Society for Popular Astronomy

I made an estimate on 2021 April 12 at 2130 UT, 15x63 binoculars, by averted vision. Magnitude 8.3. The reliability I rate as low in the conditions. Bob

Hello Cliff, there was a small group of inconspicuous spots on the preceding side of the disc when I looked in the morning (of the 11th). I counted three. I tried to see them on your white light image but I couldn't make them out. Today, 12th at about 1015 UT, the group was still there, a bit more p...

There were some tiny spots this morning on the Sun, south preceding
Regards Bob

There was an interesting mention of another possible meteorite fall in the UK on last night’s show (in the viewer comments). See my further post on this topic in the “General” section. Bob

...In the south-west. After a fireball was glimpsed on 20 March and sonic booms were heard in daytime it is thought that meteor fragments might have fallen over a stretch of The New Forest from Verwood in Dorset to Romney in Hampshire. Bob

Skybrowser, This is indeed a tricky one to estimate and I have exactly the same impression as you - at times it glints brighter and then fainter - due to scintillation (lowish altitude seeing). And this makes estimation a problem. Repeated comparison tonight, 3 April at 2145 UT, with the 8.06 mag st...

Located again with 15x63 binoculars at 2021 April 02 2150 UT. V difficult estimate with averted vision - I made it about mag 8.3 with low reliability. I'd welcome other estimates, regards Bob

WHAM! (Water Hope, April 1st, Mars).

Observed tonight, 2021 March 29, 2215 UT with 80mm F5 refractor x18 with erecting prism. I estimated the nova at mag 8.2. Slightly fainter by perhaps 0.2-0.3 of a magnitude than when I first observed it on March 21st. I would add that this is not such an easy star field to track down as might be ima...

Thanks to Vicky for once again lugging all her stuff down to the laundry room and back to bring us The Sky at Anglesey last night, and thanks to all the guests. Last night's show leaves one question unanswered: why is it always clear over Robin's house?
kind thoughts, Bob

I eventually got a glimpse of the nova at 0130 UT this morning, 2021 March 27, after being clouded out with my 80mm/F5 most of the evening before. Conditions however, were awful with town light, moonlight and thin cloud: just intermittent glimpses with averted vision in 15x63 bins out the bedroom wi...

We tend to think of Venus' evening elongations as more welcome than it's appearance as a morning star. But I think that there is more poetry and meaning in the overwhelming dawn: "... to faint in the light that she loves On a bed of daffodil sky, To faint in the light of the sun she loves, To f...

I've got a notification so I think we all should. Robin will have been extremely busy with the next issue of Popular Astronomy. Sometimes we forget the amount of work he does for us. Bob

John, I was wondering the same thing. If no news is forthcoming I'll tune in at 8.00 anyway. Hope all is ok with Vicky, she's done a heroic job with this show. Regards Bob

2021 March 25. Preponderantly cloudy all evening: my brief sighting of the nova in 15x63 binocs at 2030 UT merely enables me to confirm that it's still visible and little different, if at all, in brightness to last night. This is an interesting nova that we should follow. I think I might switch to m...