Volume 117, No.2: 2007 April
Detailed contents: Notes and News / Articles / Observers' Forum / Reviews / Letters / Meetings / BAA Update
Comet 2006 P1 (McNaught) photographed in English and Australian skies. Top: 2007 January 10, 17:03 UT. Processed from 9x0.3 sec. exposures, Canon Eos 10D digital camera, 100mm f/3.5 lens. Field of view 10.6x7.2°. Chelmsford, Essex; Nick James. Bottom left: The view from Epsom Downs, Surrey. January 10 at 17:07 UT, Canon Eos 300D, 300mm f/5 lens. Maurice Gavin. Bottom right: January 20, New South Wales, Australia. 3x30 sec., 85mm at f5.6. Gordon Garradd.
2006P1 (McNaught) - a Great Comet! (Jonathan Shanklin) ) / From the President (Richard Miles) / Solar Section (Lyn Smith) / A change of Director for the Saturn Section (Mike Foulkes) / The BAA Library and Archives (Richard Miles)
Photo: Comet McNaught over Bournemouth Pier, 2007 January 10 at 17:08 UT. (Jeremy Calderwood).
Photo: Ultraviolet CCD images at the E. elongation 2004, by observers in Europe: J. Cooper (UK) with 178mm Mak-Newt., ATK-1HS and Schuler UV 365nm filter (top row, A-D); C. Pellier (France) with 355mm Schmidt-Cass., ATK-1HS and Schuler UV 365nm filter (bottom two rows, E-I)
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The Journal of the British Astronomical Association
On the cover: A Great Comet!
Notes and News
Refereed articles
Venus 2004: east and west elongations and solar transit ... Richard McKim, Keith Blaxall & Alan Heath
The year 2004 was exceptional in producing the first solar transit of Venus since the late Victorian era. The bright aureole and atmospheric ring were re-observed, and the entire phenomenon was witnessed for the first time ever in hydrogen alpha light. Although routine observations throughout 2004 were unexceptional, patterns of visibility of bright and dark markings, cusp extensions and cusp caps were recorded. No correlation was found between the latitude of the sub-Earth point and the visibility of either cusp cap, with the S. cap predominating for most of the year. It was possible to accurately follow individual ultraviolet dark markings over many consecutive rotations, extending from the E. to W. elongations, and thereby to make a current measurement of the synodic atmospheric rotation period for the near-equatorial features: 3.996 +/- 0.001 days. The true Ashen Light was reported visually on only a few occasions, but these correspond closely to times when infrared emission from the surface of the dark side was recorded in 1-micron waveband images. Some of the stable dark side albedo features were also visible upon the 1-micron images, and have been tentatively identified with known surface features. Infrared imaging at the same waveband showed little detail on the sunlit disk, but a few bright spots were sufficiently well observed to suggest a synodic rotation period close to 5.0 days, not atypical for the lower cloud decks.
The Iapetus magnitude puzzle ... Edward L. Ellis
Discovery of the real man behind the name of the lunar crater Kinau ... Robert A. Garfinkle & Bernd Pfeiffer
Stag Lane (Edgware) Observatory and the 10-inch Dall-Kirkham-Dall Cassegrain telescope ... David Arditti
Observers' Forum
BAA Update
Meetings
Letters