Lenticular Galaxy M85

 

Deep Space between Coma, Virgo and Leo. Messier 85 top right. Wide-field image taken with the astro-modded Canon 200d camera with clip in Altair Astro Dual Band filter.  Altair 66mm Doublet refractor with 0.8 focal reducer and field flattener. A stack of 2 minute lights at  ISO800. Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Nice evening in March 2022 and I decided to try out the new camera on an area of the sky seldom imaged from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. The Galaxies M85, NGC4539 and NGC4450 are clearly visible.- Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory 

Plate Solving image by Astrometry.net

Bi-polar Sunspot Group 2960

 

Bi-polar Sunspot Group 2960. Meade 90RA Mak telescope on a Star Adventurer Equatorial mount. QHT-11 mono video camera. 75% stack of 3000 video frames at f=1250mm. Colour added post acquisition and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Kurt Thrust.

"As the sun was shining and becoming more active, I decided to try and capture some sunspots. The magnetically Bipolar Group 2960 is quite large and on 02-03-2022 was facing our way. I haven't used our oldest scope, the Meade 90RA Mak, for some time but with a focal length of 1250mm, it is just right for capturing a large sunspot group. Unfortunately, the glass and mirror were coated with dust and were well over due a clean! There was also a lot of high level cloud about today which, together with the dust, blurred the image somewhat. All the team are looking forward to using our big refractor for imaging the Sun on a cloud free day" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Sunspot Group 2960 showing position relative to the Sun's limb.

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.

Interstellar Dust

Auriga, Gemini, Stars and Dust - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and a Sigma EX 10-20 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 12x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/13, f=14mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

On the 4th of February the weather in Lowestoft took a turn for the better so we decided to try out our new Triband filter. We set up the mini-imaging rig whilst the street lights were on and began an hour long run of five minute exposures. We thought that imaging the winter Milky Way, where it runs through the constellations Auriga and  Gemini, would provide a stiff test of how well the Triband filter deals with light pollution from full spectrum LED street lighting. We are pleased with the results but recognise that including the filter in the light train requires long exposure times which in turn puts greater pressure on the accuracy of polar alignment and the equatorial drive. The manipulation of the resulting data also requires a slightly different approach and skills which we hope to develop over the year." - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Orion's Belt with the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae - Canon 600d DSLR with a clip in Altair Triband Filter and Canon 90-300mm zoom lens on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount. 4x5 minute Lights and Bias frames at f/6.3, f=220mm and ISO800 stacked and cropped using Affinity Photo software. Credit: Pip Stakkert.

 

The Veil Nebula and Open Cluster NGC6940

 

"Pip Stakkert has been using the new Affinity Photo software to bring out the detail in the Veil Nebula and the open star cluster NGC6940 located  in the constellations Cygnus and Vulpecula. These astronomical delights are hidden in the summer Milky Way where stars and dark dust clouds abound" -  Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Belt Up

 

Orion's Belt and Dagger - Canon 600d camera with Canon 90-300 zoom lens on a Star Adventurer Equatorial mount. A stack of 5x3 min light frames at ISO800.credit Kurt Thrust

" Pip Stakkert is continuing to learn the 'ins and outs' of Affinity Photo software prior to capturing and developing images of the spring galaxies 'in and around' the constellation Virgo.  The eagle eyed will just about make out in the above image; the Flame, the Running Man and Horse Head Nebulae, as well as the more obvious Great Molecular Cloud". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Blue-White Supergiant Star Deneb

 

The Blue-White Super-Giant star in the Constellation Cygnus the Swan - Data captured at the Jodrell Plank Observatory in summer 2021 - Credit Pip Stakkert

"Pip has used our new Affinity Photo software to process this data to create an image that reflects the large dynamic range afforded by this extremely bright and distant star seen within the nebulous band of the Milky Way. Deneb is; very bright with a luminosity up to 200,000 times that of the Sun, more than 2500 light years distant from Earth and has a diameter over 200 times that of the Sun. It is a Super Giant in every way and can be seen with the naked eye!

 If you look closely at the image you can see the very many dark dust clouds or dark nebulae that abound within the disc of the Milky Way"  - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory