Mars and Uranus widefield

Widefield image from the Jodrell Plank Observatory captures the planet Uranus along with Mars. Credit; Pip Stakkert

"Pip realised that if he processed the data differently he would be able to show the visibly faint and distant planet Uranus. Uranus is so far away that it took the reflected sunlight we captured over four hours to reach us. As light travels at approximately 300,000 km per second, you might consider how big the Solar System actually is and in terms of  our galaxy the Solar System is a tiny locality!" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Mars in the November Sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory

 

The planet Mars shining red and bright over the Jodrell Plank Observatory late on the 13th November 2022. Images were captured using a fixed tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR and a Sigma EX wide angle zoom lens at f=10mm. 10x 30 sec RAW lights were captured at ISO1600 and were stacked using Sequator freeware. The image was then cropped and processed using Affinity Photo, GraXpert, GradientXTerminator ' APS and Topaz Denoise AI. Image credit: Pip Stakkert.

Annotated copy of image. Constellations shown in yellow text, star clusters in blue-green, the Moon in white and Mars in red. 

"What a beautiful night last night was! The Moon is waning but still provided sufficient light to illuminate the paving leading to the Observatory Visitors Centre. By 11:00pm ,the bright stars of the constellation Orion were visible over the rooves and hedging that defines our southern boundary. Every two years or so,  Mars and Earth in their respective orbits line up on one side of the Sun. This is called being at 'Opposition'  and is the time when the two planets are closest to each other. Mars will be at opposition at the beginning of December. Because both planets follow elliptical rather than circular orbits, some oppositions are closer than others. For this opposition, Mars is not as close as at opposition two years ago but Mars is much higher in the sky for Northern hemisphere viewers in 2022. We are therefore, hoping to get some very detailed images when we point the big refractor at Mars later in the month. Mars is easily seen with the naked eye and can be imaged with a mobile phone, so why not have a go"? - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Horsehead and the Flame Nebula.

 

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. Old data captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory re-worked using Starnet GUI and Affinity Photo software by Pip Stakkert.

" Probably my favourite star field in the the winter night sky. The constellation Orion can now be seen rising each night in the east and dominating the winter night sky when we looked to the south. The above image highlights the bright star Alnitak (centre left) which is the left star in Orion's Belt of three 'naked eye' stars. If you look closely you will see that Alnitak is a double star with a small companion. Below and to the left of Alnitak is the Flame Nebula a vast cloud of ionised hydrogen gas crossed by dark lanes of cold interstellar dust. The dark Horsehead Nebula is also an area of  cold dust that sits between us and the ionised gas behind it creating the iconic equine silhouette. Given some better weather on a Moon free night, we will endeavour to capture some more data in and around the fabulous constellation Orion." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Credit for Star Map - FreeStarCharts.com

Deneb and Summer Milky Way

 

Deneb Alpha Cygni and the Summer Milky Way. Fixed tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR and 18-55mm EFS  zoom lens at f=18mm. Stack of 30 second lights at ISO1600.

" The Jodrell Plank Observatory Team has processed this data set in a number of ways using a number of different software packages to bring out the dust and ionised nebulosity. This is my personal favourite." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory..

James Webb Space Telescope - Emission Nebula - Pillars of Creation in he Constellation Serpens- Messier 16

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.

Newly formed stars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years

Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.

This is also the reason why there are almost no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window – the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.

Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.

The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.

Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center. 

James Webb Space Telescope

Credits:

SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

"The team at the Jodrell Plank Observatory has been amazed by the quality of the data being produced by the James Webb Space Telescope. The above image shows an emission nebula in the constellation Serpens that can be seen from the Jodrell Plank Observatory during the Summer. Imaging in the near infra-red has enabled the views of embryonic stars, where fusion has  just commenced, to be seen through the copious clouds of dust. The detail visible is just astonishing and a tribute to the engineers and scientists that designed and constructed the James Webb Space Telescope and got it into space and a stable orbit" - Joel Cairo CEO o the Jodrell Plank Observatory. 
 

"I have been asked many times as to whether the colours shown in space images are 'real' or what you would see with your eye. In truth your eye-brain combination is a fabulous bit of kit but does not function well in colour under low light conditions. The eye is most sensitive to green light at 555nm. so when looking through the eyepiece of a telescope at faint objects like nebula, most look green. Visible light is  electro-magnetic radiation between the wavelengths 400 to 700 nanometers(nm). Below 400nm there is Ultra violet, X-ray and Gamma radiation. Above 700nm there is infra-red , microwave and radio radiation. 

Scientists and engineers design cameras to capture electromagnetic radiation in greyscale at different ranges of wavelengths.  They also incorporate filters with these cameras which allow parts of the range to be separated out and assigned a colour.  The colour camera on your phone works this way with red, green and blue filters overlaid on a greyscale imaging chip.

The NIRCam mid infra- red camera used to capture the above image used several filters to sample different infra-red wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:    Purple: F090W, Blue: F187N, Cyan: F200W, Yellow: F335M, Orange: F444W, Red: F470N." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.