Deep Sky – Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

A superb image of the Soul Nebula (IC1848) in Cassiopeia taken by member Kevin Langford from Bexley, Kent.

This image was captured over three nights from the 2nd to the 4th March 2025.

Number of images taken = 130 x 180sec

Kevin took this image using an ES102ED APO with 0.7x focal reducer corrector, Pegasus NYX-101 mount, ZWO asi071, Orion NMAG and a L-enhance filter.

The image is a total of 6.5hrs of exposures.

Software used:

Nina to capture data.

Sirilic to stack images.

Siril to processes image.

Affinity Photo 2 to finish.

Check out Kevin's Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/77708720@N08/54380781459/ .

The Rosette Nebula by Neil Webster

9th March 2025

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A stunning image of the Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) in the constellation Monoceros by CMHASD member Neil Webster taken on the 2nd March 2025.

Neil acquired his image using a WO GT71 Apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro, Astro Essentials 50mm guide scope, ZWO ASI 290MM guide camera and an Optolong L Enhance filter.

Processed using APT, PHD, Nebulosity, Gradient Xterminator, Star Xterminator, and PS (Camera Raw)

52 x 240s Subs, 12 x Darks, 45 x Flats/ Bias.

Check out Neil's Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/ to see more of his brilliant images.

IC 434 The Horsehead Nebula by Neil Webster

2nd March 2025

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A wonderful widefield image of the Horsehead Nebula (IC 434) in Orion; taken on the 3rd Feb 2025 by member Neil Webster.

Neil acquired his image using a WO GT71 Apo, EQ6 R, 0.8x Reducer/Flattener, ZWO ASI 294 MC, 50mm Guide Camera, ZWO 290MM Guide Camera, and a Optolong L Enhance filter.

33 x 240s Subs, 10 x Darks, 45 x Flats/Bias

Processed using APT, PHD, Nebulosity, and Photoshop.

Friday 3rd January 2025

24th January 2025

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

A superb selection of member images taken on Friday 3rd January 2025.

The Sun at midday taken by Dr Mike Rushton taken using a Dwarf II smart scope. 20 x 1/250 sec at Gain 0 with a ND6 solar filter.

The Sun taken by Honor Wheeler

The Sun taken by Jim Burchell

The Pleiades by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf II smart scope. 200 x 10sec exposures at Gain 60.

Crescent Moon and Venus taken by Honor Wheeler. Venus is top right of the Moon.

Saturn, Venus and the Moon taken by Honor Wheeler. Venus is top right of the Moon and Saturn is near the top left corner of the image.

The Heart Nebula by Kevin Langford – Jan 2025

18th January 2025

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This is an absolutely stunning image of the Heart Nebula captured by member Kevin Langford over 2 nights on the 7th and 9th Jan 2025 from Bexley, Kent.

The Heart Nebula (also known as the Running Dog Nebula and Sharpless 2-190) is an emission nebula, 7,500 light-years away from Earth and located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula spans almost 2 degrees in the sky, covering an area four times that of the diameter of the full moon. It was discovered by William Herschel on 3 November 1787.

''The brightest part of the nebula (a knot at its western edge) is separately classified as NGC 896, because it was the first part of the nebula to be discovered. The nebula's intense red output and its morphology are driven by the radiation emanating from a small group of hot stars near the nebula's center. This open cluster of stars, known as Collinder 26, Melotte 15, or IC 1805, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of the Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of the Solar mass.'' Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Nebula

Kevin acquired his image using:

ES 102ED APO, 0.7x focal reducer corrector, and EQ5 Pro.

ZWO ASI071, and Orion MMAG,L-eNhance filter.

7.5 Hrs of exposures.

Number of images taken 150 x 180sec.

Software used:

Sirilic to stack images.

Siril to processes image.

Affinity Photo 2 to finish.

Check out Kevin's flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/77708720@N08/ to see more of his fantastic images.

Thursday 2nd Jan 2025

8th January 2025

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| 7:35 pm

[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text]NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

Thursday 2nd January 2025 was a good day & night for Astronomy. Clear views of the Sun during the day and a fantastic clear night. It was also an informal night too for the Society and as the sky was absolutely clear; without no hesitation members got out their telescopes and spent the evening observing the night sky. Below are some of the superb images members took that day and night.

The Sun with lots of sunspots taken by Honor Wheeler

Crescent Moon in the sunset taken by Honor Wheeler

Waxing Crescent Moon & Earthshine by taken Honor Wheeler. The moon was 2.62 days old and 8.35% illuminated.

Crescent Moon by taken by John Archer

Crescent Moon taken by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf II smart scope. 1/30 sec x 20 at gain 0 and no filter.

The Moon & Venus by taken Honor Wheeler (Venus is in the top left corner)

Orion, Jupiter and Mars by taken Honor Wheeler. Mars is left of Orion and Jupiter is above Orion.

Members observing at the Pavilion on the 2nd Jan 2025 taken by Honor Wheeler

The Horsehead Nebula taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar S50 smartscope. 205 stacked images and processed using the Seestar S50 processing software. The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 or B33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion and is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, the eastern most star of Orion's Belt,

The Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 is a young open star cluster in Taurus) taken by Diane Clarke taken using a Seestar S50 smartscope. 85 x 30sec exposures, Jpeg stacked using Seestar S50 internal software.

[caption id="attachment_9838" align="alignnone" width="341"] M 45[/caption][/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

IC 410 The Tadpole Nebula and IC 405 The Flaming Star Nebula by Neil Webster – 3rd Jan 2025

7th January 2025

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A superb image of IC 410 The Tadpole Nebula (left) and IC 405 The Flaming Star Nebula (right) by member Neil Webster taken on the 3rd Jan 2025.

