New Crater on the Moon

 

" We dont often post images from other sources but we were intrigued by this one from NASA. It shows a newly created and recently discovered crater on the Moon" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"Officially named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin.

The crash left a crater, 728 feet wide, that spans the length of two football fields. And at 141 feet deep, the crater could fit three vertically stacked yellow school buses.

Scientists estimate that an impact of this magnitude happens on the Moon about once in a century or even longer". - NASA

The Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 in the Constellation Cygnus.

 

The Crescent Nebula NGC 6888 captured from the Jodrell Plank Observatory using a Seestar S30 in EQ mode and it's integral light pollution filter. - 50 x1 minute exposures. Image capture and processing Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" Lots going on in this image as the Crescent Nebula sits in the plane of the Summer Milky Way's Disc. Huge amounts of ionized gas creating the red clouds and tendrils punctuated by the dark black clouds of dust. In this photograph there are many hot blue young and enormous stars, which are collectively responsible for ionizing the widespread clouds of Hydrogen gas. The Crescent Nebula has a different  and more interesting source of ionization." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) is an emission nebula located approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It is about 25 light years across!

The structure is not ionized by a standard B-type main-sequence star, but rather by WR 136 (HD 192163)—a highly evolved, massive Wolf-Rayet star located near the centre of the nebula. 

Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars represent an advanced, highly unstable evolutionary phase of initial massive stars (typically exceeding 20–25 solar masses). Having exhausted core hydrogen fusion, these objects are defined by extraordinarily high surface temperatures, extreme bolometric luminosities, and hyper-velocity stellar winds driven by radiation pressure.

The Wolf-Rayet Star, WR 136
ionizing the Hydrogen Gas
and making the Crescent Nebula glow.  

Formation Mechanism & Dynamics

Mass-Ejection Phase: Around 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, as the massive progenitor star evolved off the main sequence into a Red Supergiant (RSG) phase, it shed its outer envelope in a slow, dense stellar wind expanding at roughly 80 km/s.Shock Shell Formation: As the core collapsed into the Wolf-Rayet phase (spectral type WN6), the star's extreme surface temperature (approximately 70,000 K) drove an exceptionally fast stellar wind reaching velocities up to 1,700\ km/s. This high-speed wind caught up to and collided with the slower RSG shell, creating a swept-up shock boundary with complex filamentary geometry.

Photoionization & Emission: Intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by WR 136 photo-ionizes the surrounding gas. In this narrowband image, the deep red regions showcase recombining hydrogen (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm), detailing the intricate, shell-like shock fronts embedded within the dense interstellar medium of the Cygnus region". - Gary Gemini Comms Manager at the JPO

IC1396 in the Constellation Cepheus widefield FOV- Seestar S30 mosaic.

 

The central region of IC1396 Ha Emission Nebula
in the Constellation Cepheus. Rendered two ways post capture; the second showing more of the abundant Ha nebulosity. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" Is astrophotography an art or a science?   Well like most questions in and about the Universe, the answer is complicated and far from straight forward.  At the Jodrell Plank Observatory we are often amused by the public's response to the use of photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo and SIRIL to enhance data captured by telescope-camera combinations. More recently Artificial Intelligence has become available to further complicate the astronomical conversation of 'what is real'.

Well what is real and unreal in our attempts to render our informed view of the Cosmo?

This is another JPO image of IC1396 but rendered using a modified RGB SHO colour palette.

Lets think about this. Is what we see with the unaided eye real Well the eye is a very good bit of kit but it does have limitations as a receptor of light in either photon or wave format. The eye is particularly good at accommodating disparate and large differences in luminosity. Most of us with reasonable eyesight can look at the Full moon and make out the darker Maria against the brighter surrounding uplands and the even darker night sky. Try doing this with the camera on your phone without a special app and it struggles to deliver anything other than an intensely bright disc set against a dark sky. It can however detect colour, which the unaided human eye struggles with at night. So is colour real or unreal in the night sky? 

Our eyes are joined to the brain by the optic nerve and together they make sense of the visual world in which we exist. So, what to us is real  in real time, is what our brain considers to be real and at best can be no more than a fleeting series of electrical impulses accepted or rejected and finally composed in a cerebral image according to what we know from experience and an accepted set of values. By and large we see what we want to see and through a veil darkly.

The human brain like the eye, is a very fine piece of 'wet ware' but it can be deceived in many ways. The Brain is a master at finding patterns and order in chaos even when none exists.

