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ukastronomy's Journal
Created on 2007-06-14 07:48:19 (#13159373), last updated 2009-07-03
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Basic Info| Name: | ukastronomy |
|---|---|
| Location: | Daventry, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom |
| Website: | Martin Nicholson's life and astronomical work |
BioJust a little bit about me. I live in Daventry, a small town in Northamptonshire, England. Two years ago I retired from teaching and since then I have spent most of my leisure time on a wide range of astronomical projects. For a number of years most of my practical work was done using a 12" Meade LX200 that was situated in roll-off roof observatory in my garden. Sadly ever increasing light pollution has meant that all my work is now done over the internet using telescopes based in the USA.
In the days when the Meade was in use I concentrated on double neglected stars. As the Washington Double Star Catalogue website explains - "A large number of systems in the WDS may be characterized as ``neglected.'' These include unconfirmed binaries as well as systems which have not been resolved for many years. The reasons for this neglect are varied: poor coordinates or large proper motion (so the systems are ``lost''), erroneous magnitude or delta-m estimates (so the systems are skipped over or misidentified), or true neglect (too many binaries and too few observers). While the veracity of some of these systems is certainly suspect, many (if not most) of these are bona fide double stars." I observed 2,249 of these systems which put me in 7th place in the all-time list.
Since 2005 the majority of my observing time has been spent studying variable stars. Unlike many variable star observers I don't find monitoring cataclysmic variables particularly interesting. This is despite the many excellent web sites that exist on CV's - on the other hand the AAVSO have proved to be a fruitful source of fascinating targets.
Although I made a few variable star discoveries in 2005 - as reported in IBVS and a slightly larger number in the first half of 2006 - as reported in OEJV - I tended to drift between the different sub-sections of the hobby in a rather unstructured manner.
As is so often the case a short item on the WWW provided me with the spur to start work on what soon to became a major project. A short note from Northampton based John Greaves suggested a technique for discovering red variable stars and I have used his approach, with various modifications, throughout my work.
I have consistently spend more time on astronomical data mining than on practical observing and I have had varying degrees of success in the work I have done. For example I have managed to find 1350 previously unreported variable stars in the archives of the Northern Sky Variability Survey. These have all gone through a refereeing process and are now listed in the Variable Star Index maintained by the American Association of Variable Star Observers. On the other hand my attempts to get my new double star discoveries listed have been unsuccessful.
In the days when the Meade was in use I concentrated on double neglected stars. As the Washington Double Star Catalogue website explains - "A large number of systems in the WDS may be characterized as ``neglected.'' These include unconfirmed binaries as well as systems which have not been resolved for many years. The reasons for this neglect are varied: poor coordinates or large proper motion (so the systems are ``lost''), erroneous magnitude or delta-m estimates (so the systems are skipped over or misidentified), or true neglect (too many binaries and too few observers). While the veracity of some of these systems is certainly suspect, many (if not most) of these are bona fide double stars." I observed 2,249 of these systems which put me in 7th place in the all-time list.
Since 2005 the majority of my observing time has been spent studying variable stars. Unlike many variable star observers I don't find monitoring cataclysmic variables particularly interesting. This is despite the many excellent web sites that exist on CV's - on the other hand the AAVSO have proved to be a fruitful source of fascinating targets.
Although I made a few variable star discoveries in 2005 - as reported in IBVS and a slightly larger number in the first half of 2006 - as reported in OEJV - I tended to drift between the different sub-sections of the hobby in a rather unstructured manner.
As is so often the case a short item on the WWW provided me with the spur to start work on what soon to became a major project. A short note from Northampton based John Greaves suggested a technique for discovering red variable stars and I have used his approach, with various modifications, throughout my work.
I have consistently spend more time on astronomical data mining than on practical observing and I have had varying degrees of success in the work I have done. For example I have managed to find 1350 previously unreported variable stars in the archives of the Northern Sky Variability Survey. These have all gone through a refereeing process and are now listed in the Variable Star Index maintained by the American Association of Variable Star Observers. On the other hand my attempts to get my new double star discoveries listed have been unsuccessful.
ConnectInterests (13):
astronomy, computer games, data mining, double stars, ebay, enya, pink floyd, postal history, postcards, school governor, south africa, stamp collecting, variable stars
External Services:
 | ukastronomy@livejournal.com |
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