Friday 3rd January 2025

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


[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.

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Sun & Moon – 14th Dec 2024

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

A stunning set of images of the Sun by Honor Wheeler and a beautiful one of the Moon by Jim Burchell taken on the 14th Dec 2024.

The Sun by Honor Wheeler

Honor said ''I've had about 20 mins in-between the cloud to capture the Sun in white light with my ED80 refractor and the Sun in H-alpha. In H-alpha there is a massive prominence visible which took me by surprise when I got the camera on it. Shame I can't follow the sun for longer as a neighbours tree and cloud are in the way.''

The combined image of the sun; with the H-alpha image inverted and then the white light disc added.

 

The Moon by Jim Burchell

A very atmospheric photo of a Waxing Gibbous Moon which was 13.58 days old and 99.76% illuminated.

 

First Quarter Moon by Neil Webster – 6th Jan 2025

A fantastic mosaic image of the Moon taken by member Neil Webster on the 6th Jan 2025.  The Moon was 6.85 days old and 47.8% illuminated.

Below are the individual frames from the mosaic.

Neil acquired the images using an AA 115mm apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 290MM, and a Astronomik R/IR filter.

Processed using Firecapture, AutoStakkert, PS, and Microsoft ICE.

8 frames (each 90 x 33fps). 20% selected by AS.

Check out Neil's flickr page at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/

Hunter’s Supermoon – by Honor Wheeler

This is a lovely image of the largest and brightest Full Moon of 2024 that lit up the skies of Earth on the 17th Oct, taken by member Honor Wheeler from Dartford whilst waiting for the comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas to made an appearance. This Full Moon is also known as the Hunter's Supermoon.  October's full Moon is called the Hunter's Moon because it occurs when hunters would traditionally have been most active. 

''People in the Northern Hemisphere spent October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering, and preserving meats, giving this Full Moon its Anglo-Saxon name Hunter’s Moon. The name was added to the Farmer’s Almanac in North America and is used widely today.

Native Americans named this Full Moon after things that happen in the fall, including Drying Rice Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, and Freezing Moon. The Celts used Seed Fall Moon in the same way.

The names Pagan Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon have also been used for this Full Moon. However, these names should not be confused with a Blood Moon—another name for a total lunar eclipse.'' Ref:https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/hunters.html

October's Full Moon was also a Supermoon too.

''Supermoons happen because the moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle around Earth but is instead an oval, or ellipse. That means that sometimes our lunar companion is closer to Earth, reaching its closest point to us in what is known as perigee. Other times, it is further away, during what is known as its apogee. When the Moon is close to perigee during a Full Moon, that's a Supermoon.  On Thursday 17th Oct, as the Full Moon rose, the Moon arrived at its closest point to Earth, sitting at just 221,938 miles (357,174 km) away. There have been two Supermoons in 2024 thus far, in August and September, and there will be another in November, but October's Hunter's Supermoon will be the biggest and brightest of 2024. That's because this is the closest occurrence of a perigee to a Full Moon.'' Ref:https://www.space.com/hunters-moon-supermoon-2024-photos

Moon – 24th Oct 2024 by Neil Webster

A stunning image of a waning gibbous Moon by Neil Webster taken at 6.45am on the 24th Oct 2024.  The Moon was 51.0% illuminated and 21.46 days old.

 

Neil acquired the image by using a AA115 Apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 290MM, and Astronomik R/IR Filter.

Check out Neil's flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/54090033889/in/photostream/ to see a higher resolution photo of this image.

Super Harvest Moon – 17th September 2024

A superb selection of images taken by members Jim Burchell and Honor Wheeler on the 17th September 2024 of the Super Harvest Moon.

 

Why is this Full Moon called a Super Harvest Moon?

''Supermoons occur at perigee: the point in the Moon’s orbit where it’s closest to Earth.  A perigee full Moon appears a little brighter and larger than an average full Moon, and is known by some as a ‘supermoon’.  The technical name for a 'supermoon' is a perigee syzygy Moon.'' Ref:https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/supermoon-what-when-next

Plus Full Moon names reflect the time of year they happen and the Harvest Moon graces the skies in the harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere. The Harvest Moon is also the Full Moon nearest the autumn equinox, which happens around September 22, depending on the year and time zone.

 

Fly me to the Moon by Honor Wheeler

Image taken using a Canon M6II camera, 400mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/800s.

 

Moon with Saturn (Composite image) by Honor Wheeler

Images taken using a Canon M6II camera, 177mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/3s.

 

Super Harvest Moon by Honor Wheeler

Image taken using Canon M6II camera, 400mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/8s.

 

Super Harvest Moon taken by Jim Burchell

This image was taken using a Pentax KP body attached to a 102 mm refactor, F11, 1/80 sec and iso 100.

 

 

Moon & Cloud by Jim Burchell

This is a cropped image. taken using a Pentax KP, F11, 1/125 sec, 300 mm and ISO 100

 

For more information check out https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/supermoon-what-when-next  and https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/harvest.html

The next Supermoon is on Thursday 17th October.

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