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21st May 1996
G'day,
I'm Dennis Simmons, a member of the Brisbane Astronomical Society in Queensland, Australia. I emigrated to Brisbane in 1993, having just started out in amateur astronomy in my last few months in Leeds. I have an 6inch f/8 refractor, (a Wray WWII aircraft reconaissance camera lens), which Peter (Eccles?) from Todmorden assembled for me just before I left Leeds.
Since arriving down under, I have purchased a Vixen VC200L Cassegrain, 200mm f/9, which sits atop my GP mount, purchased in the UK. Incidentally, hardware is more expensive in Australia, from 1 1/2 to 2 x the UK prices.
The skies are fabulous, and the weather more conducive to observing. Scorpius and Sagittarius are currently at the Zenith around mid-night, offering a feast of observing. However, we still find that approximately 1/3 of our astro camps are clouded out, so don't be too envious of the skies down under. Also, in the Summer and early Autumn, we have mosquito problems, requiring copious amounts of repellant. During the summer months, I will observe right through to dawn, wearing only shorts and a vest. I remember once observing at -12 deg C on the chilly moors of West Yorkshire!
I glimpsed Comet Hyakutake at the end of March, but it was low, and coincided with our rainy season, so I was unable to photograph it. I hope you had better luck.
Best regards
Dennis Simmons
30th July 1996
Hello
Just doing a search on Astro societies and I came across yours.
Hope everything is ok down at Darrington.
Simon L Howard
Treasurer for York A.S.
20th Aug 1996
Greetings from Tullamore Astronomical Society in Ireland. I have just read the latest edition of Phobos and found your e-mail address.
As I was the editor of our journal "Realta" I am afraid that the next edition has been delayed, however I am assured by the new editor that an issue will be out soon. I will ensure that a copy is forwarded to Ken. I am also pleased to see an article from Realta appear in Phobos, especially now that the possibility of life elsewhere is back on the front page.
Regards to Ken and all at WYAS, I regret that I will miss the Whirlpool Star Party in Birr this year, but early Sept its back to Zagreb for me.
Clear skies,
Sean McKenna, T.A.S.
6th Sep 1996
Hi,
I am a neighbour of yours in the village of Darrington. I have visited the observatory with a group of school children some time ago, and so obviously was pleased to find your home page.
What's new in the skies?
Cheers
Colin
23th Nov 1996
Hi Terry, it's me, Jonathan.
Has anything been happening whilst I've been away at Uni, if so, what? How is every one, and how are the plans for the new setup ( planetarium etc going)?
Would it be worth me sending some of the questions I've been given for assignments for my Astronomy part of my course to go in the Christmas edition of Phobos?
Since I've been here I've done a minimum of observing as it has either been cloudy or the moon has interfered, however, I did see 3 Taurids and one sporadic meteor in just under twenty minutes last Monday.
The skies here are better than at home though there is still some light pollution (most visably from Newcastle and Gateshead, to the the North), the little observing I have done has been to the south where only the lights of Durham interfere - making for good skies at altitude > than 10 - 20 degrees from the horizon.
I must go to bed now as I'm playing cricket tommorrow afternoon and I want to be totally fresh for it, so just one final question, are there any plans for an Obs night for the Geminids? ( I get home on the 11th so I should make that !).
Hopefully see you all soon,
Jonathan.
18th Jan 1997
A very Happy New Year, with clear/dark skies to all at WYAS.
Gerard Gilligan
Liverpool Astronomical Society.
24th Jan 1997
As a fellow Yorkshire person (Dianne) living Down Under I accessed your page with interest. Rob is interested in the Hale Bopp Comet and its associated satellite.
What ARE nacreous clouds? Are they the aurora borealis? Could they be related to the HAARP Project that the Americans are running to control the ionosphere shape?
Like the page.
Best wishes from Perth, Australia.
