The Summer Triangle

The Asterism - 'The Summer Triangle'- Canon 600d DSLR with EOS 18-55mm lens at f=18mm - mounted on a Star Adventurer Equatorial mount.(stacked images) - credit Kurt Thrust

"An asterism is a word used to describe a pattern of stars visually recognisable from the Earth. An 'asterism' although similar to a 'constellation' differs in that a 'constellation' is an officially recognised area of the sky. asterisms come in all shapes and sizes from small to large. The 'Summer Triangle' is a very large asterism,  a triangular pattern of three 'alpha stars' taken from three separate constellations:  Deneb from Cygnus the Swan,Vega from Lyra the Lyre and Altair from Aquila the Eagle. In the 1950s the 'Summer Triangle' was popularised by the American author Hans Augusto Rey and the British astronomer, author and television presenter Sir Patrick Moore". - Archie Mendes - visiting theoretical astronomer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory - Reydon University - 'School of Computer Modelling and Difficult Sums' 
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The Milky Way running through Cygnus and Messier 31-the Andromeda Galaxy - Canon 600d DSLR with EOS 18-55mm lens at f=18mm - mounted on a Star Adventurer Equatorial mount.(stacked images) - credit Kurt Thrust

"The above images were taken on the 13th August 2018 from beside Windermere in the Lake District. I was trying to photograph Perseid Meteors but although I managed to see  10 or more over three hours of observation, none were evident on the the many frames captured by my camera. The night skies in the Lake District were very dark but the weather and levels of condensation I experienced made me very happy to return to Lowestoft on the East Coast". - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

More Aurora

Aurora over Reykjavik Fjord October 2017 - Credit Kurt Thrust -Tripod mounted 600d Canon DSLR -ISO1600 - 3 sec RAW exposure

" A happy memory from last year -out and about from the Jodrell Plank Observatory chasing astronomical events world wide." - Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

NGC1964 Spiral Galaxy in Lepus the Hare

NGC1964 Barred Spiral Galaxy Credit : COAST automatic autonomous telescope - telescope.org - Open University - image by Kurt Thrust

Heat Map -NGC1964 Barred Spiral Galaxy Credit : COAST automatic autonomous telescope - telescope.org - Open University - image by Kurt Thrust

"NGC1964 is the main galaxy in the NGC1964 Group. It is approximately 100,000 light years across and is some 65million light years distant in the constellation Lepus the Hare. At the centre of the galaxy is a super massive black hole with an estimated mass of 2.5 x 10^7 the mass of our Sun.
The galaxy has two tightly wound inner spiral arms within a disk with high surface brightness and two outer, more open spiral arms that originate near the inner ring. The outer arms have a few small H11 areas." - Kurt Thrust -acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

NGC2403 Spiral Galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis

NGC2403 Intermediate Spiral Galaxy Credit : COAST automatic autonomous telescope - telescope.org - Open University - image by Archie Mendes

Heat Map NGC2403 - Credit : COAST automatic autonomous telescope - telescope.org - Open University - image by Archie Mendes

 
"Also known as Caldwell 7, NGC2403 is an outlying member of the Messier 81 Group of Galaxies. It is approximately 50,000 light years across and is some 8million lightyears distant in the dim constellation Camelopardalis. NGC2403 contains numerous star forming regions. According to our neighbour Mr Shrodinger, NGC2403 is visible in 10x50 binoculars but I have been unable to spot it in 11x80 binoculars from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. This galaxy is strikingly similar to Messier 33 in the constellation Triangulum". - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory
 

M33 Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum - taken from Les Granges - France - Credit :Olly Penrice and George Roberts

 

NGC 2207 and IC2163 Interacting Galaxies in Canis Major

NGC2207 and IC2163 80million light years away in the constellation Canis Major. Credit : COAST automatic autonomous telescope - telescope.org - Open University - image by Pip Stakkert

" The two barred galaxies in this image are in the early stages of colliding and merging. Both galaxies are recognizably separate . NGC2207 is in the process of tidally stripping IC2163 and in about one billion years from now they are expected to merge and form an elliptical galaxy or possibly a disk galaxy. Both galaxies contain massive amounts of gas and dust and as a result of the gravitational impact upon each other there is evidence of rapid star formation. Four Supernovae have been observed in NGC 2207 since 1975.  The collision of these two galaxies is of particular interest as it is thought to reflect the probable fate and merger between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy." - Archie Mendes - visiting theoretical astronomer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory - Reydon University - 'School of Computer Modelling and Difficult Sums' 

Fantastic Image by the Hubble Space Telescope of NGC2207 and IC2163 -Credit:By NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI) - http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9941a/http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/41/image/a/ (direct link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3603786