Conjunction of Mars, Moon and ISS
Image by Dianne
Image by Dianne. Mars, the Moon, & the ISS Canon 750d, Sigma 18-250mm lens, @18mm Exp 6 secs @ f/5.6, ISO-400 Static tripod
Kelling Heath Autumn Equinox Star Party
7 members of the society attended the Kelling Heath Autumn Equinox Star Party, some booking camping pitches and others static caravans. The weather was overcast with showers with long dry spells and whilst the astronomical observations were very limited between clouds it was still a great event which I’d recommend any keen observers try to book.
Meteor report for September 2020
This is the meteor report for the automated meteor camera operated by the Crayford manor house astronomical society Dartford, for the month of September 2020
This month we detected a total of 269 meteors, well over half were sporadic meteors, meteors from known showers only making a minor contribution to the total, the largest identified shower came from the September Perseids but contributed only 22 meteors to the months total
Perseid Meteor Shower Report 2020
The below video is a report for the perseid meteor shower, based on meteors captured by the semi-automated meteor camera operated by the society members.
Milkyway from my back yard competition
This is a simple competition, take an image of the Milkyway from your back garden – or close to where you live. The winning image will be the one that the webmaster is most impressed with.
Rules:
- You have to be a member of the society
- No telescopes! This is for camera and lens only!
- Must be from your location not some superb dark sky you travelled to.
- Ends November-ish
What will impress the Webmaster most?
- It’s all about effort taken and obstacles overcome.
- Local sky conditions vs image captured
Good luck!
mage by Leigh Slomer 26 light frames at 75 seconds ISO 800. 15 darks frames 20 flat frames Equipment used: Canon EOS200D Sigma 30mm f1.4 EX DC HSM lens @ f2.2 Skywatcher Star Adventurer tracking mount. Processed in Deep Sky Stacker and GIMP
Image by Leigh Sloamer I made an attempt at capturing the milky way last night. This is a 14 x 3 minute stack at iso 3200. I would have captured more but my new lens is a dew magnet. I also had to crop the image a bit due to amp glow in the lower left corner.
Image by John Archer Thought I would pop out and snap the Milky Way while the evening is still mild and the breeze has died down. Bit of a change from planet spotting….
Image by Honor Wheeler finally found this image of the Milky Way taken from my back garden on the evening of the 23rd of August 2014. I’d just got back from the cinema and the sky was amazing. As you’ll see it was a single shot with my Canon 1100D on a tripod, no tracking! Black and White as light pollution was an issue.
Image by Richard Bohner Taken with Canon 6D with wide angle lens at 24 mm at iso 1600 for 60 seconds. Jupiter & Saturn at far left with Sagittarius Teapot to left of galaxy and constellation Scorpius to right of galaxy. Taken on 15 June in Arizona, USA. (Richard lives in the USA so this is a valid entry)
Conjunction of Mercury, Venus and the Moon.
The recent conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Mercury in the evening sky has been delighting our members, below are some contributions from those who imaged it.
Image by Jim Burchell The Moon and Mercury showing Earthshine. Taken Dartford top road. Pentax K70.
Image by John Howarth Venus is at lower right on both photos, Mercury (faint, but visible) is about equidistant from Venus and the moon, practically level with the moon.
Image by John Howarth Venus is at lower right on both photos, Mercury (faint, but visible) is about equidistant from Venus and the moon, practically level with the moon. Taken from the park.
Image by Stephen Goldson ‘First time I’ve seen Mercury clearly’
Leigh Slomer’s Saturn Images
Images of Saturn are from the same 2 minute long raw format video, but stacked and processed differently. The last version had a 1.5x drizzle applied to enlarge the size.
Equipment used:
•Skywatcher heq5 pro mount
•Skywatcher skymax 150 pro maksutov cassegrain telescope
•celestron 2× Barlow
•Zwo asi290mc one shot colour uncooled CMOS camera
•Captured with ASICAP for android
•First and second version stacked in registax, the last version in autostakkert with wavelets in registax
•Final processing in GIMP
Camera settings:
•Raw16 colour space
•Gain 300
•Exposure time 82000ųs
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in RegiStax
Image by Leigh Slomer processed in AutoStakkert
Conjunction of Mercury and Venus
Image by John Howarth Image taken through glass in upstairs window. (Window will open but not in the right direction. Telephone wires are a nuisance too, just in wrong place..or perhaps Mercury’s in the wrong place!)
Image by Jim Burchell – no details provided
Image by Jim Burchell Image of Venus and Mercury taken this evening (2020,05/19) at Barn End Lane Dartford
Meteor Captured
A Meteor captured by Jim Burchell
Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn
Image taken by Jim Burchell, in the early hours of 2020/05/12 capturing a conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and the moon .possible Mars far left of the image..
