Astronomy every Thursday
Light cloud passing over the Moon; producing some rather spectacular Lunar Corona were caught on camera by Honor Wheeler on the 15th Dec 2024. One of Honor's images also made it to the front page on spaceweather.com😁 It was the last Full Moon of 2024 too and known as the 'Cold Moon'.
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.
A fantastic mosaic image of the Moon taken by member Neil Webster on the 6th Jan 2025. The Moon was 6.85 days old and 47.8% illuminated.
Below are the individual frames from the mosaic.
Neil acquired the images using an AA 115mm apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 290MM, and a Astronomik R/IR filter.
Processed using Firecapture, AutoStakkert, PS, and Microsoft ICE.
8 frames (each 90 x 33fps). 20% selected by AS.
Check out Neil's flickr page at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/
This is a lovely image of the largest and brightest Full Moon of 2024 that lit up the skies of Earth on the 17th Oct, taken by member Honor Wheeler from Dartford whilst waiting for the comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas to made an appearance. This Full Moon is also known as the Hunter's Supermoon. October's full Moon is called the Hunter's Moon because it occurs when hunters would traditionally have been most active.
''People in the Northern Hemisphere spent October preparing for the coming winter by hunting, slaughtering, and preserving meats, giving this Full Moon its Anglo-Saxon name Hunter’s Moon. The name was added to the Farmer’s Almanac in North America and is used widely today.
Native Americans named this Full Moon after things that happen in the fall, including Drying Rice Moon, Falling Leaves Moon, and Freezing Moon. The Celts used Seed Fall Moon in the same way.
The names Pagan Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon have also been used for this Full Moon. However, these names should not be confused with a Blood Moon—another name for a total lunar eclipse.'' Ref:https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/hunters.html
October's Full Moon was also a Supermoon too.
''Supermoons happen because the moon's orbit isn't a perfect circle around Earth but is instead an oval, or ellipse. That means that sometimes our lunar companion is closer to Earth, reaching its closest point to us in what is known as perigee. Other times, it is further away, during what is known as its apogee. When the Moon is close to perigee during a Full Moon, that's a Supermoon. On Thursday 17th Oct, as the Full Moon rose, the Moon arrived at its closest point to Earth, sitting at just 221,938 miles (357,174 km) away. There have been two Supermoons in 2024 thus far, in August and September, and there will be another in November, but October's Hunter's Supermoon will be the biggest and brightest of 2024. That's because this is the closest occurrence of a perigee to a Full Moon.'' Ref:https://www.space.com/hunters-moon-supermoon-2024-photos
A stunning image of a waning gibbous Moon by Neil Webster taken at 6.45am on the 24th Oct 2024. The Moon was 51.0% illuminated and 21.46 days old.
Neil acquired the image by using a AA115 Apo, EQ6 R, ZWO ASI 290MM, and Astronomik R/IR Filter.
Check out Neil's flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05/54090033889/in/photostream/ to see a higher resolution photo of this image.
A superb selection of images taken by members Jim Burchell and Honor Wheeler on the 17th September 2024 of the Super Harvest Moon.
Why is this Full Moon called a Super Harvest Moon?
''Supermoons occur at perigee: the point in the Moon’s orbit where it’s closest to Earth. A perigee full Moon appears a little brighter and larger than an average full Moon, and is known by some as a ‘supermoon’. The technical name for a 'supermoon' is a perigee syzygy Moon.'' Ref:https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/supermoon-what-when-next
Plus Full Moon names reflect the time of year they happen and the Harvest Moon graces the skies in the harvest season in the Northern Hemisphere. The Harvest Moon is also the Full Moon nearest the autumn equinox, which happens around September 22, depending on the year and time zone.
Fly me to the Moon by Honor Wheeler
Image taken using a Canon M6II camera, 400mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/800s.
Moon with Saturn (Composite image) by Honor Wheeler
Images taken using a Canon M6II camera, 177mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/3s.
Super Harvest Moon by Honor Wheeler
Image taken using Canon M6II camera, 400mm lens, ISO800, F7.1 and EXP1/8s.
Super Harvest Moon taken by Jim Burchell
This image was taken using a Pentax KP body attached to a 102 mm refactor, F11, 1/80 sec and iso 100.
Moon & Cloud by Jim Burchell
This is a cropped image. taken using a Pentax KP, F11, 1/125 sec, 300 mm and ISO 100
For more information check out https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/supermoon-what-when-next and https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/harvest.html
The next Supermoon is on Thursday 17th October.
A lovely photo of the crescent Moon and Venus captured by member Richard Bohner from the USA. The single shot photo was taken on 4th September 2024 with a Canon 6D camera and 135mm lens f2.8. ISO 1600 @ 1/30 second exposure from Cottonwood, Arizona, USA.
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.
Latest super image by Simon Dawes of a 22 day old Moon taken on the 23rd Feb 2022 in Bexleyheath.
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Crescent Moon and Mars near the constellation of Auriga taken on 13/05/21 with a pentax K70 . 135mm /f8.0 iso 800 1/5 sec.[/caption]
