Mars

Mars 13 November 2018 now spinning away from Earth on its orbit. 127mm. Meade Apo- refractor - x3 Barlow and QHY5-11 planetary camera 9 minutes of AVI consolidated into one still frame using PIPP , AS!2 and Registax 6 software - Credit: Pip Stakkert

"A very mixed night of cloudy and clear skies over Lowestoft when this image was captured. Mars has been very low in the southern sky from our latitude of 52 degrees North and below the skyline from the Observatory earlier in the year when Mars was much closer to the Earth. Anyway, as soon as it appeared above the roofs, we managed to image the planet before it got too far and too small to be photographed effectively. Nice view of the southern polar cap and is that a white cloud on the limb"? - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Andromeda Galaxy - a work in Progress

Messier 31 - The Andromeda Galaxy with attendant galaxies M32 (above and left) and M110 (below and right) Credit: Pip Stakkert 

"The Andromeda Galaxy was directly overhead the Jodrell Plank Observatory when the series of images were taken using the 127 mm. Meade Apo-refractor with a 0.6 focal reducer and field flattener. The 3 and 1 minute exposure images at ISO800 were obtained, using an unmodded Canon 600D DSLR, early last month in October 2018. The images were stacked using DeepSkyStacker software. This is an image in progress as many more exposures will be required to bring out the considerable detail that can be obtained with good weather and patience. It is incredible to think that this galaxy, at a distance of 2.5 million light years from Earth, may be seen with the unaided eye. After the street lights go out at midnight in Lowestoft and on a clear moonless night the Andromeda Galaxy can be seen as a faint smudge of light.  Messier 31 contains an estimated one trillion stars and is moving towards the Milky Way at approximately 300 km/second. It is predicted to collide and combine with the Milky Way in about 4 billion years time. Due to the great distances between stars there is little chance of actual collisions but there is a small probability that gravitational disturbance could lead to the ejection of the solar system from the Milky Way. It is thought that when the two spiral galaxies interact they will combine to create on giant elliptical or large disc galaxy". Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"The Andromeda Galaxy has a retinue of Globular Star Clusters that can be seen through amateur and professional telescopes. Some of what appear to be very faint stars in the above image are in fact globular star clusters similar to those which are, through gravitation, associated with our Milky Way".
Archie Mendes - theoretical physicist and mathematician.

The amazing American amateur astronomer and astro-imager, Robert Gendler, has created annotated mosaic images showing the globular star clusters associated with M31 - follow the link:

http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M31NMmosaicglobs.html

IC 5146 - The Cocoon Nebula

IC 5146, The Cocoon Nebula  - Credit: Telescope.org - The Open University- COAST Robotic Telescope.- SHO filter set - 1 x 3 min exp - Credit:  Pip Stakkert

" The above image was enhanced by adding infra-red information obtained by COAST to the luminosity layer of the combined SHO image."  Pip Stakkert.

" The Cocoon Nebula lies some 4000 light years distant in the constellation Cygnus 'The Swan. At its centre is an open cluster of young stars. The stars are located in a mixture of dark and bright nebula. Emission and reflection nebula are associated with this interesting object. The nebula is approximately 15 light years across and is lit by the central star which formed only 100,000 years ago. IC 5146 is a stellar nursery where star birth is ongoing". - Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

IC 5146, The Cocoon Nebula  - Credit: Telescope.org - The Open University- COAST Robotic Telescope.- Infra-red 'Heat Map' - Credit:  Pip Stakkert

Messier 37- Open star cluster in the Constellation Auriga

Messier 37 - Combined image - stack of 10 x 30sec lights with the Altair 66mm Doublet wide-field scope  from the Jodrell Plank Observatory (Credit: Archie Mendes) and  1x 180sec light with the PIRATE robotic telescope (Credit: telescope.org - Open University) - combined using Registar Software -(Credit: Pip Stakkert)

"Open star clusters are collections of up to a few thousand stars loosely bound by mutual gravitational attraction. The stars in an open cluster form from the same giant molecular cloud of gas and dust. More than 1100 open clusters have been found in the Milky Way. Open clusters are  found  only in spiral and irregular galaxies where active star formation is occurring. They generally survive for a few hundred million years before the stars disperse as the result of galactic migration and disturbance in close encounters with other clusters. Massive clusters may stay together longer surviving for a few billion years.
Messier 37 is the richest open star cluster in the constellation Auriga and is approximately 4500 light years distant. So the light we collected the other night from M37 set off from the cluster when on Earth the Pyramids were being constructed. The cluster has an estimated combined mass of 1500 suns and angular diameter of 24 arc minutes which corresponds to a dimension of 20 to 25 light years. Messier 37 is somewhere between 350 and 550 million years old - in cosmic terms quite young - younger than the Hyades but older than the Pleiades". - Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner (updated image 19th September 2018)

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner - 13 September 2018- Altair 66mm Doublet on Star Adventurer Mount - 30 sec exposures at ISO3200 stacked. Canon 600D DSLR with 0.8x field flattener and reducer. Stacked and drizzled FOV at x2.- then combined with images taken of Messier 35 several years ago utilising the 127mm.Meade Apo refractor. Credit Pip Stakkert and Kurt Thrust

"The 'periodic' comet 21P/Giaciobini-Zinner has an orbital period of 6.5 years and is currently sailing past the constellation Gemini and in particular the open star cluster Messier 35. I had located the comet the night before through the observatory's large binoculars but was unable to follow up with one of our telescopes. Thankfully, a good weather window opened up around 2:00 BST and we were able to bring our widefield rig into action. The little 66mm scope certainly punches above its weight" - Pip Stakkert - Imaging Team Leader - Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner - 13 September 2018- Altair 66mm Doublet on Star Adventurer Mount - 30 sec exposures at ISO3200 stacked. 28 stacked widefield image .Canon 600D DSLR with 0.8x field flattener and reducer. 

"All the observatory staff were awake until 5:00 BST to ensure an image of the comet was obtained before it disappeared into the dawn. The sky above the observatory was remarkably transparent and we all enjoyed the wonderful sight of the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon. Four bright meteors and binocular views of Messier 33 were an added bonus.. On a domestic note -friend of the observatory Beth Harman and her dog Bertie stayed over night at the Jodrell Plank Observatory Visitors Centre, unfortunately, Bertie and Mr Shrodinger's cat - Comet didn't get on so well. Clearly not everyone likes comets with tails!" - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" Bye and see you in 2025"

Autumn Nights en Provence

The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy - photographed from Etoile St Cyrice using a Tripod Mounted Canon 400d DSLR - 30 sec exposures stacked

"The autumnal weather in Lowestoft has been very poor and so very little astronomy has been possible at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. I was reminded of the wonderful dark and clear skies in France and some images I managed to capture en Provence. - Quite frankly the sky was a sea of starlight" - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Our Sun

Sunset outside the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Sunset over the harbour at Wells next the Sea Norfolk

"The other night I watched from the quayside at Wells next the Sea , as the magnificent Milky Way climbed over the North Sea and the sky was awash with starlight. Even though Norfolk County Council does not turn off the street lighting as in Suffolk, the sky was inky black with the dust clouds in the Milky Way, in and around Cygnus, sharp and defined.  I even think I managed to observe with averted vision through my small 10x40 binoculars,  the spiral galaxy Messier 33.  It occurred to me that we spend much of the time at the Observatory imaging distant stars whilst largely ignoring the G2V star (our Sun) on our doorstep. Now as we come to the end of our summer here on the UK's east coast I like to watch our life giving star set in the west" - Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory