Welcome to the home page of Brian & Regina Bond, Amateur Astronomers and Amateur Radio Operators, G3ZKE....(other Amateur Radio callsigns:- G3AFT, G8CUR, G4DWL, Grafton Amateur Radio Society).
The Winter Solstice Approaches
Our son Ashley, and his girlfriend Louise Dalgarno, took their wedding vows at 12.00Hrs, on Saturday 26th June 2004 in Ennis Cathedral, Co. Clare. Ireland.
The weather held out for the day. President George Bush departed from Dromoland Castle where we were due to have our reception later. And after that, the whole event went as smooth as clockwork. (The picture is also a link to their story)
The day started with light rain at 08.30, followed by sunshine and a slight wind for the rest of the day. A perfect day for a wedding.
Due to President George Bush's presence at Dromoland Castle; Louise, her Mother, the Bridesmaids and the Flower Girls were given a police escort complete with sirens, through checkpoints, red lights, and traffic jams from Shannon to Ennis Cathedral. Right through the centre of Ennis's old world cobbled high street. And of course with the Bride's obligatory 15 minutes late, timed to perfection. The noise of the police sirens announced their arrival to the congregation within the Cathedral.
Father Tom Hogan presided over the ceremony at the Cathedral in a most delightful way and prevailed an air of relaxation and joviality to the congregation, especially the story of the rabbit (hmnn????!!)
After the wedding ceremony, coaches took us first to Knpogue Castle for canapés, followed shortly afterwards to Dromoland Castle for the wedding reception. An event of their lifetime as well as ours.
The Transit Of Venus. Tuesday, 8th June 2004.
I observed the Transit of Venus from the top of St. Pancras Hospital, South Wing, Central London. All the hard work had paid off. The weather was hot, a high level of thin misty cloud prevailed and very little wind.
The scope was set up on Sunday, camera's calibrated on the Monday, and began capturing images in Ha and White light from 04.00 hrs on Tuesday morning.
I had applied to their Estates & Facilities Office for permission to set up 'camp' for the duration. And due to the height of the building, gave a clear view to the North East, so enabling to see all five contacts...all will be revealed shortly once the pictures are processed a little and they show great promise. Followed by a report.
For the record though; at the beginning of the Ha imaging, a very large prominence was observed which became detached just as Venus began 1st Contact. The prominence had dissipated by 2nd Contact
A recent acquisition has been a BC&F GPS module for my LX200 Classic and have since come across a very interesting programme called RTGUI written by Robert Sheaffer. (Real Time Interactive GUI Astronomy Programme).
This programme has a wealth of facilities including interfacing to most of the major scope manufacturers and the excellent Cartes du Ceil software programme. It reads GoTo and GPS devices to accurately set system clocks and locations, has a number of add-on databases, and records observation runs and logs to name but a few.
*The 11th Autumn Equinox Star Party, September/October 2005* and other UK Star Parties that will prove interesting.
*The Latest-Latest Mitty Experience* and *The Mitty Observatory Workshop*
Light Pollution At It's Very Best. My home (QTH G3ZKE) looking South over Central London.
The picture below shows the light pollution of Central London in general and the additional pollution due to the floodlit works being carried out to the Channel Tunnel Extension into Kings Cross and St. Pancras Stations. Also on the horizon is the new UCLH Hospital, to the left, and very close to the BT Tower. Some of my immediate pollution is screened due to tree foliage. Once fall arrives the pollution goes up.
So,
my light pollution gets worse and has to be seen to be believed.
Living in the heart of Central London, I can read a magazine in the middle of the night, in my garden, and at new moon.
The main features that can be seen from the above photograph are Kings Cross Station, St. Pancras Station, the Millennium Wheel - now partly blocked by a storage facility newly erected in the Kings Cross complex, University College, Center Point, Euston Station, The new UCLH Hospital, BT Tower and Euston Tower to name but a few.
To the right is my Venus Transit rooftop observatory setup, on top of The South Wing, St. Pancras Hospital, Central London, (ex Tropical Disease's Building and originally a work house in 1805), a 10" LX200 with a Solarmax 60 for Ha. Camera's will be substituted for the eyepieces.
Great fun was had during the alignment of the scope due to the amount of steelwork in the roof. The compass directions were way out, to the point that the DEC reading for the Sun was 26 degrees ...(hmnnn????) eventually corrected by using the drift alignment method. One hour tracking afterwards.
Sites used for dark-site astronomy are Fieldview and Kelling Heath. Both are in the Norfolk areas of Fakenham and Cromer and have local beauty spots and various surrounding areas of interest.
Kelling Heath is now the new home for the Autumn Equinox Star Party. The next party scheduled for September 2005.
Another venue this year was the 2nd Kielder Forest Star Camp held held in October.
Kielder Forest is located in Northumberland, near the Scottish Boarders, and is rated as one of the darkest locations in the UK. Use this link to go to the report for 2004.
Mars....The
Bringer of War
The picture on the right was produced from a stack of 450 avi frames taken at prime focus through my LX200 in very poor seeing last weekend at Thetford Forest Norfolk. (30th August) at approx. 01.00Hrs
The image was captured using an unmodified 2UCam and stacked with Registax software. No further processing has been used so far except for inverting the image to the correct alignment. (Another very useful program is K2CCD which I'll use for a number of other compilations).
The Norfolk weekend was a mixture of rain, cloud and patchy clear skies....and the usual suspects loitering around each others telescopes, ie. Andrew (him with the pinny), Martin with his new caravan, Howard with his overstuffed Mini and Mike who cultivates his very own festering curries.
Articles of interest:-
1. Drift Alignment And Associated notes
2. 12" Giant Field Tripod Modification and Fine Level Adjustment Platform
3. LX200 True Leveling Procedure
4. LX200 Dual Port RS232 Wiring
7. LX200 Classic Common Faults and Diagnosis
8. LX200 GPS Information (Under Construction)
9. Getting the very best out of your LX200 Optical Train. (Credit goes to Thierry Legault, an excellent website). Add a set of Bob's Knobs to make for a finer, easier adjustment. (A highly recommended modification....drat, there goes another Allen Key into the grass)
10. Kendrick Dew Removal System
11. General information notes and Links. Includes directions to the Cartes du Ceil 2v73 Astronomy Programme, highly recommended. Use all it's plug-ins for top performance.
12. Gallery
13. Go here for Programms and Databases of interest. And how about planning for next year's Messier Marathon!!??
15. Directions to Heavens Above
Try this site for your Astronomy Weather, and here for the BBC's longest running program, The Sky At Night. Even the arrow directs to FTC time. All three sites are very interactive.
If you have any comments, why not mail me at Brian Bond. Updated 24th December 2004 .
Member of Hampstead Scientific Society and demonstrator at the Hampstead Observatory.
www.brianbond.eu.com. This website has been produced using MacroMedia Dreamweaver 4 via Blueyonder Broadband. (Picture credit Kevin Smith :- my reflection in a full aperture Thousand Oaks Solar filter)
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