Amateur Astronomers Research Articles

Another Independent Discovery of the 1946 Eruption of the Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis

One of the earliest independent discoveries of the 1946 eruption of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis was by British amateur astronomer, Michael Woodman, on 1946 February 9 at ∼01:45 UT when the nova was magnitude ∼2.0. Though credited as an independent discovery at the time, only scant details appeared in contemporary reports. The circumstances of Woodman’s discovery are told from Woodman’s contemporaneous notes and his own recollections.

Observations of the Polarized Solar Corona During the Annular Eclipse of 14 October 2023

We present results of a dual eclipse expedition to observe the solar corona from two sites during the annular solar eclipse of 14 October 2023 using a novel coronagraph designed to be accessible for amateurs and students to build and deploy. The coronagraph (CATEcor) builds on the standardized eclipse observing equipment developed for the Citizen CATE 2024 experiment. The observing sites were selected for likelihood of clear observations, for historic relevance (near the Climax site in the Colorado Rocky Mountains), and for centrality to the annular eclipse path (atop Sandia Peak above Albuquerque, New Mexico). The novel portion of CATEcor is an external occulter assembly that slips over the front of a conventional dioptric telescope, forming a shaded-truss externally occulted coronagraph. CATEcor is specifically designed to be easily constructed in a garage or “makerspace” environment. We successfully observed some bright features in the solar corona to an altitude of approximately 2.25 R⊙ during the annular phases of the eclipse. Future improvements to the design, in progress now, will reduce both stray light and image artifacts; our objective is to develop a design that can be operated successfully by amateur astronomers at sufficient altitude even without the darkened skies of a partial or annular eclipse.

Deep Sky Objects Detection with Deep Learning for Electronically Assisted Astronomy

Electronically Assisted Astronomy is a fascinating activity requiring suitable conditions and expertise to be fully appreciated. Complex equipment, light pollution around urban areas and lack of contextual information often prevents newcomers from making the most of their observations, restricting the field to a niche expert audience. With recent smart telescopes, amateur and professional astronomers can capture efficiently a large number of images. However, post-hoc verification is still necessary to check whether deep sky objects are visible in the produced images, depending on their magnitude and observation conditions. If this detection can be performed during data acquisition, it would be possible to configure the capture time more precisely. While state-of-the-art works are focused on detection techniques for large surveys produced by professional ground-based observatories, we propose in this paper several Deep Learning approaches to detect celestial targets in images captured with smart telescopes, with a F1-score between 0.4 and 0.62 on test data, and we experimented them during outreach sessions with public in Luxembourg Greater Region.

Looking for timing variations in the transits of 16 exoplanets

ABSTRACT We update the ephemerides of 16 transiting exoplanets using our ground-based observations, new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite data, and previously published observations including those of amateur astronomers. All these light curves were modelled by making use of a set of quantitative criteria with the exofast code to obtain mid-transit times. We searched for statistically significant secular and/or periodic trends in the mid-transit times. We found that the timing data are well modelled by a linear ephemeris for all systems except for XO-2 b, for which we detect an orbital decay with the rate of −12.95 ± 1.85 ms yr−1 that can be confirmed with future observations. We also detect a hint of potential periodic variations in the transit timing variation data of HAT-P-13 b, which also requires confirmation with further precise observations.

NASE Astronomy Training for Teachers and Amateur Astronomer with Physics Approach and Cultural Tourism

Physics teachers often face obstacles in training their students in the Astronomy Olympiad. Amateur astronomers also need some knowledge of astronomy. Astronomy knowledge which is the basis for studying astronomy has begun to be abandoned by the younger generation. These problems can be overcome by astronomical training with a physics and cultural approach to physics teachers and amateur astronomers from various provinces in Indonesia. The Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE) regularly holds astronomy training in various countries. The training is carried out for 4 days virtually using simple equipment and can be obtained easily and inexpensively. The equipment is to help the understanding of astronomy and astrophysics. In addition, a virtual visit to the Muhammadiyah Museum was conducted to introduce Muhammadiyah's contribution to the development of Islamic astronomy in Indonesia. The average increase in Pre-Test and Post-Test results was 24.3% of the 25 participants who submitted the test. The high increase was in the field of physics while in the field of culture there was a decrease. This is due to the disproportionate composition of training material between the fields of physics and cultural tourism. The implementation of online training also causes participants to lack understanding of cultural aspects in astronomy learning. Participants also provided feedback that more time was needed for observation activities

