We were treated with some lovely clear skies in the mornings of January 2019 and members were able to capture a few images of the conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter.
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The cluster is bright enough to be seen even with small binoculars, which can partially resolve it.
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NGC 6811 is an open cluster in the constellation of Cygnus. It has an angular size half that of the full Moon and includes about 1000 stars of roughly similar magnitude. It has also been called "The Hole in the Cluster" because of its dark centre.
Observing:
It appears as a hazy patch in 10x binoculars, but it is best seen at around 70x with a moderate-aperture telescope.
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NGC 6633 is an open cluster, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Discovered in 1745-46 by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux and independently rediscovered by Caroline Herschel, and catalogued as H VIII.72.
This cluster is nearly as large as the full moon, and contains 30 stars which make it shine at a total magnitude of 4.6; the brightest star is of mag 7.6. Its age was estimated at 660 million years.
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NGC255, the Sail Boat Cluster is an open cluster in Cassiopeia.
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NGC255, open cluster, Sail Boat Cluster in Cassiopeia, Image by Neil Webster Altair Astro 115 APO Canon 600D, ZWO AS1385 MC, F7, ISO800, Exposure 42x 120s Taken on 14/09/2018, St. Marys Platt, England.
The Dick Chambers Observatory was open for observing the 'blood moon' on the evening/morning of the 20th-21st January and for a change the weather was good. Other members observered from their homes and below are a few images by members.
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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.
Altair Astro 115 APO, NEQ6, Canon 600D, ZWO AS1385 MC, ISO 800, f/7