NGC4564 – The Needle Galaxy
Images by Neil Webster
More images ruined by Elon Musk’s Starlink…
Image by Kevin Langford This is one 3min sub of NGC4565 Needle Galaxy taken on the 19th April 2020 at 21:35. Photo-Boomed by Elon Musk’s Skylink satellites.
Conjunction of Venus and the Pleiades
Image by Honor Wheeler of the Moon and Pleiades imaged on the 3rd of April 2020 @ 20:08UT taken with her Canon 700D and a 300mm lens – ISO1600, f6.3, exp 2sec.
Imaged by Honor Wheeler on the 3rd of April 2020 @ 20:08UT taken with her Canon 700D and a 300mm lens – ISO1600, f6.3, exp 2sec.
Venus & Pleiades Canon 750D, Sigma F2/135mm Lens, CLS filter. Skywatcher Adventurer Tracking mount. 1hr of exposures. Bexley, Kent. © Kevin Langford
Image of the Moon, Venus and the ISS
Image taken by Janice McClean of the Moon, Venus and the ISS
ISS transit of the Sun
Honor recently took this video of a transit of the Sun by the ISS, something she has been attempting for 10 years.
Exo-Planet HAT-P-30b
HAT-P-30b is a transiting hot Jupiter around a 1.25 solar mass star in the constellation of Hydra near the boarder of cancer.
Martin Crow and Simon Dawes observed this exo-planet transiting its parent start part of the exoclock project, to refine transit predictions for the Aerial space craft wich will be observing exoplanet transits to learn more about these enigmatic planets.
EXO-Planet TrES-3b
Martin Crow observed this Exo Planet
Observation by Martin Crow for the EXC-Clock project
ISS and Starlink captured in meteor cam.
Member, Gary, identified the ISS and Starlink satellites in our automated meteor cam videos.
Member Observing – not so isolated
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.
Image by John Archer – 20s no other details provided
Image by Simon Dawes It’s been 11 years, 1 month and 5 days since I last imaged Venus, now I remember why…
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
Image by John Archer of the ISS – no details provided
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…
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.
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.
Free Open University Courses in Astronomy
Here are some Free high quality courses in Astronomy from the Open University
Astronomy with an online telescope
Icy Bodies: Europa and elsewhere
An Introduction to Exo Planets
Seeing the light (This one is a little different it’s about how the Sun affects design)
A brief introduction to Astronomy
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.
looking at the spectrum
Objects viewed in different wavelengths
Martin introducing the course
Society Night 2020/03/12
Members section:
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
Variable star update – By Martin Crow
Thanks to all those who contributed
Informal Evening 2020-02-27
Another clear Thursday and an observing evening, below are a couple of images from the session.
Image by Jim of the Moon and Venus
Image by Leigh of the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Taken at Sutton-at-Hone
The Moon Rochester
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.
Informal Evening / Open Evening 2020/02/06
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).
Image by Leigh Slomer Stack of 27 images at ISO 800 for 30 seconds, 400mm FL Refractor
The Moon & Venus in an Evening Sky 2020-01-29
Image by Jim Burchel – No details provided
AstroImageJ Demonstration
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
Martin Demonstrating AstroImageJ
Final image.
Comet C/2017 T2 20191201 21:49 Simon Dawes
Christmas Imaging Session
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.
Image by CMHASD Members. 16″ LX200, total of 360s unfiltered.
Cycle 25 Sun Spots
Christmas Quiz Night
Merry Christmas!
The legendary Quiz Night.
Our Quiz Masters
Meteor Report for November 2019
This is the meteor report for November 2019, by the Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford.
This month we were plagued with poor weather and this is reflected in the low number of meteors captured.
In total we observed 139 meteors from 29 different showers, none of these showers was particularly active, the most active being the Leonid’s where we captured 19 meteors compared to 55 sporadic meteors in the Month.
All Sky Cam Project
At a recent society night Keith described how he has built an all-sky camera, mainly from parts he had laying around, the camera is capable of producing a live view of the sky, time laps video summary of the night, can upload the images to a website for public viewing and can be used as an ASCOM compliant sky sensor.
This short article provides some notes to help others wishing to do the same.
Parts needed:
- PC/Laptop (windows)
- A CCD/CMOS Astronomy camera (with ASCOM drivers)
- Fish eye lens (Keith use a 2.1mm CCTV Cmount lens)
- Long USB cable
- Rechargeable dehumidifier
- Water proof electrical junction box
- 3.5″ Acrylic dome (from dewcontrol.com)
- Plumbers Mate putty (to seal the dome to the junction box)
- AllSkEye software
- Tektite Skies software (ASCOM cloud sensor software based on all sky camera)
- 1 Ohm resistors (to make dew heater – although dewcontrol.com make them if you don’t want to make your own)
- Rain-X Plastic – to reduce raindrops and dew on the dome.
