Bon Voyage James

 

The James Webb Telescope on it's way! - image Credit NASA Bill Ingalls

Bon Voyage to the James Webb Telescope on its way from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Christmas Day 2021. - Kurt Thrust and the Jodrell Plank Observatory Team.

"With revolutionary technology, Webb will observe a part of space and time never seen before, providing a wealth of amazing views into an era when the very first stars and galaxies formed––over 13.5 billion years ago.

It can explore our own solar system’s residents with exquisite new detail and study the atmospheres of distant worlds. From new forming stars to devouring black holes, Webb will reveal all this and more! It’s the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope ever built.

Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Thousands of engineers and hundreds of scientists worked to make Webb a reality, along with over 300 universities, organizations, and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries! "

Ready to #UnfoldTheUniverse? The greatest origin story of all unfurls soon. Learn more at https://nasa.gov/jwst

Credit: NASA

" We should not forget some of NASA's older explorers like the Curiosity Mars Rover which has spent more than 3000 sols on the surface of Mars doing great Science" - Joel Cairo CEO at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. This was the view at 8:30 a.m. local Mars time on Nov. 16, 2021 (the 3,299th Martian day, or sol, of the mission) and again at 4:10 p.m. local Mars time. The two times of day provided contrasting lighting conditions that brought out a variety of landscape details.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Merry Stargazing Christmas 2021

 

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our world wide blog readers and stargazers.

Storm Arwen keeping the Jodrell Plank Team indoors

 

The Constellation Orion the Hunter commanding our southern horizon in the winter sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory

" The Observatory came through Storm Arwen without damage but the weather in Lowestoft continues to prevent any serious imaging. Having time on his hands, Pip Stakkert decided to use the newly acquired software to reprocess data captured in January 2020. The above image is a composite made from data acquired using our Canon 600 DSLR at both f=18mm and f= 400mm. The Orion Great Molecular Cloud is clearly visible with the Running Man Nebular just above. Blog readers with exceptional eyesight might just be able to make out the dark Horsehead Nebula underneath Alnitak the left hand star in Orion's Belt. Let us hope the weather improves over Christmas". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Andromeda Galaxy Group (our galactic neighbours)

 

The Andromeda Galaxy Group compilation location image created from images captured by Pip Stakkert at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The Andromeda group of galaxies located just above the 'Square of Pegasus' rides high in the sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory in November. When the street lighting goes out at 23.30 hours it is just possible to make out Messier 31, the largest of the three galaxies, with the naked unaided eye". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 31 Messier 32 and Messier 110 Galaxies - a cropped stack of 60 sec lights at ISO800 taken with the Altair Astro 66mm doublet refractor with a 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener and the Canon 600d camera all on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. Credit: Kurt Thrust

Europa up close

 

Jupiter's Moon Europa credit for data :JUNO spacecraft NASA / SwRI / MSSS. Data reduction by Pip Stakkert at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"As our telescopes, Jupiter's low inclination and the weather preclude us imaging Jupiter's Galilean Moons other than as tiny discs, we decided to download data from NASA's JUNO spacecraft to create this rather beautiful picture of the Ice Moon Europa". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory. 

The Icy Crust of Europa Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

"Europa presents an icy surface with a disrupted crust which betrays constant movement. Similar broken and rafted ice terrains may be found on Earth where sea ice forms on top of a subsurface ocean. It is considered very likely that underneath Europa's surface there lies a deep and planet wide ocean. The Hubble Telescope has detected intermittent plumes which appear to be associated with warmer areas on the surface of Europa. If this is the case then this might indicate water vapour venting from fissures in the icy crust. Europa is a possible candidate for harbouring microbial life". - Karl Seguine Community Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Plume erupting from Europa, March 17, 2014. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Sparks (STScI), and the USGS Astrogeology Science Center

Compilation image to show JUNO in orbit around Jupiter Credit: Pip Stakkert

The Saturnian Ring System

 

Images taken of Saturn using the 127mm Meade Apo Refractor at the Jodrell Plank Observatory from 2014 until 2021

" Have you ever been sitting in a railway carriage reading a newspaper and as the train slowly pulled out of the station you cursorily looked out the window? For a moment you might wonder if you in the carriage is moving forward or whether the platform is moving backwards whilst you remain stationary. Living on any planet in a dynamic planetary system has similar associated issues of relative movement.