A dragon’s flame of many colours: multiwavelength observations of flares from the active M binary CR Draconis

ABSTRACT We present the results of a multiwavelength Professional–Amateur campaign to study the behaviour of flares from the active M1.5V star binary CR Draconis. CR Dra was observed with Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) 20-s photometry, Swift near-ultraviolet (NUV) grism spectroscopy and with ground-based optical photometry and spectroscopy from a global collaboration of amateur astronomers. We detected 14 flares with TESS and Swift simultaneously, one of which also had simultaneous ground-based photometry and spectroscopy. We used the simultaneous two-colour optical and NUV observations to characterize the temperature evolution of the flare and test the accuracy of using optical data to predict NUV emission. We measured a peak temperature of $7100^{+150}_{-130}$ K for this flare, cooler than the typically assumed 9000 K blackbody model used by flare studies. We also found that the 9000 K blackbody overestimated the NUV flux for other flares in our sample, which we attributed to our Swift observations occurring during flare decays, highlighting the phase-dependence for the accuracy of flare models.

The Amateur Astronomer as Image Producer

Abstract This article approaches the history of amateur astronomers in the late nineteenth century via visual and material sources. It adopts three separate viewpoints: Jules Pierrot Deseilligny’s home-based workshop, two self-portraits of amateurs at work, and a corpus of selenographic images published in the Bulletin de la Société Astronomique de France. These sources throw light on amateur savant practices, which are largely based on producing images, sometimes taking the form of a structured scholarly project, and giving rise to exchanges, debates, and sociabilities. It identifies a proliferation during the years 1880 to 1914, characterised by a particular sensitivity to the extraterrestrial life feeding a powerful desire to observe the surface of the moon.

Ready for O4 II: GRANDMA observations of Swift GRBs over eight weeks in spring 2022

Aims. We present a campaign designed to train the Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Addicts (GRANDMA) network and its infrastructure to follow up on transient alerts and detect their early afterglows. In preparation for O4 II campaign, we focused on gamma-ray burst (GRB) alerts since they are expected to serve as the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational-wave events. Our goal was to improve our response to the alerts and to start prompt observations as soon as possible, so that we may better prepare the GRANDMA network for the fourth observational run of LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (launched at the end of May 2023) and future missions such as SM. Methods. We set up a dedicated infrastructure and organized a rota of follow-up advocates (FAs) to guarantee round-the-clock assistance to our telescope teams, with an aim to receive, manage, and send out observational plans to our partner telescopes. To ensure a large number of observations, we focused on Swift GRBs whose localization errors were generally smaller than the GRANDMA telescopes’ field of view. This allowed us to bypass the transient identification process and focus on the reaction time and efficiency of the network. Results. During the ‘Ready for O4 II’ phase, 11 Swift/INTEGRAL GRB triggers were selected. Of these, nine fields had been observed and three afterglows had been detected (GRB 220403B, GRB 220427A, GRB 220514A) with 17 GRANDMA telescopes and 17 amateur astronomers from the citizen science project Kilonova-Catcher. Here, we highlight the GRB 220427A analysis, where our long-term follow-up of the host galaxy allowed us to obtain a photometric redshift of z = 0.82 ± 0.09 and its lightcurve evolution, as well as to fit the decay slope of the afterglows and study the properties of the host galaxy. Conclusions. During this eight-week-long GRB follow-up campaign, we successfully fulfilled our goal of training telescope teams for O4 and improving the associated technical toolkits. For seven of the GRB alerts, our network was able to start the first observations less than one hour after the GRB trigger time. We also characterized the network efficiency to observe GRB afterglow given the resulting time delay and limiting magnitude, and to its light curve evolution based on the observation of GRB 220427A.