Rob Austen and Dianne Hardwick
10th February 1997
I observed the Hale-Bopp comet on 10-2-97 at 5:35am at apparently 25% above the horzion. Its tail was pointed in an apparent upward position as if it were falling to earth (obviously not). I live in south central Connecticut, it was a clear morning 15 degrees F, no moon showing. Can you tell how to anticipate its next move? I enjoy observation with my daughter a lot.
Buckwheat
20th February 1997
Beautiful pictures, keep up the good work...
Mike Golden
10th March 1997 I found your web site as I was looking for info on the position of Hale-Bopp tonight. I have loved astronomy since I was real young and now at 16 I have learned to appretiate our universe a lot more than I used to. Anyways I was closly following Hyakutaki last year and found that there would be another comet (Hale-Bopp) this year. Well, I found the approxomite positions in you Phobos newsletter. It was a clear night tonight so I treked out to take a look. I looked all aroung the sky and there it was, Hale-Bopp. It is real bright compared to some other stars and definatly puts Hyakutaki to shame. Looking through my binoculars the tail went out of the lens sight. I'm really looking forward to see it later in the month when it brighter. I hope for another good night so I can take my telescope out for a look. Well, just thought I'd share these few thoughts as I felt this conet is totaly amazing. Thank you for your time.
P.S.
Can you please send me your newest info on Hale-Bopp (posisions, times, magnitude) if you could it would be greatly appretiated. Thank you.
Nick Bartow.
16th March 1997
Gaining interest as I view (or try to view) Hale-Bopp. The skies have been very cloudy lately in Dallas, Texas.
Ben Denman
17th March 1997
Viewing is fabulous. Want info on Hale-Bopp path. Thank-you.
Marcel Dion
19th March 1997
Love the details and humour. I am just learning and feel my brain will explode. Your easy to understand reports/letters/articles are enjoyable to read and provide lots of useful info. Would love to find some "maps" of Hale-Bopp's projected path. Can you help out?
Carrie Harms
21st March 1997
Hale-Bopp was quite spectalular as seen from Seattle during early evening on March 20, 1997. Looking forward to lunar eclipse this weekend, I only hope the weather holds out.
Dave Luxem
21st March 1997
Glad I found your pages, I expect to be a regular visitor. Cheers.
Bob Avery
22nd March 1997
We are in the Rocky Mountains of Eastern British Columbia, Canada. Hale Bopp is very visible tonight. We can see it just great with the naked eye and better with binoculars.
Alan Michaelsen
25th March 1997
Hello! Just got on-line and we were looking for more information on Hale-Bopp since the news media seems uninterested in providing time for news that doesn't involve blood-shed.
Nice place you have here!
Isolde and Tristan
31st March 1997
Another 39 Hale-Boppers going trans-terrestial via BBNET.COM
James De-Mauncyll
31st March 1997
Nice to visit your site. Wish I could look at Hale-Bopp with you but I'm stuck here in the U.S. It was a great view last night with just the naked eye.
Thanks
Scott Pazz, South Bend, In. USA
2nd April 1997
Hale-Bopp - What else.
My family and I did a dash to Levisham, near Pickering, N.Yorks Moors, on the evening of Easter Monday 31st march. Sky good, but with a litle milkiness. Limiting mag probably in the 5.5 region. Comet magnitude probably minus 0.7, I would guess.
Ion tail stretched up to the Perseus double cluster - about 14/15 degrees, I should think, though it was tempting to think one could see more. The faintly blue ion tail blended into the Milky Way, which was distinctly visible. Plenty of remarkable hood detail (at least four concentric hoods visible). Dust tail strongly curved, colour a kind of slightly dirty yellow with a hint of green, and about ten degrees.
According to my calculator, the (naked eye visible) ion tail clocks in at around the 35 million miles long mark, give or take. Any other offers?
Tried a few piggyback shots on Fujichrome Sensia 400, which I like for comets, after it came up trumps for me with Hokey Cokey last year. We shall see what they provide. unfortunately there was some breeze, which made keeping the scope stable difficult. A simple tripod-mounted camera drive would probably have been a better proposition.
