Caught a tweet from Will Gator’s twitter feed a couple of days ago which led me to this post and The Aurora Live web cam provided by the NiCT (National Institute of Information Communications Technology).
I’ve had it loaded in a tab in my browser for a few days now and I’ve seen some great Aurora pictures; you can access a selection of past images in the Image Archives section of the site; they provide a desktop viewer version if that’s easier for you.
On 30/10/08 at 1246 UK time (0346 Alaskan time) I saw what I thought was Ursa Major through the green; I’ve since confirmed this with Stellarium – fantastic!
Keep a look out during UK day light hours; as I write this post it’s 0830 UK time and The Aurora Live web cam shows a nice green glow on the horizon.
I’m sure it doesn’t beat being there and seeing with your own eyes but for now it will have to do.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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Just catching up on some blog reading and found this great Webcam video of the launch of Falcon-1 thanks to Bad Astronomer blog.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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A few weeks ago the topic of “the Moons possible Occultation of Neptune - 6th November 2008″ came up at my local Astronomical Society meeting. It was thought that Neptune may be Occulted or may Graze what we see as the edge of the moon.
I decided to see what Stellarium though about this and my finding are that Stellarium predicts that it will graze the surface of the moon and not be occulted by the moon. I then asked myself the question “Is software like Stellarium capable of confirming one way or the other whether this occultation will take place and if so to what degree?” no offence meant to the writers and fans of Stellarium – I love the product and as you read on you’ll see how I found it to be very accurate indeed.
I then got thinking that occultation, grazing, or no occultation what-so-ever may depend on your position on Earth. So, I re-configured Stellarium to a location in London and ran a simulated time covering the evening of 6th November and found there was no occultation and no grazing. I then switched locations to Glasgow and after running the simulation again I find that there is an occultation.
I didn’t give it much more though (as other things began to occupy my mind) and this blog post remained in the “Unpublished” queue. Until I read about a similar article in the latest SPA magazine (Oct to Dec 08 page 43), and read about the Graze Line.
A Graze Line maps a line across Earth that is in effect the termination point between where you will see an occultation and where you will see no occultation. Use Stellarium and fast forward your time to 6th November ‘08 to see if your location is on the Graze Line and if not how far away you are.
This particular Graze Line runs from south west (what looks to be St Austell) up through South Wales, East Midlands, Yorshire, and eventually to Whitby. I live in Yorkshire (Rotherham) so am lucky enough to be on (or very close to) the Graze Line! So, clear skies permitting I may get to see this event.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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Just realised that I’ve not been using my blog feed through feedburner.com correctly <blush>. Anyway I’ve got it setup how it should be now so if you want you can subscribe using this link or the one to the top right of the blog with the 
sign.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
Edit: I’ve installed FeedSmith, so I’m told it doesn’t matter which feed you use…
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As most astronomers find out sooner or later, time spent setting up your telescope is wasted observing time. The frustrations of clouds rolling in just as you finish setting up, or missing the object you planned to observe, amongst other issues, lead many astronomers to want their own observatory. Well, I’m no different. As a result I’ve decided to do a feasibility study for the construction of a Home Observatory in my back garden.
I did a quick internet search at work in my lunch break for “home observatory” to get some ideas of what people have already done and the first link Google returns is this one; plenty of links to other astronomer’s observatories. Most seem to be the roll-off roof design; I guess for good reason. A couple of people at my local astronomy society have a roll-off roof observatory too.
So, on with the feasibility study. I will be documenting the project so other people can hopefully learn from my experience.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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If you are new to Astronomy and feel the urge to go out and buy a telescope then wait! If you search around the forums and read the “Introduction to Astronomy” guides dotted around the internet then you’ll have come across the ultimate tip for all budding Astronomers; don’t buy a scope first, instead buy a pair of binoculars. Then, when you know what scope you need, go out and buy it; your money won’t be wasted buying binoculars first, they’re always handy to keep in your car or to take on trips etc…
So, back to the book review. If you’re sold on the idea of buying binoculars first, good, now for a great book to go with those bins; Stargazing astronomy without a telescope
. It’s written by Sir Patrick Moore and although not pocket size it’s still a handy book to carry with you. It covers all the constellations, their primary stars, and some stories behind mythological origins. A large section of the book is devoted to what constellations you would expect to see in each month of the year for both northern and southern hemispheres. The book also covers our Sun, Moon, and the planets in our solar system. It also covers comets, meteors, and auras. An all round guide to things you can see in the night sky with the unaided eye of binoculars, this book is well worth having.
I own a copy of this book; if you’ve got any questions then please ask them in the comments link/box below.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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I guess most of you will have seen this by now but I’ve put the link here so I can find it again.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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A few posts ago I drew your attention to a web page that showed the relative sizes of some astronomical objects (here) and I’ve just seen another post from Astropixie covering the same topic. I just feel so humbled; space is so vast…
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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I’ve been meaning to attend one of the MSAS meetings for a while and finally got round to it. They seem a good down to earth set of people and found them very welcoming. They’d arranged a speaker Thijs Kouwenhoven who gave a talk on Star Formation which was very interesting and well delivered. I’ll probably post more about MSAS as I get to know them but for now if you’re in the Rotherham area, why not go to their website and pop along to one of their meetings.
Until the next post… Clear Skies!
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