Exploring the pragmatics of 'Don't Look Up' movie script: An analysis of illocutionary acts

This study examines illocutionary acts in Adam McKay's film Don't Look Up. Randall and Kate, two amateur astronomers, are the main characters in this movie who make the startling discovery that a comet is heading straight for Earth, posing a catastrophic threat to all life on the planet. This study is intended to provide information about illocutionary acts found in the movie script of Don't Look Up. The writers employ a qualitative approach in studying the types of illocutionary acts found in “Don’t Look Up” movie script. The script consisted of 127 pages and all the pages are used as the data. The data collection procedures are first, read the movie script. Second, identified the utterances that contain illocutionary acts. Third, classified the utterances that are found in movie script based on the five types of illocutionary acts. The writers then analyzed the data by using the theory of Searle (1968) to explore the most found type of illocutionary act in the movie script. The writers concluded that this movie contains five types of illocutionary acts: 29 percent assertive, 19 percent directive, 5 percent commissive, 39 percent expressive, and 8 percent declarative. According to the data, the most common category found in this movie is expressive for many unexpected, sad, funny, annoying, romantic, and other expressive words are voiced in the movie script.

“All manner of gymnastic evolutions” for science: Dorothea Klumpke (1861–1942) and a life in astronomical research

In this article, the extraordinary life of the astronomer Dorothea Klumpke (1861–1942) is described in detail for the first time, focussing on the four phases of her career, in which she researched various astronomical questions both as an amateur and as an employee of an observatory and as one half of a couple in science. For this reason, Klumpke's biography provides insights into the cornucopia of research approaches in astronomy at the time, in which professional and amateur astronomers explored the heavens in observatories, on field trips to exotic countries, in their own backyards, or aboard hot air balloons, using telescopes, gazing through the lenses of cameras and spectroscopes, or based on mathematical reasoning. By comparing her life to biographies of other contemporary women, including Klumpke's sisters, among them the famous neurologist Augusta Klumpke-Déjerine, the criteria that women had to fulfill in order to pursue an academic career in the long nineteenth century will be discussed at the same time. In this, particular attention will be paid to factors over which women themselves had no influence, also to show that before the middle of the twentieth century, many stars had to align in order to have such an unusual career as Dorothea Klumpke.

Development of amateur astronomy in independent India with special reference to West Bengal: A historical study

Development of amateur astronomy in independent India with special reference to West Bengal: A historical study

Shock Cooling and Possible Precursor Emission in the Early Light Curve of the Type II SN 2023ixf

We present the densely sampled early light curve of the Type II supernova (SN) 2023ixf, first observed within hours of explosion in the nearby Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101; 6.7 Mpc). Comparing these data to recently updated models of shock-cooling emission, we find that the progenitor likely had a radius of 410 ± 10 R ⊙. Our estimate is model dependent but consistent with a red supergiant. These models provide a good fit to the data starting about 1 day after the explosion, despite the fact that the classification spectrum shows signatures of circumstellar material around SN 2023ixf during that time. Photometry during the first day after the explosion, provided almost entirely by amateur astronomers, does not agree with the shock-cooling models or a simple power-law rise fit to data after 1 day. We consider the possible causes of this discrepancy, including precursor activity from the progenitor star, circumstellar interaction, and emission from the shock before or after it breaks out of the stellar surface. The very low luminosity (−11 mag > M > −14 mag) and short duration of the initial excess lead us to prefer a scenario related to prolonged emission from the SN shock traveling through the progenitor system.

Adapting Betelgeuse’s Dimming Event to A High School Level Astronomy Exercise

This article outlines the process of designing a problem for Astronomy Olympiad at high-school level, based on a recent curious astrophysical event. Betelgeuse, one of the brightest star in the night sky and a supernova candidate, started dimming in October 2019 and reached a record minimum magnitude in February 2020. This extraordinary event piqued curiosity in professional astronomers, amateur astronomers as well as mass media. The problem presented here, tries to build a quantitative model of the event for the students, based on just high school physics. This problem included three models viz., a stellar pulsation model, an exoplanet transit model and a mass loss event model. The students were asked to calculate few physical quantities or parameters to deduce the most suitable model. The entire process of problem design including constraints involved, alternative approaches explored and discarded and the final draft is laid out. It is hoped that this discussion will serve as a guiding light to fellow problem designers and question setters.