For Leeds bods - Melvyn's new 8-inch dobbo seems to be a rather special instrument. He reckons he can reach 14th mag from his back garden in the centre of Wakefield. He's done a magnificent drawing of the head area of the comet, which he has sent to Jonathan Shanklin at the BAA, but hopefully he will give us a look at the next Informal!
Let's hope for clear skies this weekend for a big "last blast" from a dark sky site.
Best Wishes,
Ray Emery
8th April 1997
I am a fifth grade student intersted in astronomy
Ryan O'Neil
14th April 1997
Can you send me more information on joining
Thanks
Chris White
15th April 1997
The Hale-Bopp pictures are very good
Pamela Simpson
18th April 1997
Very interested in your web site and nice to hear news from sunny Yorks! We are sitting around down under waiting for the comet. Having begged for rain for months in the driest period on records, we now have cloudy skies.
Its not fair!
Regards, Bright family, Melbourne, Australia.
Primmy Bright.
29th April 1997
Hope you all enjoyed the trip to Birr and I look forward to seeing Ken and co again in October at the WSP.
Sean McKenna
9th May 1997
Great site, was just surfing through.I was born and raised in Carlton many moons ago, so thrilled to see the village name on the web.
Kay McDonald
12th June 1997
Interesting....Loved the photos!
We observed Hale-Bopp every night for a week in the southern hemisphere at Grange in South Australia. It was a faint blur at approx 6:30pm but was quite clear with binoculars by 6:45pm. It was seen for about an hour before it disappeared over the horizon. The tail was very clear under magnification. Truely a spectacular event
Steve Savage.
14th June 1997
I am interested in variable stars and deep sky. At the moment I am thinking of buying an LX10 or Celestar 8 telescope. Have any of your members owned one.
Cheers
Paul Jenkins
14th June 1997
Wonderful site to inform people of the wonders of the heavens! :O)
Jordan Tam
9th July 1997
I am originally from Pontefract (Churchbalk Lane) but now live near Glasgow. I am soon to be joining Strathclyde Astronomical Society - when I get round to it that is.
Joe Lomako
10th July 1997
Hello,
My name is Thomas Bailey. I am observatory director at the Ashton Observatory, Baxter, Iowa.
I really enjoyed reading about your observations and experiences under the night sky. They sound so similar shared by members of our organisation, the Des Moines Astronomical Society.
Please visit our site.
I wish you clear skies.
Thomas Bailey
16th July 1997
Hi! I'm Eliza.
I'm interested in astronomy, though I really don't know much about this topic. If anyone cares to help me, then please do. Your help is mostly welcome.
Eliza A. Kam
24th July 1997
I'm a 13 year old interested in astronomy and I'm also interested in becoming an Astronomer, later in the future. Hopefully, one day I will make an important discovery.
Glenda Looney.
9th September 1997
Hi there
I am just starting out, and would like to come along to one of your meets - do I have to be a member to do so ?
Also, I live in Leeds - are there any good shops where I can go get some advice / buy a telescope from in the area?
Many thanks
Tim.
22nd September 1997
The North Devon Astronomical Society sends greetings to our friends in Yorkshire.
Andrew Davies.
10th October 1997
Pleasant surprise to discover this site as I am a local resident.
Jon Skinner.
13th October 1997
Good to see you guys over in Birr. Nice homepage. I intend to add a link to yours in my webpage.
Please do the same under Cork Astronomy Club.
Cheers.
Charles Couglan.
15th October 1997
Not yet on the net, just browsing on somebody elses computer.
Excellent web site and clearly a lot of effort has been put into creating it. Give my Regards to Paul Dobson and send an application form. I've been threatening to join for ages.
Allan Booth
1st November 1997
May try and visit your Tuesday evening session sometimes when the present Dog Training Sessionson Tuesaday evenings finish!
I live in Thorp Audlin
Howard Bishop.
2nd November 1997
Hello,
First it is only fair to explain that I am not an astronomy expert as you may gather and I am writing to you with the hope that with your expertise you may be able to help me.