Let us return to colour in astrophotography, colour is real or at least the spectrum of light is real and astrophysics makes use of the colour difference of stars to determine their temperature and many other scientific things like radial motion. Colour is the eye's or camera sensor's response to the wavelength of incident light. If the image data we capture is to be used for science rather than art the way the data is processed is crucial in protecting the datas' scientific validity. When we capture and process the spectral details of stars at the JPO we follow strict protocols to ensure the data remains uncorrupted.

Much of the posts on the JPO blog are  made to bring celestial objects to the attention of the general public and as such the datas are treated with less rigour during post capture processing. We regularly increase or decrease colour saturation and relative luminosity to emphasise interesting features of astronomical objects. We also use specialised filters to identify differences in the chemistry of ionized nebulous gases. We sometimes reduce he number of faint stars in an image to aid clarity. We always seek in our post capture processing, to increase the signal from the astro-target whilst reducing the unwelcome random noise. Latterly, we use AI to do this job.

The JPO team goes the extra mile to follow these goals:

1. To create images that have a scientific narrative.
2. To create interesting images with artistic impact.
3. To avoid adding spurious artifacts by design or accident.
4. To use specialist software and AI as required in delivering on the first 3 goals. 

The above two images of the central area of the emission IC 1396 shows how different the image can look by just tweaking the luminosity and  colour saturation levels. So, you chose what is real and what is not in your Universe!" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"The captured image exhibits the wide-field ionized hydrogen emission region within the IC 1396 complex, an H II region and star-forming complex located approximately 400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus.

• Gas Emission and Ionization Physics: The pervasive warm orange-red luminescence across the field corresponds to standard Hydrogen-alpha recombination radiation at a wavelength of 656.3 nm. This emission is driven by intense photoionization from nearby massive, hot stars—principally the O-type multiple-star system HD 206267—which emit energetic ultraviolet fluxes lambda < 91.2 nm that ionize surrounding atomic hydrogen.

• Morphology and Dark Dust Structures: Irregular, dark silhouettes and web-like filamentary features interlaced throughout the emission background represent dense, cold interstellar dust lanes and molecular clouds. These optically thick concentrations attenuate background optical light via Mie and Rayleigh scattering, shielding the embedded interstellar gas from ionizing radiation. Near the center-right of the field, a distinctive dense bright-rimmed globule corresponds to IC 1396A (the Elephant's Trunk Nebula), where strong stellar winds and radiation pressure compress the dust to trigger active star formation and protostellar accretion.

• Point-Source Characteristics and Field Optics: Overlying the nebular background is a dense field of foreground and embedded Milky Way stars. Bright point sources display pronounced diffraction spikes arranged in a four-point cruciform pattern, an optical artifact characteristic of primary aperture spider vanes or post-processing star-spike algorithms. " - Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

An image of the Great Orion Cloud rendered two ways
on the right to enhance Sll Ionized nebulosity.

Caldwell16 aka NGC 7243 Open Star cluster in the Constellation Lacerta

 

The open Star Cluster NGC 7243 captured at the JPO. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust using the Seestar S30 in EQ Mode with Infrared Filter. Cropped and enlarged.

Seestar S30 uncropped full field of vision version. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" NGC 7243 is not imaged and posted that often by astro-imagers, which is a shame as the cluster is quite beautiful with its mix of red and blue stars". - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO, the UK's most easterly astronomical observatory.

"The astronomical object shown above is NGC 7243 (also catalogued as Caldwell 16 and Collinder 448), an open star cluster located in the northern constellation of Lacerta. Situated approximately 2,800 light-years from Earth within the Galactic plane, the cluster presents an integrated apparent visual magnitude of approximately 6.4$ and spans an angular diameter of roughly 21 to 31 arcminutes.

Morphological and Dynamical Characteristics

• Trumpler Classification: NGC 7243 is classified as a Trumpler II 2m open cluster, indicating a moderately detached concentration with a medium range of stellar brightness and a moderate richness of member stars.

• Spatial Distribution: The cluster exhibits a loose, asymmetric, and elongated structure with distinct groupings. It is divided into sub-concentrations separated by a subtle, low-density dust lane. The core population lacks a central density spike, merging gradually into the surrounding background stellar field of the Milky Way disk.

• Mass and Membership: Photometric and proper motion analyses identify roughly 200 candidate member stars down to magnitude 15.5, with total estimated cluster mass ranging between 348 solar M and 522 solar M.