- USB female panel mount connector
- 12v power supply – for the dew heater
Key Features provided by AllSkEye
- Can run 24/7 automonously
- Acquire images during pre-set or calculated (e.g. night) times
- Place latest image on the Internet (FTP)
- Can automatically creates video files of saved images
- Add overlay on images (e.g. timestamp, compass, text)
- Can save files in FITS format
- Detects meteor trails
Key Features provided by Tektite Skies
- Able to detect stars and clouds
- Can send an email or sound an alert when sky is clear
- Start and stop times
- Optional free ASCOM interface
All sky camera built by Keith Rickard
More information can be found in Keith’s Original Presentation.
Have you made one? Have other ideas on how to make an all sky camera? Leave a comment below
AM or PM for meteor observations?
It is well known that you see fewer meteors before midnight than after. This is explained by the fact that before local midnight Meteors hitting the Earth’s atmosphere must be travelling in the same direction as the Earth, so the relative speed of the meteor to the Earth is smaller, whereas after midnight the Earth is passing through Meteors on the Earth’s leading edge, so the relative speed of the meteors are faster, and since the speed the meteor hits our atmosphere affects its brightness we should see more after midnight than before.
My own experience sifting through the meteor candidates from our camera and observing over long periods, suggest this bias should be easy to detect, so now that we have over 15 months of data, I thought I’d see if this bias in observations was real.
The UFO analysis software categorises the meteors into named showers, if a shower can’t be identified it is classed as a sporadic meteor. I have only used the sporadic meteors in the analysis to minimise any bias due to known meteor showers.
My (very simple) analysis suggests on average you are 2.7 times more likely to see a meteor after midnight than before, a much larger factor than I’d expected.
Plot showing the number of sporadic meteors per hour over a 15 month period as captured by the Meteor team using the Societies meteor camera. Overall you are 2.69 times more likely to see a meteor after midnight than before.
Does this reflect your experience? Comment below.
Transit of Mercury, 11th November 2019
Despite the poor weather our members were out in force observing the transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun, something that has to be done carefully to be safe.
White light photo by Mike Rushton taken 14:50 on 11/11/19. C8 with f/6.3 focal reducer on HEQ5 Pro. Full aperture glass solar filter Canon 60D at prime focus ISO 1600, Exp 1/400 sec.
Image by Janice McClean
Image by Martin Crow 2019-11-11 14:53UT Ha Image
Image by Honor Wheeler in White Light
Image of the Transit of Mercury 11/11/2019 by Richard Bohner
Star gazing at Hall Place
It was horizon – horizon cloud last Wednesday for the sold out star gazing event at Hall Place, however we were prepared for this and along with comet making, we held sessions on drawing objects in the night sky and a variety of talks about astronomy. We had brilliant support from our members – thanks to all – who bought a variety of telescopes, cameras, meteorites and other displays, overall the visitors went away happy despite not being able to view the heavens.
Meteor Report for October 2019
Observation of Exo-Planet KELT 16b
KELT-16b is an exo-planet in Cygnus, member Martin Crow measured the brightness of the parent star (KELT48) in order to capture the small drop in brightness when the planet transits the face of the star, this is a very subtle observation that requires a lot of attention to detail in order to capture such a small change in brightness.
Observation of Exo-Planet WASP-48b
Exo-Planet WASP 48b is a planet discovered around star WASB 48 in the constellation of Cygnus. Member, Martin Crow measured the brightness of WASP 48, using the same techniques used for variable star observations – although the changed in brightness are very small, in order to detect the drop in brightness of the star as the exo-planet transits across the face of the star.
Observation of Exo-Planet HD 189733b
HD 189733 b is an extrasolar planet, in the constellation of Vulpecula. According to Wikipedia it is 64.5 light years away. Member, Martin Crow, used the same techniques used for observing variable stars to detect the drop in light from the parent star as the planet crossed in front of it. If you have data you want to share please contact the webmaster.
Meteor Report for September 2019
Lots of meteors in September including some very bright ones, so worth checking out the video!
“Fun Palace” event at Bexleyheath Library
The Moon Saturn and Jupiter
Image by Steve Goldson.
Meteor Report for August 2019
A huge number of meteors were detected in August 2019. August continues to be a bumper month for Meteors, dominated by the Perseid’s, but there are many other minor showers contributing to the number detected.
