January 2025 – Page 2 – Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

The location of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas in October 2024.

Photo credit: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/comet-c-2023-a3-tsuchinshan-atlas-october-2024

Below are a selection of fantastic images of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas taken by CMHASD member Jim Burchell taken over 6 days in October 2024.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is a long-period comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered in 2023 by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China in January 2023 and independently by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) in South Africa in February 2023. It was named after both observatories.

18th Oct 2024

Image taken from Dartford top road with a Pentax KP and a 50-300 MM zoom lens at 70 mm. F5.6, 5 seconds, iso 1600, attached to a Skywacher Star Adventurer

19th Oct 2024

Images were taken from Otford using a Pentax KP and 50-300 mm lens attached to a Skywacher Star Adventurer. Camera settings were 300 mm, F7.1, 60 seconds and iso 800

23rd Oct 2024

Images were taken from Otford using a Pentax KP DSLR and a 50-300 mm zoom lens attached to a Skywacher Star Adventurer. Camera settings were 300 mm, F7.1, 60 seconds and iso 800.

CMHASD Christmas Quiz – 2024

3rd January 2025

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| 12:13 am

CMHASD members David Grist and Steve Floodgate pulled out all the stops to provide a night of head scratching, puzzlement and fun. Thank you Dave & Steve for all your hard work & effort creating the quiz. It was a great night and we are all looking forward to the next one!

Chairman John Archer wrote ''The Christmas Quiz was a great success – the men in brown coats did a splendid job and there was a very wide range of astronomy-related questions to contend with. Thank you Steve and Dave for the time you put into it, and to those who recorded the questions for those who couldn’t join us on the night.''

Congratulations to Neil Webster for winning the best Christmas jumper :-)

Congratulations to the winning team 'Positive Thinking' :-)

Aurora – 10/11th October 2024

2nd January 2025

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| 8:15 pm

On the night of the 10/11th October 2024 several CMHASD members all over the UK looked up at the sky and watched in amazement at another Aurora display!!!!

Below is a slideshow of a presentation that CMHASD member Sonia put together showing some of the stunning images members had taken that night. Some of the photographs taken by members show vivid colours but to most naked eye observers the colours were not so obvious due to light pollution.

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CMHASD Stargazing at Hall Place, Bexley – Wed 13th Nov 2024

1st January 2025

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| 6:42 pm

On Wednesday 13th November 2024, CMHASD were back at Hall Place & Gardens to hold a star gazing event from 7pm to 9pm. We had brilliant support from our members who bought along a variety of telescopes, cameras, meteorites and other displays for our guests.

CMHASD Chairman John Archer wrote ''Firstly I wanted to extend my gratitude to everyone who supported our Stargazing event last week. We were extremely lucky that it was dry and mostly clear, albeit with a bit of high level haze, but nothing to prevent observations. We had a wide range of scopes for the public to try for size. Everything from smart scopes, to refractors and a couple of the Society Dob’s. The evening was a sell-out and everyone went away happy. Pretty much everyone had a chance to observe Jupiter (and her moons), Saturn and the Moon, which was eye-wateringly bright of course. The evening went very smoothly, a couple of talks, a smashing comet-making demo (thank you Debra) and lots and lots of Stargazing which seems to be the one thing the visitors were so looking forward to. For everyone who helped – thank you so much. We go again in 2025!''

Our next Star Gazing at Hall Place event is on the 5th February 2025.

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