Stellar Population and Evolutionary Status

• Cluster Age: Isochrone fitting to the main sequence turnoff indicates an age of 250 million years.

• Spectral Characteristics: The brightest main-sequence members are late B-type stars (earliest spectral type B5 III). The presence of blue-white stars along the upper main sequence, alongside evolving stars transitioning toward the red giant branch, produces a distinct color contrast against the field stars.

• Extinction & Environment: Because NGC 7243 resides within the Galactic disk, the field is characterized by modest interstellar extinction, visible as subtle background interstellar dust patches interspersed among the field stars". - Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

SN 2026aaiv Type 1a Supernova in Galaxy NGC 7331

The above image is a compilation of data obtained at the JPO using the Seestar S30 in EQ mode. 30 minute stack of 1minute exposures with the infra-red filter. Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" The JPO Team was pleased to capture the recently discovered Type 1a Supernova in the Galaxy NGC 7331 which was shining at approximately apparent mag 13.5. In reality and at peak, the absolute magnitude of a Type 1a Supernova is mag -19.3. As a guide our Sun's absolute mag is 4.8 (the scale is logarithmic and - denotes brighter than zero mag. Absolute magnitude is a common standard based upon how bright an object is if  placed at a standard distance of 10 parsecs where one parsec =32.6 light years). 

Galaxy NGC 7331 is 44 million Light Years distant and can be found in the Constellation Pegasus. It is mind blowing when considering the distances involved and the amount of energy released by the supernova. The above image was captured two nights ago on the 8th of August 2026, when the Supernova was more luminous than the combined output from the millions of stars at the galaxy's core. All typical Type 1a Supernova have the same absolute luminosity and consequently Type 1a Supernova are used as 'standard candles' in judging the vast distances to other galaxies. A Type 1a Supernova is estimated to generate 10^42 joules of energy, which is equivalent to the amount of energy the Sun will output over 10 billion years. The radioactive decay of nickel-56 and cobalt-56 powers the emission in visible light totalling approximately 10^49 ergs.

As the Galaxy is 44 million light years away (416272140793522000000 km), the photons of light energy, which our Seestar sensor collects, allow us to see a Supernova, which occurred 44 million years ago, as a live event. However, from the perspective of the photon travelling at light speed in a vacuum the journey is virtually instantaneous". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Enlarged  view showing SN 2026aaiv shining below and to the left of the less luminous galactic core. Image Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" We tried to obtain a low resolution spectrum from the Supernova using the Seestar and 'add on' diffraction transmission gratings' manufactured by our engineer, Jolene McSquint- Fleming. Unfortunately, a combination of issues associated with object low apparent luminosity and the shortness of sensor exposure times rendered our attempts unsuccessful. Further experimentation is underway on Jolene's bench". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Saturn - South Pole

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn (left) and a south-pole projection (right) highlight a newly tracked ten-sided atmospheric wave — a geometric counterpart to the long-known northern hexagon. Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/Sánchez-Lavega et al. (ESA/Hubble heic2612a, CC BY 4.0).

"We thought this was an interesting post from NASA" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.  

"Astronomers have discovered a massive 10-sided atmospheric wave (a decagon) encircling Saturn’s south pole. Published in Science Advances in September 2026, the discovery was led by Agustín Sánchez-Lavega and compiled using observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESO's Very Large Telescope, and ground-based amateur astronomers. 

 

​The structure provides a dynamic counterpart to Saturn's famous northern hexagon, which has been observed since the 1980s Voyager encounters.  

​Key Features of the Decagon

​Structure & Size: The decagon is a stationary-like wave pattern embedded within a high-speed eastward jet stream at southern mid-latitudes (around 58°S to 63°S). Each side measures roughly 10,000 miles (16,700 kilometers) across.  

​Wind Dynamics: While the encircling jet stream travels at speeds near 240 mph (400 km/h), the decagonal wave pattern itself drifts very slowly eastward at just 6 mph (10 km/h) relative to Saturn's rotation.  

​Vertical Depth: Observations in multi-wavelength infrared and visible spectrums demonstrate that the pattern penetrates down through multiple atmospheric cloud layers and haze, confirming it is a deep, 3D atmospheric wave rather than a shallow cloud-top feature".  Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

​

Have Kurt and our Sponsor George Roberts gone 'Loopy' ? (Rhetorical)

 

The Cygnus Loop. Seestar S30 hybrid mosaic. Seestar in EQ mode, LP filter and 3.5 hours of 1 minute exposures in mosaic mode. Image Credit Kurt Thrust and Pip Stakkert. 