We also had our brightest meteor yet, a magnitude -5.5 sporadic meteor.
If you look at the surface plot (bottom Right) it looks like there were three independent peaks in August.
Solar Observing at Hall Place Summer 2019
A big thanks to everyone who supported both of the recent Hall Place Solar Observing events which were an exciting mixture of hide and seek as far as the sun was concerned, but both in their own way very successful.
We had sideways rain at 1100 yesterday (18th August 2019), so we set displays up indoors for about half an hour, after which we relocated outside and never looked back.
Even the sun cream got an airing!
It was very encouraging to meet a couple of extremely bright 8 year olds asking / answering some great questions – future members I’m sure.
These things don’t happen by accident so for anyone who supported the two events with equipment, transport, setting up or engaging with the public, a huge thank you.
We will be back in the Winter for the pre- and post- Christmas Stargazing events and should consider any suggestions / fresh ideas to make these as engaging and informative as possible.
Once again, your support is greatly appreciated.
John (Chair)
Meteor Report for July 2019
As the nights start to draw in we have started to see an uplift in the number of Meteors detected. Interestingly the Perseid’s – a well known broadly dispersed shower (peaks on 13th August) were the highest proportion of meteors from known showers.
Mammatus clouds at the Pavillion
Some images from Jim showing some unusual cloud formations at the pavilion.
Meteor report for June 2019
A total of 11 Sporadic were identified, out of a total of 21 meteors analysed. The brightest being of magnitude -2.5
Solar Eclipse Argentina 2019
Some members travelled to Argentina to view the 2019 Solar Eclipse, images below are from Janice McClean
Meteor Detector Report for May 2019
The short nights and poor weather have conspired to reduce the number of meteors we have been able to detect, but we still managed to detect 44 meteors, 30 of them sporadic.
Observing the Moon with our new Dobs, ‘Olivia’ and ‘Isaacs’
Thursday 6th June was clear so we took the opportunity to view the Moon using our new Dob’s affectionately named ‘Olivia’ and ‘Isaac’.
Building Dobsonian Mounts
Members Steve and Dave with some technical support from Keith have built another two Dobsonian telescopes for the society using donated Newtonian tubes, one is a 200mm F5 Skywatcher the other a 300mm F5.3 Orion Optics.
The design is the same as the previous Dobsonian mount they presented to the society last year, which is affectionately known as Anita.
The Telescopes are equipped with a ‘push-to’ system we call ‘Dob Buddy’ which was originally presented to the society by fellow member Simon. The Dob buddy allows members using an Android or Apple mobile device, equipped with Sky Safari Pro to locate difficult to find objects in the night sky with ease.
The Plans
The Dob buddy system uses an Arduino with low resolution encoders couples to the mount with timing belts, this system results in a very high resolution encoder system for a fraction of the costs (the encoders are £8!), all the heavy lifting in terms of tracking the telescopes position is managed by the Sky Safari Pro software. The limitations of the Apple IOS operating system not being able to send data over Bluetooth are circumvented by providing Wi-fi access to Dob Buddy.
Two mounts were constructed from Birch faced ply. It was decided that Anita (our first Dobsonian) was a bit heavy, so the new Dob’s were put on a diet, by cutting holes in the ply.
Parts ready for assembly.
Our Dobs are named after gifted musicians, because we used their vinyl LPs as a bearing for the azimuth mount.
The design of the mounts for the altitude bearings was changed (compared to ‘Anita’) to again reduce weight and reuse as much as possible of the old ‘scopes.
Our Dobs are named after gifted musicians, because we used their vinyl LPs as a bearing for the azimuth mount.
Isaac and Olivia complete.
Isaac and Olivia complete.
First Light with a new CCD on RS Boo
A phase curve from Martin Crow’s first four sets of test observations using the pulsating star RS Boo as a target. Period 0.37733days. Acquired with 235mm SCT @ f6.3 and SX694 camera and sxcon software . Processed with AIJ and VSS spreadsheet.
Meteor Report for 2019-04
Only 54 Meteors captured this month, mainly sporadic meteors with a few obscure showers.
Double Star Measurements with a Meade 12mm Astrometric Eyepiece in 2018
Neil Webster, St Marys Platt, Kent
e-mail: ******@gmail.com
Introduction
The following measurements were made throughout 2018 using a Meade 12mm astrometric illuminated reticle eyepiece plus 2.5x powermate attached to an Altair Astro 115mm refractor (focal length 805mm, f7). The total magnification was 167.5x with a field of view of 0.3 degrees.