The star watcher

Amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki is one of the most prolific supernova hunters of all time

The increasing effects of light pollution on professional and amateur astronomy.

The starry sky has been a source of inspiration throughout human history. Astronomy has been a common element in all cultures and civilizations, being used to establish calendars, navigate and discover new lands, and drive numerous scientific and technical breakthroughs. This Review discusses how it is becoming increasingly difficult for professional and amateur astronomers to observe the night sky because of light pollution. Artificial light at night, radio interference, and the deployment of satellite constellations are all rapidly increasing and are having adverse impacts on astronomical observations, limiting scientific discoveries, cultural connections to the night sky, and opportunities presented by astrotourism. Potential mitigation strategies to preserve the night sky are discussed.

Astro-COLIBRI 2—An Advanced Platform for Real-Time Multi-Messenger Discoveries

The study of flaring astrophysical events in the multi-messenger approach requires instantaneous follow-up observations to better understand the nature of these events through complementary observational data. We present Astro-COLIBRI as a platform that integrates specific tools in the real-time multi-messenger ecosystem. The Astro-COLIBRI platform bundles and evaluates alerts about transients from various channels. It further automates the coordination of follow-up observations by providing and linking detailed information through its comprehensible graphical user interface. We present the functionalities with documented examples of Astro-COLIBRI usage through the community since its public release in August 2021. We highlight the use cases of Astro-COLIBRI for planning follow-up observations by professional and amateur astronomers, as well as checking predictions from theoretical models.

Star Gazing With Joe Balay

Star Gazing With Joe Balay

Fund selection or star gazing Analysing retail investors’ preferences for mutual fund selection using conjoint approach

Fund selection or star gazing Analysing retail investors’ preferences for mutual fund selection using conjoint approach

Multi-chord observation of stellar occultation by the near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon on 2021 October 3 (UTC) with very high accuracy

Abstract We observed a stellar occultation by (3200) Phaethon, which occurred in western Japan on 2021 October 3 (UTC). This observation was requested by the DESTINY+ mission team, which plans to conduct a flyby of asteroid Phaethon in 2028. Overall, this research effort contributes towards a large-scale observation campaign with a total of 72 observers observing from western Japan to southern Korea. 36 stations were established, and stellar occultation by the asteroid Phaethon was detected in 18 of them. This is the first time that this many multiple chord observations have been made for such a small asteroid (it has a diameter of 5–6 km). Observational reductions show that the apparent cross-section of Phaethon at the time of the occultation could be approximated using an ellipse with a major diameter of 6.12 ± 0.07 km and a minor diameter of 4.14 ± 0.07 km, and a position angle of 117.°4 ± 1.°5. As can be seen from the small error bars of the fitted ellipse, we have succeeded in estimating the shape and size of the asteroid with an extremely high degree of accuracy. Our observation results, together with other observations, will be used to create a 3D model of Phaethon and to improve its orbit. The instruments that we used for this observation are commonly used by many amateur astronomers in Japan for occultation observations and are not difficult to obtain. This paper describes the method and results of our observations using a CMOS camera and a GPS module, so that many people can participate in occultation observations in the future.

Active rejection-enhancement of spectrally tunable liquid crystal geometric phase vortex coronagraphs

Geometric phase optical elements made of space-variant anisotropic media customarily find their optimal operating conditions when a half-wave retardance condition is fulfilled, which allows imparting polarization-dependent changes to an incident wavefront. In practice, intrinsic limitations of a man-made manufacturing process or a finite spectrum of a light source lead to a deviation from the ideal behavior. This implies an implementation of strategies to compensate for the associated efficiency losses. Here, we report on how the intrinsic tunable features of self-engineered liquid crystal topological defects can be used to enhance rejection capabilities of spectrally tunable vector vortex coronagraphs. We also discuss the extent of which current models enable to design efficient devices. The simplicity and decent performance of our approach offer the possibility to an amateur astronomy community to consider the use of vortex coronography.