Messier – Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

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The Orion Nebula taken by George Buckberry on the 1st Jan 2026 using a Dwarf3 smart scope. This is a brilliant image as it was acquired just after a total of 15 mins of exposure. Just shows what smart scopes can do!

''The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion's belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky with an apparent magnitude of 4.0. It is 1,344 ± 20 light-years (412.1 ± 6.1 pc) away and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. M42 is estimated to be 25 light-years across (so its apparent size from Earth is approximately 1 degree). It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun. Older texts frequently refer to the Orion Nebula as the Great Nebula in Orion or the Great Orion Nebula.'' Ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula

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Deep Sky images by George Buckberry

2nd January 2026

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| 6:46 pm

A super selection of deep sky images taken by George Buckerry on the 4th and 31st Dec 2025 using a Dwarf3 smart scope.

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Jim Burchell’s images – 18th Nov to the 26th Nov 2025

23rd December 2025

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| 7:35 pm

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A super collection of images taken by member Jim Burchell from the 18th to the 26th Nov 2025.

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John Archer’s images – 21st Nov to the 28th Nov 2025

23rd December 2025

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| 5:42 pm

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A superb collection of images taken by member John Archer from the 21st to the 28th Nov 2025 using a Dwarf3 smartscope.

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The Moon on the 28th Nov 2025

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Latest images 11th to 20th December 2025

21st December 2025

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| 2:49 pm

A fabulous selection of images taken by members Kevin Smith, Dan Stevens and George Buckberry from the 11th to the 20th December 2025.

Kevin Smith using a Dwarf 3 smartscope

The Horsehead Nebula. A total of 4 hours 15mins exposure time.

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Dan Stevens using a Seestar smart scope

George Buckberry using a Dwarf3 smartscope

The Sun with a single sunspot........

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17th/18th November 2025 images by George Buckberry

20th November 2025

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| 1:21 pm

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The latest images from member George Buckberry. Taken using a Dwarf3 smart scope.

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George Buckberry’s Dwarf3 images from the 8th and 9th November 2025

16th November 2025

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| 4:56 pm

A super collection of images taken by member George Buckberry on the 8th and 9th November 2025 using his Dwarf3 smart scope.

The Moon: 16 subs at 1/400^th S exposure, Gain=0 and a Vis filter.

Details of how George took the rest of his images with the Dwarf3 are on written the photos.

Friday 3rd January 2025

24th January 2025

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| 12:50 pm

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.

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]

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.