Category Archives: General

British Summer Time

It’s that time of year again, and time for my (and other astronomers’) annual moan about the clocks going forward.
If I could go on BBC2’s Room 101 BST would be the third item in, after light pollution and clouds. It’s stupid, pointless and a waste of time (pun not intended). It’s also a thief of observing time, especially in the late spring and summer, when you can’t get out to observe until late anyway and it’s worse when you have work the next morning.
I don’t like taking this blog away from astronomy but Southampton FC are at Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paints Trophy Final (the proper title is the Football League Trophy, but it is always known by the sponsor’s name). People have accused it of being a ‘mickey mouse’ cup but that’s a load of rubbish. A trophy is a trophy and it’s high time we won one, having won nothing since the 1976 Final when Bobby Stokes’ goal was enough to beat Manchester United. I was only six at the time and do remember it, especially as my late uncle was a big Saints fan. I couldn’t go to the game at Wembley (although I did go to some of the games in the competition) as I am keeping all my disposable income for TSP, but I will be listening to Radio Solent, in a state of extreme nerves, and mentally kicking every ball!
We’ve had finals since, and lost every blooming one of ’em! So…

COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!

Starting again at 40

I have signed up to do a BSc (Hons) degree with the Open University. The first course I am doing is a basic science course in order to get some practice in as, since doing a Foundation course in Science during 1995/96 and starting then abandoning, through lack of funds, a BSc Geology degree the following academic year (96/97), I have done nothing academic whatsoever.
The reason for this decision to do something academic after so many years? Well, I was 40 back at the end of January and the realisation that, a stint in the Royal Navy until 1992 and the aforementioned foundation degree aside, I have actually done bugger all with my life and achieved nothing. So, instead of being depressed about it, I decided to do something about it and contacted the OU who sent me a prospectus. I phoned them and registered to do the basic science course as a preliminary to doing a more in-depth course, as a first step to getting a degree. I have initially linked it to a Geosciences degree (I can make it more astronomy-oriented by doing courses which have Planetary Science content) but there is scope to change it to an Astronomy and Physics-related degree if I decide my maths is good enough and if I decide that’s what I want to do. I have more interest in Astronomy and Physics than I do in Geology but these are very maths-heavy so I might stick with the rocks.

Hopefully, I can get the degree done in five years, or even four if I put some effort in, so I will stand some chance of getting a decent, if short, career before I get to my sixties. However, as I am doing this for interest and a sense of achievement, a career will be a bonus although, to be honest, I really don’t want to spend the whole of the next 20-25 (or even more) years temping and working in shit retail jobs!
I have begun a blog about this, rather lamely titled ‘Science, me and starting again at 40‘.

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On a sadder note, I see on the Texas Star Party website that John Robert Prude, the patriarch of the famous Prude Ranch, the home of the TSP and my favourite place in the world, passed away on Tuesday. Quote from the TSP website:

“TSP and its attendees which to express condolences to the Prude family, for the passing of John Robert Prude on Tuesday February 9, 2010. John died at his home (“the Big House”), where he kindly gave permission for TSP 1982 to be hosted on the ranch. Over the past 27 years, we have enjoyed a lot of astronomy-inspired history because of the Prude’s consideration and efforts. Vaya con dios, John! You will be missed!”

New website, clear skies and the TSP

I have finally got round to rebuilding my main website. Actually, I started again from scratch with a new URL. It’s on a free host for now, until I can afford to pay for hosting. I have uploaded existing sketches, but these’ll be replaced with better ones in due course when I have scanned in ones from recent sessions and also done some more observing. The new site can be found here: FJ Astronomy.
Mentioning observing, the clear sky spreadsheet has gone for a burton as my computer died last weekend, and prat here forgot to back up the spreadsheet, but I have a new computer and can rebuild it. All isn’t lost because the files are still accessible and I might be able to print it off and then type it in from scratch. What I can say for certain is that October only had nine clear or partially clear nights, while November has had one clear night and one partially clear night, both of which I couldn’t use due to being ill with a staphyloccocal infection in my face after a visit to the dentist. The rest of November has been bloody awful with near continuous rain and gales and the UK under a permanent grey blanket of cloud. Half the UK is also under water.

I have registered for the 2010 Texas Star Party, but I really only have a 50/50 chance of attending at best. I haven’t got a permanent job at the moment and the temping has got really hit and miss. I decided to register anyway and keep my fingers crossed for a miracle (and it will take a miracle for me to get something as over 1000 people have/will have lost their jobs here on the Isle of Wight in 2009/2010 – and my qualifications and skills are sorely lacking). I’m not optimistic but here’s hoping…

Tunes to observe by

A lot of amateur astronomers like to have a few tunes on the go, to observe by. Personally, most of the time I don’t – I like the night sounds such as barking dogs and foxes, owls, snuffling badgers, the odd distant car or motorbike (not sure why, but I find the sound of distant traffic at night very evocative – where are they going? It gives me itchy feet even if, as in all likelihood it is, it’s just someone returning from work or going to visit friends) and even the odd squeaking rat or mouse. Living in a rural spot makes me lucky because there’s not a lot of irritating human noise such as shouting, loud music or tvs.
Also the lack of music enables you to hear that (imagined) psychotic murderer or mugger creeping up on you; not likely in the fenced-in back garden, though – I hope!

