Image credit: NASA Hubble Heritage
Welcome to Astronomy in Herefordshire
Latest News:
News and items of interest to Herefordshire Astronomical Society members
- Next Activity - Observing Session - Thursday 24th October 2024 - CANCELLED
We have our first observing session in October - just before the clocks go back. We will meet at our Lugg Meadows site - more information about our site and location here.
As always, look out for emails from Mark and Chris giving details and any last minute alterations. We will endeavour to stick to these dates unless weather means 'sliding' it, in which case it will likely be a few days earlier or later and members will of course be advised. Each date is centred on the first Thursday after Third Quarter.
If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Mark and Chris for the latest news - contact details here.
Latest update from Chris:
Well it seems we have started the new season like we ended the last. But we have (at least) 5 more opportunities to get together, so don't be dispirited.
On a general note (further to my last email about how the observing sessions work and are 'called'), I realise that we have recently just had a couple of good nights of clear skies.
But generally I try not to bring forward a date once it's in the diary (Martin has put up all the provisional observing night dates on the HAS website). People have their own plans and I find deferring (if possible) far less disruptive than bringing forward.
Unfortunately I can't really see a good night in the near future either.
It is a difficult game with the Moon giving us 7-10 days max (when it rises after or sets before our session so as not to be a problem) AND a good forecast needed for everything to come together. Some people have a lot of kit to drag along and it's really not worth the commitment and effort if the weather is really 'iffy'.
Hope you all understand.
24th October 2024
6:30 - 9 pm
Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Chris mentioned at our October talk that here is a comet exciting observers at the moment - Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Visible after sunset, low down in the western skies - our members have reported it's difficult to see without binoculars - but worth it.
David has just submitted this wonderful image of the comet taken at about 7:30pm at home in Clyro. David used a ZWO ASI 533 camera with his 80mm f4.8 triplet scope. To build this image he took 27x 30 second photos stacked and processed.
Next Talk - Virtual Meeting - Thursday 7th November 2024
Another excellent talk by Dr Steve Barrett in October - scroll down if you missed it and want to watch the recording. Steve is happy to share a handout (PDF) of the slides he used in the talk. If you want to take a closer look at them, you'll find them on his University of Liverpool website here.
For our November talk, we are delighted to welcome Dr James Lees from the University of York. James will tell us about Exoplanets - "All These Worlds".
James is an Associate Lecturer at the University of York in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology. He has had a varied academic career at York and Stanford variously studying astrophysics, nuclear, condensed matter, biophysics, and data storage. He is also an avid science communicator working to help make science understandable to everyone through his talks, workshops, and books.
For his talk "All These Worlds", James takes us from Science-Fiction to Science-Fact. He explores the very limits of what planets can be. From Tatooine to Super Earths, and from the strangest of exoplanets to the final place you could ever live. The real, the imaginary and the possible. How they work (or not) and what they might be like to visit. Join us to discover just some of the weird and wonderful worlds out there.
As always, look out for emails from Chris with details of what HAS is doing next. If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Chris for the latest news - contact details here.
Thursday 7th November 2024
7 pm - Virtual Talk
All These Worlds (Exoplanets)
Dr James Lees (University of York)
Visit - Jodrell Bank - June 2024:
HAS members and partners went on an overnight visit to see Jodrell bank in June. We also visited the National Trust site at Little Moreton Hall, a fabulous Tudor house and gardens on the way to the overnight hotel in Congleton
The beautiful weather continued for the visit to Jodrell, which has a number of immersive video shows on the history of the site as well as explaining that we are all made of stars 🙂
Wandering around the site to see the main radio telescope, a truly impressive piece of engineering, still in active use and part of e-Merlin linked telescopes, now stretching around the world.
Smiles all round with the HAS party and a wonderful mini-escape.
Now watch this space for possible future events 😉
Keith
Members Discussion Group
We've set up an online community for HAS members where you can raise questions, share your experience and suggest topics for talks or visits. We've created a discussion group on the Groups.io platform. This is a "fremium" based platform and promotes itself as "We don't run advertising and your data is never submitted to any ad tracking networks.". There are a lot of other astronomy and expert groups using this platform - it looks like a safe place to be online.
We've set the permissions for the group to be listed publicly but content is private - only HAS members can see what you post. We are moderating new members joining the group to manage spam bots and spurious content. This means new member requests have to be approved by an Admin before being admitted to the group.
Once admitted you can follow discussions and post entries. It's an email based platform by default - you'll receive new posts by email from other members. However, if you don't want individual emails you can go online and change your "Subscription" to turn off emails and receive digests etc.
Have fun!
Observing Highlights
Observing highlights for this month:
Links for weather and observing forecasts:
FAS News
Look out for emails from Keith with the regular FAS Newsletter and news and information about other events and talks that you may be interested in attending at FAS and other Astronomical Societies
Member's Photos
Taken any astronomy photos over the last few months? Share them here with HAS members!
