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.

Mizar and Alcor in the Constellation Ursa Major

The multiple star systems Mizar A, Miza B and Alcor. 127mm Meade Apo Refractor and astro-modded Canon 200d DSLR. A stack of 30 sec images taken at ISO800 and ISO400. Credit: Pip Stakkert. 

" To the keen naked eye, Mizar and Alcor appear as two stars in the tail of Ursa Major the Great Bear or the handle of 'the Plough'. In truth they are two multiple star systems. Mizar is a quadruple star system whilst Alcor is a binary system. These star systems are 83 light years from our Sun and are moving with a common proper motion.  Between Mizar and Alcor, the 8th-magnitude star Sidus Ludoviciana is a distant background object. We were pleased that we were able to split two of Mizar's four component stars." - Kurt Thrust" current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory