NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A superb collage of images showing our active Sun over a 4 day period (31st March to 3rd April) taken by CMHASD member Jim Burchell.
Category: Sun
The Sun – 21st March 2025 by Jim Burchell
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Another great image of our Sun taken by member Jim Burchell on the 21st March 2025. Underneath is an image Jim took on the 16th March 2025; you can see how the sunspots have moved across the Sun since the 16th.
Both images were taken with an Pentax KP body attached to 102mm F11 Altair Astro refractor fitted with a solar filter and then coloured in Snapseed.
Sunspots by Simon Dawes – 16th March 2025
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A splendid selection of Sunspot images taken by CMHASD trustee Simon Dawes on the 16th March 2025. Details of how Simon took his images are on the photos.
An Active Sun – 16th March 2025 by Jim Burchell
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Two superb images of the Sun today taken by member Jim Burchell. As you can see the Sun is very active with lots of sunspots.
Jim's 1st image below, a single shot; was taken using a 102 MM refactor with a Pentax KP body attached set at F11, 320 sec and iso 100 plus a solar filter.
Jim's 2nd image, which is just a single shot; was taken using a SeeStar S50 smartscope.
Below is an image taken from Spaceweather.com showing all the sunspots with their labels. As you can see there are lots!!!!!
Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter by Honor Wheeler – 1st March 2025
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A superb selection of astro images taken by member Honor Wheeler on the 1st March 2025 of the Sun, Moon and the planetary parade.
Details of how Honor took her images are written above each image.
Venus phase - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens, ISO400, f6.3, 1/16000sec.
Even when Venus is a fine crescent, the albedo of Venus is still high.
Sunset Sunspots - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens. ISO100, f29, 1/16000sec.
Sunset - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens. ISO200, f10, 1/800sec
Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Moon and Mercury - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens. ISO500, 1/2sec taken using Samyang 8mm fish-eye lens.
Venus, Earthshine and Mercury - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens. ISO640, f5.0, 1/3sec.
Earthshine - Canon M6II with Tamron 18-400mm lens. ISO640, f6.3, 1"1/3sec
Our Sun by Simon Dawes
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A selection of fantastic images of our Sun taken on the 4th March 2025 by CMHASD trustee Simon Dawes from Bexley. Details of how Simon took his images are on the photos.
Friday 3rd January 2025
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A superb selection of member images taken on Friday 3rd January 2025.
The Sun at midday taken by Dr Mike Rushton taken using a Dwarf II smart scope. 20 x 1/250 sec at Gain 0 with a ND6 solar filter.
The Sun taken by Honor Wheeler
The Sun taken by Jim Burchell
The Pleiades by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf II smart scope. 200 x 10sec exposures at Gain 60.
Crescent Moon and Venus taken by Honor Wheeler. Venus is top right of the Moon.
Saturn, Venus and the Moon taken by Honor Wheeler. Venus is top right of the Moon and Saturn is near the top left corner of the image.
Thursday 2nd Jan 2025
[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text]NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Thursday 2nd January 2025 was a good day & night for Astronomy. Clear views of the Sun during the day and a fantastic clear night. It was also an informal night too for the Society and as the sky was absolutely clear; without no hesitation members got out their telescopes and spent the evening observing the night sky. Below are some of the superb images members took that day and night.
The Sun with lots of sunspots taken by Honor Wheeler
Crescent Moon in the sunset taken by Honor Wheeler
Waxing Crescent Moon & Earthshine by taken Honor Wheeler. The moon was 2.62 days old and 8.35% illuminated.
Crescent Moon by taken by John Archer
Crescent Moon taken by Dr Mike Rushton using a Dwarf II smart scope. 1/30 sec x 20 at gain 0 and no filter.
The Moon & Venus by taken Honor Wheeler (Venus is in the top left corner)
Orion, Jupiter and Mars by taken Honor Wheeler. Mars is left of Orion and Jupiter is above Orion.
Members observing at the Pavilion on the 2nd Jan 2025 taken by Honor Wheeler
The Horsehead Nebula taken by Jim Burchell using a Seestar S50 smartscope. 205 stacked images and processed using the Seestar S50 processing software. The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 or B33) is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion and is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, the eastern most star of Orion's Belt,
The Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 is a young open star cluster in Taurus) taken by Diane Clarke taken using a Seestar S50 smartscope. 85 x 30sec exposures, Jpeg stacked using Seestar S50 internal software.
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Sun & Moon – 14th Dec 2024
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
A stunning set of images of the Sun by Honor Wheeler and a beautiful one of the Moon by Jim Burchell taken on the 14th Dec 2024.
The Sun by Honor Wheeler
Honor said ''I've had about 20 mins in-between the cloud to capture the Sun in white light with my ED80 refractor and the Sun in H-alpha. In H-alpha there is a massive prominence visible which took me by surprise when I got the camera on it. Shame I can't follow the sun for longer as a neighbours tree and cloud are in the way.''
The combined image of the sun; with the H-alpha image inverted and then the white light disc added.
The Moon by Jim Burchell
A very atmospheric photo of a Waxing Gibbous Moon which was 13.58 days old and 99.76% illuminated.
Our Sun by Honor Wheeler
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Three superb images of our active Sun by Honor Wheeler taken on the 27th October 2024 and 11th August 2024 from Dartford. All 3 images consist of a Solar H-alpha image and a White light image overlaid. The 2 images on the 27th are the same; the 1st has just been processed in colour.
27th October 2024
27.10.2024 White light settings:
Canon M6II , ISO200, exp 1/2500sec
Skywatcher ED80 Refractor with Baader White light filter & 2x Barlow.
EQ3 Synscan mount.
H-alpha prominence settings:
Canon M6II & 2x Barlow, ISO200, 1sec
Coronado PST
11th August 2024
11.08.2024 White light settings:
Canon M6II, ISO200, 1/2500sec
Skywatcher ED80 Refractor with Baader White light filter & 2x Barlow.
EQ3 Synscan mount.
H-alpha prominence settings:
Canon M6II & 2x Barlow, ISO200, 1/1sec
Coronado PST