An Independent Miscellany of Astronomy R. A. Marriott Northampton, England ram@hamaldemon.co.uk

Occasional Notes is a publication not connected with any organisation. I invite contributions on all aspects of practical astronomy: visual observing, imaging, photometry, spectroscopy, telescope construction and maintenance, restoration of classic instruments, observatories, and historical articles particularly relating to instruments.

Please contact me if you would like to receive these free publications directly.

All communications and newsletters are sent ‘bcc’.

All contact details are kept strictly confidential and for my own use only,

but please let me know if you wish to be removed from my private records.

Please contact me if you would like me to present a talk.

Occasional Notes No. 1

27 June 2018

Editorial

BAA instruments secured for posterity

John Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope

(17 pages)

Occasional Notes No. 2

26 October 2018

Editorial

Smyth, Dawes, and Lassell

Restoration of an AE350 f/5–20 Newtonian–Cassegrain: Part II

(12 pages)

Occasional Notes No. 3

4 February 2019

Editorial

John Hadley’s reflecting telescope

σ Orionis

The companion of Sirius

AE instruments at the University of Hertfordshire

Using VHF radio transmissions to detect meteors ablating in the atmosphere

Appulse of Venus and Jupiter

Erroneous discoveries

(11 pages)

Occasional Notes No. 4

2 July 2019

Editorial

A spectroscope by Browning

Double and multiple stars in Hercules

John Edwards’ metallic specula

Two refractors in New Zealand

A 4-inch refractor by Irving

(15 pages)

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During my service for the British Astronomical Association as Curator of Instruments (1991–2016)

and Director of the Instruments and Imaging Section (2003–2017), I produced and issued:

I&I News and Technical Tips

46 issues : 389 pages : 197 authors : 391 articles and contributions : 1,211 illustrations

Each issue can be downloaded separately (click on a picture)

All issues can be downloaded as a zip file (140 Mb)

I&I News, New Series No. 1 26 September 2011 Editorial Imaging from Spain Imaging the Moon with a webcam Seeing Observing Sections (6 pages)

Technical Tips No. 1 5 October 2011 Editorial Webcam drivers (8 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 2 27 October 2011 Editorial Lunar, planetary, and solar observing Some home-made telescopes Low-tech imaging Seventy-five years of visual observing An Anglo-Saxon dial in Northampton On wiring astronomical instruments A home-made 6-inch refractor A Hilger eyepiece spectroscope (10 pages)

Technical Tips No. 2 5 November 2011 Editorial Joined-up astronomy: connecting all the hardware (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 3 26 November 2011 Editorial A home-made solar telescope A wooden Crayford focuser A flat-field Schmidt camera for CCD imaging Visual observation of double stars Observing from an AONB The 10-inch Cooke refractor of the Mills Observatory, Dundee Imaging the Sun with Coronado PSTs Noctilucent clouds Visual observing, and mobility The pouring of the 200-inch mirror disc (1935) Photographing minor planets (1892) (14 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 4 24 December 2011 Editorial Advertisements How to run an astronomy meeting (4 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 5 9 February 2012 Editorial Seventy years of observing Reminiscences of Grubb Parsons An observatory in the Pennines A tri-axis counterbalanced accessory system Deep-sky photographs The twin equatorial (18 pages)

Technical Tips No. 3 20 February 2012 Editorial Dark-adapted software (3 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 6 28 April 2012 Editorial Memories of Herstmonceux Asteroidal imaging from Hampshire Construction of a 16-inch f/4.4 reflector Seeing and telescope design A moveable solar observatory A metal Crayford focuser made with hand tools The Godlee Observatory twin equatorial Making a 30-inch mirror Delavan’s comets (14 pages)

Technical Tips No. 4 29 April 2012 Editorial Notes on the use of binoculars (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 7 10 July 2012 Editorial Imaging the Sun with a 60-mm Coronado Hα telescope Collimating a CCD camera: a practical solution The Thompson 30-inch reflector at Herstmonceux William Huggins’ twin equatorial (17 pages)

Technical Tips No. 5 12 July 2012 Editorial Hopper (4 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 8 21 September 2012 Editorial A 10-inch f/7 Newtonian A 16-inch f/4.4 reflector: further developments The 1927 British eclipse: a colour cine-film The Romsey observatory (12 pages)

Technical Tips No. 6 29 September 2012 Editorial Flat fields (2 pages)

Technical Tips No. 7 24 October 2012 Editorial Dewing in an SCT (8 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 9 24 November 2012 Editorial Photographing aurorae The ‘equestrian’ equatorial mount Comparison of DSLR and CCD images Report on the present state of celestial photography (1859) The Duke of York’s parhelia (16 pages)

Technical Tips No. 8 25 November 2012 Editorial Notes on the use of the telescope (3 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 10 24 December 2012 Editorial Cartoons (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 11 9 May 2013 Editorial Horace Edward Stafford Dall, 1901–1986 The first Dall-Kirkham telescope Over unknown Iceland on a Raleigh roadster The camera obscura A null test for paraboloids Comments on the null test FP3 Series II film Atmospheric dispersion Maksutov telescopes Visual astronomy in the ultraviolet Telescope eyepieces Finding and guiding on dark skies Photoelectric methods in amateur astronomy Filter-type solar prominence telescope for amateurs A Dollond–Wollaston telescope Memories of Horace Dall The genius of Horace Dall Horace Dall’s observatory The Horace Dall Medal and Gift (33 pages)

