The 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower

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The society run an 'almost automated' meteor camera, if you want to be part of the meteor team checking the results every morning then please speak to the coordinator - Janice.

A total of 535 Meteors were captured, with 340 of them being Perseid meteors. Below is a video of the 20 brightest meteors during August.

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Summary of the report sent to the Nematode meteor group.

Perseid2018Summary

The Nematode group were able to match 11 of our meteors with observations from other observers in the group producing these orbits.

Perseid orbits 2018[3450]

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2019 Calendar

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Some of you who were present at the Pavilion on the 29th of March will be aware of the following changes to the Society’s Calendar rules. Each month will now consist of a collage of member’s images rather than just one per month.

The Calendar size will also increase from 21 x 28cm to 28 x 37cm picture size to accommodate the collage of images, I am unsure how many images can be accommodated per page but it may be between 6 to 8, actual numbers TBA. Price TBA.

Rather than the list of 4 groups such as the Moon, Sun, Deepsky etc. there will be a list of 'Targets' for member’s to photograph or sketch.

Important: Image/s to be submitted for the 2019 Calendar must have been photographed or sketched after the 1st of January 2012 but no later than 8pm (GMT) on the 3rd of October 2018.

(All images for the 2020 Calendar will need to been photographed or sketched AFTER the 3rd of October 2018 but before the 2nd of October 2019 so keep this in mind when submitting your images).

DON’T FORGET TO READ THE RULES!

PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO TAKE PART, THANKS.

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Target images for the 2019 CMHASD Calendar are as follows:

1. Earthshine 

The Moon’s shadow side can often be seen when the young crescent Moon is visible. Images must show the Moon with the shadowed side also visible 

2. A Rainbow

Images can be an Arc or a portion of the Rainbow.

3. The Planets

Images can be of any of the Planets (not the Earth that would be cheating ;)

4. Lunar and/or Planetary Conjunctions

Images can be of the Moon in conjunction with Planet/s or a planetary line-up of 2 or more Planets.

5. The Orion constellation

Images that show the Orion constellation in full as the left image or as the image on the right with the four stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph and Rigel at each corner.

6. Lunar Eclipse

A Lunar eclipse will hopefully be visible on the 27th of July but any images photographed or sketched after the 1st of January 2012 can be submitted. The Moon partially or fully eclipsed will be acceptable.

7. Atmospheric Optics

Images of any of the following: Solar Halo, Sundogs, Circumzenithal Arc, Cloud Iridescence and Crepuscular Rays etc.

8. The Andromeda Galaxy

A close-up image of this wonderful Galaxy.

9. Sunset or Sunrise

Any photograph or sketch of a Sunrise or Sunset over land or water.

10. Lunar crater Copernicus

A close up of the crater Copernicus photographed or sketched using a Telescope or a Telephoto lens.

11. Sunspots

Images of Sunspots in White Light or a projected image only, not H-alpha (as only a few members have H-alpha telescopes).

12. Ursa Major constellation

Images of the whole constellation or the Plough will be acceptable.

13. A Full Moon

The Moon must be between 98 – 100% to qualify for this Target, you’ll need to make sure as I will check the date and the image was photographed or sketched.

14. The Pleiades and/or the Hyades

An image of either the Pleiades or the Hyades or an image of them together.

I am aware there are 14 Targets, not everyone will be able to image all of the Targets so hopefully this way everyone will be in with a sporting chance of obtaining at least one image for the Calendar.

Rules: And please make sure you read them!

  • You may only enter one image per category.
  • Sketched, Single, Multiple Stacked or Mosaicked images are acceptable, Composite images are NOT acceptable.
  • All images entered must have been Photographed or Sketched by the person entering the image/s.
  • If too many images (maximum numbers TBA) are entered for one ‘Target’ then a vote will be taken on each image and the images with the most votes will be included in the Calendar.
  • All images MUST have been taken AFTER the 1st of January 2012 but before 8pm (GMT) on the 3rd of October 2018.
  • The two ‘Targets’ with the least number of images received will not be included in the Calendar.
  • Images can be taken using another member’s telescope but the camera used MUST belong to the member submitting the image/s.
  • Poor quality images will have to be omitted so make sure the image resolution is good enough for printing.
  • All images MUST be submitted to this email address: honor . draconis @ talk21  .com (remove spaces) BEFORE 8pm (GMT) on the 3th of October 2018, no exceptions.

When emailing your images please use the email subject heading ‘CMHASD CAL2019’ that way I can save the images easily all in one place!

Small print - Feel free to ask me any questions that are not covered by the rules but if you do ask me a question that IS covered by the rules…then I’ll know you didn’t read them! Simon, Martin, Jim….! [this is scandalous Ed.] 

