NGC 7789 Caroline's Rose.

 

NGC 7789 Caroline's Rose Open Cluster in the Constellation Cassiopeia.
PIRATE Robotic Telescope BVR and Clear filters, Tenerife.
Data Credit: telescope.org, Open Observatories, Open University.
Image credit: Kurt Thrust 

" Caroline Herschel, the sister of the 18th century astronomer William, was an accomplished astronomer and observer in her own right. Amongst other things, she discovered eight comets and catalogued over 500 previously undiscovered stars. She was the first woman to be awarded the Gold Medal of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society in 1838.   A woman being recognised and accepted as a scientist in the 18th and 19th  centuries was quite unique and extraordinary"! - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Caroline Herschel:
image courtesy of the Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library and BBC News. 

"NGC 7789, often called Caroline’s Rose, represents one of the Milky Way’s most elegant open clusters, a stellar congregation whose appearance evokes the layered whorls of a rose when viewed through a telescope. Situated in the constellation Cassiopeia, the cluster lies roughly 7,600 light-years from Earth and contains several thousand stars spread across nearly a half-degree of sky. Though not as youthful as some open clusters, it remains dynamically rich: its stars span a range of evolutionary stages, from bright main-sequence members to numerous red giants that testify to the cluster’s intermediate age of around 1.6 billion years. This mixture produces an array of contrasting luminosities, giving the cluster its characteristic mottled structure and the visual illusion of floral petals.

The object’s historical significance is deeply linked to Caroline Herschel, the pioneering 18th-century astronomer who discovered it in 1783. Working from the Herschel family observatory in England, she methodically surveyed the northern sky with telescopes constructed by her brother, William Herschel, contributing some of the first systematic catalogs of star clusters and nebulae. Although her work was often overshadowed by her brother’s reputation, she distinguished herself as a precise and dedicated observer, ultimately becoming one of the first women recognized formally for contributions to astronomy.

Her discovery of NGC 7789 exemplifies the methodical and careful sky-mapping that characterized her work. Long before astrophysical interpretations of cluster ages, metallicity, or stellar evolution existed, she recognized the object as a coherent and noteworthy celestial assembly. Today, Caroline’s Rose remains both a physical laboratory for the study of stellar evolution and a historical monument to her scientific skill, perseverance, and enduring legacy in the advancement of observational astronomy" - Karl Segin outreach officer at the JPO (the UK's most easterly Observatory).

Joel's laptop memory is full

 

Comet E3 : Data Captured on the 29th January 2023 from the JPO
using a tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR. 

"Whilst cleaning out my laptop memory I came across some data from 2023. I ask Kurt to clean it up a bit and run it through some of our latest processing software. I rather liked this soft view of the comet heading out of the inner Solar System and against the backdrop of the stars of Ursa Minor" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"On the night of January 29, 2023, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could be seen moving quietly through the stars of the constellation Ursa Minor. This comet, visiting the inner solar system for the first time in about 50,000 years, displayed a glowing green coma caused by sunlight exciting carbon-based molecules in its atmosphere. Its faint tail stretched away from the Sun, shaped by the pressure of the solar wind. Against the backdrop of the Little Dipper, the comet appeared as a small but distinct traveler, reminding observers that the solar system is always in motion and that ancient objects still pass near Earth on their long journeys around the Sun.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has now receded far from Earth and faded dramatically from view. It currently lies deep in the southern sky and is only detectable with large telescopes, having dimmed to around magnitude +20 or fainter. Now more than a billion kilometres from Earth and continuing outward, it will spend thousands of years on its long trajectory before possibly returning to the inner Solar System—though gravitational influences and its extremely elongated orbit mean that its future path is uncertain and it may never come back at all".- Karl Segin outreach officer at the JPO.

See previous post from 2023 https://jodrellplankobservatory.blogspot.com/2023/02/long-period-comet-c2020-e3-ztf-in.html

The Sun on the 13th of November 2025

 

Sunspot Groups - 4234, 4235,4236 and 4237.
Seestar S30. Captured from the JPO
on the 13 Nov 2025 in a 1 minute video clip
stacked and cropped using PIPP, AS!3 and Affinity Photo software
Image Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" The weather continues poor in Lowestoft, so astro imagery has been more a novelty rather than routine at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Kurt has also been a bit unwell, so his usual driving enthusiasm for getting outside in the cold at the dead of night has been somewhat diminished.

We did have a brief opportunity to image the sun in white light using the Observatory's Seestar S30 robotic telescope and camera. The Sun was very low on our southern horizon and surrounded by wispy high level cloud". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.  