Fewer measurements were made this year due to relocation which finally happened at the end of February. Serious observing, measuring and imaging did not begin until the middle of April. Although St Marys Platt is a much darker site than Bromley measurements are still limited to 8.5 magnitude due to the red light in the eyepiece. However, a Southerly aspect is now available so many of the measurements are of systems previously unavailable.
Lecture by Dr Matt Smith
A big thank you to Dr Matt Smith for coming all the way from Cardiff to speak to us. Matt spoke to the Society about Galaxies, the Interstellar Medium and Black holes, including the most recent image of a black hole, during the talk Matt demonstrated how they can all be observed in both the optical and infrared wavelengths of light as these photos show.
Observing Evening 2019-04-18
Thursday, 2019-04-18 was an informal observing evening and whilst not ideal with an almost full Moon, we had lots of telescopes out and other members learning how to use the Peter Hindle Telescope.
The Pleiades, Mars and the California Nebula
In April 2019 Mars was close to M45 (the Pleiades) and NGC 1499 and this coincided with the Kelling Heath Star Party. Unfortunately at this time of year Taurus is very low, setting in the late evening making this a difficult object to image, my attempts to stack and then process with Deep Sky Stacker were hopeless, so I turned to Astro Pixel Processor (using a 30 day free trial) which has a very easy to use light pollution killer, this allowed me to remove the gradient that resulted from the very low elevation and trees that crept into the field.
Total exposure is 84 minutes, from 30s subs. Tracking was achieved with an iOptron Star tracker, camera was a Canon 600D with a full spectrum mod and a CLSCCD clip-in filter.
Occultation of the Beehive by the Moon
Kelling Heath Star Party Spring 2019
4 Members and 2 ex-Members travelled to the Kelling Heath Star Party, this star party has notoriously poor weather, but on this occasion we were blessed with reasonable views on Wednesday night and clear skies from dusk ’till dawn on Thursday Night, Friday Morning.
Many, many objects were observed with Keith’s 10″ Dobsonian and Simon’s 12″ Truss Dobsonian, Julian and another Simon both allowed us to view objects with their 20″ Dob’s.
Apparently the food was epic…
Auriga
no images were found
Camp Site
Mist on Sunday
BAA Winchester Weekend 2019
13 Members made the annual pilgrimage to Sparsholt College for the BAA Winchester Weekend.
Meteor Report for March 2019
Meteor Camera Results for February 2019
100 meteors were detected by the meteor group in February 2019, 70 of these were sporadic and the remainder from minor showers.
Observing Evening 2019-02-21
We had a clear night on Thursday 21st February 2019, and before the Moon rose a few members had a go at the Orion Star Count, showing the diversity of eyesight and experience in our group.
The moon rose above the trees as a golden gibbous Moon and some of our group took to observing it with one of the Societies telescopes, affectionately known as Anita.
On the right is an image from Honor Wheeler taken through Anita, a Fuller Scopes 8″ F8 recently converted to a Dobsonian by a couple of our members.
Other members were experimenting with the new CCD camera purchased by the society for the Peter Hindle telescope, a 16″ LX200, using the F3.3 focal reducer we got a wide field view of the Orion nebula (M42) and M1 the Crab nebula.
Another member, Leigh Slomer, was experimenting with his Skywatcher Star Adventurer, DSLR and a 70-200mm zoom to capture images of M42.
Meteor Repoprt for January 2019
A cloudy January resulted in a small number of meteors detected, 97 in total, most sporadic, but we did detect 20 Quadrantid’s and identified meteors from 17 different showers.
If you want to join in and help with the observations please contact Janice.
The Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky
We were treated with some lovely clear skies in the mornings of January 2019 and members were able to capture a few images of the conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter.
Images by Kevin Langford
Images by Leigh Slomer
Images by Jim Burchell
Images by John Howarth
Total Lunar Eclipse 21st January 2019
The Dick Chambers Observatory was open for observing the ‘blood moon’ on the evening/morning of the 20th-21st January and for a change the weather was good. Other members observered from their homes and below are a few images by members.
Images by Jim Burchell
Images by Martin Crow
January 21st 2019 Total Lunar Eclipse, this image was featured on BBC TV Breakfast news.
Images by Leigh Slomer
Images by Honor Wheeler
Images by Kevin Langford
Images by Mike Rushton
Images by Janice McClean
Meteors Detected in December 2018
Our automated meteor camera and meteor team, detected 239 meteors in December, despite the cloudy weather, 60 of these were identified as part of the Geminid meteor shower. The brightest meteor detected was a magnitude of -1.8. During December we identified meteors from 22 different showers, but the geminids was by far the strongest.
Below is a video of the meteors detected by the meteor camera operated by the society, in December 2018, the meteors are ordered by brightness based on analysis by UFO analyser.