Take a look at what HAS members have managed to do over the years on our Images page (here).
We have been treated to some wonderful Auroral displays this year. Keith took a time sequence video of the last display on 10th October:
Keith has been peering (using suitable equipment) at the sun during the current "solar maximum" activity. Here's a lovely image of a solar flare with an overlaid image of earth to appreciate the scale of these eruptions!
Here Keith has created an animation of a big and bright CME:
Francis has sent in a stunning image focusing on the Squid Nebula sitting inside the Flying Bat Nebula. This is a tough imaging target - one of Francis's longest imaging runs requiring 14.25 hours of scope time. With his dual imaging rig, this "only" took 7 hours of his time to capture the data. One scope captured Ha and OIII narrowband data, the other scope captured SII and OIII narrowband data.
The image is built up from 171 sub frames of 5 minutes each. These are all processed and stacked using PixInsight software. To make the Squid really stand out, Francis created a mask the same shape as the squid to allow him to hold back or enhance the processing of the squid and it's background. Francis's processing workflow has him removing the stars from the stacked image early on so that he can get the nebulosity looking good, then adding the stars back in at the end to produce the final image. Fabulous! We've shown both the final image and the starless version below:
The Flying Bat Nebula (Sh2-129) and Squid Nebula (Ou4)
The Squid is a fairly recent discovery by French amateur astronomer Nicolas Outters in 2011. The blue emission is from doubly ionised Oxygen atoms the red is from Hydrogen. Sh2-129 is about 1,300 light years away with Ou4 sitting behind some 2,300 light years away. They are located within the Cepheus region.
Keith has been out under the stars again and was lucky enough to have clear skies to view the wonderful Auroral displays in August. He's also been under Francis's tutelage to learn how to enhance a nebula image using PixInsight - dramatic improvement in clarity of the nebula. Lastly, Keith has captured the Tulip nebula SH2-101 in Cygnus:
NGC6888
Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus.
Keith has used PixInsight to process his original image (left) to significantly reduce the intensity of the stars and so reveal far more detail of the nebula itself (right).
SH2-101 Tulip Nebula
Sharpless 101 (Sh 2-101) is a H II region emission nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. It was catalogued by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in his 1959 catalogue of nebulae. (Wikipedia)
Francis has been busy again and looking forward to longer and darker nights. He's sent us two images taken earlier in July using a dual mount rig. Francis has two Askar 120 APO refractors with 0.8x reducers giving 672mm focal length and f5.6 focal ratio. To capture the nebulosity Francis has used a dual Ha/OIII 6nm narrow band filter. Francis took 22x 120s subs (44 mins) for the Veil nebula and 26x 120s subs (52 mins) for the North American nebula:
Veil Nebula near and including NGC6960
The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus.
It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers like NGC6960. (Wikipedia)
North American Nebula NGC7000
The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is a large emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb. It is named because its shape resembles North America. (Wikipedia)
In this image, you can see how the nebula gets its name - Mexico and Central America at the bottom, Gulf of Mexico to the right and a rather stubby Miami to the right!
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:
Thursday 7th November 2024
7 pm - Virtual Talk
All These Worlds (Exoplanets)
Dr James Lees (University of York)
Many of our speakers at the Virtual Talks have allowed us to record and share their talks for society members to view if they missed the meeting. 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 last recorded meeting was a talk given by Dr Steve Barrett. Steve allowed us to record the talk and you'll find it here:
Thursday 3rd October 2024
A talk given by Dr Steve Barrett to Herefordshire Astronomical Society on the 3rd October 2024.
Steve Barrett is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Liverpool. His research interests span all aspects of imaging, image processing and image analysis. This includes medical imaging (biophysics), scanning probe microscopy of atoms, molecules and surfaces (nanophysics), microscopy of earth materials (geophysics) and astrophotography.
For our October talk, Steve has gone back to the beginning of time to tell us about "The Beginning of Everything".
Observing Session:
As always, look out for emails from Chris giving proposed date and details and look out for any last minute alterations. We will endeavour to stick to these dates unless weather means 'sliding' it, in which case it will likely be a few days earlier or later and members will of course be advised. Each date is centred on the first Thursday after Third Quarter.
If you are not on our emailing list, please contact 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 Chris.
Thursday 28th November 2024
6:30 - 9 pm
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.
At our September meeting, Keith described the potential sites we could visit and took a poll of those present. Based on your feedback we've now had a fab trip to visit to the Spaceguard Centre in Knighton and Keith is now looking to organise a longer visit to Jodrell Bank in 2024 with an overnight stay to make the travel easier.
Look out for emails from Keith explaining more about the proposed visits and asking members to register for the trips.
TBC
Where would you like to go?
More information here.
Members pay for shared transport and any entrance fees as appropriate..
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.