Society for Popular Astronomy

Mike - I got the AAS to start the splinter group for Amateur Astronomers at the 237th AAS meeting to chat about items of interest. It has attracted a range of both Amateur Astronomers as well as professionals who are either Amateur astronomers as well or work with Amateur Astronomers. I have counted...

Brian, The water & Gas supplies all depend on electricity - I am not sure how many of them have backup supplies ? My local water works nearly ceased to operate during the floods a couple of years ago as the main electricity intake was flooded. The water level also can close to flooding the filte...

Jeff, There is a government publication called The Cabinet Office Risk Register see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2020 that lists the events the government considers a risk to the UK and the expected frequency & impact. You should be able to find it in an inte...

For information the current number of people signed up is over 2,700, not sure how many count themselves as Amateur Astronomers ? Some professionals seem to count as both. Perhaps the criteria is you need to look through an eyepiece occasionally ?

The 2021 meeting will also be virtual - I will post details in this section when details are confirmed.

You can virtually attend the AAS meeting as an Amateur Non-members for $145. This gives access to several hundred talks both 'live' as well as the recorded talks for 30 days. Compared to the costs of attending a physical meeting, flights, hotels & transport this is a bargain. It may be your best...

In case people have not held the US publishers Willman-Bell have ceased publishing so their range of books aimed at amateur astronomers will no longer be available. If you want a copy of any of them look for the last stocks in distributors or be prepared to search the second hand book shops. The AIP...

The cost of obtaining compliance for a product can range from £100 to £100,000 according to a certification body website. Of course you have to design the product to meet the new UK & UK Northern Ireland standards first so I wonder how many manufacturers will bother for a small market like the U...

For those who are not aware of the history of the Lovell Telescope when first built is was fitted with a radio transmitter and it's first job was to track the third stage of the rocket that launched the Sputnik Satellite. The satellite was easy to track as it was emitting a radio signal - you could ...

It is not only import duty I am not clear what the VAT situation will be. Can you buy the goods VAT free from Europe and then pay the UK VAT ? Brexit may also impact the duties payable on imports from fro instance China now that the duty levels are no longer harmonised with Europe. The other thing t...

The Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury & Moon conjunction on 10th Jan seems really good however I will not be able to see it from home - is imaging the conjunction a valid reason for travel under Tier 4 restrictions or what ever more restrictive tier we will be under by the 10th ?

Brian, It is not only imaging asteroids that the radar on aricebo was useful for it allowed the accurate determination of the distance to the asteroid and thus better confirmation of the orbit. Very important for NEOs. The Goldstone antenna is an alternative radar but this is busy with deep spacew c...

There have been several recent reports of different distances to Betelgeuse - while it does not change the magnitude the observed magnitude this changes the astrophysics. The distances seem to range by a factor of nearly two hence the luminosity by 4 times and the diameter by up to 2. Unfortunately ...

I guess two nanosats are a lot lighter than a ICBM warhead with multiple reentry bombs & decoys. I am not sure what the mass of a modern nuclear weapon is but they are relativity small the warhead I have seen had several decoys as well as an (unspecified) number of nuclear bombs. The warheads an...

Brian, As long as they stay in international waters and keep far away from the coasts so the 1st & 2nd stages do not land on someone's territory I don't think there would be a legal problem. The problems are more logistical and also the stability of the launch platform. They would probably need ...