Category: Public Outreach

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

On Saturday the 19th of August several members of the Society were present for the second of our 2 solar observing sessions at Hall Place & Gardens.  Below are some photos of the day.  Thank you to Dr Mike Rushton, Honor Wheeler, Jim Burchell, Omila and Diane Clarke for sharing your photos.

The Sun in Hydrogen Alpha taken by Honor Wheeler using a Personal Solar Telescope (PST).

The Sun in white light taken by Omila using an iPhone with an adapter and telescope fitted with a Solar filter.

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On Wednesday 30th November 2022, CMHASD were back at Hall Place & Gardens to hold a star gazing event.  We had brilliant support from our members – thanks to all – who bought along a variety of telescopes, cameras, meteorites and other displays for our guests.

We had over 33 ticket-holders to entertain and those who arrived early did catch sight of Jupiter, Mars and the Moon.

We ran through a handful of short talks – including a review of popular astronomy apps by Marc and a talk from Debra on Comets, followed by a successful comet-making demo to an enthralled audience.

Further gaps in the clouds allowed visitors another chance to observe with us. It’s always rewarding to hear the “oohs and aahs” of a first-time view of Jupiter’s moons through a decent scope. The Society Dob’s are just brilliant at that.

So thank you to the whole crew (you know who you are) for setting up, interacting, educating and closing down the show. It was very successful indeed.

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Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford (CMHASD) were out in force at the recent New Scientist Live event at ExCel Centre, London Docklands on the 7th to 9th October 2022.  We were there to help the British Astronomical Association (BAA), in which we have many members; on their stand in the Cosmos Section this year.  

Everybody pitched in; helping the BAA team organised by CMHASD member Janice McClean who is a trustee and the Events Coordinator of the BAA to promote membership of the BAA and answer questions ranging from 'What type of telescope should I buy?' to 'How do you use a Planisphere?'

Janice said ''After three years closure, it was great to be back.''

A big Thank you to CMHASD members Steve Floodgate & David Grist (our own Eric and Ernie) who were there for all three days of the event with Janice together with Mark Radice from Basingstoke Astronomical Society. 

Thanks fully to CMHASD members Rita Whiting and Debra Holton who were there to keep the peace on Friday (School’s day) and to CMHASD member Diane Clarke who got pulled in after rashly accepting a guest pass when the sheer number of visitors became overwhelming.  CMHASD trustee Mike Rushton added some calm and gravitas to the mayhem on Saturday and Rita returned on Sunday for even more!

 

 

Several society members attended Shears Green Junior School on Friday 23rd September 2022 with their own or a society telescope to take part in the school's ‘Cosmic Camp’. 

Below are 2 accounts of the evening by CMHASD members Diane Clarke and Gary Hunt who both helped at the event.

Diane wrote ''The Society was invited for its second visit to the “Cosmic Camp” at Shears Green Junior School  on Friday the 23^rd of September.  Several members were present, bringing 5 telescopes including Anita & Isaac, 2 of the Societies “Dobs”.

When we arrived we were enthusiastically greeted by several of the campers in spite of the somewhat overcast conditions that never dampened their spirits.  So we decided to persevere and set up our telescopes with an initial idea of focusing on various cranes & other industrial architecture along a distant horizon to give the campers something to see through the eyepiece.  All the while hoping the sky would clear.

Eventually the clouds started to break initially giving views of Altair & Deneb,  two of the stars that form the asterism known as the “summer triangle”.  As the cloud continued to break the campers were treated to views of Jupiter & its 4 main Galilean Moons through our telescopes.  Unlike last year there was no Moon and unfortunately the clouds did not break enough for us to offer the campers views of the planets Saturn or Mars.

Apart from having the 5 telescopes present we also gave 3 indoor presentations, these included showing the campers some astronomical images taken by the members, along with talks and demonstrations covering both the solar system & the constellations.

The campers had also been learning about the ISS and a visible Pass was expected so with great anticipation we gathered the camper’s together as the clouds broke enabling them to see the ISS that was greeted with a resounding cheer as it passed overhead.  This was a very enjoyable evening for members & campers alike so much so that yet again we stayed longer than expected.''

Gary wrote “From a personal point of view and as an enthusiastic member of Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford (CMHASD), I found the experience of helping the young students of Shears Green Primary School see the night sky very rewarding. This night was Shears Green’s annual Cosmic Camp and CMHASD was very happy to help again (we helped out last year), as we love to share our fascination of astronomy and all things space! Most CMHASD members have started our fascination with astronomy at an early age and we are committed to inspire young minds to look into the night sky and wonder just like we did many years ago.

The Society did not take any photos of the event as there were too many safeguarding issues however the school blog hopefully will post some photos soon as they did with Cosmic Camp 2021 https://www.shearsgreenjuniorschool.co.uk/cosmic-camp-2021/- so do keep checking.

The Society would like to say a big Thank you to all the members who helped make this event a success.

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.