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#91
Updates and Upsets / Re: Monthly updates ...
Last post by Rick - Dec 21, 2023, 04:54:48
Were there the usual reports at the Xmas meeting?
#92
In the Media... / To infinity and ... just over ...
Last post by Rick - Dec 19, 2023, 15:49:01
To infinity and ... just over the Atlantic
Soul searching in the wake of Virgin Orbit failure

The UK Space Agency has published a "Lessons Learned" report after the failure of the first orbital launch attempt from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay on the south west coast of England.

The report, which does not use the word "failure," describes the mission in which Virgin Orbit's rocket, LauncherOne, was launched from a modified Boeing 747 dubbed Cosmic Girl.

According to the report: "This historic event demonstrated the UK's ability to launch, safely, legally and with the appropriate coordination across government."

Launch, yes. Make it to orbit, no.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/19/lessons_learned_uk_launch/
#93
In the Media... / Orion and the Orion Molecular ...
Last post by Rick - Dec 19, 2023, 10:02:08
Orion and the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex

This prolific star-forming region lies between 1,000 and 1,400 light-years away and is hundreds of light-years across. Many of the objects in this complex consist of Hydrogen Alpha (H-Alpha) emission (the red or magenta glow). Because this emission is outside of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum it can't be seen with our unaided eyes.

See https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2023/12/orion-and-the-orion-molecular-cloud-complex.html
#94
Some folks are using the GB3MBA 50MHz meteor scatter beacon at the Sherwood Observatory to do meteor counts, and they've obviously been less affected by the weather. Here's report from an observer in Ireland explaining a bit about the work and equipment involved.
#95
In the end I got five not-too-cloudy nights with some reasonable Geminid activity, the nights of 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th, and two nights with just one or two...

Date  3X      9P
 8th   0 and   1
 9th  42 and  32
10th  23 and  21
11th  41 and  43
12th clouded out
13th 231 and 215
14th  57 and  39
15th   0 and   2
Tot. 394 and 343

See this post in the Astrophotography section.
#96
Astrophotography / Geminids between 2023 Dec 9 at...
Last post by Rick - Dec 18, 2023, 16:01:24
This is a multi-night track-stack of the Geminid meteors captured by my two Global Meteor Network cameras between 2023 December 9th at 17:47 UTC and 2023 December 15th at 05:02 UTC. Only frames containing Geminids have contributed to this stack, though there may be one of two other meteors because they happened during the same ten-second time window as a Geminid. 697 frames went into this stack. Each of those had at least one Geminid on it, but some of them had two or more. However, the fields of view of the two cameras overlap, so some meteors will have been caught by both cameras. That makes it quite tricky to work out exactly how many meteors there are in this image.


Gallery link
#97
Here's quite a nice bright Geminid that was caught by both my cameras:

https://archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2023/orbits/202312/20231213/20231213_223640.628_UK/index.html
#98
Last night was rather better. Both cameras had about four and a half clear hours (with more viewing through patchy cloud) and they each caught over 200 Geminids, though because the fields of view overlap a bit, some will have been caught by both cameras. It'll take a while to generate the tracked-stack from that lot, though the fact that some frames had two or more meteors on them will help a bit...
#99
Here out West the night of the Geminid maximum was completely clouded out. The previous few nights weren't so bad, but nothing (yet) to match last year's most spectacular night. Maybe there'll be a clear night in the next few days...

(Don't mention the flying pigs...)

Edit: Apparently folk using the readio beacon at Sherwood Observatory recorded a good bit of meteor activity. There's a live the Meteor Beacon Project web site at  https://ukmeteorbeacon.org/beaconclient/
#100
Astrophotography / Meteors 2023 November 24 17:15...
Last post by Rick - Dec 01, 2023, 15:15:51
This is a tracked stack of the meteors captured by my two Global Meteor Network cameras on the night of 24th to 25th November 2023. According to the preliminary analysis more than half of the meteors shown are sporadics, but there are also several Leonids, Southern chi Orionids and November Orionids, and a few alpha Monocerids, sigma Hydrids, omicron Eridanids and Andromedids. The brightest one arrived at 05:53.55 and has had its orbit determined. It turned out to be a tau Taurid with an absolute magnitude brighter than -8.


Gallery link
2023 November 24th 17:15 UTC to 25th 06:28 UTC from Dursley, Gloucestershire
Two Sony IMX291 cameras with 4mm lenses
Global Meteor Network RMS multi-camera tracked stack