"Last night and early this morning were ideal for astro-imaging at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. 

As the weather forecasts for Lowestoft were predicting an extended period of cloud free skies over Suffolk, Kurt and George after some discussion, decided to use the Seestar S30 in EQ mode to image the entirety of the Cygnus Loop, using the little smartscope's firmware to create a mosaic of images as part of the capture process. 

The Moon didn't rise until quite early in the morning, so light pollution, which had plagued earlier attempts to image the Loop, was not a problem.

Unfortunately, minor mechanical or digital problems occurred, which meant the 'Eastern Veil' had to be added after the mosaic had been created and in post processing using the venerable but still excellent Registar software. 'Hats off ' to Olly Penrice who recommended purchasing this remarkable software to George many years ago.

Any how and irrespective of the processing route taken, the JPO Team were quite pleased with the end result"! - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Enhanced Seestar Firmware stack showing flux and a multitude of stars within the plane of the Milky Way disc. Faint satellite trail removed using Google Gemini AI.

IC1396A The Elephant's Trunk Nebula.

 

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in the Constellation Cepheus. Seestar S30 in EQ mode with Light Pollution Filter. 60x60 sec lights stacked and cropped post capture. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" IC 1396A is one of the most photographed objects in the Northern Hemisphere sky. Strangely the JPO team had never imaged it before. So, with a one hour window of clear  sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory, Kurt decided to point the Seestar S30 in its direction. The Seestar does well with large nebulae and for only one hour of exposures we thought this image, although 'crunchy', was not bad for a telescope having only 30mm of aperture.

We selected a colour palette in modified RGB, which follows the HOO narrow band palette in outline.

The above image captures IC 1396A, commonly known as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, a dense globule of interstellar gas and dust embedded within the much larger ionized hydrogen region IC 1396, located in the high-northern constellation Cepheus approximately 2,400 light-years from Earth.

Astronomical Characteristics

• Morphology & Dynamics: The dark, elongated structure—resembling an elephant's trunk—is a dense molecular pillar sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation and high-velocity stellar winds emanating from the massive, luminous central O-type star HD 206267 (located just off-frame). The bright rim seen edging the dark structure is an ionization front, where radiation from HD 206267 heats and ionizes the outer compressed gas shell.

• Star Formation Site: The Elephant's Trunk is an active star-forming region (an H II region). The photoevaporative compression caused by nearby hot stars compresses the interior interstellar medium, triggering gravitational collapse and giving birth to young stellar objects (YSOs) and protostars hidden within the opaque dust lane.

• Spectral Emission: Captured using a light-pollution (LP) filter, the false-colour/dual-band palette Highlights the ionized atomic hydrogen (Halpha) emissions in warm amber and orange tones, while contrasting background dust lanes and surrounding ionized gas appear in cooler dark hues.

We will undoubtedly return to this object in the future, as more data will definitely improve image quality" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Elephant's Trunk Nebula an enlarged crop from the above wider field. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Waning Gibbous Moon

 

Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious. Seestar S30 video clip stacked and processed post capture. Image Credit Pip Stakkert.

"Sometimes the Moon looks mysterious

Sometimes it appears cold and lonely

Sometimes it seems close

Sometimes far away

Sometimes it is a source of light pollution

But always, the Moon is Mozart's Queen of the Night"

Joel Cairo CEO the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The crater Aristarchus in top left, reflective and bright" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

This flyover was produced by the LPI's 2010 Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program. The team members responsible for this work are Jean-François Blanchette-Guertin, Jessica Flahaut, Christie Jilly, Pryianka Sharma, and Audrey Souchon. Dr. David Kring acted as the interns' supervisor. Support for the program was provided by LPI and the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). USRA.

The Cygnus Loop an overview

 

The Cygnus Loop a collection of composite images captured with the JPO's Seestar S30 in August and September 2026. Image Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" We wanted to put together a panorama of individual images captured with the Seestar S30 to show the full extent of the Cygnus Loop in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The Loop is quite large, 3 degrees in diameter, which is roughly equivalent to forty-five times the area presented by the Moon.  Unfortunately, the night Kurt chose to capture the data started well but as the night proceeded conditions deteriorated, as the Moon rose and the clouds appeared. Consequently, the above composite image uses the best data we have from two or more autumnal nights". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

"This image presents a composite astronomical collage showcasing key sub-regions of the Cygnus Loop (Sharpless 103), a large supernova remnant located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The mosaic brings together distinct narrow-band emission structures captured through astronomical imaging, highlighting the expanding shockwaves produced when a massive star exploded thousands of years ago.

