Category: Messier

Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society DartfordMessier

Messier 3

 11th February 2024 11th February 2024
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Messier 3 is a Globular Cluster in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

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Images by Simon Dawes

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Simon2024M3

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Ceres photobombing Messier 100 by Simon Dawes – 26th March 2023

 14th May 2023 14th May 2023
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On the night of the 26th/27th March 2023 Ceres appeared to 'meet' and pass directly in front of the beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 100 (M100) and for a few hours Ceres looked like a brilliant supernova beaming from one of the M100 galaxy's arms.

At the time of the line-of-sight view, Ceres was shining from a piddling distance of 150 million miles (240 million kilometers) from Earth whilst the galaxy at 56 million light-years away; so actually trillions of miles apart!  The 'meeting' took place in the constellation Coma Berenices just a few days after Ceres' opposition, which is when Earth passes between it and the Sun.

Despite the poor weather CMHASD Trustee & member Simon Dawes managed to capture the event - see his image below :-) Ceres is identified with 2 red lines and M100 is at the 4 O'clock position from Ceres.

Ceres is a dwarf planet and the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt that is between Mars & Jupiter.  It was the first asteroid to be discovered on the 1st January 1801 and was classified as 1 Ceres in 1851. Ceres was designated a dwarf planet, a new category of solar system objects defined in August 2006 by the International Astronomical Union.

Ceres's small size; about 14 times smaller than Pluto means that even at its brightest, it is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, except under extremely dark skies.  Its apparent magnitude ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, peaking at opposition. 

Messier 100 (also known as NGC 4321) is a face-on, spiral galaxy with an apparent magnitude of 9.3.  It is one of the brightest and largest galaxies with a diameter of 160,000 light years. It was discovered in 1781.

Information of how Simon acquired his image is on his photo and for more information about this event see https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/tell-time-with-the-big-dipper-see-ceres-transit-m100/#:~:text=By%20good%20fortune%20Ceres%20will%20pass%20directly%20in,northern%20portion%20of%20the%20Virgo%20Cluster%20this%20spring.

 

Venus & Pleiades by Jim Burchell – 10th April 2023

 14th May 2023 14th May 2023
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Super image of Venus and the Pleiades taken by member Jim Burchell on the 10th April 2023.

''The Pleiades are also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky.  The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.'' ref:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades

 
Image was taken with a Pentax KP 135mm, F6.3, 10sec and ISO 8oo.
Camera was mounted on a Skywacher Star Adventurer.
 

Images by Jim Burchell – 23rd to 25th Feb 2023

 29th March 2023 29th March 2023
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Member Jim Burchell was busy out and about towards the end of February photographing our stunning sky and below is a selection of his superb images.

 

Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades taken on the 23rd Feb from the CMHASD pavilion, Sutton-at-Hone.

Image was taken with a Pentax KP on a static tripod, F6.3,  30 sec, 18 MM and iso 800.

 

Crescent Moon on the 24th Feb.

 

The Sun taken on the 24th Feb.

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/

Image of the Sun showing sunspots 3229, 3230, 3234, 3235, 3236 & 3237.
This white light image was taken with a Pentax KP attached to 102mm Altair Astro refractor. 1/320 sec & iso200. The image wasn't very sharp as there was some light cloud and the image was then coloured in Snapseed.

 

Crescent Moon with Jupiter & Venus on the 25th Feb.

Type 1a Supernova SN2022hrs in NGC 4647

 8th May 2022 8th May 2022
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An awesome capture by Simon Dawes of a Supernova called SN2022hrs in NGC 4647.

NGC 4647 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo.  Supernova SN2022hrs was discovered in the galaxy NGC4647 on the 16th April 2022 by astronomer Koichi Itagaki.  NGC 4647 is 63 million light years away, so, this star exploded 63 million years ago and it took that long for the light of the explosion to reach us.

Messier 60 (NGC 4649), an elliptical galaxy, is also in the image and it is in the centre of the frame and NGC 4647 is slightly down and to the right of it.  SN2022hrs looks like a bright star in front of the galaxy but it is actually an exploding star within the galaxy.

Deep Sky imaging by Dr. Mike Rushton

 2nd May 2022 2nd May 2022
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Dr. Mike Rushton took advantage of some clear skies recently (25th April 2022) and took these 3 super deepsky images using his eVscope of Messier 13, Messier 51 and the Bow Tie Nebula.

Messier 13 (M13) also designated NGC 6205 and also called the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules and the Hercules Globular Cluster, is a globular cluster of a several hundred thousand stars in the constellation of Hercules.

 

Messier 51, known as The Whirlpool Galaxy and as Messier 51a, M51a, and NGC 5194, is a spiral galaxy found in the constellation Canes Venatici,  M51 was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy and is 31 million light-years away from Earth.

 

The Bow Tie Nebula also designated NGC 40 and Caldwell 2 is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel in 1788.  It is composed of hot gas around a dying star. The nebula gets its name from the fact it has an intriguing bow-tie shape.

Diane Clarke’s The Moon & M45 The Pleiades on the 8th March 2022

 9th March 2022 9th March 2022
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A lovely image of the Moon 4.1° south of M45 taken on the 8th March 2022 by Diane Clarke.
 
Diane said ''I had my doubts about capturing this event due to the cloud forecast, but there were breaks starting to appear as 19.00 hrs approached, so I went to set up but there was a strong breeze forcing me to find a sheltered spot to stop my equipment suffering wind blast, the breeze was also making the clouds scud across the sky very quickly.  So much so that any breaks in the cloud could disappear as quickly as they appeared the image was taken in one of these short lived break's in the cloud cover.''
 
Image Details: Camera EOS M50m2 using a 100mm Canon EF Lens.
2.5 sec's @ f5.6, ISO 2000, on a static tripod, with a 2 sec delay to remove camera shake.
 

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