Category: Society News

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We have had some lovely clear and moonless nights the last couple of days and on top of this few contrails from planes making the sky ideal for observing, and whilst alone with your telescope or binoculars you can still share your experiences using our WhatsApp groups, just contact committee@crayfordmanorastro.com if you want to be added...

Here is a selection of member observations shared over the last few nights.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by John Archer - 20s no other details provided[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image by Simon Dawes It's been 11 years, 1 month and 5 days since I last imaged Venus, now I remember why...[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="615"] Data measured by Martin Crow So my non transit resulted in showing up an error in NASA’s exoplanet archive. The mistake has now been corrected apparently. This is a good result as finding errors once Ariel is up would not be great[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by John Archer of the ISS - no details provided[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="765"] Here is a test CCD image of the galaxies M65 (left) and M66, part of the Leo Triplet, which I took last night. My guiding still needs sorting out...[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image by Kurt Appreciate this will be basic stuff to most of you, but here's my first astrophotography effort of the full moon a few weeks back. Nothing too complex, 5inch SCT and snapped with a Pixel 4 phone.[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Edited by Martin Just adjusted highlights and shadows mostly. You may already know this but it’s always worth looking from the edge of Mare Crisium to the limb of the moon. Due to libration you will see that this changes and sometimes we can see a little further around the moon.[/caption]

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Here are some Free high quality courses in Astronomy from the Open University

Astronomy with an online telescope

The Big Bang

Comparing Stars

Icy Bodies: Europa and elsewhere

In the night Sky: Orion

An Introduction to Exo Planets

The Moon

Moons of our Solar System

Motion Under Gravity

Partial Physics

Plate tectonics 

The restless universe

Seeing the light (This one is a little different it's about how the Sun affects design)

The Sun

Telescopes and Spectrographs

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Recently Mr Martin Crow, gave a talk entitled "A brief introduction to Astronomy" (The edges of the Jigsaw) for some of the societies new members, to help them better understand the "Jigsaw that is astronomy".

Martin spoke amongst other things about.

·        Measuring astronomical distance by using astronomical units (au) & light years,

·        The spectrum of stars to determine their chemical components,

·        Looking at objects with different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum i.e. infrared, white & Ultra- violet light.

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="772"] looking at the spectrum[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Objects viewed in different wavelengths[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Martin introducing the course[/caption]

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We were treated to 3 presentations at the recent society night. 

Building Dobsonians - By Steve Floodgate & Dave Grist

Modifications to the EQ6 Mount - By Simon Dawes

•  Knobs Mod
• Azimuth Mod
• Altitude Slide Mod
• Power Mod
• Belt Mod 
• Hyper Tune

ExoClock update - By Martin Crow

• HAT-P-16b
• HAT-P-1b
• XO-2Nb

Thanks to all those who contributed

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Another clear Thursday and an observing evening, below are a couple of images from the session.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Jim of the Moon and Venus[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image by Leigh of the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Taken at Sutton-at-Hone[/caption]

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Gary organised a trip to Rochester Cathedral to view the huge 3D moon that is touring the UK and to hear a lecture on the moon. 

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We had clear skies last Thursday (2020/02/06) and had many of the Societies Dobsonian telescopes out, a couple of members bought their own telescopes (both reflectors) and Leigh Slomer produced this image of the Great Orion Nebula (M42).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Image by Leigh Slomer Stack of 27 images at ISO 800 for 30 seconds, 400mm FL Refractor[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image by Jim Burchel - No details provided[/caption]

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We had an informal meeting over Christmas where Martin took the members through using AstroImageJ (AIJ) he covered the following...

• Loading an image
• analysing stars in an image
• plate solving an image
• batch processing images to calibrate them
•  aligning and stacking images
• photometry on a sequence of images

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Martin Demonstrating AstroImageJ[/caption]

Final image.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="670"] Comet C/2017 T2 20191201 21:49 Simon Dawes[/caption]

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About a dozen members used the 16" telescope over the Christmas period with Keith providing a demonstration of the set-up and use of the new CCD.

The evening ended with cloud relatively early but they did get 10 light frames and below is a stack of these using Astro Pixel Processor.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="746"] Image by CMHASD Members. 16" LX200, total of 360s unfiltered.[/caption]

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