Astronomy every Thursday
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A stunning example of a Lunar Halo captured by 3 members of the society - Leigh Slomer, Honor Wheeler and Simon Dawes on the evening of the 25th Nov 2023. The white dot at the 4 o'clock position from the Moon is the planet Jupiter.
The ring around the Moon - or 'lunar halo' is caused by the refraction of moonlight from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. For more information check out https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/moon-halo/
Leigh Slomer
Honor Wheeler
Simon Dawes
Several society members attended Shears Green Junior School on Friday 15th September 2023 with their own or a society telescope to take part in the school’s ‘Cosmic Camp’. The Society would like to say a big thank you to all the members who helped make this event a success.
Member Diane Clarke who attended the event wrote ''Earlier in the year the CMHASD was again invited to the Shears Green Junior School Cosmic Camp. So we took our telescopes along to offer views of various stella sights.
In the evening Jupiter & 3 of its Galilean moons appeared above the horizon and was again greeted with awe & wonder by all who viewed them. There was also views of Cygnus & the planet Saturn with its largest moon Triton.
The double star Mizar (Alcor) in Ursa Major also proved a great hit when the children discovered that 1 star was actually 2 stars.
As well as showing the children the night sky we also had some classroom presentations and a display of members images along with an image from the JWST on show.
The members who went along had an extremely enjoyable and rewarding time due to the enthusiasm of all the children & teachers at the camp. Lots of questions were asked by a very inquisitive & enthusiastic young audience and as they looked through the telescopes we heard were phrases such as “wow”, “is that real?” & “is it a hologram?”
One of the teachers from the school wrote in a thank you email to us “We all had such a fantastic time last Friday and the children didn't stop talking about it for days.”
We look forward to next year 🙂''
The Society did not take any photos of the event as there were too many safeguarding issues.
Superb image of Comet Lemmon C/2023 H2 taken by member Richard Bohner on the 11th Nov 2023 from Arizona, USA. Richard used the following to acquire his image - Canon 5D Mk IV on a Celestron 8” SCT. Magnification about 100X. 60 seconds exp. At ISO 10K.
The comet was discovered on April 23, 2023 with a robotic 1.5m reflector telescope of the Mount Lemmon Survey, hence the name Comet Lemmon (C/2023 H2). That program is part of the Catalina Sky Survey based at Stewart Observatory's Catalina Station near Tucson, Arizona, which combs the sky each night in search of new comets and asteroids. The comet is just one of an incredible 50,000 asteroids and comets discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey, making it one of the most prolific minor planet-discovering surveys currently operating.
During mid-November the comet was moving across the western sky from the constellation Hercules through Aquila just below the Summer Triangle asterism.
Five more transits done!
TOI-3688 A b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 0.98 Jupiters, it takes 3.2 days to complete one orbit of its star and is 0.0456 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2023.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/8781/toi-3688-a-b/
Exoplanet GPX-1 b is in the constellation of Perseus. GPX-1 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits an F-type star. Its mass is 19.7 Jupiters, it takes 1.7 days to complete one orbit of its star and is 0.0338 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2021.
Exoplanet Qatar-5b is located in the Andromeda constellation. Qatar-5 b is a gas giant exoplanet that orbits a G-type star. Its mass is 4.32 Jupiters, it takes 2.9 days to complete one orbit of its star and is 0.04127 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2017.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/3488/qatar-5-b/
On Wednesday 22nd November 2023, CMHASD were back at Hall Place & Gardens to hold a star gazing event from 7pm to 9pm. We had brilliant support from our members who bought along a variety of telescopes, cameras, meteorites and other displays for our guests.
CMHASD Chairman John Archer wrote ''Last week at Hall Place we had one of our best ever for observing and public enjoyment. Although these events take quite a bit of setting up, and time out of the diary, they are extremely rewarding. We managed a couple of talks – “choosing a telescope (or not)” from Mike being the customary first talk. Initially we were clouded out, however it became apparent that during the first talk, some gaps were appearing, so we invited the public outside. They were treated not just to a brilliantly positioned Jupiter, but also a prominent Moon, and far off Saturn even got in on the act. Finally, we managed to coax the visitors back in for tea, a comet talk and demo for which I’m grateful to Debra for the ingredients list and instructions – it wasn’t quite Bake-off but the resulting comet at least didn’t have a “soggy bottom” thanks partly to sublimation!
