Image credit: NASA Hubble Heritage
Welcome to Astronomy in Herefordshire
Latest News:
News and items of interest to Herefordshire Astronomical Society members
What's Next - Meeting - 2nd June 2022 - Percival Lowell and the Canals of Mars
We are delighted to welcome Dr Ann Bonell to HAS in June and hear her talk about Percival Lowell and Mars' 'canals'.
As always, look out for emails from Mark and Chris with details of the Zoom call. If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Mark and Chris for the latest news - contact details here.
Thursday 2nd June 2022
7 pm - Virtual Talk
Percival Lowell and Mars' 'canals'
Dr Ann Bonell
Observing 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.
FAS News
SHA eNews 2022 01.pdfMember's Photos
Here are some more photos from Francis. First a lovely image of the Rosette nebula taken through Francis' RASA astrograph, followed by a mono image of the open cluster NGC 2244 at the centre of the Rosette and a lovely image of The Hamburger galaxy - one of the Leo Triplet galaxies.
Rosette Nebula
The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is an H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 (Caldwell 50) is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. (Wikipedia)
NGC3628 'The Hamburger'
NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy or Sarah's Galaxy, is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo.
It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784.
Along with M65 and M66, NGC 3628 forms the Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies in the constellation of Leo. (Wikipedia)
NGC 2244
NGC 2244 (also known as Caldwell 50 or the Satellite Cluster) is an open cluster in the Rosette Nebula, which is located in the constellation Monoceros. This cluster has several O-type stars, super hot stars that generate large amounts of radiation and stellar wind. (Wikipedia)
Here are some lovely photos taken by Keith over the last couple of months.
NGC 1499 in California
The California Nebula (NGC 1499/Sh2-220) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus. The fluorescence is due to excitation of the a Hα and Hβ lines in the nebula by the nearby prodigiously energetic O7 star, Xi Persei (the bright star below the nebula in Keith's photo) (Wikipedia)
NGC 2264 a Christmas / Cone
NGC 2264 describes the two objects happily referred to as the Christmas Tree Cluster and the Cone Nebula. Keith's wide view image has the Christmas Tree in the middle of the image, the right way up but tilting alarmingly to the right with the dark Cone nebula pointing down to the left to where the fairy should be at the top of the Christmas tree!
Sh2-188 a Shrimp / NGC457
In this wide view image, Keith has framed the Shrimp Nebula (Sh2-188) top left with the open cluster NGC457 bottom right.
Sh2-188 is a planetary nebula in Cassiopeia - here imaged with the Hα emission line mapped to red in the colour image. Intriguingly, if Keith had used the Hubble Palette would we have been looking at a raw shrimp (blue/green) rather than a cooked shrimp (red)?
IC2118 a Witch
IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion (you can't see Rigel in this image - it's out of view to the right of the Witch). (Wikipedia)
NGC2392 - an Eskimo
The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) is a bipolar double-shell planetary nebula. William Herschel discovered this planetary nebula from his observatory in Slough on January 17, 1787. This nebula is a tiny object in the night sky - so good imaging Keith getting this much detail! (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 a virtual meeting by Zoom:
Thursday 2nd June 2022
7 pm - Virtual Talk
Percival Lowell and Mars' 'canals'
Dr Ann Bonell
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.
Our May talk was held at the Kindle Centre - so not recorded. The last recorded meeting was in April - here's the recording:
Thursday 7th April 2022
A talk given by Bob Mizon MBE FRAS.
"Comets in History" - Bob traces our relationship with these intriguing night visitors, from ancient superstition to modern scientific exploration.
[Please contact the website manager if you would like to view the recording]
Observing Session:
We are pleased to announce that our observing sessions are resuming in the Autumn. 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.
30th/31st March, 1st April 2022
8 - 10 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..