Author: WebMistress

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

On Saturday the 20th of August several members of the Society were present for the second of our 2 solar observing sessions at Hall Place & Gardens. The event took place on the patio with a small farmers market close to the gallery so there was a constant stream of people wanting to look, some just wondering what was going on and and others who clearly had an untapped interest in astronomy.  Hopefully we will see some of those people in the future.

At our previous session at Hall Place on Sunday the 7th of August we and those who came to see us were treated to 4 hours of sunshine unfortunately on this occasion we were not so lucky with varying amounts of cloud being present throughout the session.  When the clouds did clear and the sun became visible we were able to offer safe views of the sun to the public through the telescopes.  When we did get glimpses of the Sun - the public were thrilled with what they saw; even if it was often in 20 second bursts!!!

Overall we had 7 telescopes on hand including 'Anita' one of the clubs Dobsonian telescopes and during clear spots every telescope was in use. We also had a couple of tables of displays including details of Sun spots, a solar projector and other interesting Astronomy facts which proved popular too with the public.

Whilst the weather was disappointing the day was a great success and the Society would like to thank all those members who helped on the day.

Below is a slideshow of photos taken of the day by members John Archer, Simon Dawes, Diane Clarke and Dr. Mike Rushton - Thank you for sharing them with us.  Also thank you to Diane Clarke & Simon Dawes for your help writing this post.

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Prior to going to the event member Simon Dawes took the opportunity to image the lone sunspot on the surface of the Sun at home and this is his image.  This was the sunspot that the public would have seen through the telescopes during clear gaps in the cloud.

Sunday 7th August 2022 - What a glorious sunny day to be out Solar Observing which is what Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford (CMHASD) where doing at Hall Place in Bexley.  What a busy day it was too! Several telescopes were set up to observe the Sun safely and members of the public were invited to do some solar observing which was readily accepted by many.  The Sun put on a good display having several sunspots and prominences for the public to view.

CMHASD will be back at Hall Place on Saturday 20th August 2022 to do some more Solar Observing with the public. Please do come and join us!

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

Thank you to all CMHASD members who helped on the day and to Dr Mike Rushton and Terry Miles for sharing your photos of the day too.

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.