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Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

Dartford’s Big Day Out – July 2022

 19th July 2022 19th July 2022
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On the 16th July 2022 Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford  (CMHASD) exhibited at Dartford’s Big Day Out in Central Park, Dartford.
 
 

It was an extremely busy & interesting day.  Several members of the public took the opportunity to drop by for a chat, observe the current activity on the surface of our nearest star the Sun using the 3 telescopes that were on display and to view our various display boards showcasing the societies activities.  Our 3D photographs & the planet game also proved to be very popular too!

Safe views of the Sun were offered by various CMHASD members that helped throughout the day using 'Anita' one of the societies Dobsonian telescopes built by members Steve Floodgate and David Grist (see Building Dobsonians) whilst member Jim Burchell offered safe views through his refractor.  Both of these telescopes were showing white light views of the sunspots currently visible on the Sun’s surface. 

Member Diane Clarke offered safe views of the sunspots on the Sun too as well as the Sun’s various prominences and surface detail with her Ha (Hydrogen alpha) line telescope, see the 2 photos below.

 

Both images captured an absolutely massive prominence on the Sun at the 11 O'Clock position; this wall of plasma was more than five times taller than our entire planet Earth!  There were also prominences captured at the 1,2,6 and 10 O'Clock positions too in the images.

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

More photos of the day taken by members John Archer, Jim Burchell, Diane Clarke and Janice McClean are in the slideshow below. Thank you for sharing them with us.

[ngg src="galleries" ids="64" display="basic_slideshow"]Also a big Thank you to Colin Wheeler for providing the marquee we used and to member Steve Floodgate for allowing us the use of his van for transporting the displays and equipment. Plus thank you to all the CMHASD members that helped on the day too :-) and to Diane Clarke for helping to write this post.

Beautiful Noctilucent Cloud (NLC) spotted early morning on the 15th July 2022

 18th July 2022 18th July 2022
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OK so it is the NLC season but WOW another sighting of these rare clouds by members.  A very bright & beautiful display it was too that lasted again for quite a while into dawn until 4.15am. 

An alert went out at 2.33am from member Sonia as she had spotted them very low down in the North East.  Two members; Diane Clarke and Jim Burchell picked up the alert and so joined Sonia in photographing the beautiful display that was to follow.  All photos where taken from various locations in North Kent by the members.

Below are 4 images by Jim Burchell taken at around 3:30 am. All image's were taken with a Pentax K70 and there has been no processing.

 

Below are 2 images taken by member Diane Clarke.

Panoramic view of the NLC.  Diane wrote ''It went on to develop enabling me to capture 6 separate images taken at 03.30hrs that I used to create this panorama encompassing the splendour of this NLC.''

NLC at 4am as it began to fade in the North West.

 

Below are some images taken by Sonia using an iPhone. Also seen & photographed that morning were the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the Moon and a very curious fox who kept watch on Sonia whilst she took her photos.

NLC and the star Capella at 2.41am.

NLC developing nicely at 3.03am.

NLC at 3.10am - more finer detail emerging.

NLC at 3.21am.

NLC at 3.22am. You can see how bright they were next to a street light.

NLC at 3.38am. The NLC moved from the North East to the North West as dawn approached.

 

Sunspots at Sundown – 13th July 2022

 18th July 2022 18th July 2022
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    |   12:54 pm 12:54 pm

Whist waiting for the Moon to rise on the 13th July 2022 members Honor Wheeler and Jim Burchell photographed the Sun as it set with just their cameras.  When they looked at their images they saw that they had captured some of the massive sunspots on the Sun that day too in their photos.  In both images you can see sunspot AR3055 bottom middle right and sunspot AR3057 top left on the Sun.  In Honor's image you can also see Sunspot AR3053 middle right too.

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

Honor Wheeler's image

Jim Burchell's image

The Moon – 7th July 2022 by George Buckberry

 14th July 2022 14th July 2022
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    |   2:21 pm 2:21 pm

Two super images of the Moon taken by member George Buckberry on the 7th July 2022 whilst at the pavilion on a society informal night.  George acquired the images using a Canon 550D ISO 800 1/60s with T-mount and 2xBarlow on Isaac.  Isaac being one of the societies Dobsonian telescopes built by members Steve Floodgate & Dave Grist.

Active Sun – 11th July 2022

 13th July 2022 13th July 2022
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    |   11:55 pm 11:55 pm

Member Simon Dawes imaged our Sun on the morning of the 11th July 2022 and as you can see the Sun is very active.  Details of how Simon acquired the images are on the photos.