As an 'Earthling', we can watch our Sun rise in the  East and set in the West just  like clockwork measuring the length of the day and night. Similarly, every midsummer, the Sun at midday is higher in the sky than at midday in midwinter. The former wouldn't happen if the Earth stopped rotating about a North - South axis or if it rotated the other way around, the latter would not occur if the Earth's axis of rotation was perpendicular to it's plane of orbit around the Sun.

For time immemorial, mankind has viewed the night sky and wondered at the constancy of the stars and the constellations.  Our far ancestors did notice that a few stars seemed to move oddly against the backdrop of the constant heavens and these were called  the 'Planets';  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - 'planete' was the word used by the ancient Greeks to define these 'unusual stars' and literally means 'wanderer'.

Explaining the movement of the planets became a lot simpler for almost everyone, other than the 'Inquisition'', once we came to terms with the uneasy thought that the Earth and/or mankind wasn't at the centre of everything.

If you look closely at the above images of Saturn you will notice two things:

1. The 2021 image is not as sharp as the others from previous years.
2. The angle at which we see the Rings appears to change over time.

The 2021 image is not as sharp because this year Saturn is very low on our southern horizon, which means we are imaging it obliquely through more of  our turbulent and polluted atmosphere. The night we captured this image the air over Lowestoft was particularly volatile making obtaining a sharp focus extremely difficult. Whilst Saturn and Jupiter are currently low to the horizon as viewed from countries in the Northern Hemisphere, from Southern Hemisphere locations both these planets are currently presenting high in the sky. This is because of the Earth's axial inclination to it's orbital plane and its position on its 12 monthly orbit around the Sun. For the same reason, when it's summer in the UK it's winter in New Zealand.

The view of the Rings appears to become less oblique from 2014 to 2017 when they are at their most open and then begin to close such that in 2021 we can just make out the south pole appearing above the Rings. This closing of our view will continue until 2025 when we will view the Ring System edge on. After 2025, the southern Saturnian Hemisphere will experience what passes for Summer on a cold Gas Giant.

In reality the Ring System will not change fundamentally, just the angle at which it is illuminated by the Sun and the angle at which we view it!

Saturnoppositions-animated By <a href="commons.wikimedia.orgwikiUserTdadamemd" title="UserTdadamemd">Tdadamemd<a> - <a href="commons.wikimedia.orgwikiFileSaturnoppositions.jpg" ti

Understanding the meanings of 'ecliptic' and 'equinox' are key to understanding why our view of Saturn and the Saturnian Rings changes over time on a cyclical basis.

Earths_orbit_and_ecliptic By Tfr000 (talk) 0159, 15 March 2012 (UTC) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=18705315

The majority of the major bodies of the Solar System orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane. This is probably due to the way the Solar System formed from a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas. Probably the closest current representation of the disk is called the invariable plane of the Solar System. Earth's orbit, and hence, the ecliptic, is inclined a little more than 1° to the invariable plane, Jupiter's orbit is within a little more than 1⁄2° of it, and the other major planets are all within about 6°. Because of this, most Solar System bodies appear very close to the ecliptic in the sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and you currently look south you will see Saturn leading Jupiter west across the sky.

Saturn's rotational axis like Earth's is inclined at an angle to the ecliptic. The Earth has an inclination of 23.4 degrees and Saturn 26.7 degrees. An equinox occurs when the position of the Sun is directly over the planet's equator. Both Saturn and  Earth have two Equinoxes in their respective years but Saturn's year, its orbital period, takes 29.4571 Earth years. So Saturn's equinoxes occur approximately 15 Earth years apart whilst on our planet they happen every six months.