I wrote to ....... ..... about this one and the reply I received was to say the least, disappointing. It is something that has been on my mind for years and now being able to access the Internet (and very much an amateur at doing it, I should add) for information, here goes!
It was April 1957, I was 14 and on holiday with my school in Switzerland. We stayed at a place called Spitz over looking the town of Interlaken at the foot of the Alps.
We had been on a trip to Italy for the day and were returning to Spitz in the in the early hours of the evening. The coach pulled into the side of the road and we were told by the teachers to get out and we saw a sight that to this day I have never forgotten. It was a Meteorite, to me at that age the head of it seemed to be about half the size of the moon, but I do remember for sure that tail went as far as the eye could see until it faded into the night sky.
The thing is, to this day I do not know what it was, I have told my children what I saw and their faces have been filled with doubt when I have mentioned it, which has been quite a lot lately because of the recent events in the sky. I expected the latest events in the sky to be at least as memorable to them as my experience in 1957 was to me, but visually after my experience they were disappointing.
I feel sure that there must be some record of what I saw and that some photographic record of it must also exist somewhere.
Hope you can help and thanks.
If anybody has any ideas then contact Barry.
Barry Routledge.
14th November 1997
Hi Terry
Thanks for your e-mail.
I know this is a difficult one because of how long ago I saw the meteorite, but I feel that with luck someone out there may be able to help. It would be, after all these years, nice for someone to be able to say "Yes it was.........." and to put my mind to rest, and that what I remember, did actually happen.
At least it would stop my 20yr old daughter and 24yr old son from saying when I mention it "yes dad " with a smile of disbelief written on their faces.
Thanks for your help.
Barry Routledge.
17th November 1997
I'm the secretary of the Southport A.S. - always looking for speakers. Good luck with the web page, well done.
Patrick Michael Brannon.
25th November 1997
I was born in Yorkshire and still have family there. This was a nostalgic visit, Thanks.
Jack Cheetham.
3rd December 1997
Just popped in for a look. Only just started a few weeks ago. Will call again in a few weeks.
Roy Locke
3rd December 1997
Hi,
I'm not sure who to write to but lets say "to Ken and Terry"
Thanks for the e-mail about my meteorite/comet that has been bugging me all these years. I really hope that what you say is right, and it was what I saw, it would put my mind at rest, at last.
I am not sure about this but I believe I am right in saying (from what I have been told) that a comet would be visible for a number of days, where as what I saw was only visible for one night, I think! I can only remember seeing it for one night but it was forty years ago, so I could be wrong,
If you know of any photograph's that are available of Comet, Arend-Roland in any sort of publication that I could buy, I would love to know the title's, publisher's etc, I would get a copy as soon as I could.
Thanks again, and after reading about the planets being all lined up together till the 8th Dec, I shall be on the look out for them, even though I more than likely will see nothing, or I'll be looking the wrong way, I will have a look anyway.
Regards
Barry Routledge.
5th January 1998
Help please? I am a 65-year old, retired military man who desires an answer to something. Can you help me to get that answer or can you direct me to some e-mail address where I can obtain the information?
QUESTION: Can you tell me if a comet or a great big asteroid or a star or a conjunction of planets, etc, etc, appeared in the skies between the years of approx. 12 B.C. through 2 B.C.?????
Please list all possibilities during this time. I would very much like a speedy response on this request. Thank you very much for your assistance and cooperation.
Dave Ready.
23rd July 1998
Hi,
My name is Roberto. I am from a school in Australia called Xavier College. I was wondering if it would be possible to set up a correspondence between anybody and my school.
You can e-mail me.
20th February 1999
Dear Fellow Astronomy Enthusiast,
I was checking out new astronomy sites this morning and I stopped by your page. I just wanted to thank you for putting together a very informative astronomy page for folks like me who also enjoy our night's sky. I run a small astronomy business and have always enjoyed seeing the brilliant photographs collected by fellow astronomers. Thanks again.
Sean Murphy
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