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.

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 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.

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.

Making a Solar Filter for my Skywatcher 190MN

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

My Skywatcher 190MN telescope has a very wide field of view I can easily fit the full Moon or Sun on the chip, so I thought I'd get myself some Baader solar Safety Film and make myself a solar filter - the video below shows how i made it and shows some early results. Check-out our solar section for more images.

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Solar Observing at Hall Place Summer 2019

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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)

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Solar Eclipse Argentina 2019

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Some members travelled to Argentina to view the 2019 Solar Eclipse, images below are from Janice McClean 

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Solar Observing at Hall Place – August 2018

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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.

 

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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.

 

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Solar Eclipse 2010 Easter Island & Hao Atoll, French Polynesia

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A number of members went out to Easter Island and Hao Atoll to watch the 2010 total solar eclipse on July 11, 2010. This is obviously a very remote area but the locals were well prepared and treated us astronomers really well. It was touch and go at times as to if the cloud would intervene but we struck lucky and saw the eclipse. Overall a very memorable trip.

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Video shows a few minutes before, during and after Eclipse and shows how the lighting levels change as the Sun becomes obscured

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Wide angle video of the eclipse taken by Crayford Member Val

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Images by Arthur Cockburn

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The pictures were taken at Hao Atoll French Polynesia, about 700 miles from Tahiti.
Canon 30D, 500mm mirror lens [35mm equivalent 800mm] f 8.8

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The face on this unusual clock splits and rotates on the hour, exposing the inner workings, discovered by a member whilst on their eclipse trip in a hotel on Easter Island

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Solar Eclipse 2009 July 22, China

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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.

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Images by Mike Rushton

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Images by Jean Felles

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