The Astronomical Patrick Moore

I've known Patrick for many years having first met him on La Palma when he came out to film 'first light' on the Isaac Newton Telescope. I was in charge of telescope commissioning at the time and we posed together for a photo next to the Cassegrain Instrument Cluster on the telescope. This was in the 80s and you won't be surprised to hear that we've hardly aged at all :-)

Last night I watched his autobiography on DVD and learned a lot more about him. The DVD is excellent and I thoroughly recommend it to any fan of Patrick or anyone interested in astronomy or people. It was devised and directed by Charles Wallace of the Moving Image Company who has done a great job. Most of it is presented by Patrick himself in his inimitable style with added material from Allan Chapman, Richard Gregory and several others. The original intention was to make it for the BBC but after lengthy but unfruitful negotiations the producers decided to go it alone. The result is that it is all original material, with no cobbled together BBC archive stuff. It's also more honest and straight-forward than it might otherwise have been.

Some of it is really amusing, some is poignant with references to the girl he never married and why he remains a reluctant batchelor, but it is all extremely well directed and holds your attention throughout.

It is set to become a classic and is available from Green Witch, the sole distributors. One reviewer described it thus: "a gem of a DVD and a masterclass in how biographies should be made". This is one you mustn't miss so keep an eye on our web site; the first batch is due in the next few days.

Halloween with Green Witch

Our Halloween Birthday Party is a week away on Wednesday 31st October; come along if you can as we shall have some unbeatable bargains on a first come/first served basis, plus an auction, pumpkin carving competition and observing if the weather permits. Full details are on the web site.

October is National Brest Cancer Awareness month so we shall hold a raffle at the Halloween Star Party to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. We'll also be collecting used mobile phones and printer cartridges for recycling. This will benefit Macmillan Nurses so why not dig out those old phones that you'll never use and bring them along. Alternatively you can post them to us.

Cressing Temple Barns

Last week I took a trade stand to the North Essex Astronomical Society (NEAS)'s annual party at Cressing Temple Barns. These are some of the earliest substantial grain stores in the country and were set up and used by the Knights Templar. The site dates back to the 12th century and was the first land in England granted to the Templars. It makes an excellent venue for a star party and is interesting to visit in its own right. The web site is here and NEAS's web site is here. The NEAS members are very friendly and if you live in the area I recommend joining them.

Bird Feeders and Nest Boxes

The coming of the cold weather makes this a good time to start feeding garden birds to help them survive the Winter and provide us with added interest in the garden, but did you know it's also a good time to put up nest boxes? Milder Winters mean that birds are nesting earlier, some even start in January, and nest boxes should be in place in advance of the season so that they weather a little and blend in better. This makes it more likely that the birds will use them and it also provides roosting shelter throughout the Winter. If you want to check out our range of bird food, feeders and accessories, including nest boxes, please click here.

Our range is chosen to offer high quality and reasonable prices. Cheaper feed is often bulked out with wheat which does little to help smaller birds but attracts pigeons. (If you like pigeons then our Duck and Swan feed may be of interest as it contains wheat and the pigeons love it too.)

A Tip for owners of the Meade #140 APO Barlow

Most astronomers have a Barlow lens which is used with an eyepiece to increase its magnification, usually by two times. The Barlow goes in the focuser and the eyepiece goes in the Barlow. Simple enough, but the choice of Barlow is more tricky with prices varying enormously. One of our favourites is the Meade #140 APO Barlow which has excellent optical qualities and allows an alternative method of use that 'not a lot of people know about'.

The front end of the Barlow, which contains all the optical elements, can be unscrewed from the body and screwed directly into the filter threads on an eyepiece or into some camera adaptors. This places the lenses much closer to the eyepiece giving a more compact arrangement and reducing the Barlow's multiplying factor to give an alternative magnification. If you need to buy a Barlow and think this alternative way of using it may be of interest then please consider the Meade #140.

Who heard Sputnik first?

In the last newsletter I posed this question as I had just read about Cambridge 'boffins' being the first to detect Sputnik, whereas Jodrell Bank is famous for detecting it. I had several replies including an extract from an interview with Sir Bernard Lovell. It seems that picking up the transmitted signal from the satellite was reasonably straight-forward as the Russians very helpfully had published the frequency. What Jodrell Bank did was to install a radar set on the telescope (at the request of the MOD) to produce the only capability in the world for tracking the satellite. In fact they tracked the rocket as it passed over the Lake District doing 17,000 miles per hour. This was before the days of safety cameras and no speeding ticket was issued.

Comet Loneos

Discovered at the Lowell Observatory during a scan for Near-Earth Objects, Comet Loneos is becoming brighter than originally expected and may even become visible to the naked eye. It has just passed Arcturus heading down towards the horizon so you need a clear sky and clear horizon to look for it. There are plenty of sources of finding charts on the web so why not have a look for it with binoculars?

Looking South at 10 pm (based on the view from Cambridge, England)

Our southern Meridian runs almost exactly down the right-hand edge of the square of Pegasus but the Moon is full and nearby so will obscure all but the brighter objects. The lower star marking the side of the square is Markab, or alpha Pegasi. It is about 140 light-years away and approximately ten times the brightness of our Sun.

The upper star is Scheat, or beta Pegasi. It is around 200 light-years away but appears similarly bright to Markab. Its brightness varies making it sometimes brighter and sometimes fainter than Markab. The exact cause of the variability appears to be unknown and Scheat is classed as a slow irregular variable. It is strange that we can probe the depths of the cosmos but understand so little about some of the stars on our doorstep.

Many of the Moon's features are washed out when it is illuminated fully, but other features such as the bright rays leading from craters show up much more clearly. It's interesting to note some of these prominent features then try to identify them when the Moon is at different phases.

Patrick Moore is well known as a lunar enthusiast and his map of the Moon was used by NASA when planning the lunar landings. It's amazing to think that a mere 40 years ago one of the best maps of the Moon was a hand-drawn one from an amateur astronomer. Patrick's map is being reprinted in commemorative form. I don't have full details yet but will bring them to you as soon as I can.

Oops

On looking back at the last newsletter it seems that I hadn't taken daylight saving into account when describing what you would see on the southern meridian. I hope this didn't confuse you. The description would have been correct for 11 pm UK local time.

And finally...

It's half-term so I'm taking my daughter Heather horse-riding for a couple of days near Barnard Castle in County Durham. Let's hope for good weather and clear skies so we can do some astronomy and bird-watching as well. There is so much to enjoy in this wonderful universe.

Clear Skies and Best wishes

Neil