First Light 2022 (Choice of beaks)

 

Orion over the Visitor Centre at Carlton Marshes, Lowestoft.

Orion over St. Michael's Church, Oulton Broad.

Orion over the LVST Yagi aerial at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The weather over Lowestoft on the 3rd of January provided some crisp widefield views of the constellation Orion. After a long period of moonlight, Christmas lights and poor weather, Pip Stakkert could not contain his enthusiasm for going imaging in 2022., As soon as it became dark, he set up the the Canon 600d camera with the EX Sigma 10-20 zoom lens, on the Star-adventurer equatorial mount. The sky was imaged at f=17mm. 20x3minute light frames at ISO800 were stacked using Sequator freeware. The foreground images at Carlton Marsh and St Michael's Church were taken by our sponsors Anita and George Roberts on location and in daylight with the same camera set up and using a compass to ensure correct alignment. Nowadays, A and G are not allowed out on their own after dark (ah bless!). Pip then used our newly acquired Affinity Photo software plus all our usual photo editing favourites, to merge the sky and foreground images. We are all impressed by the power of Affinity Photo to bring out astronomical detail and Pip will be hoping to improve his skills in using this splendid new resource. The recent Masterclass articles by Nik Szymanek in Astronomy Now and Dave Eagle's 'Guide to Affinity Photo Astrophotography Image Processing' are on the Jodrell Plank Observatory library shelf and are recommended reading for all budding astro-imaging Affinity Photo users". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Bon Voyage James

 

The James Webb Telescope on it's way! - image Credit NASA Bill Ingalls

Bon Voyage to the James Webb Telescope on its way from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Christmas Day 2021. - Kurt Thrust and the Jodrell Plank Observatory Team.

"With revolutionary technology, Webb will observe a part of space and time never seen before, providing a wealth of amazing views into an era when the very first stars and galaxies formed––over 13.5 billion years ago.

It can explore our own solar system’s residents with exquisite new detail and study the atmospheres of distant worlds. From new forming stars to devouring black holes, Webb will reveal all this and more! It’s the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope ever built.

Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Thousands of engineers and hundreds of scientists worked to make Webb a reality, along with over 300 universities, organizations, and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries! "

Ready to #UnfoldTheUniverse? The greatest origin story of all unfurls soon. Learn more at https://nasa.gov/jwst

Credit: NASA

" We should not forget some of NASA's older explorers like the Curiosity Mars Rover which has spent more than 3000 sols on the surface of Mars doing great Science" - Joel Cairo CEO at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of this scene at two times of day. This was the view at 8:30 a.m. local Mars time on Nov. 16, 2021 (the 3,299th Martian day, or sol, of the mission) and again at 4:10 p.m. local Mars time. The two times of day provided contrasting lighting conditions that brought out a variety of landscape details.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Merry Stargazing Christmas 2021

 

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our world wide blog readers and stargazers.

Storm Arwen keeping the Jodrell Plank Team indoors

 

The Constellation Orion the Hunter commanding our southern horizon in the winter sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory

" The Observatory came through Storm Arwen without damage but the weather in Lowestoft continues to prevent any serious imaging. Having time on his hands, Pip Stakkert decided to use the newly acquired software to reprocess data captured in January 2020. The above image is a composite made from data acquired using our Canon 600 DSLR at both f=18mm and f= 400mm. The Orion Great Molecular Cloud is clearly visible with the Running Man Nebular just above. Blog readers with exceptional eyesight might just be able to make out the dark Horsehead Nebula underneath Alnitak the left hand star in Orion's Belt. Let us hope the weather improves over Christmas". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Andromeda Galaxy Group (our galactic neighbours)

 

The Andromeda Galaxy Group compilation location image created from images captured by Pip Stakkert at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

" The Andromeda group of galaxies located just above the 'Square of Pegasus' rides high in the sky over the Jodrell Plank Observatory in November. When the street lighting goes out at 23.30 hours it is just possible to make out Messier 31, the largest of the three galaxies, with the naked unaided eye". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 31 Messier 32 and Messier 110 Galaxies - a cropped stack of 60 sec lights at ISO800 taken with the Altair Astro 66mm doublet refractor with a 0.6x focal reducer and field flattener and the Canon 600d camera all on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. Credit: Kurt Thrust

Europa up close

 

Jupiter's Moon Europa credit for data :JUNO spacecraft NASA / SwRI / MSSS. Data reduction by Pip Stakkert at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

"As our telescopes, Jupiter's low inclination and the weather preclude us imaging Jupiter's Galilean Moons other than as tiny discs, we decided to download data from NASA's JUNO spacecraft to create this rather beautiful picture of the Ice Moon Europa". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory. 

The Icy Crust of Europa Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

"Europa presents an icy surface with a disrupted crust which betrays constant movement. Similar broken and rafted ice terrains may be found on Earth where sea ice forms on top of a subsurface ocean. It is considered very likely that underneath Europa's surface there lies a deep and planet wide ocean. The Hubble Telescope has detected intermittent plumes which appear to be associated with warmer areas on the surface of Europa. If this is the case then this might indicate water vapour venting from fissures in the icy crust. Europa is a possible candidate for harbouring microbial life". - Karl Seguine Community Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Plume erupting from Europa, March 17, 2014. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Sparks (STScI), and the USGS Astrogeology Science Center

Compilation image to show JUNO in orbit around Jupiter Credit: Pip Stakkert

The Saturnian Ring System

 

Images taken of Saturn using the 127mm Meade Apo Refractor at the Jodrell Plank Observatory from 2014 until 2021

" Have you ever been sitting in a railway carriage reading a newspaper and as the train slowly pulled out of the station you cursorily looked out the window? For a moment you might wonder if you in the carriage is moving forward or whether the platform is moving backwards whilst you remain stationary. Living on any planet in a dynamic planetary system has similar associated issues of relative movement.

