June 2009 CAS Meeting

Thanks to all for attending the June 2009 CAS meeting last Tuesday. We were a bit depleted probably due to holidays, but it was a very interesting meeting with a riveting presentation by Robin on his recent Pro-Am collaboration on "The Mysterious Epsilon Aurigae" eclipse.

We were joined by two prospective new members at the meeting and we'd encourage them and anyone else interested in furthering their knowledge of the universe to come back!

Other topics covered included the demise of the Kaguya/Selene lunar orbiter. See here www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/index_e.htm for more info and great HDTV footage from lunar orbit.

The June launch of the new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also featured. Additional details of the mission can be found here: http://www.lro.gsfc.nasa.gov/

And finally...we have Dennis to thank for another great CAS monthly newsletter, which you can download here: www.jghpics.freeuk.com/letter_july.doc

Please remember that there will be no meeting in July. We will post a note to confirm whether the August meeting will be going ahead or not, subject to summer holidays. Clear skies!

Jeremy

M17 on a summer's eve

Fighting the mid-summer twilight and a waning moon, M17 emerged from the southern horizon last night through a short series of 4 x 5 minute exposures at ISO800.

A sequence of 10xflatfield, 10xbias and 5xdarkframes helped to minimise image noise, coupled with an Astronomik CLS deep-sky filter to lift the nebula from the light sky background.

Williams Optics ZS80ii, Canon 300D
EQ6 autoguided, 4 x 5 mins @ Iso800

Interesting prediction of Nova

I stumbled across this on Sky & Telescope.com...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/43435242.html

Perhaps we'll see a Nova whilst Scorpius is up in the southern summer sky.

Jerry

M20 Triffid Nebula

Very low on the horizon at around 1.30am, the constellation Sagittarius is rising and revealing its intra-galactic gems such as the Triffid Nebula (M20).

William Optics ZS80II, Canon 300D
7 x 3 mins @ ISO800 (unguided)

M13 Globular Cluster

The gorgeous M13 globular cluster located in Hercules is easily visible to the naked eye at magnitude 5.8.

The cluster is also a nice target for beginners in astro-photography. At an apparent size of 23 arcminutes it shows up well even in large format cameras.

The following image was taken this weekend, despite a moonlit summer night with poor darkness.

William Optics ZS80II, Canon 300D
5 x 5 mins @ ISO400

A successful CAS publicity event

Thanks to everyone who came along today to support CAS and spread the word about the society and astronomy in general. We managed to put on an impressive display in the church hall with plenty of pictures from previous society events, members images and information on the latest space missions.

Things got off to a slow start, with the good weather and a couple of football cup finals working against us, and keeping people away.


However, things started picking up after a while and literally hotted up once Robin and Peter arrived with telecsopes to allow people to look at the sun. We then switched to 'sidewalk astronomy' encouraging everyone walking past to stop and have a look. A much more succesful strategy as the pictures below illustrate . . .

It was really clear that many people just walking down the street were interested in astronomy and fascinated to see the sun through Robin's hydrogen alpha solar scope. That proved a real hit as we were lucky enough to have a solar flare several times the size of the Earth visible on the edge of the solar disc.

So we answered many varied questions on astronomy, space and sometimes vaguely related subjects, and people went on their way hopefully a little better informed. Perhaps we'll see some of those people again at CAS meetings.

So thanks again to all CAS Members who turned out to help and to everyone who spend a little of their sunny Saturday stopping to take an interest.

CAS event underway!

Just a reminder that we are down in Cockermouth today promoting CAS at the United Reform Church.

Come and join us if you get chance



-- Mobile post

CAS Event on Saturday

On Saturday 30th May (this Saturday) we are taking part in an event in Cockermouth organised by the Probus Society to publicise local societies. The event is in the United Reformed Church Hall on main street in Cockermouth and will be open to the public from 10am until 4pm.

CAS will have a small display and members will be on hand to answer questions and give demonstrations.

If you are a member and can spare some time please turn up any time and lend a hand. If you are not a member then of course please come along and find out more about us.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Chris.