 

PIA14943-SaturnBehindTheRings-20180813 By NASAJPL-CaltechSpace Science Institute - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="httpsphotojournal.jpl.nasa.govjpegPIA14943.jpg">httpsphotoj

Earlier I wrote that the Ring system will not change 'fundamentally' but it is wise to note that each ring is made from billions of pieces of ice and rock, varying in size from a grain of sand to that of an average house, all of which are constantly on the move. These Rings are thousands of miles wide but only between 10 and 100 metres thick. There are gaps between them which can be seen clearly in the above image taken by the Cassini space probe. If you look at the images captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory you can  see the A, B and C Rings with the Cassini Division - the black gap between the A and B Rings.  Each Ring is a dynamic system moving and constrained by the influence of gravity, angular momentum and harmonic resonance. We live in a chaotic Universe, so enjoy Saturn's beautiful icy Rings whilst you can. Mankind's span is brief, so much in the Solar System appears constant but over cosmological timescales change is definitely the name of the game.

The Rings were probably formed by Saturn's gravity capturing asteroids, comets and small moons and smashing them up in a series of collisions. How long ago were they formed is still a matter for debate. As a result of findings from the Cassini probe and estimating age from the accumulation of contaminant pollution of the Ring material, some scientists believe the Rings formed fairly recently and within the last 100 million years. Other scientists believe that the Rings are much older and that a natural process of recycling could throw this estimate way off. As Sir Patrick Moore used to say " We will just have to wait and see". - Karl Seguine Community Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Saturn's_Rings_PIA03550 By NASAJPL - httpphotojournal.jpl.nasa.govcatalogPIA03550, Public Domain, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=610237

Saturn's_rings_in_visible_light_and_radio NASA

Saturn and its Moons

 

A compilation widefield images of the gas giant planet Saturn and five of its moons on the 8th of September 2012. Images taken with 127mm Meade Apo Refractor, x3 Barlow lens and a QHY5l-11 colour video camera. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" Imaging Saturn remains difficult as the planet is very low on our southern horizon in Lowestoft. The location of the moons: Titan, Dione and Rhea was easy to achieve but Tethys and Enceladus, being close and therefore lost in the glare from Saturn, required the position of the moons to be estimated using planetarium software. Saturn is probably one of the most beautiful astronomical objects to be viewed through the eyepiece of a telescope." - Karl Seguine Community Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Great Red Spot 2021

 

The Great Red Spot visible on Jupiter's Disc. 127mm Meade Apo Refractor, x3 Barlow and QHY5L-11 colour camera. 3 minute video clip stacked. Credit Pip Stakkert.

JunoCam on the JUNO Spacecraft: Image processing from RAW download by Pip Stakkert .   Credit for data NASA, JPL, SwRI. 
Mission Phase: PERIJOVE SwRI/35 2021-07-21 08:44 UT

" Our images of Jupiter captured on the 8th of September 2021 show the Great Red Spot, an enormous anticyclone, looking paler and smaller than in previous years. When we look at Jupiter through a telescope we see the turbulent weather systems and clouds reflecting sunlight which takes approximately 77 minutes for the round trip. The cloud systems are in constant movement driven by internal heat and the energy imparted by the planet's high rate of spin. Amongst this metrological chaos the red spot has remained a constant feature. In the last few years the GRS has grown smaller and paler. At the same time, large white ovals or spots have appeared in and around the South Equatorial Belt. Interaction with the white ovals appears to have resulted in the GRS becoming paler and smaller." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Gas Giants in September 2021

 

Jupiter 08-09-2021, Meade 127mm Apo refractor-QHY5L-11c camera - 3minute avi clip stacked. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

Saturn 08-09-2021, Meade 127mm Apo refractor-QHY5L-11c camera - 9 minute avi clip stacked. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" The weather forecast for the night of the 8th of September was not good but the weather was predicted to deteriorate in the nights following. We therefore decided to give imaging the gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, a go anyway. 

The planets remain low on our southern horizon and there was also a hint of high level cloud both of which made obtaining sharp images problematic. Saturn being the lower of the two planets was wobbling about all over the place and was difficult to focus. The day had been quite hot in Lowestoft and residual heat radiating from adjoining house roofs exacerbated the atmospheric problems. The difference in image quality between Jupiter and Saturn is clear. Jupiter being much closer, bigger and at a greater declination all go to making for a sharper more detailed image.  Over the next few years the planets will get higher in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you look closely at the image of Jupiter you can just make out the Great Red Spot towards the bottom of the sphere at about '5 o clock' on the planet's limb. You can also see that Jupiter is not a perfect sphere, having a greater diameter measured at the equator than through the poles. Jupiter is an 'oblate spheroid'. This is because Jupiter is made from primarily gas and is rotating at considerable speed. The Jupiter day is only 10 hours long!  Centrifugal force acts upon the gas to increase the diameter at the equator where the speed is maximised." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Mu Serpentis - or is it though?