As an 'Earthling', we can watch our Sun rise in the  East and set in the West just  like clockwork measuring the length of the day and night. Similarly, every midsummer, the Sun at midday is higher in the sky than at midday in midwinter. The former wouldn't happen if the Earth stopped rotating about a North - South axis or if it rotated the other way around, the latter would not occur if the Earth's axis of rotation was perpendicular to it's plane of orbit around the Sun.

For time immemorial, mankind has viewed the night sky and wondered at the constancy of the stars and the constellations.  Our far ancestors did notice that a few stars seemed to move oddly against the backdrop of the constant heavens and these were called  the 'Planets';  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - 'planete' was the word used by the ancient Greeks to define these 'unusual stars' and literally means 'wanderer'.

Explaining the movement of the planets became a lot simpler for almost everyone, other than the 'Inquisition'', once we came to terms with the uneasy thought that the Earth and/or mankind wasn't at the centre of everything.

If you look closely at the above images of Saturn you will notice two things:

1. The 2021 image is not as sharp as the others from previous years.
2. The angle at which we see the Rings appears to change over time.

The 2021 image is not as sharp because this year Saturn is very low on our southern horizon, which means we are imaging it obliquely through more of  our turbulent and polluted atmosphere. The night we captured this image the air over Lowestoft was particularly volatile making obtaining a sharp focus extremely difficult. Whilst Saturn and Jupiter are currently low to the horizon as viewed from countries in the Northern Hemisphere, from Southern Hemisphere locations both these planets are currently presenting high in the sky. This is because of the Earth's axial inclination to it's orbital plane and its position on its 12 monthly orbit around the Sun. For the same reason, when it's summer in the UK it's winter in New Zealand.

The view of the Rings appears to become less oblique from 2014 to 2017 when they are at their most open and then begin to close such that in 2021 we can just make out the south pole appearing above the Rings. This closing of our view will continue until 2025 when we will view the Ring System edge on. After 2025, the southern Saturnian Hemisphere will experience what passes for Summer on a cold Gas Giant.

In reality the Ring System will not change fundamentally, just the angle at which it is illuminated by the Sun and the angle at which we view it!

Saturnoppositions-animated By <a href="commons.wikimedia.orgwikiUserTdadamemd" title="UserTdadamemd">Tdadamemd<a> - <a href="commons.wikimedia.orgwikiFileSaturnoppositions.jpg" ti

Understanding the meanings of 'ecliptic' and 'equinox' are key to understanding why our view of Saturn and the Saturnian Rings changes over time on a cyclical basis.

Earths_orbit_and_ecliptic By Tfr000 (talk) 0159, 15 March 2012 (UTC) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=18705315

The majority of the major bodies of the Solar System orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane. This is probably due to the way the Solar System formed from a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas. Probably the closest current representation of the disk is called the invariable plane of the Solar System. Earth's orbit, and hence, the ecliptic, is inclined a little more than 1° to the invariable plane, Jupiter's orbit is within a little more than 1⁄2° of it, and the other major planets are all within about 6°. Because of this, most Solar System bodies appear very close to the ecliptic in the sky. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and you currently look south you will see Saturn leading Jupiter west across the sky.

Saturn's rotational axis like Earth's is inclined at an angle to the ecliptic. The Earth has an inclination of 23.4 degrees and Saturn 26.7 degrees. An equinox occurs when the position of the Sun is directly over the planet's equator. Both Saturn and  Earth have two Equinoxes in their respective years but Saturn's year, its orbital period, takes 29.4571 Earth years. So Saturn's equinoxes occur approximately 15 Earth years apart whilst on our planet they happen every six months.

 

PIA14943-SaturnBehindTheRings-20180813 By NASAJPL-CaltechSpace Science Institute - <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="httpsphotojournal.jpl.nasa.govjpegPIA14943.jpg">httpsphotoj

Earlier I wrote that the Ring system will not change 'fundamentally' but it is wise to note that each ring is made from billions of pieces of ice and rock, varying in size from a grain of sand to that of an average house, all of which are constantly on the move. These Rings are thousands of miles wide but only between 10 and 100 metres thick. There are gaps between them which can be seen clearly in the above image taken by the Cassini space probe. If you look at the images captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory you can  see the A, B and C Rings with the Cassini Division - the black gap between the A and B Rings.  Each Ring is a dynamic system moving and constrained by the influence of gravity, angular momentum and harmonic resonance. We live in a chaotic Universe, so enjoy Saturn's beautiful icy Rings whilst you can. Mankind's span is brief, so much in the Solar System appears constant but over cosmological timescales change is definitely the name of the game.

The Rings were probably formed by Saturn's gravity capturing asteroids, comets and small moons and smashing them up in a series of collisions. How long ago were they formed is still a matter for debate. As a result of findings from the Cassini probe and estimating age from the accumulation of contaminant pollution of the Ring material, some scientists believe the Rings formed fairly recently and within the last 100 million years. Other scientists believe that the Rings are much older and that a natural process of recycling could throw this estimate way off. As Sir Patrick Moore used to say " We will just have to wait and see". - Karl Seguine Community Outreach Coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Saturn's_Rings_PIA03550 By NASAJPL - httpphotojournal.jpl.nasa.govcatalogPIA03550, Public Domain, httpscommons.wikimedia.orgwindex.phpcurid=610237

Saturn's_rings_in_visible_light_and_radio NASA