About Astrojohn

I am a science geek! Interests Astronomy, Skiing, Philosophy, basically any form of technology including writing automation software for my observatory. I will also share this with others using the same EQMOD/Astroart tool set.

New Lecture on ‘Time’ went well.

Delivered to a great audience at the Farnborough Site (Cody AS). Mix of history, science, technical information and current research. Need to put it on Astrospeakers.org

New paper accepted by Royal Astronomical Society.

Now loaded on arXiv.org Cornell University Archive.

  1. arXiv:2206.06919  [pdfpsother]  astro-ph.SR astro-ph.EPEclipse timing variations in post-common envelope binaries: Are they a reliable indicator of circumbinary companions?
  2. Authors: D. PulleyI. D. SharpJ. MallettS. von Harrach
  3. Abstract: Post-common envelope binary systems evolve when matter is transferred from the primary star at a rate that cannot be accommodated by its secondary companion. A common envelope forms which is subsequently ejected resulting in a system with a binary period frequently between 2 and 3 hours. Where circumbinary companions are predicted, it remains unclear whether they form before or after the common en…
  4.  ▽ MoreSubmitted 14 June, 2022; originally announced June 2022.Comments: 16 pages, 8 figures, 7 binary systems and 163 observations

Just one of the many technical challenges to Astronomy.

Living just south of Gatwick Airport in a dark sky area still has some challenges.

Trails of aircraft that get bigger and form clouds.

Astroart 8.0 is released!

Astroart 8.0 is now available from the MSB-Astroart.com

Many improvements and better accuracy in some functions.

All major cameras, telescopes, filter wheels and focusers are supported by Astroart. Updated plugins are released for free.

Astroart is also an open system with plug-ins and development kit for C++, C#, Pascal, Visual Basic. Fully compatible from Windows 10 to Windows XP. Compatible with WINE for image processing.

Now being used in Woodland Observatory.

Starlink is a pain!!

I have missed another night of binary star measurement due to interference from Starlink.

Starlink costs researchers time and money!!

So much space pollution being caused deliberately by Elon Musk. My research could become more difficult as it will for anyone wanting to look beyond the earth. Over 11000 satellites to be launched…your joking, We only have a small percentage so far..

It wrecked my measurement of distant binary systems last night..

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-costly-collateral-elonmusk-starlink-satellite.html

M51 very short exposure clear night

This is one of my favourite galaxies. Just did a quick exposure after doing some adjustments on my telescope.

M51 240seconds.

Binary System HS0705+6700 Plot

Nice plot of the light curve for HS0705+6700, 2.3hr, post-common envelope eclipsing binary system. Spectroscopy and light curve analysis indicated that the secondary companion was a low mass red dwarf star with mass and radius of 0.13M0 and 0.19R0

Paper on objects round eclipsing binary stars.

The paper is now on the archive of scientific papers:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.00125

Quite a significant amount of new data from our group. Some interesting departures from early expectations. It will clearly take some ongoing research to identify the mechanisms that are producing some of the effects.

Seems to be getting some interest!

Someone asked “Isn’t there an easier way than building an Observatory”

Yes, I did it once while I was building a new observatory. It took me just 3 hours to build!!

Roll Off Shed
Roll off shed design.

Thick marine ply base with 6 castors to help keep it from flexing, cut out for scope pier. Even put in a dehumidifier. Mine was a bit messy as it was only temporary. Cheap though! And… Fast to start up. I really liked this solution. Mrs also thought it was ok in the garden.

This would be ideal for small gardens or even one of Patrick Moores concrete observatory bases.