46P Wirtanen
Comet 46P Wirtanen was billed to be brighter than ever this apparition and when at its brightest it would be passing within 1 degree of M45, however the UK weather conspired against us, some members got images from outside the UK and others from before it reached its brightest, but our visit to Ashdown forest was cancelled due to 100% cloud cover and rain.
On Thursday 13th December 2018 many members observed the comet at the Dick Chambers Observatory, through binoculars (a very faint fuzzy blob only visible with averted vision) and through the 16″ Peter Hindle telescope.
Comet Wirtanen, 46P taken 16 Dec. 2018 @ 0030 hrs., in Cottowood, Arizona, USA by Richard Bohner
Canon 6D, 200mm f2.8 lens, ISO 800
75 second exposure time.
Image by Richard Bohner
Here is my latest image of Comet 46P. Taken Thursday night.
Canon 6D, 200mm lens f2.8, ISO 800 60 second exposure.
It was a little windy Thursday night with gusts of 25mph and moon
Image by Richard Bohner, tahen on 8th December 2018 in Cottonwood, Arizona
Comet 46P Wirtanen on 8 Dec with Canon 6D with 200mm f2.8 lens, 60 second exposure.
Image by Honor Wheeler
I’ve been getting some practice with deep sky stacker, not as scary as I thought here is my first attempt using it to stack some images of the comet.
Image by Honor Wheeler
I’ve been lucky to have imaged the comet twice myself, once on Friday 7th & again on Sunday. The seeing has been pretty poor but it was just visible in 10×50 binoculars and looked pretty good in my 72mm refractor and 40mm eyepiece.
Image by Kevin Langford
Taken on 11-12-2018 using a Canon 750D with a 75 to 300 zoom lens on a Sky Adventurer tracking mount.
Astronomy Outreach with Sutton-at-Hone School
We welcomed the Children of Sutton-at-Hone Primary school to the Dick Chambers Observatory on the 12th December 2018. They had a chance to look through the Peter Hindle telescope and from the photos it looks like they had a great time, whilst learning a bit about the science of Astronomy.
Parental permission given for all images used.
Meteors Detected in November 2018
The society observed 210 Meteors linked to 32 different showers in November using the semi-automated meteor camera
Annual General Meeting 2018
1st November 2018
Chair: John Archer
Attendees: Mike Rushton (MR), Keith Rickard (KR), Martin Crow (MC), Rita Whiting (RW), John Archer (JA), John Howarth (JH), Andy Barber (AB)
Apologies: Simon Dawes (SD)
Minutes: 2017 minutes read by JA and Signed by JA
Matters Arising: None
Chairman’s report:
JA’s first year as Society Chairman.
Summary of report & highlights provided to members as a PPT
Report (in Word) not reproduced here, but will be circulated to Committee for review / amendment then provided via website to members and forwarded to the PC.
Thanks extended to Trustees, Committee Members, Project contributors and members for supporting the Society at events, meetings and project work throughout the year.
Membership was at 66 members in total
Results of member survey were presented in part, then deferred to a later date due to Internet connectivity issue mid-way through.
Treasurers Report:
Keith presented the Treasurer’s Report covering the period to 31/8/2018
Accounts were awaiting examination– funds healthy, with contingency in place.
Gift Aid had allowed another £1k (approx.) to be recovered from membership dues.
Election of Trustees as per Constitution:
Retiring Trustees this year, Mike Rushton and John Archer, put themselves up for re-election.
Vote by show of hands: Mike and John re-elected.
AGM closed at 20:33UT
Meteor Observations 2018 October
October saw us identifying 308 meteors from 32 different showers, the October Draconids and the Orionids being the most interesting.
The brightest meteor was -3.7 vMag
October Draconids Report
21 October Draconids were identified in the charts below you can see they are a very narrow peak, suggesting a narrow stream of dust the Earth is passing through. The average magnitude was 1.
Ground map of the Draconids showing the meteors that were triangulated with the Nemetode group, our observations are the ones detected by the ‘Dartford’ Observatory
Orionid Report
We identified 53 Orionids, peaking on the 21st October and an average magnitude of 1
Below is a 15 minute video of all 308 meteors verified in October.
Ground map of the Orionids showing the meteors that were triangulated with the Nemetode group, our observations are the ones detected by the ‘Dartford’ Observatory.
Back to Basics Workshop
We hosted The 2018 British Astronomical Association Back to Basics workshop on 6th October.
These workshops are great for beginners just starting out in astronomy and wanting to learn how to use their telescopes or get started in Astronomy and over 50 people turned up – well done and thank you to all the Crayford Members who helped out.
The 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower
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.
Summary of the report sent to the Nematode meteor group.
