
    https://sites.google.com/yahoo.co.uk/thelvst/2016-perseid-meteor-shower
    The following extract from the LVST relates to O+U data:
    Filtering the full set of reflection observations O+U by removing all data where maxpower x duration (energy) <250 to create a new subset O+T
    The graph of reflection observations O+T plotted against the (24 hour) day date indicates :
     
    Overall the period during which data was collected 18,887 reflections were recorded.  This is  57.7% of the total number of reflections observed and represents only those reflections having a maxpower x duration =or>250 cycles (approx 3 secs).
    With 95% confidence:
     The maximum number of observations - between 16.87 and 17.96 % - were recorded on the 6th August.
    Between 11.53 and 12.46 % were recorded on the 7th of August.
    Between 10.89 and 11.8 % were recorded on the 10th of August.*
    The minimum number of observations - between 3 and 3.55 % occurred on the 4th August.
    *note: because of the small over lap between lowest and highest values on the confidence bars for the 7th and 10th. we cannot be 95% confident with regard to relative values of observations between these two days.  

    The graph of  reflection observations O+T plotted against the hour of the day (UT) indicates with 95% confidence :
    One max peak, a smaller peak, a approximately even base line and one trough in observations: 
    Max peak (approximately 5.5% of all observations)  between 2:00 and 8:00 UT.
    A smaller peak between 14:00 and 17:00 UT.
    A base line (approximately 4% of all observations)  at 0:00 and between 9:00 - 13:00 UT.,
    A deep minimum between 18:00 and 22:00 UT
    The plot of days against radial velocity for the O+T subset of observations is interesting in that it shows outliers of observations, particularly on 7th and 14th of August, grouped around radial velocities lower than the mean radial velocity (+367 m per sec with SD = 131.8) for the O+T subset.

    For the Observations O+T the plot of Observations per day against Observations per hour coloured to show differences in radial velocity is interesting. To aid clarity and understanding the data has been 'binned' on a hexagonal basis. The size of the hexagon is proportional to the number of observations.
    The observations made between 14:00 and 1900 (UT) on the 7th of August indicate a large number of reflections with radial velocities well below the mean value for V. The timing of these observations in the afternoon is also at odds with other days where observation density clustering is clearly skewed to the morning. Do these factors reinforce the hypothesis that a stream other than the Perseids is being detected? Could this be an outlier from the Capricornids or the Alpha Capricornids streams which are active into August?
    The same observations coloured to show energy (maxpower x duration) indicate the reflections in the afternoon of the 7th of August have a greater proportion of lower energy reflections. The Capricornids are slow moving meteors and have lower velocities (lower energies?) as well as having velocity vectors different  from the Perseids.
    I hope to analyse more of the data I have stored on pen drives and hopefully make comparisons between different showers and the same showers year on year. Even now I'm retired, I still seem to run out of time! 🙄

     





  23. Hawksmoor
    Capturing images of meteors is a bit like fishing. After the event, you are always haunted by the big one that got away!
    My widest camera lens is a Canon 18-55mm EFS zoom and even though this covers quite a bit of sky there is plenty left in which a bright meteor can suddenly appear.
    As I had two camera bodies, a Canon 600D and 400D DSLR, I decided to try and use them in tandem to improve my chances of capturing more meteors. Fabricating a ‘meteor rig’, reusing equipment and materials to hand, seemed to be an interesting project.
    I already had:
    Two Canon camera bodies One reasonably wide angle Canon camera lens An old Meade ETX tripod A  Star Adventurer Equatorial mount. A homemade connecting bar (for linking the Star Adventurer to the ETX tripod. A ball head connector for the Star Adventurer A  length of oak batten An inexpensive Chinese intervalometer Some large rubber bands A collection of stainless steel nuts bolts and washers What I needed to acquire:
    Another matching Canon 18-55mm EFS zoom lens. After surfing ‘the Bay’ I managed to find and purchase one in good condition for under £40 inc VAT and delivery. A mini ball head for mounting one of the camera bodies on the oak batten (the other camera was to be mounted directly) - £9 Another intervalometer - £13 A little bit of woodwork and trial and error allowed me to construct a meteor rig which allows each camera to point independently in RA and Alt but move together on an equatorial basis. I have had one trial run which managed to capture a bright sporadic meteor on both cameras. Interestingly, even though the camera settings were kept the same, the 600D and 400D images were slightly different (the 400D images were noisier).
    ‘Metcheck’ is predicting bad weather in Lowestoft for the night of Perseid maximum. Sorry, I guess it’s my entire fault!
     

