Announcements

Congratulations Kevin Smith FRAS

Congratulations to CMHASD member Kevin Smith for being elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.  Well done Kevin!

Come and see us at Hall Place & Gardens for some Solar Observing – Sunday 23rd August 2026

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

CMHASD Solar Observing at Hall Place & Gardens – Sunday 23rd August 2026

 

Time: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

Come and join us for our Solar Observing event at Hall Place & Gardens where members of the Society will offer safe views of our Sun to the public.  

Please note this event is weather dependent.

 

Gallery

 

Society News

CMHASD Solar Observing at Hall Place & Gardens – 2nd August 2026

CMHASD Public Outreach at Hall Place & Gardens – 2nd August 2026.

Post written by CMHASD Chairperson Gary Hunt.

WARNING: NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY.  Read the page on Solar Safety before attempting any kind of viewing of the Sun!

”A Brilliant Day of Solar Outreach at Hall Place!  Our Solar Observing Public Outreach Event at Hall Place, Bexley, held alongside the popular Farmers’ Market on Sunday 2nd August, proved to be another tremendous success for the Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society.
Despite a day of hot temperatures and variable cloud cover, we welcomed well over 150 visitors between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm, all eager to experience our nearest star in a way that few people ever have.

The passing clouds certainly tested everyone’s patience at times! Just as visitors reached the eyepiece, the Sun would occasionally decide to hide behind a convenient cloud, leading to a few moments of anticipation (and the occasional collective sigh!). Fortunately, perseverance paid off, and when the skies cleared the reward was spectacular.

Image of the Sun taken by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf3 smart scope.  The Sun was active with a plenty of sun spots!

Those observing through our Hydrogen Alpha telescopes were treated to magnificent views of the Sun, including impressive sunspots and beautiful solar prominences dancing around the solar limb. The reactions from visitors were priceless, with countless expressions of amazement and wonder. Even a number of our own members experienced their first views through a Hydrogen Alpha telescope and were genuinely “wowed” by the incredible detail on display.

Events such as these are only possible because of the dedication and enthusiasm of our volunteers. It was undoubtedly an exhausting day, but one that demonstrated the Society at its very best.
A huge thank you goes to every member of the CMHASD team who gave up their Sunday to inspire the public and share their knowledge and passion for astronomy.

Special recognition must go to:
Dr Mike Rushton for organising the event.
Steve Floodgate and Dave Grist for taking on the transport, setup and all the inevitable heavy lifting.
And, of course, to every volunteer who welcomed visitors, answered questions, operated telescopes and helped create such a friendly and memorable experience.
Each person played an important role, and together they showcased exactly what makes CMHASD such a wonderful society. As Chair, I could not have been prouder of our Outreach Team and everything they achieved.

Our solar observing season isn’t over yet!
Our next opportunity to observe the Sun will be the Partial Solar Eclipse on Wednesday 12th August at the CMHASD Observatory, followed by our final Hall Place Solar Observing Event of the season on Sunday 23rd August.
As always, everything depends on one small detail…
The British weather!
We hope to see many of you there.”

Image of our Sun taken by Dan Stevens using a Seestar S30 smartscope.

The Society would like to thank Diane Clarke, John Archer, Mike Rushton and Dan Stevens for sharing their photos.

Observing/Informal Night – 23rd July 2026

Thursday 23rd July 2026 was an observing/informal meeting and we were treated to a stunning display of a Sun Pillar.  

Below are some photos of the evening including 2 photos of member Andy Barber who washed the Dick Chambers Observatory Dome – Thank you Andy!

Full Moon – 29th July 2026

A super image of the Full Moon taken on the 29th July 2026 by member George Buckberry using a Dwarf 3 smartscope.

Congratulations Kevin Smith FRAS

Congratulations to CMHASD member Kevin Smith for being elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.  Well done Kevin!

Conjunction of Venus with the Moon

On the 17th June 2026 there was a beautiful conjunction of Venus with the crescent Moon.  Several members of the society imaged the event and below is a selection of their fab images taken at different times in the evening.  Venus is the dot northwards of the crescent Moon.

Image by Dan Stevens taken at 9.30pmish with a Seestar S30.

Image by Jim Burchell taken using a Pentax KP body attached to 102 mm F7 Altair Astro refactor. 1 /60 sec, Iso 200 on a Skywatcher EQ5 mount. Cropped in Snapseed.

Image taken from Dartford.

 

The images below are all point and shoot using various phone cameras.

Image by Simon Dawes from Bexley.

Image by Jo Southgate from Dartford.

NOTE: Jo has Jupiter in her image too.  It is the dot which is at the 4 O Clock position from the Moon.

