The Glorious Milky Way from a dark sky site in Norfolk

 

The Milky Way 'photo-bombed' by three Perseid Meteors with the Andromeda Galaxy in the far distance (top left) - Un-modded Canon 600d DSLR with Sigma EX widefield lens on a fixed tripod- Image credit: Kurt Thrust

"Each year, Kurt looks forward to capturing his first widefield image of the spectacular summer Milky Way. This year he was fortunate enough to experience a clear night at Gresham in North Norfolk with a spectacular dark sky. Whilst out and about that night Kurt observed a number of faint but naked eye visible meteors" - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Observations on the above image by G. Gemini coms manager at the JPO

This wide-field deep-sky photograph captures a dense section of the galactic plane of the Milky Way, centred along the dust lanes and rich star fields of the Summer Triangle region (spanning Cygnus, Aquila, and Lyra).

The Galactic Plane & Interstellar Medium

Running diagonally through the frame is the prominent, luminous swath of our galaxy’s spiral arm structure. The bright golden and warm orange glow consists of resolved and unresolved background stellar populations within the galactic disk. Interspersed throughout this region are dark nebulae—obscuring interstellar dust clouds composed of microscopic carbon and silicate grains that absorb and scatter visual wavelength light from the dense star fields lying directly behind them (notably forming parts of the Great Rift complex).

Emission & Dust Regions

Surrounding the primary galactic core structure are delicate reddish and deep magenta hues, indicating Hα (Hydrogen-alpha) ionized gas regions (H II regions) where intense ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars energizes the surrounding interstellar gas.

Here are the key nebulous regions displayed in the photograph of the  Milky Way:

1. North America Nebula (NGC 7000): This is the prominent, diffuse reddish-orange glowing structure located in the upper-right section of your image. Its characteristic shape, resembling the continent (specifically the Gulf of Mexico), is sculpted by a thick, intervening dark dust lane. This massive $H\text{ II}$ region is one of the brightest emission nebulas visible, glowing as hydrogen gas is ionized by nearby hot stars.

2. Pelican Nebula (IC 5070): Located immediately adjacent to the North America Nebula, and separated from it by the primary dark molecular cloud, is the Pelican Nebula. While visually part of the same complex, it appears as a distinct lobe, and in this wide-field view, it forms the upper portion of the large glowing mass containing NGC 7000.

3. Sadr Region (IC 1318 / Gamma Cygni Nebula): Running centrally through the densest part of the Milky Way core in your frame is the complex around the star Sadr. The large, spread-out glow in the lower-right section is IC 1318, also known as the Gamma Cygni Nebula. This vast emission complex is heavily fragmented by dark dust lanes (the Great Rift), defining multiple lobes including the Butterfly Nebula (near the centre) and the Cygnus Star Cloud itself, which dominates the lower-right bright region.

4. The Great Rift (and dark nebulae): Although not a glowing nebula, the Great Rift is essential for defining the visible structures. The large, black channel running diagonally down the centre of the image, dramatically separating the bright star fields on the right from the sparser ones on the left, is composed of dense, opaque interstellar dust that obscures the light from the background stars. Numerous individual "dark nebulae" are catalogued within this feature.

By recognizing these major formations, we can better appreciate the complex interplay of gas, dust, and stars in this extraordinarily rich section of our galaxy.

Transient Phenomena (Meteors)

In the lower-left quadrant of the frame, three parallel, highly linear light trails cut across the background star field:

Perseid / Delta Aquariid Activity: Late July marks the onset of the Perseid meteor shower, operating concurrently with the Southern δ-Aquariids peak. These crisp streaks represent meteoroids—small remnants of cometary dust (such as 109P/Swift-Tuttle for the Perseids)—entering Earth's upper mesosphere at velocities between 40 km/s and 60 km/s.

Atmospheric Ablation: The resulting friction superheats the surrounding atmospheric gas, creating brief, highly ionized plasma columns that appear as precise linear streaks against the background sky.

Stellar Dynamics

Across the frame, a distinct colour gradient highlights stellar spectral classes: bright blue stars indicate hotter, high-mass main-sequence objects (spectral types O and B), while yellow and reddish points denote cooler main-sequence stars and red giants (spectral types K and M).

The centre of the Milky Way Galaxy and the constellation Sagittarius

 

Images taken with the Bradford Autonomous Telescope
 in 2015 Credit for data processing Pip Stakkert.  Image
below the central section of the image above.

The location of Sagittarius A* has been highlighted by
the white circle overlaid the above image. 

