Society for Popular Astronomy

It is a beautifully clear evening at the moment, and I've just been fortunate enough to witness a -8 Iridium flare at 22:01UT. Coincidentally it was Iridium 59, which I think was the first flare you mentioned observing Mark? It reached the peak of its flare about 12 degrees south east of Alkaid, the...

Stella, an interesting observation. The website you refer to, is that the one for the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station?

Jeff.

This fantastic CCD image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, in Canes Venatici, was taken by Cliff. http://homepages.tesco.net/~al1c1a.stevens/Images/cmere003.jpg The details on how the image was taken are as follows: I took this image on 4 April using a Starlight Xpress MX7-16 CCD. It is made up of 14 60 seco...

Mark, The first 'flare' which you have described sounds like you have successfully observed Iridium 59 flaring. From the one's that I have observed they tend to last between 20-30 seconds, from the point of them becoming visible to the unaided eye and then invisible again. The actual peak of the fla...

Cliff, no need to apologise for expressing an opinion - "one man's meat is another man's poison".

Mark, I'll be interested to know if you have any success in observing a flare.

Regards,

Jeff.

I've watched them on many occasions Mark, and they still fascinate me. The ones that reach magnitude -8 are particularly impressive at the peak of their flare. The predictions from Heavens-Above are spot on, so they are fairly easy events to observe - assuming you have the clear skies. If you haven'...

Hi Mark,

I use it occasionally, and it seems to be working fine at the moment. Have you had a quick look at the help page for the Sky Chart: http://skyandtelescope.com/help/article_202_1.asp ? There are a couple of points mentioned in here that might be worth checking.

Jeff.

Hi John, you have said you are new to the forum, but I'm not sure whether you are new to astronomy as well, so apologies if you've already looked at stuff like this. There's an interesting article on the Sky & Telescope website, which I've provided a link to below, that covers a range of issues ...

There are some interesting pics of Discovery being coupled with its fuel tanks, in preparation for its next flight:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4398095.stm

Jeff.

The April episode of The Sky At Night is on Monday 4th April on BBC1 at 12:35am. The first repeat will be on Monday 4th April on BBC4 at 8:30pm. Subsequent repeats on BBC4 are on Monday 4th April at 10:40pm and Tuesday 5th April at 3:30am ( according to the Radio Times online listing - http://www.ra...

Ian has submitted the following lunar images, from only his second attempt using the set-up described below. http://homepages.tesco.net/al1c1a.stevens/Images/ilee001.jpg http://homepages.tesco.net/al1c1a.stevens/Images/ilee002.jpg http://homepages.tesco.net/al1c1a.stevens/Images/ilee003.jpg The deta...

Cliff has forwarded his Saturn image, which has now been re-processed using RegiStax Version 3. For ease of comparison I have included Cliff's original Saturn image on the left, and his RegiStax re-processed image on on the right. http://homepages.tesco.net/~al1c1a.stevens/Images/cmere001.jpg http:/...

Hi Ian, Yes, we'd love to see the images you've taken. If you look at the Gallery section of this forum, and review the main Announcement posting, it explains the two methods of putting images onto this forum. Hopefully one of these methods should be suitable, but if you have any further questions t...

Joe, congrats on being the first to submit hand-painted artwork. The Eta Carina observation is particularly stunning. http://homepages.tesco.net/~al1c1a.stevens/Images/jcumm001.jpg http://homepages.tesco.net/~al1c1a.stevens/Images/jcumm002.jpg Joe has provided the following details on how they were ...

Cliff Meredith has submitted this excellent image of Saturn. http://homepages.tesco.net/~al1c1a.stevens/Images/cmere001.jpg Cliff tells me: I had just recently refurbished the scope. The tube assembly being 15 years old, the 214mm f 7.6 mirror needed re-aluminising. At the same time I got it refigur...