The Moon – Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society Dartford

Observing the Moon

The Moons seems such an obvious object but there is much to be observed, with just your mark 1 eyeball try observing the different phases, the order they occur and the time of day best to observe them. Look for the highlands and seas and see if you can spot the wobble of the moon (libration).

However if you have a telescope try observing the Lunar 100, or imaging the Moon’s features.

BAA Lunar Section | Wikipedia Entry

Recommended Filters

Neutral Density (ND) filters to remove the glare
Fringe Killer to remove any colour cast from refractor telescopes.
Imaging Filters:
IR Pass filter to improve the seeing.

Slideshow

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Moon – 10th June 2022

A superb composite image of 8 frames showing a Waxing Gibbous Moon (79%) taken on the 10th June 2022 by member Neil Webster. Acquired using a ZWO ASI 290MM + R/IR filter.

Super Strawberry Moon – by Jim Burchell on the 14th June 2022

June’s Full Moon is also known as the Strawberry Moon after the wild strawberries that start to ripen during early summer. On Tuesday evening 14/06/22 member Jim Burchell took these lovely photos of the Strawberry Moon rising from Dartford top road. The Full/Strawberry Moon was near its closest approach to Earth on that day too, so making it a Supermoon as well. Therefore this Full Moon was a Super Strawberry Moon!

Image 1 Moon just appearing above the horizon.

135mm F9.00 5 sec iso 200

Image 2 Moon halfway above the horizon this image has been under exposed to bring out more detail and colour.

135 mm F9.0 1.5 sec iso 200

Image 3 Moon above the horizon image under exposed.

135mm F7.1 1/30 sec iso 400.

Jim Burchell – The Moon – Sept 2021

This fantastic image of the Moon was taken by Jim Burchell back in September 2021. Jim used his Samsung A10 mobile phone attached to one of the society Dobsonian Telescopes called Isaac at F1.9, 1/50 sec and ISO50.

The Moon by Neil Webster – 5th & 7th May 2022

These two superb images of the Moon were captured by member Neil Webster on the 5th & 7th May 2022.

Neil acquired the images using and Altair Astro 115mm triplet APO, EQ6 R mount, ZWO ASI290MM camera plus Astronomik R/IR filter.

Each image consists of 3 frames stitched: each 90s x 33fps….20% selected, aligned, stacked in AutoStakkert3 and processed in PS.

The Moon – 5th May 2022 – Waxing Crescent 19% and 4.23 days old.

The Moon – Moon 7th May – Waxing Crescent 36% and 6.02 days old.

The Moon – 8th May 2022

A lovely image of the Moon taken by Simon Dawes on the 8th May 2022 from Bexleyheath, Kent.

Details of how Simon acquired the image are on the photo.

BAA Picture of the Week – Diane Clarke

Congratulations to member Diane Clarke for one of her images being selected for ‘Picture of the Week’ by the BAA (British Astronomical Association).

The image that was chosen is called ‘Eclipsed Moon Rising’ and is a composite of 14 images taken between 8.17 – 8.26pm of the full Moon as it was rising above a distant horizon – see below. There was a band of cloud that drifted across as Diane waited and as the Moon started to rise the cloud bank obscured parts of the moon as it climbed into the sky.

Absolutely stunning………

Click the following link to be taken to the BAA Picture of the Week page of their website where you will find more detail about Diane’s image. https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20220415_141246_3339ce105b39a7a8

Pink Moon – 16th April 2022

On the night before Easter, the sky will look a little more “pink” due to the full Moon.

This is because the 1st full moon of the spring season is known as the Pink Moon and the name derives from a pink flower called phlox subulata that blooms in spring in North America.

While the moon itself won’t actually be pink, you might notice a slight change in its colour, depending on what time you viewed it on the 16th April 2022.

Members Jim Burchell, Diane Clarke and John Howarth all captured the full Moon last night on the 16th April 2022 as it rose, which appeared as a glorious ‘pink’ colour due to taking the photos whilst the Sun was still setting.

All photos were taken from locations in North Kent.

Below is the Pink Moon rising by Jim Burchell

Photo below is by Diane Clarke

Photo below is by John Howarth

For more information about the Pink Moon, click on the link and you will be taken to a new site https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/pink.html

The Moon by Neil Webster

Neil has been busy and produced these two beautiful images of the Moon.

The image below was taken on the 8th April 2022 from Kent.

The image below was taken on the 13th April 2022 from Kent.

