Christmas at the UK's most easterly Observatory.

 

" The Jodrell Plank Observatory will be closed over the Christmas Holiday but we hope to be back in the New Year with a new bit of astro-kit on display. Thanks to all our readers around the world and we hope you will join us again in 2025". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.                         

Messier 45 in the Constellation Taurus

 

The Pleiades open star cluster visible within the stars of Taurus. Image Credit: Pip Stakkert

"Last night there was a three hour break in the clouds over Oulton Broad and Messier45, or the Pleiades open star cluster, was visible above the Observatory. As we have never imaged this target at a low to intermediate focal length, we decided to give it a go. The image is from a stack of 1 minute and 2 minute exposures at ISO1600. Just over 2 hours of data in total was used to create the image. The equipment employed was: a modded Canon 200d DSLR, a triband filter and a Samyang 135mm F2 lens, (the F ratio was increased by using filter rings). The cluster is quite close to us at 444 light years and is clearly visible to the naked eye on a dark and clear winter's night. The 'reflection nebulosity' is being created by starlight reflected from a cloud of gas, which the hot blue cluster stars are currently moving through. The reflection nebula cannot be seen with the naked eye but if you can see and count seven stars you have excellent eyesight". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

'The Seven Sisters' reprocess, rotate and crop. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust

" In the end, Messier45 is all about the nebulous gas cloud the cluster is currently moving through. I therefore asked Kurt Thrust to reprocess the data and emphasise the 'wispy nebulosity' which surrounds the brighter elements" - Carl Segine  Outreach Officer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

'It's all about the gas' Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

The remarkable software - StarSpikes4 Pro - Adding lustre to our clusters!

 

Messier 45, The Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Imaged from the JPO. Data credit Pip Stakkert. Processing Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Castor and Pollux Constellation Gemini. Imaged from the JPO. Data credit: Pip Stakkert. Processing credit: Kurt Thrust.

Widefield version Messier 45, The Pleiades or Seven Sisters. Imaged from the JPO. Data credit: Pip Stakkert. Processing Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Messier 31 Group of Galaxies in the Constellation Andromeda. Imaged from the JPO. Combined image, using data captured with a 66mm Doublet Refractor and a 135mm Samyang lens.(Canon 600d DSLR). Data Credit: Pip Stakkert. Processing Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" Many thanks to friend of the JPO, Prof Greg Parker, for recommending the excellent software StarSpikes4 Pro. The application of this software is a 'gamechanger' in adding heightened sparkle and colour to stars. Literally StarSpikes4 Pro adds lustre to our clusters"! - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Caldwell 14 or NGC 869 and NGC 884 on an autumnal night over Lowestoft. - 'The data rides again'!

The Double Cluster - widefield. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

The Double Cluster cropped. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" Pip Stakkert wasn't at all pleased with Kurt Thrust's processing of the data in our last post. He has been badgering me all week to let him have a go at reprocessing the data and today I finally relented and let him have his turn. In my opinion these images are far superior to Kurt's". - Joel Cairo CEO at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Caldwell 14 or NGC 869 and NGC 884 on an autumnal night over Lowestoft.

The Double Cluster or Caldwell 14 in Perseus.
Canon 600d DSLR with F2 Samyang lens f=135mm
on a Star Adventurer EQ mount.: Image credit: Kurt Thrust

 " A very nice clear night in Lowestoft on 24-10-2024 but the rising Moon was a bit of a problem. We decided to image the Double Cluster, NGC 869 and NGC 884 using a widefield format. The above image was created by stacking 60x60 sec exposures at ISO800. Part of the Heart and Soul Nebula is visible top right. On another clear night we may try to image both, in one field or create a two pane mosaic." - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory ' The UK's most easterly observatory' 

Cropped and reworked detail

What an exciting week at the UK's most easterly Observatory!

