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Post by markt on Jul 7, 2007 22:24:48 GMT
Well there's a totally clear sky here in England tonight for what seems like the first time in aeons... Visually i've got VERY faint bands visible, low in the north. Currently in the process of setting all the kit up in the yard, hopefully should have a pic or 2 to post soon (actually just waiting for my neighbour to go to bed as my yard is currently flooded with light from their front room ) Anybody else got anything yet?
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Post by martinastro on Jul 7, 2007 22:38:08 GMT
Good stuff Mark. Clear as a bell here but don't see anything yet but if I do the images will be on here tommorow! Best of luck with it.
OT: Remember C/2006 VZ13 LINEAR is high in Draco at mag + 7.8
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Post by paulevans on Jul 7, 2007 23:04:15 GMT
Yes, I have faint bands, possibly the beginning of something bigger? Here's a snap hot out of the camera..... As you see, not much there yet. Paul.
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Post by andycav on Jul 8, 2007 0:32:41 GMT
Yes I saw something *very* faint earlier on and got a photo or two. I'll post one in a bit.
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Post by markt on Jul 8, 2007 9:07:09 GMT
What I saw was a fainter version of Pauls pic. It had totally disappeared by 1am tho here. I stayed up till just before sunrise and unfortunately saw no more NLC's. Saw Comet Linear tho (see other thread) so it wasn't all doom and gloom
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Post by martinastro on Jul 8, 2007 12:07:21 GMT
Seen this display. Will post pics later. Seen LINEAR to Mark.
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Post by andycav on Jul 8, 2007 13:44:30 GMT
I don't think I'm borthering to post my photos as I can't even see the clouds on them, but earlier on in the night (~23.00UT) I saw very faint banding on the northern horizon and then later while I was out LINEAR hunting I kept catching out of the corner of my eye a large but extremely faint display stretching up perhaps 35 degrees consisting also of bands.
I've never seen NLCs this faint though and to be honest I'm not sure how I could tell them apart from normal very faint cirrus being illuminated by the rising Moon... These were so faint that they were basically averted vision jobs.
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Post by andycav on Jul 8, 2007 14:13:24 GMT
Ok, I was mucking about with a photo and I've brought out some faint banding. This was the display I could see around maybe 01:00BST stretching up to 35 degrees altitude. On this photo it looks more like thin dark bands against a lighter background but with the eye I could see broader, lighter bands against dark. So they must be the gaps in the clouds apparent on the photo, or their shadows.
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Post by tmcewan on Jul 8, 2007 16:04:15 GMT
I've never seen NLCs this faint though and to be honest I'm not sure how I could tell them apart from normal very faint cirrus being illuminated by the rising Moon... These were so faint that they were basically averted vision jobs. Last night (07-08) Bill Ward and myself headed south in an attempt to escape the overcast skies of North Ayrshire and eventually found decent conditions at Bennane Head, around 15 miles north of Stranraer (SW Scotland) on the Ayrshire coast. The sky, however, wasn't entirely cloud-free and although we had a few false alarms we couldn't be certain of any NLC at all. The problem we had was more to do with thin horizontal bands of tropospheric cloud over the twilight arch - this, at times, looked like NLC to the naked eye but examination with binoculars soon revealed it to be tropospheric cloud. At one point we even suspected an auroral arc but this turned out to be a chance alignment of cloud across the twilight arch too. Here's an image of what we were seeing:
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Post by andycav on Jul 8, 2007 22:27:47 GMT
Hi Tom, are you going for tropospherics on the one's I'm reporting then? That post was suggestive but not conclusive! I was going for NLCs because of their positioning (azimuth and orientation) but as I said I'm not totally sure because I can imagine faint cirrus looking the same in the Moon. I did try to do a binocular examination but they were too faint!
Edit: PS Do remember I'm talking about a 'display' 35 degrees high, not just over the twilight arc.
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Post by tmcewan on Jul 9, 2007 13:06:17 GMT
Hi Tom, are you going for tropospherics on the one's I'm reporting then? That post was suggestive but not conclusive! I was going for NLCs because of their positioning (azimuth and orientation) but as I said I'm not totally sure because I can imagine faint cirrus looking the same in the Moon. I did try to do a binocular examination but they were too faint! Edit: PS Do remember I'm talking about a 'display' 35 degrees high, not just over the twilight arc. Hi Andy, It's never easy to be sure from photographs but it is possible that you were seeing a similar effect. What makes me think this isn't NLC is the elevation - 35 degrees sounds too high for the time you report (00:00 UT - very close to local midnight from Durham when I'm guessing the Sun would be around 12 degrees below your horizon). When the Sun is 12 degrees below an observer's horizon then any NLC above an elevation of around 10 degrees will be in the Earth's shadow and invisible. There is a useful chart in Mike Gadsden's book that allows you to make quick estimates of these values. Having said that, it's always best to report anything to the BAA that you think may be NLC, always providing as much detail as possible in your report. Tom
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Post by martinastro on Jul 9, 2007 14:36:36 GMT
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Post by andycav on Jul 9, 2007 21:18:30 GMT
Well you can't argue against simple geometry can you, lol! Cheers Tom.
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