Amateur Astronomy

[blobrana]

Hum,
http://www.distantsuns.com/

[blobrana]

 Hum,
The amiga version is a bit stagnant.
http://www.syz.com/DU/amiga/

(It comes in Mac and PC versions as well)

BTW,
i should also mention Digital Almanac.

[blobrana]

Hum,
well worth every penny, i imagine.

is it computerised?
(ie check out 73P-C/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 at R.A. = 16 24.82  Dec = 31  5.0)

[blobrana]

Hum,
The Sattrack  4.1 package authored by Randy Stackhouse will generate predictions and provide a graphical display of the satellite ground track. (183 kB)
Aminet/SatTrack_v42.lha
ftp://sattrack.lha

BTW, The Earth is starting to pass through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, to produce the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower.
It peaks before sunrise on Saturday morning, (6:00 UT) May 6th.

[blobrana]

Hum,
Expected meteor rates of about 5 - 10 per hour in the northern hemisphere, and 20 - 60 per hour in the southern hemisphere.

The meteoroids are fast, travelling at 66 km/s, and often leave persistent trains. Typical the meteors are as bright as a 3rd magnitude star (2.4 - 3.1 mag)

[blobrana]

Impressive,
the sound of one meteor crackling.

If you pointed one of your telescopes directly at the sun could you make a fantastic, ant-incinerating laser?

Stand back Ming the merciless...

[blobrana]

Hum,
perhaps you could ask them nicely to make a baffle to stop the light from trespassing in your direction.

And remind them, that a householder (a non-astronomer) in the UK took legal action against a commercial property whose security lights were causing a nuisance - and the householder won the case.

So, there is light at the end of the tunnel...

It appears that the clause (section 102) in the Clean Neighbourhoods & Environment Act 2005 relating to making light pollution a Statutory Nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 came into force on the 6th April 2006.

http://www.croydonastro.org.uk/lights.htm

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/legislation/cnea/index.htm

Direct link (377kb, PDF)

[blobrana]

Hum,
A bright supernova anyone?

(mag 12.5)

Web link:

(i could make a joke about the brightness of it, but its a bit too low from my skies to see clearly - but is the brightest one in a few years...)

[blobrana]

Hum,
No,
it a job for a 8" or bigger.

(Don't you find it funny how supernova magnitudes are always  just within the limiting magnitudes of the discovery telescope?)

[blobrana]

My Website feature of the month.
A nice clean and informative astronomy website
www.astronomynz.org.nz

Worth bookmarking.

[blobrana]

On Nov. 18-19th, sky watchers somewhere will see, weather permitting,  a dazzling storm of Leonid meteors.
On November 19th, the Earth passes very close to the centre of dusty debris shed by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during the comet's 1932 return. The encounter with the 1932 trail will lead to enhanced meteor activity.
The calculated peak time of the outburst is 04:45 UT on November 19th, 2006. It will probably not last very long (i.e. meteor activity will rise and fall quite sharply).

Look to the East.

[blobrana]

Well, 2007 is here, so i would like to take this moment to wish you all a Happy New Year!

Astronomy wise, 2006 was quite a year.  The most significant events of course would be the planetary missions and their findings, and new clues on dark matter; and new discoveries about  gamma ray bursts, and the news that Pluto was finally relegated to being a dwarf planet.
There were also many new discoveries about planets beyond our solar system, and  superb images of distant galaxies.
The year went by fast, and it was sure  one heck of a year. It was quite a job keeping up with the flood of news at times. Let's hope i can, as successfully, bring you the latest news and discoveries that this  year unfolds to us.

i thank you all for sticking with us this year and i  hope you're all going to find my website as useful in the future. . And a big thanks should go to the various contributors/bloggers, scientists, and news agencies that  supplied the material.

Feel free to drop in at anytime.

So once again, Happy New Year to all, and let's enjoy and make the most of 2007!

[blobrana]

Hum,
someone has to live there...

[blobrana]

Hum,
You are cordially invited to join or upload to my Astronomy video site astronomy.magnify.net.

IMAGE

[blobrana]

@BillE
you`re in the northeast? (land of tyhe Picts?)