Month: February 2026

Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

A whistle stop beginners course in Astronomy coming to CMHASD for members soon

 11th February 2026 11th February 2026
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    |   1:02 pm 1:02 pm

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Contact Dr. Mike Rushton for more information about the course and becoming a member at secretary@crayfordmanorastro.com.

Please note this course is for members only.

 

 

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Huge Sunspot AR4366

 5th February 2026 5th February 2026
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    |   11:53 am 11:53 am

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Hot off the press - 2 images of the Sun showing the enormous Sunspot AR4366; taken on the 4th February 2026. The image on the left was taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar s50 smart scope and the image on the right was taken by George Buckberry using a Dwarf3 smart scope. Both taken from the Dartford area.

AR4366 has unleashed dozens of solar flares including a powerful X8-class flare on the 1st February 2026. Most sunspots never produce even one X-flare but this week, giant sunspot 4366 has fired off six; the latest being an X4.2-class explosion on the 4th February.

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Below is a diagram of the sun with the sunspots labelled and an image of just AR4366. Both these images were taken from the website spaceweather.com.

''The image of the Sunspot AR4366 was taken by amateur astronomer James Kevin Ty on Feb 3rd from his backyard observatory in Manila. "This sunspot started as an inconspicuous pore just a few days ago. Since then it has grown hugely in size!" he says.

SUNSPOT ARCHIPELAGO: Sunspots are magnetic islands on the sun. Sunspot AR4366 is a complete archipelago. Scroll down to scan more than 200,000 miles of island chain.

The island metaphor is apt. Sunspots are buoyant concentrations of magnetism that float on a sea of solar plasma. Archipelago 4366 consists of one big island twice as wide as Earth plus dozens of lesser isles ranging in size from US states to small planets.

AR4366 is currently facing Earth.'' Ref:Spaceweather.com

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CMHASD at Wentworth School – 28th January 2026

 3rd February 2026 3rd February 2026
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    |   5:35 am 5:35 am

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CMHASD Secretary Dr. Mike Rushton wrote ''On Wednesday 28th January 11 members of the Society were involved in our annual outreach visit to Wentworth School. 73 children from Year 5 were split into four groups who rotated through four preplanned tasks.

One involved a short talk on general astronomical topics with some visual aids. The second was a short slide show of images taken in the main by our members. The third in the gym involved everyone running around in circles to demonstrate the movements of all the planets in the solar system. The fourth was observing. We were lucky that in a week of bad weather we had a clear night. With six telescopes (2 reflectors, 2 refractors and 2 smart scopes) everyone saw the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, the Orion nebula and the Andromeda galaxy. All of this was well received and fun for us, the teachers and the children.''

Below is an article about our visit to Wentworth School in their newsletter.

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This is the final image of the Orion Nebula the children saw developing on a Dwarf3 smartscope by Dr. Mike Rushton.  It is made up of a total of 196 images, each 15 seconds long in exposure.

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This is the final image of the Andromeda Galaxy the children saw developing on a Seestar S50 smartscope by member Diane Clark.

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Below is a wonderful card made by the pupils in appreciation of our visit last week.

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The Trifid Nebula by Richard Bohner

 2nd February 2026 2nd February 2026
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    |   4:21 am 4:21 am

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A fantastic image of the Trifid Nebula taken by Richard Bohner in July 2025 from Cottonwood in Arizona, USA.

Richard used a Seestar s50 smart scope to take the image.

The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region in the north-west of Sagittarius about 4100 light-years from Earth.

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The Moon

 2nd February 2026 2nd February 2026
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    |   2:21 am 2:21 am

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Two great images of the Moon taken by George Buckberry using a Dwarf3 smart scope.

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A Waxing Crescent Moon on the 23rd January 2026. 22.8% illuminated. Ref:https://theskylive.com/moon/2026-01-23

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A Waxing Gibbous Moon on the 27th January 2026. 65% illuminated. Ref:https://theskylive.com/moon/2026-01-27

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