 

 Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS photographed, just after sunset on the 14th of October 2024, from St Michael's Church, Oulton Broad Suffolk. Tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR with Canon F1.4 f=50mm lens at ISO1600. - image credit Joel Cairo and the away team.

" The whole Jodrell Plank Observatory team has been taking good advantage of the few weather windows over Lowestoft to enable them to capture images of the recent  Auroral activity and the splendid Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). The cometary images were captured from the graveyard at St Michael's Church Oulton Broad, which provides one of the few unobstructed western horizons near to the Observatory. Our sponsors; Anita and George Roberts, joined the team at the church to view the comet and bearing in mind their great age, it was good to see them still getting out, ah bless!  Anita met a former pupil  and now teacher at the local school, Charlotte, who was excited to share her experience of viewing the comet with her nursery class. We hope these images engage the youngsters in her care.

The comet has survived its recent encounter with the Sun and is heading back out into deep space only to return thousands of year in the future.

The tail on this comet is the longest we have seen over Lowestoft and as a gauge of scale, covered an area of sky, observable to the naked eye, equivalent to that covered by the three bright stars; Alkaid, Mizar and Alioth, which form the 'handle' of the Plough asterism." -

Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

In this separate exposure, you can just make out the anti-tail pointing down and right towards the Sun
Image credit: Kurt Thrust

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS - image credit: Pip Stakkert

" A few nights before the appearance of the comet, the whole team was mobilised at about midnight to witness and image the most incredible display of the Aurora over Oulton Broad. To see such a display at latitude 52.47 degrees North is both exceptional and a witness to the high levels of magnetic activity within the layers of the Sun's atmosphere. The aurora was visible to the naked eye as dancing curtains and rapidly changing rays and the sky from west through north to east was alight with a red rosy glow. We have literally hundreds of images which our 'imaging technician' Pip Stakkert is currently processing for future blog posts.  The following was taken from Sands Lane, just outside the Observatory, and gives some idea of the activity on the night and Morning 10th and 11th October 2024." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Auroral Curtain, early hours 11_10_2024, tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR with Canon F1.4 f=50mm EOS lens. image credit: Kurt Thrust

Cassiopeia the Queen of the Night

 

The Constellation Cassiopeia (The big 'W' asterism in the Northern Sky)
A compilation - 3 pane, widefield image.
Captured with the Jodrell Plank Observatory's mini-rig : Canon 600d DSLR
with a 135mm F2 Samyang Lens all on a Star Adventurer EQ mount.
  - Image Credit: Pip Stakkert

" What a marvelous clear and steady sky, early morning in Lowestoft on the 29th of September 2024. The whole Jodrell Plank team team were out under the stars, including a guest appearance by the elusive Comet, our neighbour Mr. Schrodinger's cat. We all enjoyed observing and recording the wonderful and most beautiful constellation Cassiopeia 'The Queen of the Night'.

Pip Stakkert set about using the Observatory's un-modded camera to record 30 minutes of one minute duration exposures at ISO1600 of three separate but overlapping areas of the constellation Cassiopeia. This part of the night sky is awash with stars and nebulosity. We were pleased to have recorded the bright emission nebula NGC281 (aka The Pacman Nebula) and the reflection nebula around the bright variable star Gamma Cassiopeia (centre star of the 'W' asterism). A number of open star clusters, including the magnificent M103 with its central red giant star, can be seen in the completed compilation image." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"When I look up at the very distinctive 'W' asterism, which forms the 'bones' of the constellation Cassiopeia, I am reminded of the character, 'The Queen of the Night' in my favourite opera 'The Magic Flute' by Mozart" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Andromeda and Perseus rising in Northern Hemisphere autumnal skies.

 

The M31 group of Galaxies in Andromeda : Canon 600D DSLR and Samyang 135mm F2 lens reduced with filter rings. Stack of 60x1min exp at ISO1600.

