Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

Corona Virus COVID-19 Update

17 Mar, 2020 | 0 Comments

We continue to meet every week on zoom, normally for a 1hr professional lecture followed by society chat/presentations. We are also active informally on email – WhatsApp – Twitter – and of course here on the website – New members welcome!

If you are new, or want to be added to any of our contact channels please contact our secretary (Mike) at secretary @ crayfordmanorastro.com

Latest Images

$This image shows, Aldebaran also known as \"the eye of Taurus\" to the far left of the 12% lit waxing crescent Moon with the Hyades to the lower left, and M45 also known as The Pleiades/ Seven Sisters in the lower right of the image, Fortunately I had a reasonably clear sky with some cloud, as well as a vantage point that enabled me to see the Pleiades as they are currently quite low in the WNW part of the sky, I was also able to capture some earthshine. Canon 750D, ISO 800, f5.6, @ 2 sec Sigma 18 - 250mm lens @ 75mm Static tripod Taken at 22.30Hrs 15.04.21 Jpeg from RAW file Diane Clarke Belvedere$

Moon and Mars 2021-05-13

16 Jun, 2021 | 0 Comments

Crescent Moon and Mars near the constellation of Auriga taken on 13/05/21 with a pentax K70 . 135mm /f8.0 iso 800 1/5 sec.

Competition: Image the Trapezium

7 Feb, 2021 | 0 Comments

In this competition we are looking for images of the Trapezium at the heart of M42, the great Orion nebula. We normally think of the Trapezium as 4 stars but in large telescopes you can make out other stars, so all you need to do is submit an image of the Trapezium with more than 4 stars.

Sounds simple, but the main 4 stars of the trapezium are bright making it difficult to resolve the other stars.

This is possible in an 8″ telescope – possibly smaller.

Tips:

use lucky imaging with short exposures.

Images by Simon Dawes

Image by Simon Dawes EQ6 Pro, MN190mm, ZWO ASI1600, 500x 0.5s exposures. THIS IMAGE IS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE COMPETITION – SIMON IS THE JUDGE!

Images by Richard Bohner

Here is a photo of Trapezium cluster I took a few weeks ago with my iPhone through my 102mm Maksutov scope. I think the magnification is about 100X. Don’t know ISO because it was taken with phone camera. You can see five stars. I plan to take out my bigger scope and try again. “Cheers”

Sir Patrick Moore Prize

3 Feb, 2021 | 0 Comments

Congratulations to our very own Rita Whiting for being awarded the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Astronomy outreach, Rita does so much for our society and outreach with local groups over such a long period of time this is a well deserved award. Well done Rita!

Dartford Grammar School Astronomy Club – Virtual Observing Session

Our society currently supports the Dartford Grammar School Astronomy Club, and on the 25th January 2021 we held a virtual observing evening using Simon’s observatory. The students really enjoyed the evening ‘The boys from last night have been on the google...

Lunar Halo/Corona Competition

Lunar Halo Competition As the name suggests, take an image of a Lunar Halo. Rules: Whilst the points awarding is somewhat ambiguous I’ll be looking for the following… Technically a good image (in focus) Well composed Other points of interest (foreground or...

The BAA Winchester Weekend comes to Crayford (hopefully)

Correction: It’s not a weekend (just Saturday Afternoon) and it’s not at Crayford (it’s at the Pavilion Sutton-at-Hone). The BAA are running a virtual ‘Winchester Weekend’ – and COVID Restrictions permitting (i.e. restrictions and social distancing in...

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