Corona Virus COVID-19 Update
Until further notice we will not be holding lectures or meetings at the pavilion.
- Email – we run an email list for announcements from the committee, if you are not receiving emails and want to be added please contact committee@crayfordmanorastro.com and we will add you to the list.
- WhatsApp group for membership discussions about Astronomy please contact committee@crayfordmanorastro.com
- Twitter follow @CrayfordAS for public outreach
- Web site – please send contributions to webmaster@crayfordmanorastro.com
- Zoom Meetings – we are holding virtual meetings including some lectures, please make sure you are on our mailing list to receive invites
Latest Images
Other Images
Sun | Comets | Mercury | Venus | Atmospheric Optics | Meteors | Auroa | Moon | Minor Planets | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Messier | Caldwell | All Deep Sky | Conjunctions | Transits | Solar Eclipse | Lunar Eclipse | Wide Field | Events
Milkyway from my back yard competition
This is a simple competition, take an image of the Milkyway from your back garden – or close to where you live. The winning image will be the one that the webmaster is most impressed with.
Rules:
- You have to be a member of the society
- No telescopes! This is for camera and lens only!
- Must be from your location not some superb dark sky you travelled to.
- Ends November-ish
What will impress the Webmaster most?
- It’s all about effort taken and obstacles overcome.
- Local sky conditions vs image captured
Good luck!
Image by Leigh Sloamer I made an attempt at capturing the milky way last night. This is a 14 x 3 minute stack at iso 3200. I would have captured more but my new lens is a dew magnet. I also had to crop the image a bit due to amp glow in the lower left corner.
Image by John Archer Thought I would pop out and snap the Milky Way while the evening is still mild and the breeze has died down. Bit of a change from planet spotting….
Image by Honor Wheeler finally found this image of the Milky Way taken from my back garden on the evening of the 23rd of August 2014. I’d just got back from the cinema and the sky was amazing. As you’ll see it was a single shot with my Canon 1100D on a tripod, no tracking! Black and White as light pollution was an issue.
Image by Richard Bohner Taken with Canon 6D with wide angle lens at 24 mm at iso 1600 for 60 seconds. Jupiter & Saturn at far left with Sagittarius Teapot to left of galaxy and constellation Scorpius to right of galaxy. Taken on 15 June in Arizona, USA. (Richard lives in the USA so this is a valid entry)
Conjunction of Mercury, Venus and the Moon.
The recent conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Mercury in the evening sky has been delighting our members, below are some contributions from those who imaged it.
Image by Jim Burchell The Moon and Mercury showing Earthshine. Taken Dartford top road. Pentax K70.
Image by John Howarth Venus is at lower right on both photos, Mercury (faint, but visible) is about equidistant from Venus and the moon, practically level with the moon.
Image by John Howarth Venus is at lower right on both photos, Mercury (faint, but visible) is about equidistant from Venus and the moon, practically level with the moon. Taken from the park.
Image by Stephen Goldson ‘First time I’ve seen Mercury clearly’
Leigh Slomer’s Saturn Images
Images of Saturn are from the same 2 minute long raw format video, but stacked and processed differently. The last version had a 1.5x drizzle applied to enlarge the size.
Equipment used:
•Skywatcher heq5 pro mount
•Skywatcher skymax 150 pro maksutov cassegrain telescope
•celestron 2× Barlow
•Zwo asi290mc one shot colour uncooled CMOS camera
•Captured with ASICAP for android
•First and second version stacked in registax, the last version in autostakkert with wavelets in registax
•Final processing in GIMP
Camera settings:
•Raw16 colour space
•Gain 300
•Exposure time 82000ųs
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in AutoStakkert
Conjunction of Mercury and Venus
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Meteor Captured
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Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn
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NGC4564 – The Needle Galaxy
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Conjunction of Venus and the Pleiades
Image by Honor Wheeler of the Moon and Pleiades imaged on the 3rd of April 2020 @ 20:08UT taken with her Canon 700D and a 300mm lens – ISO1600, f6.3, exp...
Image of the Moon, Venus and the ISS
Image taken by Janice McClean of the Moon, Venus and the...