Dundee Astro Phil and Andy

Phil kicked off the evening with a brief description of a free to download programme called Spectrum Labs which uses a simple and cheap to make aerial connected to the computer to recieve and interperet very low frequencies (VLF) to detect solar flares. He described how solar flares affect laters of the ionesphere which in turn can cause VLF waves to be altered. These can then be translated into a graph showing the time and intensity of the solar flare.

Although Spectrum Labs is an effective detector, Phil also showed how a dedicated receiver could produce an accurate and more comprehensive graph that could be recorded on a flash drive. Records from obsevations and results can be submitted to the BAA to be collated to produce an accurate record.

Thanks Phil for an interesting talk.

Andy's talk concentrated mainly on the basics of astro photography, from the equipment including cameras, tripods and so on and the settings, mainly on DSLR's and what they mean and how they affect the final pictures.

He described editing softwsre and how they could be used to enhance pictures, whilst demonstrating with a slideshow how different settings and enhancements improved the pictures.

This was a 'must see' talk and some members were seen taking copious notes throughout the prceedings.

Andy closed the evening with a brief slideshow of events at the Winchester weekend, reminding me of a rather embarrasing weekend.

Thanks Andy for both an informative talk and a highly entertaining slideshow.

Andy with a camera on tripod. As you can see from this picture, the photographer needs advice on composition. Instead of focusing on Andy he focused on the back of a members head! Sorry Andy.