Technical Tips No. 9 30 May 2013 Editorial The use of filters in visual planetary observation (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 12 5 July 2013 Editorial The artificial horizon The spherometer The dipleidoscope The Barlow lens Fluid lenses and dialytes (10 pages)

Technical Tips No. 10 14 July 2013 Editorial Digital cameras, CCDs, and webcams (5 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 13 20 November 2013 Editorial BAA Sections (10 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 14 24 December 2013 Editorial Archival photographs (3 pages)

Technical Tips No. 11 7 January 2014 Editorial Limiting magnitude Visual limiting magnitudes (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 15 27 January 2014 Editorial A With–Browning reflector Meridian Observatory Louth Remounting an old 10-inch Meade SCT Grubb, Parsons, Dreyer, and the Royal Navy In the Avu Observatory (8 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 16 27 February 2014 George Eric Deacon Alcock (1912–2000) (6 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 17 6 April 2014 Editorial John Caister Bennett (1914–1990) Mileaway Observatory George Hole’s observatory The construction of a cell for a 14-inch telescope mirror William Gascoigne’s micrometer As I Please (10 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 18 10 May 2014 Editorial Instruments by Zeiss, Cooke, Hilger, and Brashear Horace Dall’s notebooks A modified Haig mount A plant-pot solar projector A ‘jamjar’ magnetometer The ‘jamjar’ magnetometer, sixteen years on Contents of previous issues (12 pages)

Technical Tips No. 12 20 May 2014 Editorial Observatory designs (10 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 19 16 June 2014 Editorial An observatory in Bedfordshire An observatory with a coelostat A run-off roof observatory An observatory in the west of Scotland A demobbed veteran An observatory in the Australian bush A garden-friendly telescope cover A modified ‘Romsey’ observatory An observatory in Spain An observatory for variable-star work Kingstanding Observatory A POD in Reading A Cumbrian observatory An observatory in Herefordshire A pivoting observatory A Pulsar in Cambridgeshire A hinged-roof observatory A mount without a telescope A mechanical drive (11 pages)

Technical Tips No. 13 28 June 2014 Editorial Go to or not go to (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 20 23 July 2014 Editorial A run-off roof observatory Restoration of a 4-inch f/15 classic achromatic refractor A home-made dome An ‘undesirable’ observatory An observatory for a small garden An observatory in East Sussex A cylindrical observatory (10 pages)

Technical Tips No. 14 19 August 2014 Editorial Dark adaption (1 page)

I&I News, New Series No. 21 29 August 2014 Editorial William Huggins and the Cat’s Eye nebula (5 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 22 31 October 2014 Editorial Some memories Memories of the Brintons The Henry Brinton Telescope at Bayfordbury Observatory The Henry Brinton Telescope and its twin A run-off observatory Telescope drives Observatories and observatory equipment (11 pages)

Technical Tips No. 15 29 November 2014 Editorial SBIG cameras (4 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 23 24 December 2014 Editorial Private lives Historical hearsay (2 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 24 29 April 2015 Editorial Optical Surfaces: the start of it all Frank Knight: astronomer and war veteran Construction of the Old Barn Observatory Two observatories in Shropshire A garden-shed observatory An observatory at Farthings A kennel observatory A reconvertible observatory A potential observatory A modified roll-off-roof observatory A low-cost observatory (12 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 25 8 December 2015 Editorial The BAA Brashear On the magnifying powers used by double star observers An entertaining book review A run-off shed observatory Aesthetics and bias Two Gregorian telescopes (7 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 26 24 December 2015 Hugh Jampton: Astronomer of the Future Puzzles (2 pages)

Technical Tips No. 16 20 January 2016 Editorial Equatorial mounts and polar alignment (6 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 27 16 December 2016 Editorial: Telescope makers Reminiscences of Howard Miles John Armitage (1945–2015) Roy Panther (1926–2016) Popular science in the nineteenth century Will Hay’s 12½-inch Calver reflector Pharaoh Seti I and Nut Vintage videos BAA instruments: the case of F. W. Hyde Nomination for the Horace Dall Award Contents: 26 September 2011 to 16 December 2016 (11 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 28 24 December 2016 Editorial Fragments from the Diary of William Herschel (4 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 29 16 June 2017 Editorial A 30-inch reflector in Norfolk The Lilburn telescope in Northumberland Finders for Schmidt–Cassegrains A mobility mount for a tripod Celestron air circulation vents Imaging with an altazimuth mount An orbit-sweeper A precision home-made CCD camera rotator The ladies participate Restoration of an AE350 f/5–20 Newtonian–Cassegrain A cautionary tale BAA instrument no. 1 Reminiscences of Roy Panther (16 pages)

I&I News, New Series No. 30 25 October 2017 Editorial The solar eclipses of 1860, 1868, and 2017 C. D. P. Davies and the 1914 solar eclipse (29 pages)

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