The Journal of the British Astronomical Association

Volume 114, No.1: 2004 February

On this page: Notes and News / Articles / Observers' Forum / Reviews / Meetings / BAA Update

On the cover: Aurora and solar activity last October.

Aurora at Ullapool, Scotland on 2003 October 29/30 by Tony Rickwood, 20 secs. at f/2.8, 200ISO film. 'Note that the landscape is actually lit by all that light - I didn't need a torch to make notes!' Sunspot detail (left) by Mike Hendrie, October 26, 09:52 UT, 1/60 sec. using a 0.7Å H-alpha filter on 152mm Cooke refractor at f/44, Kodak Technical Pan film. Whole disk image (right) by Jean Dragesco, October 29, 11:07 UT, 1/1000 sec. with ETX 105mm Maksutov, Baader rejection filter, also Kodak Technical Pan. Seven separate sunspot groups are visible.
An aurora gallery

Notes and News

Minor planet Hermes recovered (Andrew Hollis, Nick James & Cliff Meredith) / From the President (Tom Boles) / Waiting for NEAT and LINEAR (Jonathan Shanklin) / Mars in 2003: Fifth interim report (Richard McKim) / Solar Section (Geoff Elston) / Into the lion's den at Bishop's Stortford High School (Guy M. Hurst) / Digitising variable star data - can you help? ( Roger Pickard) / Cassini views Saturn from 235 days out / Aurora Section (R. J. Livesey) / Jay Brausch - 2000 not out (R. J. Livesey)

Main articles

Nathaniel Everett Green: artist and astronomer ... Richard McKim

N. E. Green, a well-known BAA member from the decade of the 1890s, managed to successfully combine his hobby with his profession as a landscape artist and art teacher. One-time drawing master to Queen Victoria, and exhibitor at the Royal Academy, Green became equally famous for his beautiful and realistic drawings of the planets, above all for his expedition to Madeira in 1877 to observe the perihelic opposition of Mars. He inevitably became an important figure in the early martian 'canal debate'. Green was an Original Member of the BAA who twice directed the early Saturn Section, and ultimately served as President in 1896-'98. In this paper Green's life and works are reviewed, together with new details of his instruments and his approach to painting and drawing. Opportunity has been taken to publish some more of his original work, in colour, for the very first time. (11pp) Image-intensified video meteor observations and MetRec
S. J. Evans Experiences of analysing image-intensified video meteor observations with automatic recognition and analysis software are described. These may be of interest to others contemplating involvement in this method of meteor observation. (4pp) An introduction to astrometry
Nick James At the Cambridge Observers' Workshop, Nick James explained the secrets of the mysterious art of astrometry.

Observing and drawing the deep sky
Stewart Moore

Despite advances in photographic emulsions and the rapid evolution of CCD cameras, drawing is still a valid and enjoyable method of recording the appearance of deep-sky objects. It is cheap, simple and most importantly, you do not have to be a great artist to make a permanent record of what you observe. The eye and brain combination is a very sophisticated light detector, with the ability to record detail over a wide range of intensity. This means that both faint and bright detail can be seen together ( for example the bright core and faint outer arms of a spiral galaxy. This is something that other forms of imaging often struggle to achieve.

(Copies of any of these articles may be ordered from the BAA office.)

Index to Volume 113 (2003) ... R. J. Marriott

Reviews

(Here is a new easy way to obtain your astronomy books, and help the BAA at the same time! Any books or other goods ordered from Amazon after following a link from this site - not just books reviewed here - will generate a small commission for the BAA.)

Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of our Sun by Leon Golub & Jay M. Pasachoff
Harvard University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-674-01006-X, pp. xii + 267. £11.50 (pbk).
Reviewed by Lee Macdonald

The Edge of Infinity: Supermassive black holes in the Universe by Fulvio Melia. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-81405-7, pp. ix + 148. £18.95 (hbk).
Reviewed by Roger O'Brien

A practical guide to lightcurve photometry and analysis by Brian D. Warner . BDW Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-9743849-0-9. Pp xiv + 266, $40.00 incl. air mail postage (pbk). [Available through http://www.MinorPlanetObserver.com]
Reviewed by Richard Miles

Cometary Science After Hale-Bopp: Volume I and Volume II by H. Boehnhardt et al. (eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. ISBN 1-4020-1288-8, pp. 343 (Vol. I); ISBN 1-4020-0978-X, pp. 524 (Vol. II); £119.00 each.
Reviewed by Jonathan Shanklin