Moon and Venus Conjunction

" It is a very cold night here on the coast but well worth braving the low temperatures to witness the conjunction between the crescent Moon and the planet Venus. Sadly, however hard we tried, we could not capture a photograph that really did it justice. What a beautiful sight for free!" - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Dust and Ionised Molecular Gas - what stars are made from!

" When we took a closer look at the data we realised that what we first thought was camera electronic noise was indeed copious amounts of molecular gas and dust . The gas is ionised by the bright hot stars and radiates strongly at the Hydrogen Alpha wavelength.We therefore decided to re-construct the Orion Constellation and Dagger images to show the full extent of the otherwise faint to the eye nebulosity". Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Orion the Hunter

The Constellation Orion - Canon 600d DSLR with EF75-300 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. (ISO800 - 35 x 3min lights stacked) Credits:  Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert

Orion's Dagger hanging from his belt - Altair Astro 66mm Doublet Refractor - Canon 600d DSLR on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. (ISO800 - 40x3min lights and 20x 30sec lights stacked and blended) Credits:L Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert

" After a long wait we finally had three nights of good weather which enabled the team to get some images of the constellation Orion the Hunter. The skies were clear but the temperature remained low so we were  grateful to the Observatory's Instrumentation Engineer, Jolene Mcquint-Fleming, for the excellent and effective lens and telescope dew heaters which she constructed last autumn. 

Orion is a winter constellation in the Northern Hemisphere and a favourite constellation at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Orion is home to molecular gas clouds, copious amounts of dust and is one of the nearest stellar nurseries. The above two images clearly show features of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex including: Barnards Loop, The Flame Nebula, The Horsehead Nebula, The Running Man Nebula and Messier 42 (the Orion Nebula). - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Alpha Orionis or Betelgeuse- Credits: telescope.org. Open University- COAST Robotic Telescope Mount Teide and Pip Stakkert

 " Betelguese is a semi-regular variable star and red super-giant. It's usual observed range of  variablity (changing apparent magnitude or brightness) is between +0.0 and +1.3 (log scale in which larger positive numbers imply lower brightness). 

Over the last year Beteguese has dimmed considerably and is currently down to magnitude +1.506. There has been much discussion as to whether this dimming is a precursor to the star going supernova.

 Betelgeuse left the 'main sequence' of its stellar life about one million years ago and has been a red giant star for approximately 40,000 years. It is likely, at some time in the future, when much of its hydrogen has been used in the fusion process, that its core will collapse and the star will explode in a massive supernova. This tumultuous event is not likely to occur for tens of thousands of years but when it does this point of light as viewed from Earth, will shine as bright as the full Moon. Thankfully Betelgeuse is some 700 light years distant which means our life preserving atmosphere will be safe from the torrent of high energy particles and ultraviolet light created in the violence of its core collapse". - Karl Seguine - Jodrell Plank Observatory Community outreach coordinator.

The Best Jodrell Plank

Credit: Pip Stakkert

"Very little 'Astro Action' has been possible here on the east coast. The weather has been quite poor and the unfortunate coincidence of strong moonlight with clear nights has made imaging quite difficult. As a result Pip Stakkert has had a lot of spare time on his hands!  I asked him to put together a composite image of some of the better images captured over the last five years here at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. How many can you identify"? - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower 2020

Composite image showing the two metors captured by the Canon 600d DSLR with EFS 18-55 lens  at f=18mm on a fixed tripod. Stacked 15 sec lights at ISO1600

Meteor to the right of Polaris the Pole Star

Meteor to the left of Alcor and Mizar

 "The Moon set at about midnight and in the following three hours I observed 24 Quadrantid Meteors over the Jodrell Plank Observatory. A few were quite bright and one left a trail that lasted for about a second. A good night to start the 2020 observing year!" Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

For more information please follow the links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrantids 
https://sites.google.com/yahoo.co.uk/thelvst/sporadic-meteors-and-meteor-showers