Astronomy every Thursday
An absolutely stunning image by member Kevin Langford of The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20). The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to the star Deneb.
ES 102ED APO, 0.7x focal reducer corrector, EQ5 Pro
ZWO ASI071, Orion MMAG,L-eNhance filter
1 1/2 Hrs of exposures
30/08/22
Bexley Kent
To see a higher resolution photo of the image check out Kevin's Flickr page at www.flickr.com/photos/77708720@N08/52383552499/
One more for the ExoClock Project by Simon Dawes of HAT-P-29b also known as Surt. Surt is the ruler of Muspelheim and the fire giants there in Norse mythology. At Ragnarok, the end of the world, he will lead the attack on our world and destroy it in flames.
See https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming_exoplanets/
An absolutely fantastic widefield image of the Veil Nebula taken by member Kevin Langford on the 12th August 2022 from Bexley, Kent. The image was acquired using an ES 102ED APO, 0.7x focal reducer corrector, EQ5 Pro, ZWO ASI071, Orion MMAG and L-eNhance filter.
The 3 hours of exposure was then processed in photoshop.
To see a higher resolution photo of this image click on the following link to be taken to Kevin's flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/77708720@N08/52321231907/
Taken from a few days ago; this is member Simon Dawes 48th accepted transit for the ExoClock project of exoplanet TrES-3b. TrES-3b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star GSC 03089-00929. It has an orbital period of just 31 hours, is nearly twice the mass of Jupiter and is 0.02282 AU from its star.
The planet TrES-3b is named Umbäässa. The name was selected in the NameExoWorlds campaign by Liechtenstein during the 100th anniversary of the IAU. In the local dialect of southern Liechtenstein, Umbäässa is a small and barely visible ant.
Its discovery was announced in 2007. It is the 3rd transiting planet found by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey. It was discovered in the constellation Hercules about 10 degrees west of the star Vega. If you look at the curve you can see that it doesn't have a flat bottom which means from our viewpoint the planet occults the star right on its edge - a grazing occultation.
Also measured by Simon is the transit of exoplanet WASP-60b.
WASP-60b orbits at a distance of 8.25 million km from its G1-type star, taking 4.3 days to go round its orbit in the constellation of Pegasus. The system is a distance of 400 parsecs away from us.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
On the morning of the 26th August 2022 member Simon Dawes imaged 3 of the sunspots on the sun - AR3086. AR3088 and AR3089 and superb images they are too. Sunspot AR3088 however looked a little bit different from the usual sunspots seen and indeed it was according to Spaceweather.com - see below.
Details of how Simon acquired the images are on each photo.
Unusual sunspot AR3088
Screen shot from Spaceweather.com explaining why sunspot AR3088 looks unusual....
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=08&year=2022
Sunspot AR3089
Sunspot AR3086
Two absolutely fantastic images of the Moon at 0.01 phase taken by member Jim Burchell on the morning of the 25th August 2022 from Dartford. The second image shows the Moon with Venus on the right.
Our sun on the 22nd Aug 2022 imaged by member Simon Dawes. Despite seeing being very poor that morning; a great image was achieved by Simon showing an active sun. Details of how Simon acquired the images are on the main photo.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Sunspot AR3085
Sunspot AR3081
A superb image of the moon at 3.30am on the 20th Aug 2022. This is Neil's first waning crescent moon image of the moon at 40.9% & 33 days old.
Click on the link below; then sit back and enjoy a wonderful video compiled by member Neil Webster of a waning gibbous moon he imaged on this date last year coupled with some ambient based piano/synth music produced by Neil too.
Three CMHASD members imaged the full moon - the 4th and last supermoon of the year rising on the 11th August 2022 and below are their stunning photos.
A full moon occurs when the moon and sun are opposite each other and sunlight strikes the moon face-on.
The August full moon is also known as the Sturgeon Moon so this was a Sturgeon supermoon!
Nasa explain: 'The term 'supermoon' was coined in 1979 and is often used to describe what astronomers would call a perigean (pear-ih-jee-un) full moon: a full moon occurring near or at the time when the Moon is at the closest point in its orbit around Earth. Therefore the moon appears larger and brighter than usual as it reaches the full moon stop of its cycle. A supermoon will usually cast around 30 per cent more light onto Earth than it does when it is at its dimmest. This is because the supermoon will be closer to the sun's rays and therefore able to reflect more light.'
We have already witnessed three supermoons this year, in May, June and July. Surprisingly, supermoon streaks like the one we have seen this year are not uncommon. 2023 will also see four consecutive full supermoons, as will 2024. Even 2025 has three in a row.
Jim Burchell's full moon rising images below were all taken with a Pentax KP at 300mm, F7.1, 1/3s & iso 200.
Honor Wheeler's full moon rising images.
