Category: Public Outreach

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.

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Eight society members attended Shear Green Junior School on Friday 17th with either their own or society telescopes (6 in total) to take part in their 'Cosmic Camp'.

We observed the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn and put on two different Astronomy activities in the school hall related to the solar system. seventy five, nine to ten year-old boys and girls and about 20 adults enjoyed the activities. With lots of 'wow's' 'OMG' etc. Whilst the skies were a little cloudy, the cloud stayed away from the planets and Moon and the seeing was remarkably good. 

We didn't take photos - too many safeguarding issues - but the school blog has a section on it with a few photos that they took.

"I just wanted to send an email to say a massive thank you for Friday night!
The children (and adults) got so much out of what you all provided. The awe and wonder of seeing Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon really brought the topic to life for the children.
Your team were so patient and knowledgeable providing invaluable insight to us all. The indoor activities were really engaging and all of the children have said their favourite part of the camp was the star gazing!"

Thanks to all members who helped make this a success.

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Our society currently supports the Dartford Grammar School Astronomy Club, and on the 25th January 2021 we held a virtual observing evening using Simon's observatory.

The students really enjoyed the evening

'The boys from last night have been on the google classroom leaving you rave reviews'  

'Last night blew their minds! They loved it.'

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Image by Simon Dawes & Dartford Grammar School Astronomical Society[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384"] Image by Simon Dawes & Dartford Grammar School Astronomical Society[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Image by Simon Dawes & Dartford Grammar School Astronomical Society[/caption]

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It was horizon - horizon cloud last Wednesday for the sold out star gazing event at Hall Place, however we were prepared for this and along with comet making, we held sessions on drawing objects in the night sky and a variety of talks about astronomy. We had brilliant support from our members - thanks to all - who bought a variety of telescopes, cameras, meteorites and other displays, overall the visitors went away happy despite not being able to view the heavens. 

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A big thanks to everyone who supported both of the recent Hall Place Solar Observing events which were an exciting mixture of hide and seek as far as the sun was concerned, but both in their own way very successful.

We had sideways rain at 1100 yesterday (18th August 2019), so we set displays up indoors for about half an hour, after which we relocated outside and never looked back.

Even the sun cream got an airing!

It was very encouraging to meet a couple of extremely bright 8 year olds asking / answering some great questions - future members I'm sure.

These things don't happen by accident so for anyone who supported the two events with equipment, transport, setting up or engaging with the public, a huge thank you.

We will be back in the Winter for the pre- and post- Christmas Stargazing events and should consider any suggestions / fresh ideas to make these as engaging and informative as possible.

Once again, your support is greatly appreciated.

John (Chair)

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We hosted The 2018 British Astronomical Association Back to Basics workshop on 6th October.

These workshops are great for beginners just starting out in astronomy and wanting to learn how to use their telescopes or get started in Astronomy and over 50 people turned up - well done and thank you to all the Crayford Members who helped out.

The slideshow below is of photos taken of the day by member Jim Burchell - Thank you Jim.

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