For a more detailed view of these images and more photos of the Moon see Neil’s flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05

Crescent Moon by Jim Burchell

Two beautiful photos by Jim Burchell of a crescent Moon both taken with an Olympus E-M10 Mark on the evening of 02/02/22.

The first photo is of the crescent Moon and Jupiter. 40mm F4.0 1/40 sec Iso 800.

The second photo is of the crescent Moon and a wind turbine. 150mm F5.6 1/13 sec Iso 800.

Diane Clarke’s The Moon & M45 The Pleiades on the 8th March 2022

A lovely image of the Moon 4.1° south of M45 taken on the 8th March 2022 by Diane Clarke.

Diane said ”I had my doubts about capturing this event due to the cloud forecast, but there were breaks starting to appear as 19.00 hrs approached, so I went to set up but there was a strong breeze forcing me to find a sheltered spot to stop my equipment suffering wind blast, the breeze was also making the clouds scud across the sky very quickly. So much so that any breaks in the cloud could disappear as quickly as they appeared the image was taken in one of these short lived break’s in the cloud cover.”

Image Details: Camera EOS M50m2 using a 100mm Canon EF Lens.

2.5 sec’s @ f5.6, ISO 2000, on a static tripod, with a 2 sec delay to remove camera shake.

Neil Webster’s Moon 7th March 2022

A spectacular image of the Moon by Neil Webster; taken on the 7th March 2022.

Waxing Crescent Moon, 23%, 4.72 days

4 frames stitched (each 44fps x 75, 20% stacked in AutoStakkert) and then processed in PS.

Below is 1 image taken from the above stitch of 4.

For a more detailed view of these images see Neil’s flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/137388222@N05

22 day old Moon by Simon Dawes

Latest super image by Simon Dawes of a 22 day old Moon taken on the 23rd Feb 2022 in Bexleyheath.

Lunar Images by Leigh Slomer

Lunar Halo/Corona Competition

Lunar Halo Competition

As the name suggests, take an image of a Lunar Halo.

Rules:

Whilst the points awarding is somewhat ambiguous I’ll be looking for the following…

Technically a good image (in focus)
Well composed
Other points of interest (foreground or background)
A good story – if you have a story of how you took the image it can’t hurt!

Entry criteria:

You can only enter if you are a paid up member (any tier of membership)
Entries must be to webmaster@crayfordmanorastro.com – feel free to post them on what’s app as well!

Entries:

Images By Diane Clarke

Image By Diane Clarke. The two stars to the left of the Moon are Castor & Pollux in the constellation of Gemini Image details, Taken on 30.12.20 @ 21.48 Camera EOS 750D, Lens Sigma 18 -250 @18mm 1/2 Sec @ f3.5, Image as taken Static Tripod

Image by Diane Clarke This image shows the Moon and a 22° lunar halo, along with the stars of Gemini Aruga, Taurus & Orion Image details, Canon EOS 750D, Sigma 18 – 250mm lens @ 18mm 8 sec @ f5.6, ISO 800, 25.01.21 @ 20.48 hrs Static Tripod Image as shot

Images by Leigh Slomer

Image by Leigh Slomer Taken with a stock Canon EOS 200d and a Samyang 135mm lens. Exposure time was 1/5 of a second at ISO 400 at an f ratio of 2.8. Processed in GIMP.

Images by Jim Burchell

Image by Jim Burchel image taken on the Evening of 25/01/21. Image taken with a pentax K70. ISO 800/ F8 and 30 second exposure. Image showing some part of Orion Taurus and the Pleiades..

Lunar Images by John Howarth

Richard Bohner’s Lunar Images

Image by Richard Bohner. Photo info: taken on 13 April 2021 @ 7:52PM local time, Arizona. Canon 5D MK IV, ISO 800, 3sec. Exp. telephoto f5.6 400mm.

Lunar Images By Janice McClean

Occultation of the Beehive by the Moon

On Saturday 13th April I’d hoped to go to the Observatory and image the occultation of the Beehive cluster by the Moon but alas Diane and I had forgotten that we were taking part in a local RSPB quiz. We’ve taken part on a number of other occasions with fellow member Deborah and David, her husband, who are also keen bird watchers, so we had said yes to this quiz before we knew about the events clashing.

The skies were still clear after the quiz so we headed to the observatory, we got to the Pavilion at about 22:30BST (21:30UT) to find that no one else was using it. We imaged the Moon with the Beehive cluster from the patio then imaged some lunar craters and took a tour around the sky with the 16″. The skies remained clear until 02:10BST at which time Diane and I packed up and went home.