[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Crescent Moon and Mars near the constellation of Auriga taken on 13/05/21 with a pentax K70 . 135mm /f8.0 iso 800 1/5 sec.[/caption]
Category: Society News
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Partial Solar Eclipse 2021-06-10
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Images by Leigh Slomer
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Partial Solar eclipse. Taken on the 10th of June with a Daystar Solar Scout SS60-DS and a ZWO ASI174MM.

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Competition: Image the Trapezium
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In this competition we are looking for images of the Trapezium at the heart of M42, the great Orion nebula. We normally think of the Trapezium as 4 stars but in large telescopes you can make out other stars, so all you need to do is submit an image of the Trapezium with more than 4 stars.
Sounds simple, but the main 4 stars of the trapezium are bright making it difficult to resolve the other stars.
This is possible in an 8" telescope - possibly smaller.
Tips:
- use lucky imaging with short exposures.
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Images by Simon Dawes
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Simon Dawes EQ6 Pro, MN190mm, ZWO ASI1600, 500x 0.5s exposures. THIS IMAGE IS DISQUALIFIED FROM THE COMPETITION - SIMON IS THE JUDGE![/caption]
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Images by Richard Bohner
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="426"] Here is a photo of Trapezium cluster I took a few weeks ago with my iPhone through my 102mm Maksutov scope. I think the magnification is about 100X. Don’t know ISO because it was taken with phone camera. You can see five stars. I plan to take out my bigger scope and try again. “Cheers”[/caption]
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Sir Patrick Moore Prize
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Congratulations to our very own Rita Whiting for being awarded the Sir Patrick Moore Prize for Astronomy outreach, Rita does so much for our society and outreach with local groups over such a long period of time this is a well deserved award. Well done Rita!
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Dartford Grammar School Astronomy Club – Virtual Observing Session
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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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Lunar Halo/Corona Competition
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Lunar Halo Competition
As the name suggests, take an image of a Lunar Halo.
Rules:
Whilst the points awarding is somewhat ambiguous I’ll be looking for the following…
- Technically a good image (in focus)
- Well composed
- Other points of interest (foreground or background)
- A good story – if you have a story of how you took the image it can’t hurt!
Entry criteria:
- You can only enter if you are a paid up member (any tier of membership)
- Entries must be to webmaster@crayfordmanorastro.com – feel free to post them on what’s app as well!
Entries:
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Images By Diane Clarke
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image By Diane Clarke. The two stars to the left of the Moon are Castor & Pollux in the constellation of Gemini Image details, Taken on 30.12.20 @ 21.48 Camera EOS 750D, Lens Sigma 18 -250 @18mm 1/2 Sec @ f3.5, Image as taken Static Tripod[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Image by Diane Clarke This image shows the Moon and a 22° lunar halo, along with the stars of Gemini Aruga, Taurus & Orion Image details, Canon EOS 750D, Sigma 18 - 250mm lens @ 18mm 8 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800, 25.01.21 @ 20.48 hrs Static Tripod Image as shot[/caption]
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Images by Leigh Slomer
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Leigh Slomer Taken with a stock Canon EOS 200d and a Samyang 135mm lens. Exposure time was 1/5 of a second at ISO 400 at an f ratio of 2.8. Processed in GIMP.[/caption]
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Images by Jim Burchell
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Jim Burchel image taken on the Evening of 25/01/21. Image taken with a pentax K70. ISO 800/ F8 and 30 second exposure. Image showing some part of Orion Taurus and the Pleiades..[/caption]
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The BAA Winchester Weekend comes to Crayford (hopefully)
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Correction: It’s not a weekend (just Saturday Afternoon) and it’s not at Crayford (it’s at the Pavilion Sutton-at-Hone).
The BAA are running a virtual ‘Winchester Weekend’ – and COVID Restrictions permitting (i.e. restrictions and social distancing in London and Kent have been lifted) – we intend to add a little of that Winchester magic (OK it’s food, drink and conversation) to the proceeding by streaming it at the Pavilion Sutton-at-Hone.
Price: (to cover costs only) £10 per person – on the door – cash only (the chip shop only takes cash)
(Fish & Chips is £7.80 at my local chippy, the rest is for cake, biscuits, milk, tea and coffee.)
Date: 10th April 2021 13:00
13:00 Registration: (Tea and cake)
14:00 BAA Winchester Agenda
15:00 Tea and biscuits & discussion about the lecture
15:15 BAA Winchester Agenda
16:30 Tea and Biscuits and discussion about the lecture, socialise.
18:00 Dinner (Fish and chips)
19:30 BAA Winchester Agenda
21:00 Tea and biscuits and discussion about the lecture
Observing (weather permitting)
At the moment I’m canvasing who might be interested, no commitment at this stage, just to see if it is worth taking further, closer to the event I’ll ask for confirmation and provide a menu.
This is a ticketed event, please contact the webmaster@crayfordmanorastro.com if you are interested in attending (no commitment at this stage)
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Best Meteors of 2020
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Almost 2000 meteors were detected in 2020, we would have had quite a few more but for the cloudy skies in August that limited the view of the Perseid's in August.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] 2020 Meteor stats collated by Simon Dawes from data reviewd and analysed by the Crayford Meteor Team.[/caption]
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December 2020Meteor report
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December was particularly cloudy, but we still manage to detect 288 meteors, 115 from the Geminid meteor shower.
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Sun spots! 2020-12-27
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Images by Honor Wheeler
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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Honor Wheeler Skywatcher ED80 refractor, Canon M6 Mark2 camera. EQ3 synscan mount. For the full disc I used a x2 Barlow and the close up x5 Barlow. Processed using PIPP, AS!3 & PShop elements6. I could have done better but didn't have clear skies really for long enough and at the moment the sun is so darn low! Anyway happy to get these.

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