Image by Kevin Langford from Bexley.

Image by Dominique Ferrand taken over London.

NOTE: Dominique has Jupiter in her image too. It is the dot which is at the 4 O Clock position from the Moon.

The Milky Way by Danny Pearce

Three fantastic full tracked panorama images of the Milky Way taken by member Danny Pearce whilst on holiday in June on La Palma. All images were taken from locations above the cloud inversion.

All of the images were taken with a Nikon Z6iii on a Skywatcher Star adventurer Mini tracker. Foregrounds were captured at dusk without tracking (9 panels) and sky as 9 x 120sec panorama and stitched in Lightroom.

The Sun by Jim Burchell

Three super images of our Sun taken by member Jim Burchell over 3 days in June. The single images were taken using a Pentax KP body attached to 102 mm F11 refactor and Badder solar safety film. The images were then processed in Snapseed.

Latest images by George Buckberry

A selection of super images by member George Buckberry taken using a Dwarf smartscope using the new firmware update.

Note: 2 images have a cropped image too.

2nd NLC sighting by CMHASD members

Last night at around 10.55pm BST – 27th June 2026 – several members got their 2nd sighting of rare Noctilucent Clouds (NLC).

 

 

The 1st two images are from Diane Clarke taken from Bexley.

The next 3 images are by Martin Crow – taken from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.

This image was taken by Jim Burchell from Dartford.

The next 2 images were taken by John Archer from East Sussex.

Latest deep sky images by Tina Bishop

Two super deep sky images by member Tina Bishop. Both images taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope.

M101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy)  – 3 sessions totalling 7 hours 56 mins – mega stacked in Dwarfs Stella Studio.

Hercules Globular Cluster (M13). – 1 session of 3 hours 37mins.

The Moon in glorious detail…

Below are a super selection of 15 images of the Moon taken by Simon Dawes from Bexley.  Details of how and when Simon acquired the images are on the photos.

Vallis Alpes (Latin for “Alpine Valley”) is a lunar valley feature that bisects the Montes Alpes range. It extends 166 km from the Mare Imbrium basin, trending east-northeast to the edge of the Mare Frigoris. The valley is narrow at both ends and widens to a maximum width of about 10 km along the middle stretch. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallis_Alpes

Centre of the image is Aristillus is a prominent lunar impact crater that lies in the eastern Mare Imbrium. To the south is the smaller crater Autolycus, while to the southwest is the large Archimedes. To the northeast are the craters Theaetetus and Cassini. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristillus_(crater)

Aristoteles is a lunar impact crater that lies near the southern edge of the Mare Frigoris and to the east of the Montes Alpes mountain range. It was officially named in 1935 after the ancient Greek philosopher and astronomer Aristotle (383-322 B.C.) by the International Astronomical Union, using the classical form of his name.

To the immediate south of Aristoteles lies the slightly smaller crater Eudoxus, and these two form a distinctive pair for a telescope observer.  An arc of mountains between these craters bends to the west before joining the walls. The smaller crater Mitchell is directly attached to the eastern rim of Aristoteles. To the west is the low, flooded feature Egede. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristoteles_(crater)

Maginus is an ancient lunar impact crater located in the southern highlands to the southeast of the prominent crater Tycho. It is a large formation almost three quarters the diameter of Clavius, which lies to the southwest. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maginus_(crater)

Ptolemaeus is an ancient lunar impact crater close to the center of the near side, named for Claudius Ptolemy, the Greco-Roman writer, mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer. It measures approximately 154 kilometers in diameter.

To the south-southwest, Ptolemaeus is joined to the rim of the crater Alphonsus by a section of rugged, irregular terrain, and these form a prominent chain with Arzachel to the south. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaeus_(lunar_crater)

Hyginus is a lunar caldera located at the east end of the Sinus Medii. It was named after ancient Roman astronomer Gaius Julius Hyginus. Its rim is split by a 220 kilometer-long rille, Rima Hyginus, that branches to the northwest and to the east-southeast. The crater is deeper than the rille, and lies at intersection of the rille’s branches. Together, the crater and the rille form a prominent feature in an otherwise flat surface. Smaller craters along the length of the rille may have been caused by the collapse of an underlying structure.

Hyginus is one of the few craters on the Moon that were not created as a result of an impact, and is instead believed to be volcanic in origin. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyginus_(crater)

On Monday, May 25, 2026 the Moon was in its Waxing Gibbous phase, with 69.3% of the visible lunar disk illuminated by the Sun. It was 9.24 days old.