 

Image acquired with the Star Adventurer mounted 66mm Altair Refractor, the new 500 lines/mm spectrometer and the QHY5-11mono camera. Credit :Jolene McSquint-Fleming.

Calibrated Line Profiles and Reference Profile for an A07 class star together with a stretched coloured Synthetic Spectrum Strip. Credit: Jolene McSquint-Fleming.

New 500 lines/mm spectrometer designed and constructed in the Observatory clean room by Jolene McSquint- Fleming the JPO's Instrumentation Engineer.

"The weather continues to be very unfavorable for astronomy, with high level cloud preventing us imaging the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. 

Over the summer, Jolene has addressed some of the optical aberrations associated with using a 500 line diffraction grating as a simple filter cell.  We did not want to permanently adapt the QHY5-11 camera for spectroscopy and so designed a 3d printed block to allow it to be brought very close to the imaging chip at the optimum angle for a first order spectrum at 550nm. This appears to have minimised 'fish tailing' of the spectral image and aided obtaining focus upon the spectrum rather than the star. 

On the 7th of July 2021 we tried the new spectrometer out using the 66mm Altair Astro refractor.  As the sky was quite light, only a few stars on the meridian were visible to the naked eye, so we chose one at random for the trial.

One of the not immediately appreciable downsides of using a 500 line diffraction grating is that, as the spectrum is more spread out than when using  a 100 or 200 line grating, it produces a significantly dimmer image. Possibly this will be improved by using the 127mm refractor, by stacking more light frames and by taking darks and flats. 

We prepped the spectral image using the freeware IRIS and then had a go at producing an initial calibrated profile using the excellent BASS software. The Observatory is indebted to the generous, skilled and intelligent individuals that devise and collaborate in the development of scientific software which is made accessible for free use. Thank you Christian. B and John. P!

Having obtained a profile we guessed, from the presence of strong Hydrogen Balmer lines, that the star in question is an A type star. We then used Stellarium to look for bright  A type stars that were observable to the naked eye and to the south near the meridian on 07-07-2021. The best candidate  is the A07 star Mu Serpentis.

Next up we intend to:

Image Vega and obtain a camera response curve for the set up.

Become more proficient in the use of BASS software.

Complete a half constructed 3d printed 100 lines/mm spectrometer for obtaining spectra from fainter stars.

Come up with a rudimentary grating design to address extended objects of interest.

Experiment with a fibre-optic link between the telescope and a spectrometer." - Kurt  Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Gas Giants over Southwold and night scented honeysuckle.

 

The Gas Giant Planets - Jupiter and Saturn over Southwold, Suffolk. Canon 600d DSLR and Sigma lens at f=10mm and F=4.5. Stack of 3x20sec lights at ISO 3200. Credit: George Hammer Astro-Geologist at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Perseid Shower Compilation - Credit Kurt Thrust

" Nice to see the two gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn putting on such a good show low to the horizon in the south. We hope to be imaging both of these wonderful planets in the near future using the Jodrell Plank Observatory's 127mm Apo refracting telescope. Of course this is all subject to our adjoining neighbour, Mr. Schrödinger, allowing us to trim back his Lonicera periclymenum Serotina . We keep him on side by looking after his cat over the holidays!". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Perseid Shower 2021 and other assorted meteors

 

A stack compilation of 30x20sec lights taken between 12:30 am and 02:30am on the 13th August 2021. Tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR with a SIGMA 10-20mm lens at F4.5 and f=10mm. Credit Pip Stakkert.