" The early morning hours of the 29-09-2024 were both clear and steady, so excellent conditions for astro-imaging. Now the M31 group of galaxies is a bit of a astro-imaging cliche but however many times the Astro-team at the Jodrell Plank Observatory photograph it, each year in autumn when the constellation Andromeda rides high, someone just has to point a camera in its direction. This year Kurt could not help using the Samyang 135mm lens to provide a wider field of view of  M31, M110 and M32. There are just so many stars in this part of the sky that we decided to use software to reduce the brightness and number of stars. We also captured some photons from 'in and around' Andromeda's mum (aka the constellation Cassiopeia) which await processing by Pip Stakkert - but more of that later." -Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Sadr Gamma Cygni

 

Pip Stakkert used two cameras; an astro-modded Canon 200d DSLR and an un-modded Canon 600d DSLR and a Samyang F2 135mm fixed lens to image the area around the star Sadr in the constellation Cygnus. The data was processed and stacked by Jolene McSquint-Fleming using Affinity Photo 2 (with James Ritson's macros), GraXpert AI and Starnet GUI. The sets of data were combined using Registar software and star diffraction effects were added using StarSpikes Pro4.

Credit: Astrometry. net

Spectral Profile of the  F8 spectral class star Sadr -Captured and processed
at the Jodrell Plank Observatory
by Kurt Thrust on the 26-08-2024 using the transmission grating spectrometer
designed and constructed by our resident engineer Jolene McSquint-Fleming

"Sadr is visible to the naked from the Northern Hemisphere during the summer and early autumn. It appears as a yellowish white star some 1800 light years distant and sits at he intersection of the stars in the constellation Cygnus, which make the asterism 'The Northern Cross'. The Sadr region sits within the Summer Milky Way and is awash with ionised gas and dark dust lanes. Two nebulae of note are  IC1318 (also known as the Butterfly Nebula) and NGC6888 (aka the Crescent Nebula).

Sadr is a beast of a Super Giant star with a mass over 14 times and a radius of over 180 times that of our Sun. It is on the 'main sequence', is fusing hydrogen at its core at a prodigious rate and emitting energy 133,00 times faster than the Sun. It is also the A component of a gravitationally bound multi-star system. 

NGC 6910 is a lose open star cluster first discovered by John Herschel and is located east-north--east of Sadr. It requires a telescope or large binoculars to resolve individual stars.

The Crescent Nebula (Credit: The Robotic PIRATE Telescope, Open Observatories, telescope .org Image captured remotely by Kurt Thrust.
with annotation identifying the Wolf-Rayet star HD192163 or WR136

If you look carefully at our top widefield image of the region around Sadr you will notice the Crescent Nebula and the Wolf Rayet star towards it's centre. The Crescent Nebula is approximately 5000 light years distant. It has been formed by the fast stellar wind from the Wolf-Rayet star colliding with  the slower moving wind ejected by the star when it became a red giant some hundreds of thousands of years ago. The collision has created a shell and two shock waves, one moving outward and one moving inward. The inward moving shock wave heats the stellar wind to X-ray-emitting temperatures. Jolene hopes in the very near future to capture the spectral profile of a Wolf Rayet star, which exhibit high temperatures and broad spectral emission lines of ionised; Helium, Nitrogen and Carbon. ". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Saturn September 2024

 

               

    

            

                       

"127mm Meade Apo refractor, Televue x3 Barlow and QHY5111462c camera.  Early hours of the 12th Sept 2024 taken from Outon Broad Suffolk. Clear skies but turbulent so achieving focus was difficult at F23. Software used: SharpCap 4.1, PIPP, AS!3, Registax6, Affinity Photo2 and AstroSharp and Clean.

The whole Jodrell Plank team were out, in force in the early hours of the 12th of September, to capture our first video clips this year of the majestic planet Saturn. What was very noticeable was by how much Saturn's rings had closed since we last imaged the planet! The solar system is a very dynamic system. As an unexpected bonus we were able to image four of the planet's moons; Rhea, Tethys, Enceladus and Dione.