"Sunspots are surface expressions of intense magnetic flux tubes that have risen from the solar interior. The Sun’s outer convective layer continuously churns hot plasma and, because the Sun rotates faster at the equator than at the poles (differential rotation), magnetic field lines are stretched, twisted and sheared. When magnetic field lines become sufficiently concentrated and buoyant, they pierce the photosphere as paired regions of opposite polarity; where the magnetic field is strongest convection is suppressed and the photosphere cools locally, producing the darker sunspots we observe.

Sunspot groups (active regions) often contain many individual spots, penumbrae and surrounding bright plages; the most flare-productive regions have complex magnetic topologies (for example a βγδ classification), where strong opposite polarities are tightly intermingled. Rapid reconfiguration of those stressed magnetic fields — magnetic reconnection — releases huge amounts of energy as solar flares and can launch coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

We’re seeing a lot of activity right now because the Sun is near the maximum phase of Solar Cycle 25 (the 11-year solar cycle). During solar maximum the global solar dynamo produces more and larger magnetic flux concentrations, so the disk shows many more active regions and complex sunspot groups. In November 2025, AR 4274 has been especially prolific — producing multiple X-class flares and CMEs that pushed space weather to R3 (strong) and geomagnetic watches (G3–G4 levels). That’s exactly what you’d expect during a cycle peak: frequent, powerful flares and enhanced chances for geomagnetic storms and aurora". - Karl Segin outreach officer at the JPO.

Sunspots on November 11, 2025.
Credit: NASA SDO/HMI

The Perseus Galaxy Cluster

 

The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies. PIRATE robotic telescope.
BVR filters and Clear filter for luminance in LRGB format.
Data credit: telescope.org. Open Observatories, Open University.
Image Credit Kurt Thrust at the JPO.

Annotation by astrometry net.

" Kurt was so impressed with the Euclid Space Telescope images of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster that he decided to direct the PIRATE robotic telescope on Tenerife to image this impressive grouping of all types of galaxies. It's a proper galaxy zoo!". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Follow link for ESA Euclid images of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid/Euclid_s_view_of_the_Perseus_cluster_of_galaxies

Abell 426

"The Perseus Galaxy Group, more properly recognized as the Perseus Cluster (Abell 426), is one of the most massive and dynamically active galaxy aggregations in the nearby universe. Situated at a distance of approximately 70–75 megaparsecs (about 230 million light-years) in the direction of the constellation Perseus, this cluster forms a prominent node within the Perseus–Pisces Supercluster, a sprawling filamentary structure of galaxies and dark matter that spans hundreds of millions of light-years.

At its core lies the giant cD galaxy NGC 1275 (Perseus A), an active radio galaxy whose nucleus harbors a supermassive black hole with a mass on the order of hundreds of millions of solar masses. NGC 1275 dominates the cluster both optically and in the X-ray regime. It is enveloped by vast networks of filamentary gas—cool, ionized structures extending tens of kiloparsecs—that intertwine with regions of intense radio emission. These filaments are sustained by the interplay between radiative cooling of the intracluster medium (ICM) and feedback processes driven by the active galactic nucleus (AGN). Periodic outbursts from the central black hole inflate radio bubbles within the hot, X-ray–emitting plasma, generating acoustic ripples or weak shocks that dissipate energy into the surrounding medium.

The Perseus Cluster’s intracluster gas is among the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. Observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton reveal a turbulent, magnetized medium heated to temperatures exceeding 50 million Kelvin. The cluster’s X-ray brightness profile shows a cool-core structure, in which radiative cooling in the central region is partially balanced by AGN heating. This feedback equilibrium has made Perseus a benchmark system for the study of baryonic physics in galaxy clusters, particularly the regulation of cooling flows and star formation in massive galaxies.

Dynamically, the cluster exhibits evidence of ongoing mergers and substructure. The galaxy population includes a mix of massive ellipticals and lenticulars embedded in a diffuse halo of dark matter, with spirals more common at the periphery. The system is still accreting material from the surrounding cosmic web, and the gravitational potential well is deep enough to trap gas, galaxies, and dark matter alike within a region several megaparsecs across.

Beyond its astrophysical complexity, the Perseus Cluster serves as a natural laboratory for cosmic plasma physics and structure formation. The cluster’s large-scale gas motions, its feedback-regulated core, and its radio–X-ray interplay collectively render it one of the most intensively studied extragalactic systems. From the cool filaments of NGC 1275 to the hot, turbulent halo that envelopes hundreds of galaxies, Perseus stands as a vivid embodiment of the multi-scale, multi-phase nature of the universe’s largest bound structures". - Prof G.P.T. Chat visiting astrophysicist at the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Reflection Nebulae and IC4603.