"The whole Jodrell Plank Team relocated to the cliff top at nearby Pakefield and watched a wonderful show of Perseid and sporadic meteors as they fell over the North Sea. Pip Stakkert made a great effort to capture the magnificence of this year's splendid pyrotechnic display. We were all disappointed by the light pollution from the newly refurbished CEFAS cliff top laboratories and offices. Internal and external lights were on when we arrived and were still blazing away when we left Pakefield at 2;45am. The new LED lighting is very bright across a wide visual spectrum and the external scheme is poorly designed. It is something of a disgrace that a Government building dedicated to protecting the sea and fish stocks has lighting detrimental to the night sky!  A number of the meteors in the above image are clearly Perseids but some are not. The 'fireball' shown on the extreme top left of the image was a spectacular sight to the naked eye." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

New widefield Lens on trial

 

Milky Way from Cassiopeia to Altair - Sigma 10-20mm widefield lens on a tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR. A stack of 10x30 second lights at ISO1600 and f=16mm. Credit: KurtThrust.

" Our sponsor Anita Roberts has provided the cash to enable the purchase of a recycled widefield lens for the 600d Canon Camera. Weather permitting we will use this excellent piece of  Japanese glass to capture Perseid meteors later in the week". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Arcturus through Noctilucent Clouds - Thrust pulls it off and keeps his job!

 

The star Arcturus shining brightly in the Constellation Bootes and through Noctilucent Clouds. One off RAW image taken with the Canon DSLR at f=18mm.and ISO800. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"I should like to thank all the many followers of the Jodrell Plank Observatory for contacting our Outreach Coordinator Karl Seguine and expressing their support for our current Director Kurt Thrust. The Board of Trustees met on the 5th of August 2021 and a majority decision was made by the Trustees to issue Kurt with a written warning. He will also be offered counselling and a high-viz vest." - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory, for and on behalf of, Doris Jansen Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Kurt's job hangs by a thread

 

Milky Way - Altair the bright star at bottom right. Reprocessed by Pip Stakkert

The Veil Nebula and meteor. Reprocessed by Pip Stakkert

" The Board of Trustees have been asked to consider Kurt Thrust's status as current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory. The last post on this blog  contained unacceptable errors in which two of  the stars were named wrongly as Deneb and Vega. In fact only one of the three stars of the Summer Triangle was visible in this image. 

“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

The trouble with our image was that it wasn't large enough to contain a large asterism like the Summer Triangle and sadly Kurt and Pip just got it wrong.

But in addition, Pip Stakkert's image processing of both the images was considered below the required standard and this reflects badly on Kurt's leadership and quality control. The recent problems encountered with the renegotiation of the Observatory telephone contracts have hopefully been the last of the problems relating to Kurt's current tenure of the top job at Jodrell Plank. Several Trustees have openly questioned whether Kurt has just got too old for the job! The next Board Meeting in August will be make and break for Kurt." - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Summer nights have arrived at last

 

The Summer Triangle - Canon 600d on Star Adventurer MountStack of 2 minute lights at .f=18mm and ISO 1600. Cropped from a widefield image.; Credit: Pip Stakkert.
 

" The weather took a turn for the better, so the whole Jodrell Plank Observatory team spent  Friday evening taking snaps of the starry Universe. All the summer favourites were on display including the asterism, 'The Summer Triangle'. An asterism is a pattern of stars that is readily visible and identifiable. For example, The Plough is an asterism made from the brighter stars in the constellation Ursa Major the Great Bear. The Summer Triangle is very obvious in the northern hemisphere summer sky and has the alpha stars from three separate constellations. Deneb from Cygnus the Swan, Vega from the Lyre  and Altair from Aquila the Eagle. These three prominent stars are bright and clearly visible to the naked eye as soon as darkness falls. So why not go out and see if you can identify them?". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Veil Nebula with Meteor- Canon 600d on Star Adventurer Mount

            Stack of 2 minute lights at .f=90mm and ISO 1600. Credit: Pip Stakkert.                                                  

                                           Plate Solving by Astrometry Net

"Between 10 and 20 thousand years ago a star twenty times more massive than our Sun ran out of fusible elements and exploded in a massive core collapse supernova. The Veil Nebula is the remnant cloud of ionised gas and dust that has expanded over time to cover an area of the sky some thirty-six times the area of the Moon. This area is based upon a recent estimate of its distance from the Earth of 2400 light years. It is calculated that the nebula is expanding at 1.5 million kilometers per hour! The Veil Nebula was first discovered in 1784 by the astronomer William Herschel.

The attractive open star cluster NGC 6490 can be seen in our image and to the right of the Veil. NGC 6490 is in the adjoining constellation Vulpecula the Fox. The cluster is a billion years old and approximately 2500 light years distant.

