Celestia Forums

Would of posted this a bit sooner, but couldn't access the site for the last 24 hours!

Anyway to all you *real* astronomers out there you might want to check out a massive sunspot group in the southern hemisphere, today is probably the last day if you're going to do so before they drift too far west.

*Safety warning* don't look at the Sun with your eye, a telescope, etc. Do some research to find out about projection and other methods to safely view the Sun.

If you wanna see a few pics I snapped yesterday, they can be found here http://www.dasmirnov.net/astro

Just out of interest, how many active astronomers are in this group? Or is it mostly armchair dudes

Good question... I've always wondered why people use Celestia. You don't need to be an astronomer to appreciate it. I suppose i'm a amateur astronomer, although I don't know much technically wise and I only have a ancient pair of binoculars... but I saw Callisto, with the help of Celestia!

Nice pictures Smirnov! Was that Schroedingers cat? ;)

>how many active astronomers are in this group? Or is it mostly armchair dudes

Well, I'm not a dude cos I'm in England o'l chap ! but yes I am active.

If anyone wants to activly watch sunspots without telescope or binos then have a look at my humble little website
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/malcolmp/solar/index.htm
for a method of doing this safely with just a 'pinhole' of about 1/4in dia (5mm), a small mirror and a projection distance of say 30 or 60 ft (10 to 20m ) into a darkened room. Works astonishingly well. (I do have a 6" one, and binos as well ! )
That should get y'all outa da armchair

Malcolm,
SW England where it is cloudy again

PS

Nice pictures Paul, I specially like the one of the cardboard box and wrench ! Obviusly an experimenter after my own style, my first 'pinhole' was made in a bit of cardboard with a poke from a ballpoint pen
Thanks for showing us those.

Malcolm.

Where abouts are you Malcolm? I'm in Yeovil, Somerset.

Was quite good observing last night until the cloud very rapidly rolled in, around 23:10 if memory serves me.

Saw 4 satellites, 1 was in the region of Lyra, which was only visible through my scope, fluke or what it happened to be pointing the right way (I was trying to find M27). The ISS flew over nicely at 22:38. One day I'll shove my scope on the path it's going to take to see if I can make out any detail, hard part is getting it's exact path, and getting my scope pointing the right way!

Also saw a couple of satellites going from south to north, which usually means they're military/spy satellites.

Did spot M27 in the end, once the sky had darkened so I could positively identify it, and then found good ol' M13, which normally takes me ages to find, I'm useless at finding stuff when there isn't a bright star right next to it I always have trouble with M13, I first found the crab (M1) easier then M13

Was gonna go on a hunt for Uranus, but the cloud rolled on in.

Any satellite observation is quite fun for those who don't do it, http://www.heavens-above.com has all the prediction stuff, Iridium flares are also good ones to look out for! The Sun is a very nice object to observe and can be done cheaply as Malcolm says, very interesting there is such large activity since it's almost mid-cycle now. Grab a pair of binos and have a peek at Jupiter, you can then check the satellites what you see with Celestia. Off out of your chairs, you want to feel pain the in your neck from looking upwards for hours on end.

Hi, not far from you Paul !
N.Somerset, between Bristol and Weston-s-Mare.

And thank you to the god or gods on this forum for parting my clouds for me since my last post !!! I saw the sun for a few minutes cloudy now which is why I'm back here !
Give me a wee while and I may even be able to show y'all some cheap webcam pics of my pinhole results ( not up to the quality of Paul's stuff though )
wheee -->> sun's out agin ---->>> bye

Great pictures Paul! That's an impressive group of sunspots . . . Unfortunately, I haven't seen much of the Sun in Seattle these past few days.

Anyhow, it's nice to see some reports of 'real' observing in this forum.

--Chris