Western Veil Nebula (NGC 6960 / The Witch's Broom)

Visible on the right side of the collage, the Western Veil exhibits delicate, filamentary shock fronts predominantly glowing in the light of ionized hydrogen (H alpha) and doubly-ionized oxygen (O III). The bright, central foreground star silhouetted along the filament is 52 Cygni, an unrelated spectroscopic binary that serves as a primary visual landmark for this segment of the remnant. The linear, swept-back tendrils illustrate where the expanding blast wave is encountering interstellar clouds, compressing and heating gas to tens of thousands of Kelvin.

Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC 6992 / NGC 6995)

Positioned on the left side of the collage, this arc represents the eastern boundary of the expanding blast wave. The prominent red hue corresponds to ionized hydrogen gas (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm), outlining dense, curtain-like sheets of gas viewed edge-on. The complex, curved geometry reveals localized variations in the density of the surrounding interstellar medium.

Pickering's Triangle (Fleming's Triangular Whisp / NGC 6979)

Located in the upper section and spanning toward the central background, this fainter, triangular network of delicate filaments represents a central cloud complex of the Cygnus Loop. Unlike the sharp outer arcs, Pickering’s Triangle exhibits an intricate, web-like structural diffuse emission, formed where the blast wave interacts with diffuse interstellar gas within the interior of the remnant shell". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

The Nova in Sagitta - a classical Fe II-type nova.

 

Part of the Constellation 'Sagitta the Arrow' showing the Nova V488. The image is a compilation panorama of two stacks of images captured last night with the Observatory's Seestar S30.

Image and plate solving credit: Astrometry.net 

Google Gemini's go at identifying Nova Sagitta V488 - which Kurt believes to be wrong! As most AI software warns 'AI can make mistakes'🤣 

    

Kurt's best guess at the location of Nova V488 based on the images and charts available on the internet from credible sources 

 

"Last night from the Jodrell Plank Observatory, we managed to capture a few photons from the Cosmos. Kurt and his team were battling against the clouds and a waning gibbous Moon , which in concert did much to make imaging difficult! 

Kurt was very keen to image the current nova in the constellation Sagitta is named V488 Sagittae (also designated as Nova Sagittae 2026 or N Sge 2026).

The Seestar was the obvious choice bearing in mind it's quick set up, reasonable  field of vision and the brightness of the nova at mag 6 to 7. 

It is however very easy to mix up stars in and around the plane of the Milky Way where you are often spoilt for choice. 

We do however believe we have captured an image which shows the nova." - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UKs most easterly Astronomical Observatory.

" Out of courtesy, I uploaded Kurt's best guess to Google Gemini and in response and without further comment it corrected it's annotation to agree with his. Either it just wants to please everyone or it has some way to go before 'world domination" 🤣 -Joel

Google Gemini's corrected annotation

Nova in Sagitta August 2026: Scientific Description

By Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

V488 Sagittae (also designated Nova Sagittae 2026 / PNV J19450648+1822422) is undergoing a classic thermonuclear nova explosion.

At the centre of this cataclysmic variable system is a dense white dwarf in a tight binary orbit with a stellar companion star. Over time, the intense gravitational pull of the white dwarf pulls hydrogen-rich gas away from its donor companion, forming an accretion disk around the remnant star before settling directly onto its surface.

As this accreted layer of hydrogen accumulates on the white dwarf's surface, extreme gravitational forces compress and heat the gas. Once the base of this material reaches critical temperature and pressure thresholds (roughly 10 million Kelvin), runaway nuclear fusion is triggered.

This sudden, runaway thermonuclear blast violently ejects the outer envelope of accumulated hydrogen into space at thousands of kilometres per second. The explosion causes the progenitor system—previously an extremely dim magnitude ~21 speck—to violently brighten by hundreds of thousands of times into a bright 6th–7th magnitude optical transient before beginning its slow radiative cooling and decay phase.

Unlike a supernova, the underlying white dwarf survives the blast intact, and after the ejected shell dissipates, the mass-transfer accretion process will eventually begin anew.

