Bragging about your daughter's beauty can have serious consequences!

 

The constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus and Andromeda, Fixed tripod mounted Canon 400d DSLR with zoom lens at f=18mm. Stacked image cropped. Credit: Karl Segin.

" As far as I can remember, Queen Cassiopeia was 'bigging up' her daughter Andromeda's beauty and right jarred off the goddess Hera. As a consequence Andromeda got  chained to a rock at the seaside awaiting the the arrival of the Kraken, a beast known for its insatiable hunger and a taste for young ladies from good families. It would have ended rather badly but for the timely arrival of Perseus, a strapping Greek lad, astride a winged horse named Pegasus. Perseus, armed only with a shield and the Gorgon's head in a sack, turned the Kraken to stone. Literally petrified!  The Milky Way runs through the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus and there is much to see with dust and nebulosity in ready supply"- Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Rho Ophiuchi Star Clouds

 

Rho Ophiuchi star clouds of gas and dust associated with Antares. Canon 600d DSLR and 135mm Samyang lens on a Star Adventurer EQ mount. A stack of 6x30sec lights.at ISO800. Image Credit Pip Stakkert.

"Pip used all the specialist software on this data to bring out the emission and reflection nebulae in this interesting area of the Summer night sky, that unfortunately never rises high above our southern horizon  here in Lowestoft. He also managed to show the many dust clouds and lanes that permeate this area of space. The data was stacked using AffinityPhoto2 and then processed using it and Starnet GUI, Topaz Denoise AI, GradientXterminator, Image Plus 6.5 and Astro Sharp AI.  A note of gratitude to Professor Ian Morison for his excellent website Professor Morison's Astronomy Digest www.ianmorison.com - It is a treasure trove of astro-imaging information!" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Antares rival of Mars

 

The red supergiant star Antares and globular star clusters Messier 4 and NGC6411. Canon 600d DSLR and 135mm Samyang lens on a Star Adventurer EQ mount. Credit Kurt Thrust.

"The star Antares in the constellation Scorpius, never gets very high above the southern horizon as viewed from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. We managed to get a window of opportunity for about forty minutes after midnight on the 13th of June. Antares and it's attendant globular star clusters, sit within part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex of gas and dust." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Artificial Intelligence in outer space

 

The Milky Way with the Andromeda Galaxy in the distance. Fixed tripod mounted Canon 400d DSLR with EOS18-55mm zoom lens at f=18mm. Data captured at
 Les Granges, Provence, France. Processing reworked using AI based software. Image credit; Karl Segin community out-reach coordinator.

" Latest advances in machine learning have enabled the use of software applications which apply the incredible power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve signal to noise ratios and 'deblur' astronomical images.  For the first time ever, we have used a combination of  three separate AI systems to create the above widefield image of the Summer Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxies. The software used was Starnet GUI, Astrosharp and Topaz Denoise AI. 

Additional  more conventional processing was carried out using AffinityPhoto2. 

All sharpening of the image was carried out by the AI based Astrosharp freeware. The stars are sharper and the nebulosity better defined whilst noise has been controlled . We shall be using AI systems more and more as time goes by!" - Karl Segin community out-reach coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Orion Molecular Cloud and Running Man Nebulae

 

Rework of old data captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory using
the remarkable freeware Starnet GUI. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" As the weather continues to be poor and the clouds unbroken over the Jodrell Plank Observatory, Pip has busied himself by reprocessing old data. The Great Molecular cloud in the constellation Orion the Hunter is an interesting area of nebulosity sporting many new bright young blue stars and much ionised gas". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Newly Acquired QHY5111462c Planetary Video Camera- First light.

 

Sunspot activity on the Solar photosphere 04:06:2023. 66mm ED Altair Astro Lightwave refractor and Baader Solar white light filter. QHY5111462c planetary camera all on Star Adventurer EQ mount. 

Annotated version of image above image. Information Credit: Soho Solar Observatory. Image Credit: Pip Stakkert.

 " All the astronomy team at the Jodrell Plank Observatory would like to thank our sponsor Anita Roberts for sanctioning the expenditure for the new high speed low light planetary video camera, which was used for the first time today, to produce these trial images of the Sun. We are all looking forward to using the new camera in concert with the 127mm Apo Refractor telescope for imaging  Jupiter and Saturn in the Autumn". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Detail crop showing cell granulation of the solar photosphere and sunspot groups 3321 and 3323