Image credit: NASA Hubble Heritage
Welcome to Astronomy in Herefordshire
Latest News:
News and items of interest to Herefordshire Astronomical Society members
Observing - Comet - C/2021 A1 (Leonard)
An observing alert from Mark: there is a suggestion that this Comet might become naked eye in early December - see the link below from the BAA:
https://britastro.org/node/26346
If you click on the PDF chart you will see that the Comet passes over the Globular Cluster M3 on the morning of 3rd December. This is a great opportunity to visually see the event but I am hopeful one of our experienced astro imagers will take a photo.
Click link below for view of UK sky: Met Office Satellite image. UK Visible Light.
What's Next - Meeting - Thursday 6th January 2022 - AGM and Members' Talk
Our next meeting is the Annual General Meeting followed by a talk by Francis Milsom. We are delighted to be able to go back to the Kindle Centre for our AGM and listen to Francis' talk and hopefully take a look at the 16" telescope that he's building.
Thursday 6th January 2022
7 pm - Kindle Centre
AGM at the Kindle Centre
Francis Milsom (HAS members' talk)
FAS - latest Newsletter and other FAS events
SHA eNews 2021 04.pdfObserving Highlights
Observing highlights for this month: Telescope House - monthly night sky guide
Click link below for view of UK sky: Met Office Satellite image. UK Visible Light.
Member's Photos
Here are some more lovely photos taken by Francis earlier in November.
Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko
67P is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt. It was first observed on photographic plates in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko. It came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 2 November 2021 (Wikipedia)
IC348
IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus. It consists of nebulosity and an associated 2-million-year-old cluster of roughly 400 stars. Francis has also captured some dark nebulae extending away from the cluster (Wikipedia)
M31
The Andromeda Nebula (Messier 31), is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. Also showing nicely are the two satellite galaxies - M110 above to the right and M32 tucked in close below the centre of M31. To the left showing some blue nebulosity around it is Nu Andromedae (HIP 3881) - now found to be a binary star detected using spectroscopy (Wikipedia)
M42
One of the most viewed and imaged nebulae, the Orion Nebula (Messier 42) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky (Wikipedia)
Meetings:
With meetings now allowed indoors, we are delighted to be able to have a mix of virtual Zoom talks and talks back at the Kindle Centre. Our next meeting is virtual:
Thursday 6th January 2022
7 pm - Kindle Centre
AGM at the Kindle Centre
Francis Milsom (HAS members' talk)
Our speakers at the Virtual Talks have allowed us to record and share their talks for society members to view of they missed the meetings. We've started a HAS YouTube channel here where you can visit or subscribe to and watch these talks.
To watch recordings of previous talks, they are on the "Recordings" page here.
If you missed our last talk, here's the recording:
Thursday 2nd December 2021
A talk given by Dr Diego Altamirano (Associate Professor at the University of Southampton).
Diego helps us get our heads around "powers of tens", in the process taking us through 44 orders of magnitude in 44 seconds, then launches into the extreme world of neutron stars.
Observing Session:
We are pleased to announce that our observing sessions are resuming in the Autumn. Our first session is at the end of October. As always, look out for emails from Mark and Chris giving details and any last minute alterations.
If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Mark and Chris for the latest news - contact details here.
Remember that there are some great online observing guides - a good one is run by Telescope House. Look out for the monthly night sky emails from Mark and Chris.
TBD December 2021
6:30 - 9 pm
Star Party:
We hope to hold Star Parties again this session - Covid-19 allowing. Maybe we'll be able to run one at the Madley Environmental Study Centre (MESC) again.
MESC is right next door to the Madley Satellite Earth Station - a well known Herefordshire landmark. There are some location maps and directions to the MESC web site here.
TBC
Star Party with MESC
More information here.
Visit:
Once or twice a year, members like to jump in cars or climb in a mini-bus and make their way to go and see something interesting outside of Herefordshire (passports not required - so far). Previous trips have been to the Spaceguard Centre, the International Astronomy Show, the National Space Centre, Jodrell Bank, the Norman Lockyer Observatory outside Sidmouth, the Herschel Museum in Bath and the Hanwell Community Observatory just outside Banbury.
TBC
Where would you like to go?
More information here.
Members pay for shared transport and any entrance fees as appropriate..