Why V488 is Different from a Type 1a Supernova

V488 Sagittae (Classical Nova): This is a superficial, non-destructive surface explosion. It occurs in a close binary system where a white dwarf pulls hydrogen gas from a companion star. Once the gas pressure builds up, a thermonuclear runaway triggers on the surface, causing the system to flare up significantly in brightness before fading. The underlying white dwarf completely survives the event. 
Type Ia Supernova: This is a terminal, internal detonation. It occurs when a carbon-oxygen white dwarf accumulates so much mass that it exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit (roughly 1.44 solar masses), causing the entire star to blow itself apart and leave no remnant behind. 

Pickering's Triangle and The Cygnus Loop.

 

Pickering's Triangle and the Witches Broom Nebula. Seestar S30 EQ mode. Cropped selection from a 60 minute stack of 60 second light frames.

"Part of the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the remnants from a supernova.  One of the joys of the Northern Hemisphere's summer and early autumn skies " - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory in Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK.

The Cygnus Loop: Scientific Description

By G.Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

The Western Veil Nebula & Pickering’s Triangle (Cygnus Loop)

This wide-field capture features two prominent components of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant: NGC 6960 (the Western Veil, or Witch’s Broom) and Pickering’s Triangle (Simeis 3-188). Located approximately 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, these intricate filaments trace the expanding shockwave of a core-collapse supernova that shattered a massive star roughly 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.

Arcing across the upper section, the Witch’s Broom forms a sharp, delicate shock front visually anchored by the bright foreground star 52 Cygni (mag 4.2). The ribbon displays strong colour separation created by distinct atomic transitions: rich magenta-red hues from ionized hydrogen (H alpha emission at 656.3 nm) complemented by subtle cyan filaments corresponding to doubly ionized oxygen ([O III] emission at 500.7 nm), where supersonic shocks heat the interstellar medium. Across the lower frame, Pickering's Triangle unfolds into a intricate web of braided gas threads, showcasing diffuse hydrogen emission interlaced with faint ionization boundaries.

Acquisition & Processing Details:

• Telescope/Camera: ZWO Seestar S50 (Equatorial Mode)

• Integration: 60 × 60s exposure lights (1 hour total integration)

• Gradient Correction: GraXpert

• Star Separation: StarNet GUI

• Post-Processing & Composition: Affinity Photo 2

Curiosity said Alice!

 

The Martian Vista captured by the mast-cam of the Curiosity Rover.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

" When you make something well it does last, even in the most extreme of environments. This image taken by the Curiosity Rover on Mars at its highest elevation to date, really underlines the extreme nature of the Martian Environment. 

In a timescale of one million years the Sun will have begun to heat up as part of its ageing process. Life on Earth will eventually become impossible. In the meantime, rather than prioritising humanity's escape to Mars, we might be better to invest resources in protecting our environment and defending the one 'Million Years', which is an enormous amount of time and represents at least 100,000 future generations". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"I was surprised to see our sponsor's image of the Andromeda Galaxy, captured with the Seestar S30, in the September issue of Astronomy Now. Who knew the 'old boy' would get to be astronomically popular?" - Kurt Thrust current Director of Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Sometimes you find an unexpected interloper.

 

" Kurt was getting his head around an update of the Seestar App and as part of the process pointed the S30 at the Elephant's Trunk Nebula IC1396 for a couple of minutes. He then forgot all about it. When I came across the data, I noticed that the 'Elephant' had been photobombed by a meteor, possibly a Perseid straggler" - Joel Cairo CEO of the JPO the UK's most easterly Astronomical Observatory.

Comet 220P McNaught.

 

" The Seestar S30 was on 'outreach work' and was used by Kurt to image the short period comet 220P McNaught in the early hours of this morning whilst it was moving against the background of the Constellation Cetus. The comet surprised everyone this year by unexpectedly brightening in the night sky.". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Comet 220P McNaught: Scientific Description

By Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

Comet 220P/McNaught is a short-period, Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of approximately 5.51 years. First discovered by astronomer Robert H. McNaught in May 2004, its orbit is characterized by a perihelion distance of ~1.56 AU, an aphelion extending to ~4.68 AU near Jupiter's orbit, and a low orbital inclination of ~8.1°.