''IC 410 is a cosmic cloud that looks like tadpoles swimming through the cosmos.

IC 410 is located 12,000 lightyears from Earth in the Auriga constellation, and is nicknamed the Tadpole Nebula because of the tadpole-shaped clouds of dark dust that appear to be swimming towards the centre. The Tadpole Nebula is a region of ionised hydrogen gas spanning over 100 lightyears across that's carved and sculpted by streams of charged particles called stellar winds emanating from open star cluster NGC 1893. NGC 1893 is about 4 million years old: the blink of an eye in cosmic terms. The 'tadpoles' that give the nebula its nickname are dense streams of dust and gas about 10 lightyears long that may well be sites of star formation.'' Ref: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/nebulae/tadpole-nebula-ic-410

located near the emission nebula IC 410, is IC 405 (also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31). IC 405 is an emission and reflection nebula that surrounds the bluish, irregular variable star AE Aurigae.

Neil acquired his image using a WO GT71 Apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro Optolong L Enhance filter, Astro Essentials 50mm guide scope, and a ZWO ASI 290MM guide camera.

Processed using APT, PHD, Nebulosity and Photoshop.

58 x 240s Subs, 45 x 0.015s Flats/Bias.

Note: Neil suffered a power cut just before taking the Darks so noise reduction was applied liberally.

Check out Neil's flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/with/54245664968/ to see a higher resolution image.

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396A) – Oct 12th 2024 by Neil Webster

3rd November 2024

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A super image of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC1396A) taken by member Neil Webster on Oct 12th 2024. The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust within the much larger ionized gas region called IC 1396 which is located in the constellation Cepheus; about 2,400 light years away from Earth. The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is a small part of the much larger IC 1396 emission nebula and can be found on the Western side of the main object.

Neil acquired the image by using a WO GT71 Apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 294MC, Optolong L Enhance filter, Astro Essentials 50mm Guide Scope, and ZWO ASI290MM guide camera. Processed using APT, PHD, Nebulosity, PS (Camera Raw), and Star X Terminator.

22 x 240s Subs, 12 x Darks, 45 x Flats/Bias.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/54064512908/in/photostream/

Shears Green Junior School Cosmic Camp – 27th Sept 2024

3rd October 2024

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| 12:42 pm

On Friday 27th September 2024 several CMHASD members helped out at Shears Green Junior School Cosmic Camp.

Chairman John Archer wrote ''First of all I really want to thank all of the team who supported our evening of outreach last Friday 27th. Once again we attended Cosmic Camp at Shears Green Junior School and were greeted by an enthusiastic audience, most of whom managed to observe Saturn, as well as a number of deep sky objects. There were indoor activities run by Rita and Debra, and the pupils were treated to our slideshow of members’ aurora images. Outside there were a range of scopes – Dob’s, a refractor and also Smartscopes, ably demonstrated by our hardy team including Steve, Dave, Andy, Diane, Mike, Jim & co – thank you all so much for giving up your time and getting involved – it was a wonderful and eventually clear night''.

Below are 2 of the images taken by members whilst at the school that the children saw.

M31 by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf II smartscope with no processing. Stacked image of 200 x 10s exposures at gain 80.

M31 is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It is also known as The Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31 and NGC 224. The galaxy is approximately 765 kpc (2.5 million light-years) from Earth. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy.

M27 by Diane Clarke (with the help of Jim Burchell) taken using a Seestar S50. Stacked image of 224 x 10s exposures. Processed using Affinity Photo.

M27 (also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, Apple Core Nebula, Messier 27, and NGC 6853) is a planetary nebula (nebulosity surrounding a white dwarf) in the constellation Vulpecula, at a distance of about 1360 light-years. It was the first such nebula to be discovered, by Charles Messier in 1764. Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbbell_Nebula.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) & the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) by Neil Webster

1st October 2024

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Neil's first Deep Sky image for 18 months.......The North America Nebula & the Pelican Nebula and what a super image it is!

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) is at the top and the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) is at the bottom.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to the star Deneb. It is named the North America Nebula because its shape resembles North America.

''The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070) is an H II region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The gaseous contortions of this emission nebula bear a resemblance to a pelican, giving rise to its name. The Pelican Nebula is located nearby first magnitude star Deneb, and is divided from its more prominent neighbour, the North America Nebula, by a foreground molecular cloud filled with dark dust.'' Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican_Nebula

Neil acquired his image on the 27th Sept 2024 using a WO GT71 apo, EQ6-R, ZWO ASI 294MC Pro, Optolong L-Enhance filter, Astro Essentials 50mm guide scope & ZWO ASI 290MM guide camera.

Processed in APT, PHD, Nebulosity, Photoshop and Star Xterminator

38 x 240s Subs, 12 x darks, 45 x flats/bias

For a more detailed view of Neil's image check out his flicker page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/54032311437/

Category: Deep Sky

Soul Nebula (IC1848) by Kevin Langford

The Rosette Nebula by Neil Webster

IC 434 The Horsehead Nebula by Neil Webster

Friday 3rd January 2025

The Heart Nebula by Kevin Langford – Jan 2025

Thursday 2nd Jan 2025

IC 410 The Tadpole Nebula and IC 405 The Flaming Star Nebula by Neil Webster – 3rd Jan 2025

Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396A) – Oct 12th 2024 by Neil Webster

Shears Green Junior School Cosmic Camp – 27th Sept 2024

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) & the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) by Neil Webster