  24. Hawksmoor

    Oh! those Summer Projects

    By Hawksmoor,

    Feeling quite 'chipper' today!
    Many of my little 'summer' projects have been completed and seem to work. First - my bathroom extract system has been installed without me once falling off the ladder or putting my foot through the bathroom ceiling, second - I'm now producing tasty pizza and bread from my DIY wood-fired bread oven without upsetting my neighbours and third I've constructed four  battery powered 'dew zappers' for camera lenses and scope objectives. 
    The following is proof: - 'Dew zapper' on the Canon EFS 18-55mm lens worked for just over 2 hours, allowing star trails and a time-lapse movie to be made, and thus exceeding the design parameters for the heater and battery.
    Many thanks to Alan Sheehan B.E on IceInSpace for his excellent article and Excel Spreadsheet relating to building 'dew zappers'. Thanks to Alan I could concentrate on the difficult bits including burning my fingers with a soldering iron and 'wrinkling up' the duct tape.
    http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-292-0-0-1-0.html



  25. Hawksmoor
    This has been a long time in gestation - first I built the 3d printer from a kit my son gave me for Christmas 2018, then I had to pluck up the courage to turn it on. The whirring and flashing lights are all a bit much for a man more accustomed to using Crayola 'chubby' crayons than digital vernier calipers. Then I had to get my head round  Sketch-Up, Netfabb, Repetier Host , Slicer3 and how to stop molten filament from blocking up a very small hole in a very hot bit of metal. 
    In my shed I have some 500lines/mm holographic film and a QHY5L-ii mono camera and three telescopes of varying focal length and aperture. Having read a lot of good stuff on SGL from people with much spectrum gathering and processing experience and having read Jeffrey L Hopkins book 'Using Commercial Amateur Astronomical Spectrographs' several times,  I realised that I had the basics for making a very low resolution 'slit-less' spectrometer.  Because the grating had so many lines /mm I had to get the grating pretty close to the imaging chip in order that the zero and first order spectrum would fit on the long axis.  Having crunched the numbers I worked out that if I could print a thin cell to hold the grating this could be sandwiched between camera and  its nosepiece without any un-reversible changes having to be made to the camera. So the game was on Watson!
    Once it was all put together and attached to my 66mm Altair Lightwave on a Star Adventurer Mount I pointed it at Castor as it was fairly high up, quite bright and a class A star albeit multiple. I was going to use VSpec  as it is free and I had managed to use it some years ago but for some reason unknown to me it would not load on my new Windows 10 laptop. It kept trying to link with a chess database on my machine so probably a dll file issue above my pay grade. So I decided to download the RSpec software 30 day trial. This software is not that easy for an old bloke like me to grasp but considerably easier than VSpec. After a lot of pressed buttons and repeated views of the tutorial videos I think I managed to acquire an ok calibrated and Instrument Response adjusted low res profile of Castor.  I attach an image of the result.
    Whilst I was processing the data I noticed that the zero order showed twin peaks which confused me for a while. Originally I thought this was just a processing artifact. Then it occurred to me that Castor is a multiple star system with two class A stars of roughly equal magnitude and although my little refractor could not split them visually perhaps spectrally it could?  Probably deluding myself!
    Anyway this little but drawn out project and 'Covid Lockdown' have kept me out of pubs!
    George next the Sea
     



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.