Society for Popular Astronomy

Friday's show was a triumph. Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Vicky has the Patrick Moore gift of carrying on commentating no matter what. Looking forward to next Friday. Regards Bob

Thanks Stella, you left me wondering if Loeb had switched careers to dentistry.
Regards, Bloeb

Yes, the Sun seems to have subsided to its bland minimal appearance in white light, but there's bound to be a spot around the corner. Hope you are well Cliff. Covid jabs for the wife and me this week. Kind thoughts, Bob

Hello Andy, I'll explain the strange query. I recently got back in touch with my oldest pal after losing touch for 50yrs. He lives in Garforth, was/is interested in Astronomy, has a son also in the area whom I know is called Andrew, and the surname begins with F... So, putting it all 4 facts togethe...

Andy, It's been poor on the south side of Leeds and I've not been able to do any kind of star count at all. BTW forgive my strange query (for the sake of protecting personal information) but if your surname ends in "...ham", it is quite likely that your father is my oldest friend! Bob

Friday evening on Youtube is the new Sky at Night. It's spontaneous, live and has its own inimitable presenter and "custom" backdrop just like the old program did. I watch every week. The guests are great sports to do their bit live and liable to be ambushed by Vicky's quizzes and challeng...

When I started observing variables many moons ago we used the Julian date which starts at noon gmt. Bob
They don’t seem to use that these days

Yes Brian, getting out for a walk is a great restorer even if we do live on a planet where part of the atmosphere freezes! I remember when I was a boy in my duffle coat with the hood up and I would imagine that it was a spacesuit and I was trudging across some moonlet of the outer planets where the ...

Very interesting stuff here. It reminds me that I still have a scrapbook of press cuttings I kept of the Apollo Moon shots from about Apollo 8, and I still have my Apollo 11 mission info pack that I sent off for in 1969. Happy browsing.
Kind thoughts, Bob

Hello Sonia This type of graph is a just a convenient way of plotting the the changing brightness of a variable star - any variable star - over a period of time. The graph therefore shows a timed series of data points known as the light curve. Beta Persei is the variable star here and that star is a...

Thanks for this atmospheric photo, Bob

Hi Jeff, Sometimes it's possible to identify estimates that are unquestionably wrong because you discover the cause - so these can be annotated as such and, yes, I send my estimates to Matthew (vss Director). I've observed variables for forty-odd years now, but I'm not a variable star fanatic. My ob...

Hello Jeff and SkyB, Thanks and I appreciate your comments. Visual estimates in a sequence are never without errors on the part of the observer and compounded by varying sky conditions over a long observing session. I think possibly the estimates at 4hr.25 and 5hr.25 are "rogue ones", but ...

Hello, just thought I’d share my observations of Algol’s eclipse through last night, 23/24 Jan. Although the first two points on the graph are unaided eye estimates, the rest were made using my recently acquired 6x30 monocular with its useful huge field of view. The monocular saved the night really....

Welcome SunsetTwilight. Thought I'd just mention to watch Vicky's SPA video show on youtube on Fridays at 8pm if you don't know of it. Kind thoughts, Bob. Got to go, Algol's in eclipse!