 

IC 4603 Seestar S30 Nebula-Filter Dual Band.
Constellation Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer
Modified RGB SHO format.Image Credit Kurt Thrust

Ophiuchus and Scorpius region.
Canon 600d DSLR with 50mm fixed lens.
Image Credit Kurt Thrust.

"IC 4603 is a small reflection/emission nebula on the southern flank of the bright ρ Ophiuchi / Antares complex in Ophiuchus; it lies in the immediate area of the nearby ρ Ophiuchi star-forming clouds and dusty reflection nebulosity. The literature and image atlases therefore treat IC 4603 as part of the broad ρ Oph / Antares cloud complex rather than an isolated, distant nebula. The above image was captured in Sicily at the beginning of June 2025". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"The three bright stars, top image bottom centre, (Gaia DR2 sources) 

The three Gaia DR2 identified stars — Gaia DR2 6049142410542091648, Gaia DR2 6049142341822614656, and Gaia DR2 6049142032584969088 — appear in Gaia-based catalogues and membership studies of the ρ Ophiuchi region and in follow-up studies of young stellar objects. In those works the objects are treated as stellar sources (young, pre-main-sequence / T Tauri type objects or candidate members) of the local ρ Oph association rather than as unrelated background quasars or distant giants. 

Observational properties (catalogue based)

Catalog identity & photometry: In Gaia DR2 these sources are point sources with measured G magnitudes and BP/RP photometry; they are also cross-matched to infrared surveys (e.g., 2MASS) in the literature, consistent with typical YSO photometric properties used in cluster censuses. 

Parallax & proper motion (membership indicators): Published Gaia-DR2 based membership studies include these source IDs when assembling candidate members of the ρ Oph complex. Those studies use the Gaia parallaxes and proper motions to place the objects at distances compatible with the ρ Ophiuchi clouds (i.e. the tens to a few hundreds of parsecs scale; many recent analyses locate the core of ρ Oph at ~120–160 pc). Thus the astrometry is consistent with physical association to the local star-forming complex rather than with being distant background objects. 

Physical classification and likely astrophysical nature

Young stellar objects (YSOs / T Tauri): At least one of the stars (the first, 6049142410542091648) is explicitly listed in works studying T Tauri star properties and magnetic activity (i.e., it appears in a T Tauri star sample and in YSO luminosity/temperature compilations). This, together with infrared cross-matches, indicates these stars are most likely classical or weak-line T Tauri stars (pre-main-sequence, low-to-intermediate mass) or candidate members of that class. 

Variability & emission signatures: Several of these objects appear in variable-star or YSO catalogues (variable designation and infrared excess are common for members of ρ Oph), consistent with circumstellar material and magnetic/ accretion activity typical of T Tauri stars. 

Relation to IC 4603 (spatial & physical)

Projected spatial relation: On the sky the three stars lie in projection in the same region as IC 4603 and the ρ Ophiuchi dusty clouds. Given their measured Gaia parallaxes and proper motions (as used in the membership studies), they are at distances consistent with the ρ Oph complex and therefore plausibly physically associated with the molecular/dust environment that produces the reflection nebulosity identified as IC 4603. In other words, they are not merely chance background stars in many of the catalogue analyses.

Possible roles for the stars relative to the nebula: If they are genuinely embedded or located on the near side of the same cloud complex they can (a) illuminate local dust to produce reflection nebulosity, (b) contribute to the ionisation/scattering balance locally if they are sufficiently hot or accreting, and (c) be embedded YSOs whose local envelopes or outflows sculpt the small-scale nebulosity. Demonstrating which of those roles applies to any one of the three stars requires targeted imaging (high-resolution optical/IR imaging to see reflection patterns and nebulous structure) or spectroscopy (to measure emission lines, accretion diagnostics, and radial velocities). The catalogues and membership papers show consistency with association but do not, by themselves, prove which star — if any — is the primary illuminator of the visible IC 4603 patch. 

Limitations and what would confirm a direct association

What catalogues show: Gaia astrometry (parallax + proper motion) strongly constrains distance and kinematics and supports membership in the ρ Oph region; that is why these Gaia DR2 IDs appear in YSO/ρ-Oph censuses. 

What’s still needed: To demonstrate a direct causal relationship (e.g., "star X is the illuminating source of IC 4603") one would need:

high-resolution imagery showing reflected light patterns centered on the star, or

optical/near-IR spectra of the nebula showing scattered stellar spectrum matching the star, or

radial velocity / extinction mapping consistent with the star being embedded in the same local dust column.

Without those diagnostics one should conservatively state that the stars are very likely (astrometrically) members of the same local complex and are therefore plausible contributors to the observed nebulosity, but a direct, observational demonstration of illumination for any single star requires follow-up imaging/spectroscopy. 

Short, plain summary

All three Gaia DR2 stars are catalogued in Gaia-based membership studies of the ρ Ophiuchi star-forming region and appear in YSO/T Tauri samples. Their Gaia DR2 astrometry places them at distances and with kinematics consistent with the ρ Oph clouds that host IC 4603; therefore they are plausibly physically associated with the nebular material (and could help illuminate or shape the reflection nebula). Conclusive identification of which star (if any) is the primary illuminator of IC 4603 requires targeted imaging or spectroscopic follow-up". - Prof G.P.T Chat visiting astrophysicist at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Comet C2025 R2 (SWAN)

 

Comet C2025 R2 (SWAN) in the constellation Aquarius
Seestar S30 stack of 20x10 sec subs stacked using DeepSkyStacker.
Credit: Kurt Thrust at the JPO.

" Not one of the Jodrell Plank Observatory's finest images but last night, 31-10-2025, was not good for astro-imaging. I had to contend with cloud, wind, light pollution, a few fireworks and a waxing gibbous Moon nearby the Comet. The little Seestar S30 did well to capture enough photons to provide an Ok image after some heavy processing. All the team  love to see a comet over the Jodrell Plank Observatory". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the JPO.

"At the time of  image capture, the comet designated C/2025 R2 (SWAN) was at a geocentric distance on the order of 54 million km. It's line of sight movement and velocity amongst the stars in the constellation Aquarius, was significant and recognisable within a period of 30 minutes.

The Comet's nucleus and coma is smeared out as a line
 by its movement, in 30 minutes, against the fixed background stars.

Physical and orbital characteristics

C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is a long-period comet, discovered on 11 September 2025 by amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly via imagery from the SWAN (Solar Wind Anisotropies) instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft.  

Its perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) occurred on 12 September 2025, at a heliocentric distance of about 0.50 AU (~75 million km). 

Orbital solutions indicate rather high eccentricity (e ≈ 0.994) and a semi‐major axis on the order of tens of astronomical units, giving the comet an orbital period of several centuries to over a millennium (depending on inbound versus outbound parameters) — thus it is not a short-period, frequent visitor. 

Appearance and morphology in the image

Given the distance at capture, the observed coma (the diffuse envelope of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus) is well resolved in the photograph. At such a distance, the comet’s intrinsic brightness, combined with the illuminated dust and volatile gases, yield a visible coma of perhaps several arcminutes in apparent diameter. Observers report that C/2025 R2 exhibits a faint tail extending up to ~2° under favourable conditions. This is not readily visible in our image.

The greenish hue often noted in photographs of the comet arises from diatomic carbon (C₂) and sometimes CN radicals in the coma, excited by solar ultraviolet radiation. Emission bands of C₂ and NH₂, as well as [O I] atomic oxygen lines, have been detected in spectroscopic observations of the coma.

The sunlight currently reaching the comet's nucleus and coma is somewhat diminished, when compared to perihelion, but still strong enough to sublimate ices and drive the formation of the dust and gas envelope. The tail likely points roughly anti-sunward and is shaped by solar radiation pressure (for dust) and by the solar wind/magnetic field interaction (for ion tail).

Context and significance of the capture

The image represents a snapshot in the outward leg of the comet’s passage — after perihelion and while still relatively near Earth in astronomical terms. At this distance, resolution is sufficient to reveal structural details such as the condensation of the inner coma, potential jet features (if present), and the tail’s divergence from the coma axis.

In the broader context, this comet offers an important opportunity: given its long period and recent discovery, every high-quality observation (photographic or spectroscopic) contributes to the understanding of volatile composition, dust‐to‐gas ratios, tail morphology, and how such long‐period comets evolve near perihelion and beyond". - Karl Segin outreach coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The waxing Gibbous Moon  captured with the Seestar S30
just after it was used to capture the nearby Comet

" I literally added this lunar portrait to demonstrate how a nearby Moon can impact upon the capture of less luminous deep-sky targets. The craters Copernicus, Tycho and  Plato can be seen clearly, as can the major Maria and Montes Apenninus" - Joe Cairo CEO of the JPO.