Category: Society News

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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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Merry Christmas!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The legendary Quiz Night.[/caption]

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Our Quiz Masters[/caption]

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