Before we closed down our operations for the night, we used the 127mm telescope to obtain spectra for the stars: Vega, Altair, Tarazed and Ashlain." - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

      

                    

Summer Delights 2024

 

Rho Ophiuchi Star Clouds
from a hotel balcony in Sicily 2024

Altair, Tarazed and Barnards E
from the Jodrell Plank Observatory 2024

A Perseid Fireball piercing the Summer Triangle
from the Jodrell Plank Observatory 2024

When we could see it from the Jodrell Plank Observatory,
the Sun was super active.

The Moon was mysterious and beautiful from the Thames Estuary
and the Jodrell Plank Observatory

" It is a shame that this summer has been so wet and cloudy on the East Coast of the United Kingdom.  However, you just have to thrust your hands into your pockets and get on with it" - Karl Segin outreach officer at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The full solar disc in white light

 

The full solar disc on the 15th of August 2024 compiled from a number
of individual panes selected from the best frames from a number of SER
video-clips. White light filter, Altair Astro 66mm ED refractor,
Meade red light filter No23A, Hydrogen alpha pass filter
and a QHY5-111462c planetary camera.

" Pip Stakkert really did the 'hard miles' to create a whole solar disc from the many video clips we captured from the Jodrell Plank Observatory (the UK's most easterly Observatory), on the 15th of August. The weather wasn't ideal for imaging because of the wispy high level cloud, which came and went in front of the Sun. 

This was the first time that we had stacked a red light filter and a hydrogen pass filter. We believe this improved the visibility of faculae and also the cellular nature of the photosphere. The Sun in our image, has a rather obvious orange peel texture". - Joel Cairo CEO the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Sun on the 15th of August 2024 imaged in white light.

" When you spend many a dark night trying to capture the faint light from stars light years away in the Universe, it is easy to forget that we live just 93 million miles away from our nearest star. The Sun is currently approaching 'solar maximum' and consequently has many sunspot groups rotating across its very bright solar disc (Photosphere).

Please do not stare at the Sun and NEVER point a telescope or binoculars at the Sun because at the very least you will permanently damage your sight.

Our instrumentation engineer, Jolene McSquint-Fleming, constructed the solar white light filters we use, which are sized to fit in front of the telescope objective lens. The video clips for the above images were  captured  using the Jodrell Plank Observatory's smallest telescope, the 66mm Altair Astro Lightwave ED refractor. The specialist video camera used was a QHY5-111462c. Between the telescope and the camera we positioned a Hydrogen Alpha pass filter and a Meade 4000 red filter No23A. Several one minute duration SER video clips were captured. The clips were stacked using AS!3 software to create still images from the best video frames. The data was then processed using Registax6, Affinity Photo2 and AstroSharp.

The large sunspot group shown in the above images is Sunspot Group 3784. A sunspot appears dark because it is at a lower temperature than the surrounding photosphere. It is also an area of concentrated magnetic activity. To provide scale, it is safe to say, that the largest spot in group 3784 could easily swallow the planet Earth!

If you look carefully at the widefield images above, you might notice the brighter spots and lines in the photosphere, which appear to link the sunspots. These features are most evident towards the solar limb (Sun's edge). They are called 'solar faculae'. Solar faculae are bright spots in the photosphere that form in the canyons between solar granules, short-lived convection cells several thousand kilometres across that constantly form and dissipate over timescales of several minutes. Faculae are produced by concentrations of magnetic field lines". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier4 Globular Star Cluster

 

Messier 4 in the constellation Scorpius. Credit: COAST Robotic Telescope,
Open University, Open Observatories, telescope.org

 

" This rather beautiful globular star cluster appears in our sky during mid-summer but very low and near to the southern horizon. The above image was captured recently, using the COAST robotic telescope, located much further south and at altitude on the island of Tenerife. The data was collected through BVR and Clear filters and was put together and processed, here at the Jodrell Plank Observatory, using Affinity Photo2 software.

