Category: Society News

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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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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 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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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: 10^th 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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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 was particularly cloudy, but we still manage to detect 288 meteors, 115 from the Geminid meteor shower.

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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.

[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] 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.[/caption]

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Honor recently took this video of a transit of the Sun by the ISS, something she has been attempting for 10 years.

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="782"] Image by Honor Wheeler This was taken using: Skywatcher ED80 refractor Canon 700D set in movie mode @50fps 2x Barlow EQ3 mount Date 2020.04.20 13:09UTC Transit time was 0.9 sec 16 frames extracted from the original video using PIPP and then the layers merged in Photoshop elements 6. Additional processing also done in Photoshop E6.[/caption]

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Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years (the last one in 2000.) however this particular conjunction will be especially close - the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! Don't worry, if you miss it there is another close conjunction in 2080!

At its closest on 21st December Jupiter and Saturn will be 6 arc minutes apart (1/5 the diameter of the full moon) which is still easily discernable as two separate planets (some reports would have you believe the merge together into an 'elongated star')

The weather was poor on the 21st, but there was a gap in the clouds on the 20th, the images from the 20th the planets were at about 9 arc minutes vs 6 arc minutes at closest encounter.

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Images by Steve Goldson

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Steve Goldson 1/8 sec f5.6. ISO 6400. taken at 18.02. 20/12/2020. (Inset image: 1/8 sec f5.6. ISO 3200 taken at 18.07. 20/12/2020. - Note Steve captured 3 of Jupiter's moons)[/caption]

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Images by Martin Crow

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="637"] 2020Dec20 17:06ut Equipment: 80mm equinox @ f15 and DMK41 mono video camera and an old laptop. Location: Top of Dartford Road, Hextable. Taken the day before closest approach due to likelihood of poor weather on 21st. Best views though were had through the eyepiece. Absolutely stunning.[/caption]

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Images by Simon Dawes

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Simon Dawes Skywatcher MN190 (modified), EQ6 Pro (modified) ZWO ASI 1600 MM Pro Bexleyheath England[/caption]

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Members Simon Dawes and Martin Crow have been named as contributors on a scientific paper published this week, Martin and Simon along with other amateur and professional astronomers have been observing exo-planet transits - each observation takes between 4 and 5 hours typically so is quite a commitment. Well done Mrtin and Simon and all the other amateur astronomers who submitted observations.

Abstract 

The Ariel mission will observe spectroscopically around 1000 exoplanets to further characterise their atmospheres. For the mission to be as efficient as possible, a good knowledge of the planets' ephemerides is needed before its launch in 2028. While ephemerides for some planets are being refined on a per-case basis, an organised effort to collectively verify or update them when necessary does not exist. In this study, we introduce the ExoClock project, an open, integrated and interactive platform with the purpose of producing a confirmed list of ephemerides for the planets that will be observed by Ariel. The project has been developed in a manner to make the best use of all available resources: observations reported in the literature, observations from space instruments and, mainly, observations from ground-based telescopes, including both professional and amateur observatories. To facilitate inexperienced observers and at the same time achieve homogeneity in the results, we created data collection and validation protocols, educational material and easy to use interfaces, open to everyone. ExoClock was launched in September 2019 and now counts over 140 participants from more than 15 countries around the world. In this release, we report the results of observations obtained until the 15h of April 2020 for 119 Ariel candidate targets. In total, 632 observations were used to either verify or update the ephemerides of 83 planets. Additionally, we developed the Exoplanet Characterisation Catalogue (ECC), a catalogue built in a consistent way to assist the ephemeris refinement process. So far, the collaborative open framework of the ExoClock project has proven to be highly efficient in coordinating scientific efforts involving diverse audiences. Therefore, we believe that it is a paradigm that can be applied in the future for other research purposes, too.

Full article is available here

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