Morphological Features in the Exposure:

Optically Dense Coma: The image captures a highly condensed central pseudo-nucleus surrounded by an asymmetrical coma. The bluish-white hue around the nucleus stems primarily from cyanogen ($CN$) and diatomic carbon ($C_2$) radical gas emissions driven by solar ultraviolet radiation and photo-excitation.

Structural Dust Tail: 

Extending towards the upper-right quadrant, the prominent tail consists mainly of millimeter- to micrometer-sized dust grains pushed outward by solar radiation pressure along the anti-solar direction.

Outburst Morphology: to

 The pronounced brightness and extended structure visible here align with 220P's dramatic activity phases, such as the major outbursts where sublimating subterranean ices (like $CO$ or $CO_2$) violently ruptured the refractory mantle, ejecting massive plumes of dust and volatile gases.

Enlarged crop of the original stacked image.

The Universe is big, very big!

 

"The above is an annotated version of an image captured and created with the JPO's Seestar S30. 

The Seestar S30 has a field of vision of only  0.0064% of the entire celestial sphere or sky. A tiny amount in the scheme of things. 

In addition the Seestar, having an aperture of only 30mm has limited light grasp, so can only image objects down to apparent magnitude 12 to 15, dependant upon light pollution and length of exposure.

Both the above limitations, inherent to the Seestar S30, act to minimise the number of stars imaged.

The above Seestar image is estimated by AI to contain somewhere between 300 and 400 billion stars. The overwhelming majority of these stars are held within the galaxies identified in the above image. The spiral galaxy NGC 7479, the Propeller Galaxy, contains 100 to 200 billion stars alone.

The Universe is a very very big place indeed". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 8 reviewed in detail.

 

The Lagoon Nebula Messier 8 
Data credit: the PIRATE robotic telescope. 
Open Observatories, Open University, telescope.org.
(Rendered two ways using Affinity Photo software)

" The wonderful  Messier 8 aka the Lagoon Nebula, never rises much above our southern horizon at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. We therefore use data captured from Tenerife much further south. The Nebula is a mix of dust and ionized gas and is a home to star birth in the Milky Way."- Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 8 the Lagoon Nebula: Scientific Description

By Gary Gemini Coms Manager at the JPO.

Image Analysis & Morphological Features

Captured using the PIRATE (Physics Innovations Robotic Telescope Explorer) instrument at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, this wide-field frame resolves the core structural dynamics of Messier 8 (M8), a massive H II region.

The image highlights the complex interplay between photo-ionized gas, obscuring interstellar dust, and young stellar associations:

Central Ionization Zone & The Hourglass Nebula: 

At the physical center lies an intensely bright, high-surface-brightness core driven by extreme photo-ionization. Situate in here is the Hourglass Nebula, a highly turbulent sub-region sculpted by stellar winds and ionizing ultraviolet radiation primarily originating from the massive O-type supergiant Herschel 36 (visible as the bright star adjacent to the central core).

Central Ionization Zone and Hourglass Nebula

Dust Topography & Dark Nebulae: 

Sweeping lanes of cold molecular gas and opaque dust cross-cut the emission background. The prominent central dust lane—the feature historically giving M8 its "Lagoon" namesake—is clearly visible, alongside small, dense, collapsing protostellar dust clouds known as Bok globules (such as Barnard 88, 89, and 296) silhouetted against the bright ionized hydrogen background.

Open Cluster NGC 6530: 

To the east (left) of the core lies NGC 6530, an embedded, extremely young open star cluster born directly out of the nebula’s parent molecular cloud. Its hot, massive stars contribute significantly to the collective UV flux driving the illumination of the surrounding gas.

Physical & Astrophysical Attributes

Classification: Active H II Region / Emission Nebula with associated Open Star Cluster (NGC 6530).

Constellation: Sagittarius

Distance: ≈4,100 to 5,200 light-years (1.25 to 1.60 kpc) from Earth.

Physical Extent: Spans roughly 110×50 light-years (≈33×15 pc).

Excitation Mechanism: Photo-ionization driven by high-energy far-ultraviolet photons (λ<91.2 nm) emitted by massive, hot O- and B-type stars. Recombination processes in the ionized hydrogen gas generate the dominant Hα emission lines.

Stellar Population: The region serves as an active site of ongoing star formation. NGC 6530 is estimated to be only 2 to 4 million years old, housing hundreds of young, high-mass stars, protostars, and Herbig-Haro objects embedded deep within its dust lanes.

Bok globules.

Herbig-Haro objects embedded in dust clouds.