A big thank you to the whole team for once again supporting the event.''
Below are a few photos showing some of the celestial delights our guests got to view/image and one of the comet Debra made too :-)
A huge congratulations to CMHASD members Dave Grist and Steve Floodgate for receiving the BAA Horace Dall medal & gift this year.
Chairman John Archer wrote ''For anyone who travelled up to the Institute of Physics last Saturday or tuned in via Zoom for the BAA meeting would have seen this year’s recipients of the Horace Dall medal & gift – “The award shall be made to a person, whether or not a member of the Association, who has shown marked ability in the making of Astronomical Instruments. If two or more people have been jointly concerned in a particular work then each person may receive a medal and gift.” This year the worthy recipients were our very own Dave Grist and Steve Floodgate, expert converters of spare and unloved telescopes into fantastically popular and fun to use Dobsonians. Well done both of you – we’re proud of your achievements and grateful for your continued efforts contributing to the Society practical observing and outreach.''
Below is a selection of photos showing Dave & Steve being presented with their medals by the President of the BAA David Arditti on Saturday 9th December 2023 at the BAA Christmas Meeting. Well done guys :-)
Below is a brief summary of the latest trip by CMHASD members to Kelling Heath for the Autumn Equinox Star Party written by Simon Dawes.
''10 Members, 5 pitches, 2 tents, 2 caravans, 1 camper van and a lodge set the scene for a damp and windy long weekend.
If you decided to go to the Autumn Kelling Heath star camp based on the weather forecast, you would never leave Crayford; fortunately us seasoned star campers know better than to believe the forecast.
Wednesday: Cloud, Wind and Rain.
Four of us arrived in the rain, setting-up camp in a brief gap in the weather and headed to Honor’s lodge for a very welcome evening meal.
Thursday: Cloud, Wind and Rain.
Some of us headed out for a walk to the beach stopping for tea and cakes at the village cafe, a cloudy night saved by us zooming into the Barry Kellet lecture.
Friday: Cloudy, Windy, and a clear night.
The short term forecast suggested a clear night, the clouds parted early and we weren't disappointed, we had views through Dominique's a very nicely set-up 3” Refactor, Keith’s 10” Dobsonian, Simon’s 12” Dobsonian, Julian’s 20” Dobsonian, and some very nice 4” Binoculars from a nearby pitch.
It was too windy for imaging early on but the wind died down and David did a good job imaging using a Samyang 130mm Lens on an HEQ5 mount – possibly overkill – but the results spoke for themselves.
We packed up at about 3:30 am.
The sky at Kelling by Kevin Smith
The Milky Way by Simon Dawes
Images below are by Martin Crow
Below are images by Jim Burchell. All images where taken with a Pentax KP attached to a Skywacher star adventurer. All the images are single frame images.
Saturday: Dry, partial cloud during the day, mostly cloudy at night
We visited the trade stands, being careful to leave our wallets behind. Julian had some wonderful views of the Sun in his Ha telescope a modified PST.
Sunday: Dry
We packed up and headed home.''
Plus Kevin had a cute little visitor one night to his tent :-)
Fine examples of sundogs and part of a 22-degree halo captured by member Jim Buchell on the 25th September 2023 from Dartford.
''A sundog, also known as sun dog, mock sun or parhelion, consists of glowing spots around the sun. They are created by sunlight refracting off plate-shaped ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. Sundogs are some of the most frequently observed atmospheric optical phenomena and can be observed throughout the year and anywhere in the world. They are also associated with 22-degree halos.
Sundogs tend to be most visible when the Sun is close to the horizon. The part of a sundog closest to the Sun tends to be red in colour, while the areas further away from the Sun generally appear blue or green.'' Ref:https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/optical-phenomenon.html
For more information about sundogs and 22-degree halo's check out https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/sundogs-sun-dogs-parhelia-mock-suns/ and https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/22-halo-formation/
A nice set of images showing how the Sunspot AR3395 developed over 5 days as it moved across the Sun in August by member Simon Dawes.
