Messier 87

Messier 87- 127mm Meade Apo Refractor - 0.8x focal reducer and field flattener - Canon 600D DSLR -20x2 minute lights at ISO 1600 Credits: Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert

" The clouds were racing across the sky and there was too much moonlight (half phase) but we did so want to capture a widefield image of Messier 87 - so we did"!- Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory'

Enlargement of M 87 taken from the above widefield image - showing hints of the plasma jet moving away from the central black hole at nearly the speed of light. Credit: Pip Stakkert

The Realm of Galaxies - Constellations Coma Berenices and Virgo

Galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. 127mm Apo Refractor, Canon 600d DSLR guided with a QHYL-11. 6x5 minute exposures at ISO800. Meteor or space debris bottom right corner. Credits: George Roberts and Pip Stakkert

"Coma Berenices, Queen Berenices hair, is a constellation north of the constellation Virgo and east of Leo Major. The galaxy NGC 4477  marks the most northerly of a group of galaxies that run south into Virgo. These galaxies form the Virgo Cluster and run in a line known as Markarian's Chain. The galaxies in my image are over 55 million light years distant. A very long way away indeed!" - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

" A fantastic week for Einstein as the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, an array of radio telescopes at various locations around the world, has directly imaged a black hole and its event horizon at a radio wavelength of 1.3 millimetres. For comparison 'green light' which is midway on the spectrum visible to the human eye has a wavelength of 0.00053 millimetres. The black hole is an absolute monster with a mass 4.3 million times that of our Sun.  It is located in the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 approximately 54 million light years distant from our Earth. M 87 is also known as NGC 4486 and Virgo A and is famous for having a plasma jet projecting from its central core. We hope the weather improves at the Jodrell Plank Observatory for us to image 'Virgo A' using the 127mm apo refractor and we also have a request lodged with the COAST Robotic Telescope on Mount Teide. Exciting times for astronomers and the late Albert who would have been pleased to know 'General Relativity' holds up' even under extreme duress at the event horizon!"  - Archie Mendes - visiting theoretical astronomer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Messier object 87 by the Hubble Space Telescope. This is the galactic core shown as a composite image of visible and infrared observations in order to resolve the blue plasma jet. The field of view is about 1.5 arc minutes across, the jet extends to about a third of an arc minute (or 20 arc seconds) with a width of about 2 arc seconds (absolute length 5 kly at a distance of 53 Mly Credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope WikiSky

The Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration, captured this image of the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy M87 and its shadow. Credit: EHT Collaboration and National Science Foundation

Dusty Star Field

Messier 104 The Sombrero Galaxy in the Constellation Virgo Credit: COAST Robotic Telescope BVR filters -telescope.org - Open University and Pip Stakkert

" Messier 104 is a lenticular galaxy which is seen edge on as viewed from the Earth. It is so named because with it's prominent dust ring and large central bulge it resembles the 'Mexican Hat'. M 104 is about one third the size of our Milky Way and at it's centre there is a super massive black hole. The black hole's mass estimated by analysis of the speed of revolution of stars in the central bulge is calculated to be equivalent to 1 billion times that of our Sun. The Sombrero Galaxy is approximately 30 million light years distant and has a diameter of 50,000 light years. The central dust lane is particularly striking through the eyepiece of even quite modest telescopes as the dark dust is seen against the exceptionally bright central bulge. Messier 104 has a large number of attendant globular star clusters. From the observation of many galaxies, astronomers have concluded that the number of globular star clusters is related to the size of the central galactic bulge.  In the 'Spitzer Telescope Infra Red' image of Messier 104 the dust lane (shown pink) can be seen to encircle the central bulge, in addition to dust this ring contains cold atomic hydrogen gas. The ring is a primary site for star creation within the galaxy." - Archie Mendes - visiting theoretical astronomer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory 

"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff" - Carl Sagan

By NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona) and the SINGS Team - http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/1425-ssc2005-11a3-Spitzer-Spies-Spectacular-Sombrero, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57775432

Made in Slough

Mars at opposition in 2014 - 127mm. Meade Apo- refractor - Credit George Roberts and Pip Stakkert.

" This year and for the past few years, the major planets have been quite low in the sky as viewed from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Whilst archiving some old images taken by our sponsor from the Observatory in 2014, I came across this image of Mars with Syrtis Major on display. Pip Stakkert has spent some time reworking the data to create the above dramatic image. Both polar caps are clearly visible and white cloud sits upon the limb". - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.