Goldschmidt is a large lunar impact crater of the variety commonly termed a walled plain. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschmidt_(crater)

Rupes Recta is a linear fault on the Moon, in the southeastern part of the Mare Nubium. The name is Latin for straight cliff, although it is more commonly called the Straight Wall.  This is the best-known escarpment on the Moon. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupes_Recta

Eratosthenes crater is a relatively deep lunar impact crater that lies on the boundary between the Mare Imbrium and Sinus Aestuum mare regions. It forms the western terminus of the Montes Apenninus mountain range. It is named after ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who estimated the circumference of the Earth, and the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

The crater has a well-defined circular rim, terraced inner wall, central mountain peaks, an irregular floor, and an outer rampart of ejecta. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes_(crater)

Montes Apenninus are a rugged mountain range on the northern part of the Moon‘s near side. They are named after the Apennine Mountains in Italy.  Montes Apenninus is the most prominent remnant of the outer ring of the Imbrium basin. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montes_Apenninus

Hesiodus is a lunar impact crater located on the southern fringes of Mare Nubium, to the northwest of the crater Pitatus. It was named after the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesiodus_(crater)

Moretus is a lunar impact crater located in the heavily cratered highland region near the south pole of the Moon.

South of Moretus, the crater Short is located, while to the north is Cysatus. To the northwest lies Gruemberger, and Curtius is located to the northeast. Due to the location near the lunar limb, the crater appears oblong because of foreshortening. The crater is named after the 17th-century Flemish mathematician and geometer Theodorus Moretus.

On the lunar geologic timescale, this formation dates to the Imbrian period. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moretus_(crater)

Clavius is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon and the second largest crater on the visible near side (very close in size to Deslandres).  It dates to the Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale.  This crater is located in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon, to the south of the prominent ray crater Tycho. It is named for the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavius_(crater)

Sun Pillar

A super example of a Sun Pillar taken by Martin Crow from Burham-on-Crouch, Essex on the 14th June 2026 using an iPhone.

”A light pillar or ice pillar is an atmospheric optical phenomenon in which a vertical beam of light appears to extend above and/or below a light source. The effect is created by the reflection of light from tiny ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere or that compose high-altitude clouds (e.g. cirrostratus or cirrus clouds).  If the light comes from the Sun (usually when it is near or even below the horizon), the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. Light pillars can also be caused by the Moon or terrestrial sources, such as streetlights and erupting volcanoes.” Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pillar

The Moon

A super image of the Moon taken by George Buckberry on the 21st June 2026.  The Moon was in the First Quarter phase with 51.59% illumination and 7.53 days old.

Latest images from Danny Pearce

The Owl Nebula (also known as Messier 97, M97 or NGC 3587) is a planetary nebula approximately 2,030 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Estimated to be about 8,000 years old, it is approximately circular in cross-section with a faint internal structure....

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Markarian’s Chain – 23rd April 2026

Settling on the Astro filter; George Buckberry captured more data of the Markarian’s chain on the 23rd April 2026 using his Dwarf3 smartscope. He then stacked the new data with data already acquired on the 18th April 2026 and this is the resulting fabulous...

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The Crescent Nebula

Only after 25 minutes of capturing data at 10 second exposures – the Crescent Nebula is appearing in Dan Stevens image that he took on the 19th April 2026 using a Seestar S30. The Crescent Nebula (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105) is an...

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Markarian’s Chain

Experimenting: Three images of Markarian’s Chain taken by George Buckberry using different settings on his Dwarf3 smartscope. Which one do you like the best?...

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The Moon – 22nd April 2026

The Moon taken on the 22nd April 2026 by Jim Burchell and George Buckberry. Jim took his image using a Seestar S50 smartscope and George took his using a Dwarf3 smartscope. On April 22, 2026, the moon was in a Waxing Crescent phase, with approximately 31 to 35%...

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The Leo Triplet

The Leo Triplet by George Buckberry taken on the 26th April 2026 using a Dwarf3 smartscope. The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.  This galaxy group consists of the spiral...

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The Sun – 27th April 2026

WARNING: NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY.  Read the page on Solar Safety before attempting any kind of viewing of the Sun! A super selection of Sun in white light images taken by members Jim & Simon on the 27th April 2026. The Sun was quite active with several...

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Astroimages by Tina Bishop

Here is a fantastic selection of images taken by new member Tina Bishop and new to astroimaging too. All images were taken using a Dwarf3...

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BAA Winchester Weekend 2026

BAA Winchester Astronomy Weekend: Sparsholt (April 10 – 12 2026) Celebrating 60 years of Observational Astronomy. Below is an account of the weekend written by CMHASD new member Tina Bishop. Thank you Tina. ”As a relative newcomer to the astronomy community, I...

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