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]](https://crayfordmanorastro.com/wp-content/gallery/meteor/Perseid-orbits-20183450.png)
2019 Calendar
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.
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.]
Astronomy Fun Day at the Priory Centre Dartford
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.
Solar Observing at Hall Place – August 2018
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.
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.
2018 Summer BBQ
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.
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
Obituary as it appeared in the BAA Journal
The Dick Chambers Observatory
The Dick Chambers Observatory
For details of our observatory, named after past chairman, Dick Chambers, please see the page dedicated to it.
Solar Eclipse 2012 November 13, Australia
Members Mike, Rita, Jean and Brian travelled to Northern Australia to see this eclipse.
Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC
Images by Mike Rushton
All images are copyright. Permission must be sought to from the image owner to the use of any of these images.
Dismantling the 24 inch Telescope built by John Wall
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.
BAA Summer Meeting 2012
This meeting was hosted by Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society, the weather wasn’t great but we did manage to get the Solar scopes out for a short while. The lectures were great.
Europe goes to Jupiter
Dr Chris Arridge
All about project JUICE an ESA mission to Jupiter
Rosetta
Dr Dan Andrews
All about missions to comets with some insight into the Beagle 2 mission
Application of penetrators for the Exploration of planets & the Moon
Dr Rob Gowen
Title says it all really
Differentiating between dead comets and Asteroids
Prof. Iwan Williams
All about categorisation of asteroids and coments and how/ if they can/should be classified differently
Working on Mars
Dr Craig Leff
All about how to manage robotic missions on Mars.
The Dartford festival 2012
BAA Exhibition Meeting 2010
Location: Greenwich, London, UK.
This meeting included a (Free) trip to the Planetarium organised by the SPA, and then the BAA exhibition meeting down the hill. At the meeting our founder, Gordon Taylor received an Award from the BAA.
Solar Eclipse 2009 July 22, China
There were no obvious prominences for this eclipse and cloud almost spoiled it, however we were lucky and the cloud cleared or thinned out for the duration of totality, Venus was clearly visible overhead.
Eclipse observed by half a dozen members.
Images by Mike Rushton
Images by Jean Felles
Solar Eclipse 2008 August 1st, China
This eclipse was special for its colours around the horizon. There were wonderful oranges and reds all around, the clouds lit up, some dark in silhouette, some golden, glowing yellowy-orange in the distance. You could see the shadow approaching against the clouds and then rushing away as it left. A great and wonderful experience that we will all never forget.
During the eclipse it was possible to see a prominence at about 2 o’clock and the planets Venus and Mercury were easily visible.
The desert venue for this eclipse was a little windy, buffeting equipment and making imaging and video at high magnifications a little difficult.
Totality video by Member Andy Barber. Also featuring Maddy and Martin Crow and family. Venus and Mercury are also visible.
The video above shows the site used to observe the Solar Eclipse. Video by Andy Barber.
Images by Mike Rushton
Images by Martin Crow
Images by Andy Barber
Solar Eclipse 2006 Turkey & Libya
Two teams of Crayford members went to image the March 2006 total eclipse:
Libya:
Arthur Cockburn, Jean & Brian Felles, Mike Rushton and Rita Whiting
Turkey:
Andrew Barber, Martin Crow, Malcolm Gough, Keith Rickard and Julian Tworek
Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC
Images by Arthur Cockburn
Images by Jean Felles
Images by Brian Felles
Images by Mike Rushton
Images by Martin Crow
Images By Julian Tworek
Solar Eclipse, 2005, October 3rd, Spain
Keith Rickard travelled to Plaza Mayor in Madrid to observe the Annular Eclipse. This location was very close to the centre line of the eclipse path.
In the UK there was a partial eclipse and Honor Wheeler and Julian Tworek imaged it, Honor in white light and Julian in Hydrogen Alpha light.
Images by Keith Rickard
Below are some of the images Keith Rickard took with his Olympus OM1 SLR camera with a 420mm lens with a converted eclipse spectacles lens for a filter. Kodak Elite chrome 200 film was used. In the images below you can see Baily’s Beads and multiple shadows of the partial eclipse phase.
Images By Julian Tworek
The following images were taken by CMHAS member Julian Tworek from his observatory in Sidcup, Kent. They are of the annular eclipse but are seen as partial from the UK.
The images were taken using a Coronado PST (H-Alpha) telescope mounted on a Meade LXD55 mount, taken afocally with a Canon A510 compact camera. Plenty of prominences are visible if you click on the images.
Images by Honor Wheeler
The following images were taken by CMHAS member Honor Wheeler from her home in Wilmington near Dartford, Kent. They are of the annular eclipse but are seen as partial eclipse from the UK.
