Astronomy every Thursday
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NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Two stunning Solar Halo images taken by member Honor Wheeler on the 14th April 2024 from Winchester.
Honor captured the Solar Halo's using a Canon M6II fitted with a Samyang 8mm fisheye lens, ISO100, 1/2500's & 1/3200's.
For more information about Solar Halo's and how they are formed check out https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/atmospheric-halos/.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A super image of the Sun taken on 24th March 2024 by member Honor Wheeler.
Honor captured the white light image of the Sun using an ED80 Refractor fitted with a solar filter, EQ3-pro Synscan mount, 2x Barlow, Canon M6 II. Exp1/6400s and ISO400.
Below Honor's image is an image of the Sun on the same day with the sunspots labelled taken from Spaceweather.com.
Photo Ref: https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=24&month=03&year=2024
Spaceweather.com reported ''Yesterday, the sun produced a solar flare so strong, it took two sunspots to make it. Sunspots AR3614 and AR3615 exploded in tandem on March 23rd (0130 UT), directing their fire straight at Earth. A National Solar Observatory telescope in Australia recorded the double blast.
The explosion from AR3614 (top) was so violent it seemed to rip the fabric of the sun, while AR3615 (bottom) followed very close behind with a less intense blast of its own.
While this may seem like an incredible coincidence, it probably didn't happen by chance. Researchers have long known that widely-spaced sunspots can explode in tandem. They're called "sympathetic solar flares." Occasionally, magnetic loops in the sun's corona fasten themselves to distant pairs of sunspots, allowing explosive instabilities to travel from one to the other. This has apparently happened to AR3614 and AR3615.
Some sympathetic flares are so much alike, they are considered to be twins. Yesterday's double-blast was not a perfect twin, but close enough. It shows that the two sunspots are linked, raising the possibility of more double-flares...''
The NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the sequence and it can be viewed in this movie.
Three fantastic Full Moon images taken by CMHASD member Honor Wheeler on the 24th March 2024 from North Kent.
This is the first Full Moon of the spring season and appeared on the night of Sunday 24th March and Monday 25th March reaching its peak illumination in the early hours of Monday 25th March 2024.
In March, the Full Moon is also known as the Worm Moon and if it occurs on or after 21st March it is also known as the Paschal Moon, which is used to determine the date of Easter. In some years the Paschal Moon is the Worm Moon as in this year 2024; in others, it's the Pink Moon (Full Moon in April). The dates for the Paschal Moon range from the 21st March to the 18th April.
Moonrise half risen
Honor used a Canon M6II, Tamron 18-400mm lens set to 400mm, F8.0, exp1/640s and ISO400.
Full Moonrise
Honor used a Canon M6II, Tamron 18-400mm lens set to 400mm, F8.0, exp1/640s and ISO400.
Full Moon and Blossom
The image below is a composite photo of the moon through an Apricot tree in bloom. The first photo was focused on the moon the second focused on the tree then overlayed using snapseed.
Honor used a Canon M6 II, Tamron 18-400mm lens and Tripod.
For the Moon exposure the settings were; lens set to 400mm, F8.0, exp1/3200s and ISO800.
For the tree exposure the settings were; lens set to 400mm, F8.0, exp1.1/3sec and ISO800.
For more information about the March Full Moon check out https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-march and https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/worm.html
Another fantastic image of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks captured on the 27th March 2024 by Jim Burchell using his Seestar S50 smart scope. The image consists of 24 x 10 second images stacked.
For more information about the comet 12P Pons-Brooks check out https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/12ppons-brooks-how-and-when-see-devil-comet
Bode’s Galaxy also known as Messier 81 (M81) is a grand design spiral galaxy which lies approximately 11.8 million light-years from Earth, with an apparent magnitude of 6.9.
One more for the Exoclock project. This time the transit of exoplanet Qatar-9b measured by Simon Dawes and Martin Crow on the same night. Qatar-9 b is a hot Jupiter exoplanet in Ursa Major that orbits a K-type star. Its mass is 1.19 Jupiters, it takes 1.5 days to complete one orbit of its star and is 0.0234 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2019.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A super image of the Sun taken by member Jim Burchell. The image is showing an extremely large Sunspot group AR3615 in the middle of the Sun.
Jim took the single image using a Pentax KP camera attached to a 102 mm Altair refactor fitted with a solar filter and then processed in Snapseed.
A super selection of Moon images taken by member Neil Webster in March 2024.
22nd March 2024
A Waxing Gibbous Moon, 94.7% illuminated and 12.47days old.
7 frames each 90s x 32fps. Best 20% aligned and stacked in Autostakkert. Processed in PhotoShop.
Neil captured the Moon using an AA115 triplet APO, EQ6 R, ZWO 290MM and Astronomik R/IR filter (642-840nm).
24th March 2024
A Waxing Gibbous Moon, 99.9% illuminated and 14.53 days old.
Check out Neil's flickr page for higher resolution images at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/
Two fantastic images of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks taken on the 15th & 18th March 2024 by member Jim Burchell. The images were taken using a Seestar S50 smartscope. On both nights Jim had a very small amount of time to capture the comet due to clouds rolling in. The image taken on the 15th is a stack of 6x10 second images and the image on the 18th is a stack of 18x10 second images.
Comet 12P/Pons Brooks on 15th March 2024
Comet P12/Pons Brooks on 18th March 2024
For more information about the comet and how to locate it check out https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/comet-12p-pons-brooks
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A splendid image of the Sun taken on the 25th February 2024 by member Jim Burchell. Jim captured the image using a Seestar S50 smart scope fitted with a solar filter and processed in Snapseed. The giant sunspot AR3590 that can be seen on the Sun in Jim's image was more than ten times wider than Earth when the image was taken.