Whilst  we were imaging this area of sky we noticed a number of meteors one of which is visible in our image of the Veil and to its left. For some days, The LVST radio telescope has been recording increasing numbers of meteor radar reflections. We await the Perseid Shower with added excitement, as this year, visibility will not be limited by moonlight. Let's keep our fingers crossed for good weather on the 12th and 13th of August and an excellent display!"  -  Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 29 Open Star Cluster in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan

 

Cropped images from a widefield compilation of stacked lights taken with 66mm Altair refractor and 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener using the Canon 600d DSLR. - Credit: Kurt Thrust

" Our elderly but kindly sponsor George Roberts recently acquired Professor Ian Morison's excellent book 'The Art of Astrophotography' and very helpfully placed it in the Jodrell Plank Observatory's Library for reference.  We have long admired the  Professor's widefield astrophotography and have used the excellent  advice given in his book to process the data for the above image.

The image shows the open Star cluster Messier 29 set within the wider context of the sky near P Cygni and Sadr in the constellation Cygnus. The inset image is a cropped enlargement of the cluster itself.

Messier 29 is thought to contain 50 or so stars and shines with a luminosity equal to 160,000 suns. It is has an estimated age of 10 million years as its five brightest stars are all Blue Giants. One of its stars is thought to be a binary Wolf-Rayet and Be pair. A very rare and exceptionally hot duo! It has a linear diameter across the cluster of approximately 11 light years and is thought to be between 4000 and 7200 light years distant from the Earth". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Giant Sunspot Group

Solar Cycle 25 - Sunspot Group - Captured 08 June 2021. Altair Astro 66mm Refractor on Star Adventurer Equatorial Mount. QHY5-11 mono camera. Stack of two SER videos. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"Pip recently processed data captured earlier in the month and has managed to bring out some of the detail in this giant group of sunspots pictured close to the solar limb. The image shows some surface granulation of the photosphere and the darkening of the solar disk towards the limb. To give some idea of scale, the big sunspot group near the top of the enlarged view below, is roughly the size of the Earth!" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The enlarged view of the sunspots provides hints of the churning convection cells that make up the photosphere which is visible in white light. The Sun's photosphere is composed of convection cells named granules, which are rising columns of superheated (5,800 °C) plasma. Each cell is about 1,000 km in diameter.  You can observe the the same granulation in the surface of  boiling liquids on Earth but on a much reduced scale. The solar plasma cools as it rises and then descends in the narrow spaces between the granules. This rise and fall  is repeated over and over again" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory..

Revenant of the Swan

 

P Cygni (34 Cygni) and also known as the ' Revenant of the Swan' - Hyper Giant Blue Variable Star in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan - 66mm Altair Starwave refractor with 0.6 x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600d DSLR at ISO 800. 3 minute RAW exposures. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

Plate solving. Credit:  Astrometry.net

"This interesting and highly luminous star is located between 5000 and 6000 light years distant and is moving away from us at nearly 9 km/sec. The star has a current magnitude of  4.8  (Absolute Mag -7.9) and may be seen from a dark site with the naked eye. This is incredible considering its vast distance from our Solar System.  P Cygni is extraordinary in many ways! It has a mass 37 times  and radius 76 times that of our Sun. It is 610,000 times more luminous than the Sun and this is the reason it can be seen from such a great distance. It is one of the most luminous stars known in the Milky Way.

The star is an irregular variable and has, over the past 500 years, shown major brightening. In recent times the variability has been less extreme and visual brightening is occurring at 0.15 of a magnitude per century. P Cygni is thought to be burning hydrogen in a shell around its core and if so is moving from hyper giant blue to red super giant stage all part of an evolutionary process as the star moves closer to its likely supernova. The life of a blue hyper giant star is short and violent and measured in millions rather than billions of years when compared with our Sun.

Because of its variability and extreme outbursts in the 17th century, the star was thought to be a recurring nova. Presumably it was named the the 'Revenant of the Swan' because it exhibited a repeated and unexpected return to life after multiple deaths or novae.

