Here are some additional resources that might be of interest to you - courtesy of John Fraser
Websites:
Astronomy Now – The UK's best-selling astronomy magazine. British Astronomical Association – A national group dedicated to the support of the amateur astronomy in the UK. CosmoQuest - Contains links to a number of space based forums, podcasts and shows. Moon Phases – Details the phases of the moon between 2004 and 2044 Meteor showers – Royal Museums Greenwich page giving dates for upcoming meteor showers Night Sky – A Space.com page listing what's happening in the night sky for the current month. It's US centric so details need to be checked if you're in the UK as not everything it lists will be visible here. This Week's Sky at a Glance – Sky & Telescope page listing what's happening in the night sky over the next week. It's US centric so details need to be checked if you're in the UK as not everything it lists will be visible here. The Sky Live – A web based alternative to Stellarium. An interactive site allowing you to locate objects in the sky. Society for Popular Astronomy – UK based national society for amateur astronomy. Space calendar – A Space.com page listing upcoming events, including rocket launches and astronomical sights. Space.com – Site dedicate to "space" news. Stellarium – Provides a free, open-source planetarium application. Runs on most common computer OSs, including Windows, MacOS and Linux Universe Today – Site dedicate to "space" news. Fewer adds and less clickbait than Space.comYouTube Channels:
Astronomy Cast - Weekly discussion where Fraser Cain effectively interviews Dr. Pamela Gay, the project director of CosmoQuest, about a topic in astronomy. Dr Becky – Cambridge astrophysicist. Mostly news videos where she goes into a lot of detail explaining news and theories. Very accessible. Everyday Astronaut – Mostly coverage of manned space exploration. His enthusiasm can be a bit grating and is very much a Space X fan, but has some very good videos especially on rocket engines. Fraser Cain – Publisher of Universe Today. Does weekly Q&A and news videos, plus a lot of long form interviews with scientists and engineers. PBS Space Time – Physics based. Not just limited to astronomy, but it makes up a large part of when they cover. I find this very advanced and often beyond me. Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur – Not really like the others. Explores ideas, most with some space connections. Ideas are often taken to extremes (e.g. Megastructures: Hollow Earth & Weaponizing Black Holes ), but the guy knows his physics and the ideas are based in reality. Scott Manley – A software engineer with a good understanding of rocket design and history. Occasionally does non space related videos, but 95% space.Podcasts
I used to listen to these on the walk to and from the train station when I worked. Since retiring I've pretty much stopped listening, but they were good. Awesome Astronomy – informative chats between a couple of space nerd. One of which is Dr Jen Millard. Very irreverent, but often funny and usually informative. Space Boffins – Some news and an in-depth article or interview. Hosted by Sue Nelson & Richard Hollingham. Both are journalists who do a lot of space related work. Supermassive Podcast – A Royal Astronomical Society podcast, hosted by Dr Becky & journalist Izzie Clarke they go into one topic in depth. (sorry can't find a cross platform, subscription free link) The YouTube channel Astronomy Cast is also a podcast.
Artificial Saturn
Details:
Attached is a basic diagram of the fake Saturn construction.
It is simply a back-illuminated transparent image. The image
itself was printed onto a transparency slide (via
https://www.digitalslides.co.uk/). A ground glass disc is placed
behind it to diffuse the light from a white LED, and a plain glass
disc placed in front to protect the outward-facing side. The LED
is powered by a garden solar light circuit allowing it to be a self-
contained battery-powered unit that comes on at night. The
whole thing is then placed into a PVC tube for protection.
In our case the image is placed ~100m from the Patrick Moore
Building where the Dobsonians are usually set up outside, and
the image was printed at a size so that from 100m it appears to
be the true angular size of Saturn at its closest to Earth. This
distance also allows the Dobsonians to reach focus without
needing extension tubes. (It will appear about 1/3 larger from
where you were set up).
If one didn’t have such a constant distance available, then it
would be possible to collimate the image to infinity by placing a
lens in front. The advantage being that it could be placed at any
distance from the telescope and it would remain in focus and not
change scale. The disadvantage would be that the alignment of
the collimated image and telescope becomes much more critical
such that it would not be possible for multiple telescopes to view
the image at once.
I hope this helps,
David
(David Campbell)