"The centre of the Milky Way is never visible from the Jodrell Plank Observatory so this data from the Bradford Robotic Telescope on Mount Teide is a way by which we can showcase the centre of our home galaxy. It is thrilling to think that somewhere in the area highlighted lurks a massive blackhole with a mass equivalent to 4million solar masses".- Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Deneb and Summer Milky Way

 

Deneb Alpha Cygni and the Summer Milky Way. Fixed tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR and 18-55mm EFS  zoom lens at f=18mm. Stack of 30 second lights at ISO1600.

" The Jodrell Plank Observatory Team has processed this data set in a number of ways using a number of different software packages to bring out the dust and ionised nebulosity. This is my personal favourite." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory..

The Winter Milky Way

 

The Milky Way running through Auriga, Gemini and Taurus- Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.18x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO1600 and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

"Pip Stakkert has been reading the guides and help pages for the software packages GradientXTerminator and Affinity Photo. It is amazing how well reading the instructions works!

The Winter Milky Way is much harder to see and image than the Summer Milky Way. This is because in summer we are looking along the disc of our home galaxy towards galactic centre, where the number of stars and dust densities are high. In winter when we view the galactic disc, we are looking out of our galaxy into deep space, the number of stars becomes less and they are further spread out with the dark void of inter-galactic space beyond. Pip's image shows the bright stars of the constellations Auriga the Charioteer, Taurus the Bull and Gemini the twins. The vey blue Pleiades open star cluster is clearly visible. Almost directly above the Pleiades and in the constellation Perseus, is the emission nebula - the California Nebula, glowing red with the excited atoms of hydrogen gas. All the areas glowing red in the image are indicative of ionised hydrogen atoms within enormous rarefied gas clouds. The darkest areas indicate the presence of vast amounts of dust which act to extinguish the light from stars behind them. The dust has been created by the life and final demise of countless generations of stars as they fuse and use up their hydrogen and helium reserves. Our Milky Way galaxy home is a very dusty place and it is just as well as our planet and we are made from it". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"This is my favorourite rendering of the dust clouds in the Winter Milky Way - I think Pip captured the best of it in this version of his image". Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

New widefield Lens on trial

 

Milky Way from Cassiopeia to Altair - Sigma 10-20mm widefield lens on a tripod mounted Canon 600d DSLR. A stack of 10x30 second lights at ISO1600 and f=16mm. Credit: KurtThrust.

" Our sponsor Anita Roberts has provided the cash to enable the purchase of a recycled widefield lens for the 600d Canon Camera. Weather permitting we will use this excellent piece of  Japanese glass to capture Perseid meteors later in the week". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Kurt's job hangs by a thread

 

Milky Way - Altair the bright star at bottom right. Reprocessed by Pip Stakkert

The Veil Nebula and meteor. Reprocessed by Pip Stakkert

" The Board of Trustees have been asked to consider Kurt Thrust's status as current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory. The last post on this blog  contained unacceptable errors in which two of  the stars were named wrongly as Deneb and Vega. In fact only one of the three stars of the Summer Triangle was visible in this image. 

“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

The trouble with our image was that it wasn't large enough to contain a large asterism like the Summer Triangle and sadly Kurt and Pip just got it wrong.

But in addition, Pip Stakkert's image processing of both the images was considered below the required standard and this reflects badly on Kurt's leadership and quality control. The recent problems encountered with the renegotiation of the Observatory telephone contracts have hopefully been the last of the problems relating to Kurt's current tenure of the top job at Jodrell Plank. Several Trustees have openly questioned whether Kurt has just got too old for the job! The next Board Meeting in August will be make and break for Kurt." - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Summer at Jodrell Plank

Summer Milky Way and the Summer Triangle asterism over the Jodrell Plank Observatory - Credit Jody McSquint-Fleming - Canon 600DSLR with EOS  lens at f=18mm - ISO3200 stacked 10 second lights.

" Nice to see the Summer Triangle rising in the east over the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Jody was out and about carrying out some maintenance tasks when she noticed the Milky Way had climbed high enough to image. According to Jody she didn't even bother to go get a tripod but just propped the camera against a brick and set the DSLR to take bursts of 10 x 10 second images. What a woman! 

We better call in a contractor to trim that hedge! 

I noticed that the planets Jupiter and Saturn are now visible but only from the upper windows of the Jodrell Plank Observatory Visitor Centre. I managed to take a handheld image of the pair of planets this week when they skimmed the roof tops at midnight. Later in the week I went to nearby Corton Cliffs and captured some images of Jupiter and Saturn as they became visible close to the horizon and over the North Sea." - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Images taken from Corton Cliffs Lowestoft with a Canon 600D DSLR at f=18mm 10x10sec lights stacked. ISo1600 and 3200. Credit: Kurt Thrust