Society for Popular Astronomy

I’d not come across the term in reference to a feature on the face of the sun before, Brian. However, there is a note on the National Solar Observatory website that talks about the difference between a filament and a prominence as follows. When viewed spewing from the edge of the Sun against the dar...

There’s an interesting piece on SpaceWeather.com today, regarding dark filaments of magnetism that have erupted in the sun’s southern hemisphere.

Best wishes, Jeff.

Glad you persevered and got here in the end, Cliff. Is that sunspot activity on the middle image, near the solar limb at the 4 o’clock position? A solar prominence on the third image at roughly the 1 o’clock position? I was almost tempted out to do some solar observing myself today, but the cloud co...

Ouch, two hernias sounds nasty. I must admit I hadn’t thought of wheels, Brian. I did give some thought to leaving it in a permanent observing position but with a sturdy cover over it. However, then we decided to move, and I’d noticed I was getting a bit of pain when lifting it, so I decided to let ...

Thanks Dave. A wealth of information. I hadn’t come across S&Ts interactive tools to show the moons of Uranus and Neptune before. Interesting to see.

Best wishes, Jeff.

There’s an article on here, and it mentions about amateurs spotting USA313, and presumably ascertaining the orbital path. I think stella is a prolific contributor to these types of observations, if I remember correctly.

Best wishes, Jeff.

My daughter bought me the ‘Cloud A Day’ book for Christmas. I’m looking forward to reading it. I have the ‘Cloud Spotter’s Guide’ by Gavin too, which I often refer back to. Atmospheric optics are so fascinating, as is just generally trying to spot the variety of cloud structures. Best wishes, Jeff.

What a great view this is. Thanks for taking the time to post the images. I bet it was a tad cold.

Best wishes, Jeff.

Thanks for sharing your images, Cliff. Some very nicely defined spots there to see.

Best wishes, Jeff.

Thanks Bob. The beauty of the refractor is that it is more manageable, and probably more likely to get used. I sold my 8” Dob just before Christmas as I was finding it too heavy to lift (I was diagnosed with a hernia the week after I sold it - couldn’t write the script for it). I have also had to ha...

Cheers Cliff. It is very eerie watching the Moon fade in and out of the cloud. Very atmospheric though. I have a solar filter for this scope, which I made from Baader solar filter film. So, when I get to see the sun again, I’ll give it a go and see what solar cycle 25 is like.

Best wishes, Jeff.

What a beautiful piece of work. How many frames were involved in creating this, Ian? I would have this framed and hanging on my wall if I’d produced it.

Best wishes, Jeff.

I set up ready to observe the occultation of the relatively bright star (+5.85) HU Tauri last night, about 30 minutes before the event. At the time the sky looked to have good spells of clear patches in the swiftly drifting cloud base. However, by the time of the occultation, I could barely see the ...

All fabulous events, Mike. From my year I would put NEOWISE top of the list, for a number of reasons; it was the first relatively bright comet for a long time, coupled with plenty of time to observe under a period of beautiful weather. That said, most of my observations of this comet were from a nor...

Lovely picture, Cliff, and a Merry Christmas to you and your family too.

Best wishes, Jeff.