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

The Sun by Jim Burchell on the 4th October 2024

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

 

A super image of our Sun taken by member Jim Burchell on the morning of the 4th October 2024.  As you can see the Sun was very active with many sunspots including sunspot AR3842. The 2nd photo has the sunspots labelled.

Jim wrote ''The images show Sunspot AR3842 which released two X-class solar flares (X7.1 and X9.1) and a series of M-class flares.'' 

This means Sunspot AR3842 has produced the strongest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25 so far. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the X9.1-category blast.

Jim acquired his image using a Pentax KP body attached to a 102 mm F11 refactor; 1/320 sec; iso 100 and a Baader Astrosolar Safety film was used.

The Sun & Moon – 25th August 2024

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

Jim Burchell, Simon Dawes & Dr Mike Rushton imaged the Sun in white light on the 25th August 2024 and below are their splendid results.  As you can see the Sun was very active.

Mike used his Dwarf II smart scope to acquire his image below.

 

Jim used a Pentax KP body attached to 102mm Altair Astro F11 refractor fitted with a Solar filter.  The mage of the Sun is a single shot and then processed in Snapseed. 

Below is an image of the Sun taken from Spaceweather.com on the same day with the sunspots numbered.

 

Simon's images are of the Sunspots and as you will see some of the sunspots are rather stunning.  Details of how Simon acquired his images are on the photos.

 

Later that day Jim captured this super image of a Waning Gibbous Moon.  The moon was 20.65 days old and 62.92% illuminated.  Details of how Jim acquired his image are on the photo. This is a single shot image and then processed in Snapseed.

Our Sun by Jim Burchell – 23rd August 2024

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

A fantastic white light image of the Sun taken by member Jim Burchell on the 23rd August 2024 from Dartford.  As you can see the Sun was very active with lots of huge sunspots.  Jim took the single shot image using a white light Baader planetarium Astro Solar Filter and a Pentax KP body attached to 102mm F11 Altair Astro refractor at 1/320 sec and iso 100.  Then processed in Snapseed.

 

Below is a spaceweather.com photo of the Sun with the sunspots given their number taken on the same day.

Congratulations to Simon Dawes

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

The Society would like to congratulate Simon Dawes for having his sunspot image (see below) published in the British Astronomical Association journal - August 2024 edition.  Well done Simon; it is a superb image.  Details of how Simon acquired his image is on the photo.

A mosaic of the groups AR3638, AR3643, and AR3645–3647, imaged in white light on 2024 April 18 at
07:31 UT, in Bexleyheath.

The Sun – 12th August 2024 by Dr Mike Rushton

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

A lovely white light image of the Sun taken on the 12th August 2024 by member & trustee Dr Mike Rushton; using his Dwarf II smart scope. The image is stacked and is made up of 25 x 1/200 sec exposures at gain 0.

The large sunspot top left is AR3784 and the large sunspot to the bottom right is AR3780.

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