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.