Perseverance

Perseverance Rover being 'sky craned ' down onto the surface of Mars.  (simulation) Credit: JPL/NASA-CALTECH 

" Congratulations to the NASA Perseverance Rover scientfic and engineering teams for the technically spectacular and safe landing of the rover in the Jezero Crater on Mars. The rover will use its onboard equipment to search for the fossilised remnants of ancient life in the Martian regolith and rocks. It will also collect and deposit rock samples for later collection and return to Earth. Finding incontrovertible evidence of the simplest forms of bacterial life on Mars would be sufficient to prove that given the right environment life can spontaneously arise throughout the universe. This would be as significant as determining the Earth is not flat and is in orbit around the Sun". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

First image sent back by the Perseverance Rover from Jezero Crater. The image was taken using one of the rover's hazard cameras. The image is partially obscured by dust and low res.Credit:JPL/NASA-CALTECH 

Illustration of Perseverance at work on the Martian Surface Credit : JPL/NASA-CALTECH

https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8865/touchdown-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-safely-lands-on-red-planet/

Saturn Reprise from 2017

 

Saturn at a better altitude in 2017 - 127mm Meade Apo Refractor and QHY5-11 colour planetary camera. Pip Stakkert

" As the distance between Mars and Earth increases, the disc presented by the red planet decreases and is now much reduced from that imaged in autumn 2020. At the moment many of the other planets are in conjunction with the Sun and consequently practically unobservable. The Covid 19 pandemic and the recent run of challenging weather here on the UK's eastern coast has kept activity at the Jodrell Plank Observatory  to an absolute minimum. With time on his hands and a mask on his face, Pip Stakkert reprocessed this image of Saturn taken back in 2017 when weather conditions and the ringed planet's altitude conspired to provide the Jodrell Plank Team with an excellent imaging opportunity. The recently acquired Topaz Denoise software was used to sharpen this image. The dark 'Cassini Division' within the ring system is now clearly defined in this reprocessed image". Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Capella

 

Alpha Aurigae-Capella -stack of 60 second exposures at ISO 1600 - Canon 600d DSLR and EOS 18-55 lens at f=18mm all on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.

"During the winter months, the constellation Auriga rides high in the Northern Hemisphere sky. It's brightest star Capella is in fact a gravitationally bound star system comprising four stars in binary pairs. Two are bright yellow stars each with a mass 2.5 times that of the sun. Two small red dwarf stars make up the other binary pair. Capella is a relatively nearby star system only 43 light years distant from our planet". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The Sun - A New Year 2021

 

"The Sun is a G2V class main sequence star. It is a huge ball of super-hot electrically-charged gas, mainly hydrogen (73%) and Helium (25%). The remainder is comprised of heavier elements which astronomers refer to as metals. The electrically charged or ionised particles of gas constantly move and in doing so create a powerful magnetic field.

This magnetic field goes through changes every 11 years or so, where the Sun's North and South poles swap places - this is called the solar cycle.

As the magnetic fields change with time, so does the amount of activity on the Sun's surface. Over the last few years the Sun has been winding down at the end of a solar cycle. 

The middle of the solar cycle is when the Sun is most active, and when it has the most sunspots. For some time the Sun has had few or no spots on display. At the Jodrell Plank Observatory we only have appropriate filters to image the Sun in 'White Light' (5500 Angstroms). This frequency roughly corresponds to the Sun's surface where spots occur. As there have been few spots to image, we have done little recent solar imaging. Towards the end of 2020 there were indications that solar activity is on the increase and that the new solar cycle has commenced. We look forward to 2021 and the real possibility of imaging some nice sunspot groups as they rotate and cross the Sun's disc.

The above solar images were taken through cloud using an unfiltered handheld Canon IXUS compact camera. Not much activity to be seen you might say but you would be wrong!

The following video and still images were taken by the SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory NASA on the same day the above images were captured from the Jodrell Plank Observatory. As you can see there is plenty going on if you have the right kit and filter the light accordingly!" - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

A Merry Christmas from all the team at the Jodrell Plank Observatory

 

" May I take this opportunity on behalf of Kurt Thrust and his 'observatory team', to wish, all you 'Jodrell' enthusiasts around the world, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Why does the weather go all 'Pete Tong' when something celestial and rare happens?

 

These two images were taken from the Jodrell Plank Observatory within twenty four hours of the closest conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter on the 21st of December 2020. Prior to this, we captured a number images using a variety of camera-lens combinations. - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

These three images were taken on the 17th of December 2020 when Saturn and Jupiter were joined by the new crescent Moon. Even seen through hazy cloud, this was a very beautiful meeting of three very different and distant celestial bodies. The Moon looks quite mysterious in the composite image put together by our astro-student Reggie Stax. Reggie used the Observatory's old Meade ETX Ra Maksutov Scope, punching above it's weight over 20 stargazing years. - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Using the 66mm Altair Astro Doublet refractor as a telescopic lens, we captured this image of Saturn (centre left) and Jupiter (centre right) with its retinue of four Galilean Moons. Sadly the resolving power of this set up was insufficient to show Saturn's rings or its larger moons!