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

Sunspot AR3053

Sunspot AR3055 - stretching more than 100,000 km from end to end with more than a dozen dark cores.  Simon said 'AR3055 its seems to be getting longer as I couldn't get it in the frame so had to do a composite.'

Sunspot AR3056

New Sunspot - this new active region was just peeping round the limb of the Sun on the 11th July. Now Sunspot AR3057

 

Exoplanets XO-1b and Qatar-10b

 13th July 2022 13th July 2022
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    |   11:50 pm 11:50 pm

Two more sets of observations for the ExoClock project by Simon Dawes.  Exoplanets XO-1b & Qatar-10b.

XO-1b is an exoplanet approximately 536 light-years away in the constellation of Corona Borealis. The planet was discovered orbiting the yellow dwarf star now designated XO-1 in 2006.  The planet XO-1b is named Negoiu. The name was selected in the NameExoWorlds campaign during the 100th anniversary of the IAU. Negoiu is the second highest peak in Romania.  It is a little bit larger than Jupiter. It is a hot Jupiter.

The XO Project team employed the relatively inexpensive XO Telescope, made from commercial equipment, to search for exoplanets. This telescope is on the Hawaiian Island of Maui.

 

Qatar-10 b is a gas giant exoplanet orbiting an F-type star. Its mass is 3/4 that of Jupiter and takes 1.6 days to complete one orbit.  It is 0.0286 AU from its parent star. Discovered in 2019.

Spectacular Early Morning NLC – 6th July 2022

 10th July 2022 10th July 2022
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    |   11:00 pm 11:00 pm

Well what a sight! Four planets, the ISS and Noctilucent Cloud that just kept giving.......

At 2.32am an alert went out to members via WhatsApp from member Sonia who had spotted the NLC developing in the North East.

Several members picked up the alert and so too got to witness & photograph a fantastic NLC spectacle which lasted a long time into dawn.  The last photograph taken was at 4.05am!  The planets Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn (which was in the South) where photographed with the NLC too. Then starting at 3.08am there was a bright ISS pass overhead.

Spaceweather.com wrote ''This morning, sky watchers in Europe woke up to some of the brightest noctilucent clouds (NLCs) in years. The clouds were amazingly bright and remained very evident deep into dawn.  The clouds didn't stop there. They spread south across Europe, backlighting the Eiffel Tower and completely filling skies in places where, normally, NLCs are confined to a thin band near the horizon.''

Below are a selection of stunning photos taken by members , Honor Wheeler, Jim Burchell, Diane Clarke, John Howarth and Sonia - all from North West Kent.

 

Four images of the NLC on the 6th July 2022 taken by Honor Wheeler.

 

Three images of the NLC on the 6th July 2022 taken by Jim Burchell.

NLC with Venus at 3.30am

NLC at 3.45am

 

Three images of the NLC on the 6th July 2022 taken by Diane Clarke.

Diane said 'Again following  a message from fellow member Sonia, I set up my equipment and watched in fervent hope that the NLC would develop, as there is always the possibility that they will dissipate shortly after becoming visible.

Like the other members of the society who were watching I was not to be disappointed as the NLC went on to develop into a fantastic display that really started to develop around 02.40 until 04.00 when it started to fade into the east as dawn approached.

The 1st image is a panorama created from 6 frames as the entire NLC was spread out over a large portion of the N-NE sky, that a panoramic view was the only option to encompass the majestic splendour on display.

This panoramic view includes the asterism known as the “Plough” or “Saucepan” within the constellation of Ursa Major, as well as the double stars Capella in Auriga & Mirfak in Perseus,  it should  be noted that the "Plough" contains 3 double stars including Mizar (Alcor), a rising Venus is also visible lower right above the tree line.'
 
 
The NLC over Essex
 
NLC with Jupiter in the East
 
 
Four images of the NLC on the 6th July 2022 taken by John Howarth.
 
 
 
 
 

Images by taken by Sonia using an iPhone of the NLC, ISS and Planets on 6th July 2022.

NLC developing in the North East at 2.46am. You can also see the star Capella.

NLC at 2.56am. Getting brighter & higher.

NLC at 3.03am with Capella.

The ISS appearing in the West at 3.08am.

NLC continuing to develop and spread with Capella at 3.15am.

NLC at 3.24am

NLC at 3.26am

NLC and Mars in the East at 3.36am.

NLC with Mars & Jupiter in the East at 3.42am.

NLC at 3.45am nearly overhead.

NLC directly overhead at 3.48am.

NLC at 3.49am spreading overhead.  Saturn can be seen bottom right in the image, which was in the South.

 

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