Thanks to Damian for these instructions
Andy
Once set up the red colour can be turned on and off by clicking home button 3x in quick succession.
Last time I bought my mobile meatiest scatter radio equipment to an outreach event at Rosliston forestry Centre, children were dipping and diving around pegs and ropes holding the ex-military Klansman aerial up. This was identified as a health and safety risk. I have just received the item below – recommended by Ed – it is a wonderfully well-designed piece of kit sold as a mobile stand for garden parasols – it locks both up and down using a spring-loaded mechanism and a metal bit which fits into a slot at the top or the bottom so that it is very solidly held in place in either the open or closed position. It is quite robust be made of solid metal construction, and its ability to fold up makes it easy to transport – bank said for a brilliant idea!
Andy
My Clansman radio mast that I am hoping to erect using this base:
A couple of months ago I brought my ‘work in progress’ scope along to an introducing astronomy night.
I’ve had to teach myself anodising to finish it, I’m quite pleased with it, although I’m going to have to do some more tuning of the speed reducer – the ball bearings are causing the grooved stainless steel rod to distort making it go loose. I have a plan but it means making or finding a specially shaped grindstone.
Expect cloud for along time…
Sunday 24th June, a chance to get out and do some solar observing – can’t leave it all to Nick and Roger after all !
I double checked my usual sites to see what was happening on the sun, they suggested enough to warrant pulling all the gear out.
http://halpha.nso.edu (GONG)
http://www.spaceweather.com
https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov
Credit: SOHO (NASA/ESA)
Credit: SDO/HMI
Invited the big ‘A’ to join me, he duly did after 2.15 as we set up the gear.
Forecast on ‘Clear Outside’ app was correct, indicating 90+% high cloud cover…
This did have a detrimental effect on the observing to some degree, especially in my longer focal length scope, but you have to take the opportunities when they present themselves!
We both took the chance to do some sketching and it was good to see that Andy’s Calcium Quark actually worked – an “enhance white light” view, being my description.
Copyright: GONG/NSO/AURA/NSF.
We were more than pleased with our day as Andy packed up after 5, me not long after…
But the day wasn’t finished…
Looked out my North facing front office window to be greeted with a Solar Pillar – about 9.30pm.
Took a quick snap with the iPhone, then rang Andy. He seemed a bit perplexed at first for my call and a ‘Light Pillar’, but I urged him to go outside, then put the phone down pretty abruptly and went to grab a ‘proper’ camera.
iPhone image 9.34pm:
And again at 10.07pm
Even later into the evening, I spotted roughly in the same position what I thought could be noctilucent clouds… never seen them before.
Having left my tripod at work, I quickly grabbed the GorillaPod and took a 3 sec exposure – ‘NCL’ confirmed !
Texted Andy… no reply…
Those images will appear in a new thread!
Damian
I joined Damian in his garden in Streethay to observe the solar disc today. Interesting to compare my very amateurish drawings with Roger’s amazing photos in his post from his session with the sun today! Still, it was great fun.
I think that Damian intends to add in his own post soon – his drawings were amazing…..the artist at work puts me in the shade!
Both Damian and I have Daystar Hydrogen Alpha filters for observing the sun and I also have a Daystar Calcium-H filter. The latter performed really well today showing up substantial white haloes around the sunspots and also in the area of the filament in Roger’s photo. I have tried to capture these white areas in my drawing of the Calcium-H view. That filter does not show the prominences – the H-Alpha filter is required for that.
The drawings below were all drawn at my telescope:
Andy
Got a few Solargraphs loaded last light (Wednesday 20th June), just in time for today’s Summer Solstice.
Attached mine to it’s usual place on the back of the house (facing SSE), before heading off for an evening walk with two under my arm to deliver to Andy (he beat me to the blog entry – see below)!
Andy has one of the new style cans to try – donated by Ed who has a fine taste of coffee (Azeri / Lavazza – I also like this version). I did make the extra effort to drill a bigger hole in the can, then fix tin foil over it and then pin a fine hole through that. The only ‘issue’ with these cans is that I only get three sheets out of a big sheet of B&W photographic paper, whereas I get 6 when cutting for a standard baked bean can.
Good job as well that it was set up ready for this morning – today was pretty good and should have set a fine ‘upper limit’ on the paper for when we open the can up and take a look after December 21st…
This morning, in action (around 8.15am) !
Damian
Damian kindly delivered two new solargraphs yesterday and I installed these in my garden in Lichfield (LRO). Good job he gave me instructions to check the aperture after hammering in the stake – in one of them the paper turned around and covered the hole (hole looked white) so I had to take off top and move paper around again and re-tape it.
Andy
One of my favourite explorers of the night sky, excellent value at the Works. These pioneers provide such interest , not only in the equipment they used , but being able to observe their discoveries, Nick.