The images were taken using a Meade ETX 105 telescope, taken afocally with a Fuji E550 digital camera (set to auto), through a 26mm eyepiece with BAADER Astrosolar safety film and yellow filter.
Solar Eclipse 2003 Antarctica 24th November
A total solar eclipse is an unforgettable experience anywhere in the world but to stand beneath the Moon’s shadow in Antarctica must surely be the most memorable.
I was fortunate to be one of the 98 passengers on board the Russian icebreaker ‘Kapitan Khlebnikov’ which made its way through the field ice to the Davis Sea where we were one of the first people to experience a total solar eclipse in Antarctica.
An ‘inconsiderate cloud’ covered much of totality giving us only a glimpse of the corona and a brief flash of the diamond ring but it meant that I could concentrate on the moon’s shadow as it rushed like a huge storm cloud across the ice and stranded icebergs, and marvel at the pink and gold colours on the horizon.
For us on local ‘ship time’ totality occurred at 6:36am on 24 November 2003, ship time being UT +8hrs. Our position was 65º 55’S and 89º 16’E.
Valarie Stoneham
Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC
Images by Valarie Stoneham
On our journey to the eclipse site we stopped briefly at the Kuerguelen Islands. Only one of these islands is large enough to attempt a landing and it was here that 3 expeditions, despatched from Britain, Germany and the United States, established stations to observe the transit of Venus in 1874.
Two members of the expedition team on the Kapitan Khlebnikov, using informaition from modern maps and Airy’s report compliled in 1881, discovered the site of the US station near the location at Point Malloy. All that remained was a short brick pillar which had lost a few bricks from the top (this may once have borne an inscription) and two iron telescope foundations but they were able to measure the position accurately using a Global Positioning System.
Solar Eclipse, 2003 May 31st, Iceland
The eclipse site was a few miles north of Dalvik on the west coast of Eyjafjordur in the North of Iceland. All pictures were taken by Brian Felles.
Maximum Duration 3m 37s
Type Annular
Solar Eclipse 2002 December 4th , Australia
Member Jean Felles travelled with her husband, Brian to Australia to view this Eclipse.
The eclipse site was situated at KOOLYMILKA, North West of Woomera, South Australia.
Position: 30º 57.443’S and 136º 31.464’E.
Local time = UT +10½ hours
Photos taken with 500mm mirror lens plus 1.4x converter = 700mm at approximately F12 on 400 ASA Fujichrome film.
Discovery of Asteroid 1997 WQ28 by Crayford Member
On the evening of 30th November 1997 we were obtaining CCD frames for the UKNova/ Supernova patrol using a 10″LX200, operating at f3.3 and StarlightXpress. At 21.30UT we imaged a suspect object near ngc765, a type SBb/Sc, 14th mag spiral galaxy in Aries. Estimating the magnitude at brighter than 16 we initially thought we might have discovered a second supernova as this was rather bright for a new asteroid and no known asteroid was in the region of the galaxy. We used the Sky v4 to control the LX200 and always load the 34000 minor planets before we start patrolling so are forewarned of any asteroid in the field. We also checked Megastar and the new service to check supernova suspects for minor planets at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams Web site:
A second image 25 minutes later clearly showed movement, ruling out a supernova. Ignoring our chagrin we took a final image at 22.28UT, measured the positions using astrometrica, a commercial astrometry software package and sent a report to Martin Mobberley, deputising for Guy Hurst who was away on business.
Asteroid 1997 WQ28 discovery image by Mark Armstrong
Asteroid 1997 WQ28 Follow-up image by Stephen Laurie
The skies remained cloudy until on 3rd December we imaged six overlapping fields twice, approximately one hour apart to try and recover the suspect. At this stage we had to estimate where we thought the suspect should be as we don’t have the software to calculate a rough ephemeris from initial observations. We picked up only one object showing movement and not appearing in the `Real Sky` field but were doubtful that it was the suspect as it appeared at least 0.5 magnitude fainter and CCD images taken near the ecliptic can often reveal faint asteroids. However we measured the new positions and reported to Guy Hurst.
Meanwhile on 2/3 December Stephen Laurie, having seen our original report but unable to respond immediately due to business, imaged an object in the approximate position. Using Computer-Aided Astrometry, another commercial software package, he imputed all the measured positions to date and concluded that they were all the same object!
Guy reported the observations to the Minor Planet Centre on 6th December and the asteroid received the official designation 1997 WQ28. We have now secured 28 observations over a 55 day arc and the object has still not been linked to a previously designated object. Our previous `discovery` 1997 DV was linked to 1990 QN5, discovered at Palomar!
Article originally by Mark Armstrong