However a nearby music festival the other night had me going indoors to fetch my iPod to listen to something I want to listen to and not some crap foisted on me by an event a couple of miles away.

You see threads on Cloudy Nights and other forums, asking what music people like to observe by and, for a lot of people, it tends to be classical music. Some people like the synthesiser ‘space music’, some like trance. I have to admit I don’t like any of those forms of music; most classical music just does not ‘do it’ for me, it goes in one ear and out of the other, while I was put right off ‘space music’ when I worked in the local planetarium during the summer of 1999 (the job was great, but I got really sick during the course of that summer and ended up in hospital for two months and, even now, as a reminder of a really bad time in my life, space music makes me want to run a mile). Trance, drum ‘n’ bass and all that sort of stuff just makes me want to stick screwdrivers in my eardrums.

No, the music of choice for when I observe, and fancy a few toons as company, is metal and rock. Some metal and rock is very evocative and lends itself to scoping the cosmos. Not just any old rock and metal, as punk and thrash, much as I love these forms, don’t quite cut it in an observing session. No, what you want is a good rocking tune, but coupled with a ‘space vibe’ to suit the magic of the cosmos.

Here are some of the tracks I like, which have a space or science fiction vibe to them, even the tracks listed that don’t have a space or sci-fi vibe still lend themselves to observing. It’s the feeling invoked by the music, rather than the content of the lyrics that matters.

Metallica – ‘Orion’
Metallica – ‘The Call of Ktulu’
Metallica – ‘The Thing That Should Not Be’
VoiVod – ‘Astronomy Domine’ (cover of a Pink Floyd song)
VoiVod – ‘Cosmic Drama’
VoiVod – ‘Psychic Vacuum’
VoiVod – ‘The Unknown Knows’
VoiVod – ‘Panorama’
Muse – ‘Starlight’
Muse – ‘Supermassive Black Hole’
Muse – ‘Plug in Baby’
Muse – ‘Knights of Cydonia’
Muse – ‘Space Dementia’
Muse – ‘Dark Shines’
Muse – ‘Dead Star’
Blue Oyster Cult – ‘Astronomy’ (also covered by Metallica)
Hawkwind – ‘Silver Machine’
Accept – ‘Midnight Highway’
Judas Priest – ‘Blood Red Skies’
Motorhead – ‘Capricorn’
Motorhead – ‘Metropolis’
Rammstein – ‘Spiel Mit Mir’
Manowar – ‘Spirit Horse of the Cherokee’

…I could go on, there are so many good rock and metal tunes out there, but only some lend themselves to observing.

Obviously music for observing is entirely down to personal taste but it isn’t just the realm of classical, trance, drum ‘n’ bass or synthesiser ‘space music’.

Sky quality – the lack of quality

I have found over the past few years that observing in the UK is becoming more and more frustrating. It is not the lack of clear nights as the quality of clear nights, we still get as many (or as few!) as we ever did, but there seems to be a lot more haze about than there used to be. This is due to pollution in the atmosphere which is no great surprise bearing in mind that the UK is one of Europe’s (even the world’s perhaps) most densely populated countries (60+ million and rising all the time – ridiculous).
I brought back a stack of Larry Mitchell’s Advanced Observing Lists from the TSP last year and, while a proportion of the objects are within my 12-inch Dob’s capabilities (when I can get the mirror cell problem sorted), I have quickly come to the conclusion that I have no chance of doing the list, not from here.

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About a week ago I emailed the Astronomy Society of New South Wales about observing but so far I have not received a reply. I hope it’s because they’ve not received the mail, rather than forgetting about it or, worse, ignoring it. I did use their contact form, so there’s no excuse for the mail having gone missing. I can’t imagine them having ignored it, amateur astronomers are a decent bunch and do not tend to ignore people. So I am assuming that it’s because these things are run on a voluntary basis that they haven’t got round to it yet.
Still annoying though.

GMT/BST

If I were ever to come to power, one of the first things that would go (along with unneccessary lighting, animal experiments and child benefit) would be that infernal invention ‘British Summer Time’. Putting aside all the ill-informed rubbish from some members of the public about ‘extra daylight’ (there isn’t, you idiots) the fact that, due to this irritating tinkering, it gets dark an hour later is a major pain in the backside from an observing point of view, particularly when I have to be at work at the unreasonable time of 0800 the following morning.

New blog

I have moved the blog back to Blogger. It’s easier to use than WordPress and I like the templates better. Also, with WordPress, I can’t find a decent template that doesn’t chop the photos by a third or half while Blogger allows clickable photos. Anyway, WordPress is just pissing me off.
I’ll move the best of the posts over and then kill off the WordPress blog.