A globular star cluster is a ball of ancient stars held together by gravity and usually located on the outer fringes of galaxies. Messier 4 is 75 light years across, approximately 6000 light years distant and as such is the nearest globular star cluster to the Earth. At the cluster's centre there may exist a black hole. Some of the oldest white dwarf stars in our galaxy reside in this cluster" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Altair, Tarazed and Barnard's E Dark Nebula.

The Stars; Altair and Tarazed and the dark nebula Barnard's E.
Canon 600d DSLR and 135mm Samyang lens all mounted on a
Star Adventurer EQ. A stack of 20 x1min subs at ISO800.
Image credit: Kurt Thrust and technical advice from Prof GP.

 "The Summer Triangle is a very obvious asterism in the summer sky over Lowestoft at the moment. Altair-Alpha Aquilae is the Summer Triangle star closest to the southern horizon. This part of the sky is literally full of stars, sometimes referred to as 'star-clouds' and these clouds are punctuated with dark nebulae. Dark nebulae are concentrations of dust and gas, which obscure the stars within and behind them.

The stars, Altair and Tarazed, are very different and have different spectra. This difference is obvious to the naked eye and manifest in the differences in colour. We used the spectrometer manufactured by the Observatory's instrumentation engineer, Jolene McSquint-Fleming, to obtain spectral profiles for these stars". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory. 

Spectra Credits: Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert.

Castor and Pollux - Alpha and Beta Geminorum

 

The constellation Gemini with the bright blue Castor and light orange hued Pollux (both top left)
A stack of light subs captured with a Star Adventurer EQ mounted Canon 600d DSLR with a fixed Canon 50mm lens. Image Credit: Pip Stakkert

 

" The stars Castor and Pollux are quite different and appear so to the naked eye.. 

Castor looks to be a single star but is in fact six stars bound gravitationally. Two of the larger and brighter component stars are of A spectral class and dominate the combined Castor spectrum. The  127mm refractor at the Jodrell Plank Observatory is easily able to separate these two stars.

Pollux is an evolved red giant star, that having used up it's supply of hydrogen, has commenced fusing helium at its core. The change requires the temperature to rise at the core and the whole star to increase in size. Pollux is of spectral class K.

The Jodrell Plank Observatory 127mm Refractor and 3d printed transmission grating spectrometer were used to capture spectral profiles of the two stars. Even a cursory inspection, shows how different the spectra are and the marked difference in surface temperature of Castor and Pollux. Although Pollux is much cooler than Castor, it appears brighter, mainly because its diameter and consequent surface area are both much larger than the equivalents for Castor." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Comparative low resolution spectral profiles with Planck Curves
 for Castor and Pollux.
Credit: Kurt Thrust and BASS Spectro software

A cropped section from the above widefield image of the Constellation
 Credit : Kurt Thrust

The Plough asterism from Alcor to Dubhe

 

Part of the Plough Asterism.
A two pane composite image captured with a tripod mounted
 un-modded Canon 600d DSLR and A Canon F1.4 f=50mm lens.
Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" The weather has been difficult for sometime here on the East Coast. We did not get to see the spectacular displays of the Aurora visible almost everywhere in the UK because of low fog and high level cloud. We did manage to image the huge sunspot group on the Sun's Disc which has been instrumental in the creation of the solar mass ejections and the spectacular auroral displays in the Earths atmosphere. We also managed to image the crescent Moon and the above asterism all through 'hazy' skies."  - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Image credit: Astrometry. net.

The Sun's Disc with huge sunspot group May 2024. 66mm Altair Lightwave doublet refractor with white light filter and QHY5-111462c camera. Image credit: Kurt Thrust

The Crescent Moon with earthshine over fields in Suffolk. Canon 600d DSLR with Canon F1.4 f=50mm lens. Image credit: Pip Stakkert

"Friends of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire very kindly sent us the following images of the Aurora taken with their smartphones" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.