P Cygni gives it's name to a type of stellar spectrum that shows both absorption and emission in the profile. The emission line arises from a dense stellar wind near to the star, while the blue shifted absorption lobe is created where the radiation passes through circumstellar material rapidly expanding in the direction of the observer. As the star is quite bright we are hoping to use our transmission grating to obtain a spectrum later in the summer when Cygnus is on the meridian". - Kurt Thrust Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Scorpion

 

The Constellation Scorpius - Canon 600d DSLR and  18-55 efs lens at f=18mm f/5 on a fixed tripod. ISO 6400 - 10 light exposures of 18secs stacked using Sequator freeware. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"The constellation Scorpius the Scorpion is a favourite but unfortunately never rises high above our southern horizon at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Pip Stakkert captured this image from an upper floor window of the Observatory Visitor Centre. Our sponsors George and Anita Roberts have spoken of the wonders of seeing this constellation at much higher declination from the dark suburbs of Christchurch New Zealand" -  Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Partial Solar Eclipse over the Jodrell Plank Observatory 10 June 2021

 

The undulating surface of the Moon can be seen in this image. The uplifted rims of countless craters create this irregular lunar silhouette.

The Partial Solar Eclipse at about maximum as observed from Lowestoft. Taken with the 66mm Altair doublet refractor with a Baader white light filter and a QHY5-ll mono planetary camera all mounted on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. Image Credits: Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert.

" The weather was a bit mixed for this solar eclipse with the Sun disappearing behind heavy low level clouds for minutes at a time. Luckily, we were able to image the Moon passing in front of the Sun at about the time of maximum eclipse. On Wednesday the sky was a little clearer and we were able to capture a sunspot on the solar disk" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The sun is emerging from a period of low magnetic activity. Solar activity varies on a periodic 11 year cycle. The sun has been devoid of spots for some time, so it is nice to see a few sun spots indicating magnetic activity and the associated increase in auroral displays". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Noctilucent Clouds

 

"The weather at the Jodrell Plank Observatory has taken a turn for the better and Kurt and  the Plank Team have been beavering away in the sunshine preparing the kit for capturing Thursday's partial solar eclipse. After sunset and during astronomical twilight we witnessed a minor display of noctilucent clouds. During summer months noctilucent or night shining clouds may be seen after the sun sets and the sky darkens. they form high in the mesosphere between 76 and 85 kilometers above the earth. They require water vapour, dust and very cold temperatures in order for them to form. Because the temperatures at altitude are so low, the water vapour aided and abetted by the dust particles becomes tiny ice crystals at such high altitudes that they are illuminated by the sun below the horizon. Seen against the darker sky the clouds appear to shine. Increases in both natural and man made atmospheric pollution aid the creation of noctilucent clouds" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"Lets hope the weather stays fine for the partial solar eclipse. Don't forget to take a look at the sun at a about 11.00am on the10th June but always take care to protect your eyesight from the very real danger of harm. Never look at the sun, even briefly, without the use of an appropriate ISO rated solar filter and in no circumstances use a telescope or binoculars to view the sun.  A safe indirect method of viewing the eclipse is to use two pieces of card. Make a pinhole in one piece and hold it in front of the other piece,  The card with the hole in it is positioned sun-side of the other piece and moved to project an image of the sun on to the piece of card in shadow. The eclipse will show clearly along with any sunspots that are on display. Best of all this method does not require any direct viewing of the Sun and is therefore completely safe". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Ptolemy's Dragon

 

The constellation Draco - a stack of 6x1minute exposures at f= 18mm and ISO 1600 - Canon 600 DSLR on the Star Adventurer equatorial mount. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

Credit: Astrometry.net plate solver

" Very few people asked to point out the stars that make up the constellation Draco the Dragon would be able to do so. The dragon's stars are not particularly bright and the shape is difficult to recognise amongst the many stars in this part of the sky. If you would like to see Draco for yourself, first find the pole star Polaris. The constellation is circum-polar from the Northern Hemisphere and sits between  Ursa Minor- the Pole star and the constellation Hercules".

- Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

" The maximum peak for the Lyrid Meteor shower was expected last night. It was a poor night for meteor imaging with a waxing gibbous Moon washing out all but the brightest. We did manage to see one fireball but we were unable to image it". - Pip Stakkert - Imaging Team Leader/