These two images were captured on the 6th of December 2020 through a lot of high level hazy cloud. - Karl Seguine community outreach coordinator at the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Orion composite image captured and processed over three years at the Jodrell Plank Observatory

 

The Constellation Orion - Composite of images captured and stacked using the Altair Astro 66mm Doublet ED Refractor with a focal reducer and field flattener and the Canon 600d DSLR with a zoom lens at f=18mm. Credit: the Jodrell Plank Observatory Imaging Team 

 The northern winter constellation Orion is now a prominent feature looking south on a clear night. Alpha Orionis, otherwise known as Betelgeuse, is back to its brightest best after a recent period of dimming. Professional astronomers have decided that previous estimates of its size had been too great and now believe it to be a third of what was originally thought. If this is true, estimates of how long this red supergiant star has before it goes supernova will have to be extended.

Other features to note are:

• The bright stars that make up the constellation; Betelgeuse, Bellatrix Alnitak, Alnilam Mintaka, Saiph, and Rigel are at varying distances from the Earth. If we could view the constellation from another planet light years away elsewhere in the Milky Way, it would look quite different.
• Close to the left star in Orion's Belt, Alnitak, you can pick out the emission 'Flame Nebula'

This image of Alnitak and the Flame Nebula was taken at the Jodrell Plank Observatory using the 127mm Meade Apo Refractor.  If you look closely at Alnitak , at about 10 o' clock, you can see one of its two fourth magnitude companion stars. Alnitak is a hot blue supergiant over thirty times more massive and 21,000 times brighter than the Sun. It is estimated to be over 1000 light years distant from Earth.

• Just below Alnitak is the dark  'Horsehead Nebula' created by dust being silhouetted against an emission nebula behind it.

The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1375 light years distant from Earth. It is quite large and seen from our perspective covers approximately 6 square light years. The Horsehead Nebula is a mixture of hydrogen gas and dust. The bright star Sigma Orionis seen to the left and below the nebula is ionizing the gas behind it and causing it to glow, the dust prevents us seeing this and creates the dark Horsehead Nebula as a darker region. The Horsehead Nebula is an active location for the formation of low mass stars. When viewed at infra-red wavelengths the Horsehead Nebula is transformed and glows. The astro-imager Robert Gendler's 'Astro Photo of the Day (APOD)' , created from data captured by large professional telescopes, is well worth a look!

Robert Gendler's Spectacular image of the Horsehead Nebula

• Barnards Loop - the arc of red luminosity that sits to the left and wraps around the three stars that make up Orion's Belt is known as Barnards Loop. The emission nebula is named after the pioneer astrophotographer E E Barnard who photographed and published it in 1894. It is an integral part of the wider Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC) Complex. The stars within the OMC are thought to be responsible for ionizing the gas in the 'Loop' and causing it to emit photons of light. The 'Loop' extends for approximately 10 arc-degrees as viewed from Earth. It is apparent in long exposure photographs but very difficult to spot with the eye even from dark sky locations. The 'Loop' is estimated to be between 440 and 520 light years distant which would imply dimensions between 1000 and 300 light years across. It is believed that the loop is the expanded shock wave from a supernova which occurred in a multiple star system some 2million years ago.

• The Orion Nebula or Messier 42 is located in Orion's Dagger an asterism which is visible to the naked eye from most suburban locations. It is a wonderful sight in binoculars or a small telescope. It is a bright concentration of ionized hydrogen gas and dust and at a distance of approximately 1345 light years is the closest location of massive star formation. Messier 42 is part of the wider Orion Nebula Complex. Messier 42 is 24 light years from side to side and has a mass equivalent to about 2000 Suns. At it's centre is a cluster of bright young and very hot blue stars known as the Trapezium. The red colours seen in the nebula are the result of ionized hydrogen gas the blue colours are created by ultra violet light from the hot young stars being reflected. 

• The Running Man Nebula or NGC 1977 is a reflection nebula located just north of Messier 42. The nebula contains the bright star cluster NGC 1981.

All the staff at the Jodrell Plank Observatory look forward to the dark winter months and in particular to the appearance of the constellation Orion striding across our southern horizon.

Our favourite view of the area around Alnitak taken with the 127mm Meade Apo refractor and Canon 600d DSLR. - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory

Credit: Wikipedia