New book in the JPO library and Jupiter Io radio wave interactions.

 

Our imaging and post processing JPO team have been using GraXpert and Siril software for sometime but Joel thought this little booklet was worth an investment of £12 as a reference. On cursory inspection, this appears to be a 'solid' purchase.

Tonight, I reprogrammed the usb dongle feeding the signal from the LVST yagi aerial into the soundcard of the laptop running Spectrum Lab. 

For the next 24 hours, Spectrum Lab will be analysing radio signals centred on 20,100 khz. This will hopefully enable us to capture radio waves generated by interactions between the planet Jupiter and its innermost Galilean Moon Io.

Jupiter is currently riding high in the Northern Hemisphere and in the constellation Gemini." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Narrow band imaging.

"Jolene Mc Squint-Fleming, our talented engineer at the JPO, was ecstatic this morning, when Royal Mail delivered three narrowband filters - Hydrogen alpha, Sulphur-ll and Oxygen-lll.

She is now 'beavering away in the clean room', with the  JPO 3d printer working overtime, to create filter holders to work with the range of telescopes and cameras we operate.

This recent acquisition will add another dimension to to the astrophotography to be undertaken in 2026 at the Jodrell Plank Observatory".  - Kurt Thrust current Director at the JPO - 'The UK's most easterly Astronomical Observatory.

Cygnus August 2025 - Sh 2-108 (Sharpless 2-108)

 

Sadr Gamma Cygni and associated HII regions and dark dust clouds. Ha luminosity and modified RGB SHO narrowband rendering. Seestar S30 August 2025. Image Credit all versions: Kurt Thrust. Image captured from the JPO, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

"Sadr (Gamma Cygni) is a bright, yellow-white supergiant star at the center of the Cygnus constellation's "Northern Cross" asterism, marking the swan's chest, and is surrounded by the extensive Sadr Region (IC 1318) of glowing nebulae and dust, though the star and nebula are at different distances, with the nebula much farther away. It's a prominent summer night sky target, easily visible to the naked eye, and part of a rich star-forming area in the Milky Way. 

Key Characteristics:

Location: Center of the Northern Cross in Cygnus.

Appearance: A bright, yellow-white supergiant, second only to Deneb in Cygnus's brightness.

Name Meaning: "Sadr" means "chest" in Arabic, referring to its position in the swan.

Distance: About 1,800 light-years from Earth.

Surrounding Nebula: The Gamma Cygni Nebula (IC 1318) appears to surround it but is much further away (around 4,900 light-years). The images from the Hubble Space Telescope are rendered using a modified RGB-SHO palette where Sulphur II emissions are allocated to the red channel, Hydrogen alpha to the green and Oxygen III to blue". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.