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Astronomy Fun Day at the Priory Centre Dartford

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The Society took part in an Astronomy Fun Day on Saturday 25th August 2018 at the Priory Shopping Centre to promote Astronomy, and encourage locals to visit the shopping centre, the day was well attended and along with CMHASD was an inflatable planetarium. During the day we were promoting the BAA Back to basics workshop  we are supporting in October.

 

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Solar Observing at Hall Place – August 2018

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The Society were at Hall Place on Sunday 19 August 2018 showing members of the public the Sun using safe observing techniques and talking to people about Astronomy in general. Whilst there was a fair amount of cloud about and the Sun was playing 'hide-and-seek'  the day was a massive success.

 

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The Society were at Hall Place on Sunday showing members of the public the Sun using safe observing techniques and talking to people about Astronomy in general. Whilst there was a fair amount of cloud about and the Sun was playing 'hide-and-seek'  the day was a massive success.

 

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2018 Summer BBQ

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The summer BBQ was a great hit again. About 25 members attended and we had food for about 100! The day was very relaxed. We had a few glimpses of the Sun through our Dobsonian telescope, Anita using Baader Solar Safety Film, unfortunately there were no Sun spots visible.

 

 

 

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Welcome to our new website!

Our new website is live, come back regularly to see new updates.

This post lists the progress of migrating data from the old website to the new one.

Our old site cmhas.wikispaces.com remains operational for a short period as sections from it are migrated more and more of the old site will point to this new site, however please be patient at we have 560 pages and 2.5Gb of images to migrate!

2018-09-09

Added Making dew heater controller and dew bands to equipment section

2018-08-07

Added Automatic Photometric Telescope post to Papers  and Equipment sections

2018-08-06

Added new post for BAA Exhibition meeting in 2010
Added new post for BAA Summer Exhibition Meeting 2012
Added Paper
Added Paper
Added Paper

2018-08-05

Added book review posts

Updated Aurora page

Added news posts

Updated Atmospheric Optics Page and added some posts

2018-07-25

Added Frankenscope to equipment section

Added Observatory Section

2018-07-24

Added post on summer BBQ

Fixed Event section which wasn't displaying event posts

2018-07-23

Updated space Junk section and added post

2018-07-22

Added Equipment Section and added to Activities menu

  • CEM post
  • Drift scan post
  • Battery Free electric focuser
  • DIY Finderscope
  • Variable Barlow
  • Large Telescopes

Added Variable star page and 3 posts showing observations

2018-07-21

Updated Mars Page

2018-07-20

Added Spectroscopy page

2018-07-18

Added post for 2015 Lunar Eclipse - all Lunar Eclipse reports from old website are now covered.
Modified the Programme- you can now import our programme into your own Calendar!

2018-07-17

Added page on Detecting meteors with Radio
Updated Lunar Eclipse Page added posts for 2001 and 2007 Lunar Eclipses

2018-07-15

Complete upload of member solar images
Papers section added and 2 papers published
Meteor Page updated with posts for previous society reports of meteor showers
Radio Section Added, added SID page
Double Stars Section Added

2018-07-14

Comet page updated, including all the previous comet reports by the society.
Venus page updated with members images plus a paper on the dichotomy of Venus 
Sun pages updated with members images

 

Changes to Membership

New Membership Fees: 

Our society is booming, as a rsult our income has become a little high so we have made the decission to reduce membership fees .

The new membership structure is as follows...

Full Membership

  • £95 per annum
  • All meetings including lectures

Basic Membership

  • £35 per annum
  • All meetings except lectures (lectures can be attended at £7 per lecture)

Student Membership

Only availble to full time students 

  • £35 per annum
  • All meetings including lectures

John Wall 1932 – 2018:

On Saturday the 27th of January 2018, the Society learnt of the death of Mr John Wall, an inspirational inventor who make telescopes out of household items and inventor of the Crayford Eyepiece Mount (referred to now as the Crayford Focuser), John was a member of the Society for many years and will be remembered for his laugh, inventive genius and great character. An obituary was posted in 'The Times' and the 'BAA Journal'

Below is a copy of the obituary for the BAA Journal 

[caption id="attachment_947" align="aligncenter" width="1909"]John Wall Obituary Obituary as it appeared in the BAA Journal[/caption]

Solar Eclipse 2012 November 13, Australia

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Members Mike, Rita, Jean and Brian travelled to Northern Australia to see this eclipse.

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Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC

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Images by Mike Rushton

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All images are copyright. Permission must be sought to from the image owner to the use of any of these images.

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Dismantling the 24 inch Telescope built by John Wall

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When the Manor house closed in December 2011 we lost our 50 year old observatory so we had to find a new home for our 24" telescope built by John Wall :-(

York Astronomical Society agreed to rehouse the telescope. Below are a selection of photos showing what happened that day.

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