February Observing Evenings
Every Thursday in February will be dedicated to observing, bring your own telescope, binoculars or camera or use one of the Societies. If members haven’t yet passed the test to use the 16″ Peter Hindle telescope this is the perfect time to do it!
Images
![John Howarth Parhelion](https://crayfordmanorastro.com/wp-content/gallery/atmospheric_optics/John-Howarth-Parhelion.jpg "I must admit that the picture does have a certain surreal quality, which will hopefully make up for any lack of scientific weight! When I first saw the mock-sun I genuinely thought for an instant that it was the real one behind high cloud, but then realised that it was in the wrong direction and the real sun was going down behind the houses on the right!
It was taken 4 January 2019 at 1427UT with an Alcatel One Touch Pixi 3 (not my choice of name, but so be it) Model 4009X and was allegedly 1680x1120 pixels before JPEG compression. It hasn\'t been processed in any way.
The location was about halfway along Eastry Road, location 51deg 28\' 33\\"N, 0 deg 9\' 3\\"E to the nearest 100 feet or so.")
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
Meteors Detected in December 2018
Our automated meteor camera and meteor team, detected 239 meteors in December, despite the cloudy weather, 60 of these were identified as part of the Geminid meteor shower. The brightest meteor detected was a magnitude of -1.8. During December we identified meteors from 22 different showers, but the geminids was by far the strongest.
Below is a video of the meteors detected by the meteor camera operated by the society, in December 2018, the meteors are ordered by brightness based on analysis by UFO analyser.
46P Wirtanen
Comet 46P Wirtanen was billed to be brighter than ever this apparition and when at its brightest it would be passing within 1 degree of M45, however the UK weather conspired against us, some members got images from outside the UK and others from before it reached its brightest, but our visit to Ashdown forest was cancelled due to 100% cloud cover and rain.
On Thursday 13th December 2018 many members observed the comet at the Dick Chambers Observatory, through binoculars (a very faint fuzzy blob only visible with averted vision) and through the 16″ Peter Hindle telescope.
Comet Wirtanen, 46P taken 16 Dec. 2018 @ 0030 hrs., in Cottowood, Arizona, USA by Richard Bohner
Canon 6D, 200mm f2.8 lens, ISO 800
75 second exposure time.
Image by Richard Bohner
Here is my latest image of Comet 46P. Taken Thursday night.
Canon 6D, 200mm lens f2.8, ISO 800 60 second exposure.
It was a little windy Thursday night with gusts of 25mph and moon
Image by Richard Bohner, tahen on 8th December 2018 in Cottonwood, Arizona
Comet 46P Wirtanen on 8 Dec with Canon 6D with 200mm f2.8 lens, 60 second exposure.
Image by Honor Wheeler
I’ve been lucky to have imaged the comet twice myself, once on Friday 7th & again on Sunday. The seeing has been pretty poor but it was just visible in 10x50 binoculars and looked pretty good in my 72mm refractor and 40mm eyepiece.
Image by Kevin Langford
Taken on 11-12-2018 using a Canon 750D with a 75 to 300 zoom lens on a Sky Adventurer tracking mount.
Meteors Detected in November 2018
The society observed 210 Meteors linked to 32 different showers in November using the semi-automated meteor camera