Cockermouth Astronomy

May 2012 meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Our next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on May 29th 2012 at the usual venue. Our main speaker will be Ian Smith, one of our resident astrophysicists, who will be talking about the origins of life in the universe.

If anyone has any observation reports or photos they'd like to share please bring them along.

See you all there.

Jeremy

April 2012 meeting - tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:48:00 +0000

Just realised that I forgot to remind people that the CAS meeting is tonight, Tuesday 24th April 2012.

Tonight we will have a news update followed by the AGM.

All welcome as usual and depending on the time we can have a bit of a freestyle session after the AGM to discuss any topics people have questions on or would like to see covered in future talks.

See you there (hopefully!)

Jeremy

March meeting 27th March 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:16:00 +0000

This Tuesday (27th March) is our March meeting. After our usual round up of news items Dennis will be giving us a talk in his experiences starting out in astrophotographs. There should be plenty of tips for anyone interested in taking their own photos of the night sky.

See you there.

Chris.

Supernova SN2012aw captured in M95

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:58:00 +0000

Many thanks to Robin for pointing out that my image below also captures the very recently discovered Supernova in M95.

Amazing to think of the power of this single star shining so brightly from such a great distance.

Jeremy

Mars passes M95 and M96 Galaxies

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:04:00 +0000

The sky was beautiful last night and I managed to get a nice conjunction of the planet Mars as it passes by two Messier Galaxies, M95 and M96.

Mars, M95 & M96

Skywatcher MN190 f/5

Canon EOS300D modified

EQ6 Pro autoguided

30 x 3 minute exposures @ ISO800

M95, shown on the right in this image, is a magnitude +11.4 barred spiral 36 million light years away from us.

M96, on the left, is a magnitude +10.6 type Sa spiral 31 million light years away.

Mars was shining brightly at magnitude -1.0 and is shown massively over-exposed here in this series of 3 minute exposures.

Look out for some great conjunctions on 25th or 26th March with the crescent Moon, Jupiter and Venus in the western early evening sky ; and Venus passing very close to the Pleiades (M45) on 2nd-4th April.

Venus & Jupiter reflected in Lake Windermere

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:39:00 +0000

On a visit down to the Eddington Astronomical Society last night to do a talk, I was stunned to see the beauty of Venus and Jupiter reflecting in the still waters of Lake Windermere.

Two bright beacons blazing low in the Western sky!

Jeremy

February 2012 Meeting report

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 09:31:00 +0000

We had a great turn out for our February meeting where Jeremy gave us a talk on some of the fantastic images of Saturn returned by the Cassini probe which is still orbiting around the ringed planet years after its initial mission duration.

One of my favourites was the image of a backlight Saturn which included the Earth seen as a tiny dot peeping through Saturn's rings.

We also covered the latest news topics and I used a diagram showing where all the current space exploration missions in the Solar System currently are. You can see that close up at this Planetary Society Blog post.

Next month Dennis will be giving us a talk on his experiences starting out in astrophotographs.

Did you see the meteor?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 08:56:00 +0000

Last night 3rd March there were lots of sightings of a pretty big meteor, known as a fireball, seen from northern England and southern Scotland. The event has made the news and caused a lot of people seeing it to call the police who were said to have been inundated.

So if you saw something very bright moving across the sky at about 9.40pm last night that's probably what you were looking at. Universe today has a good report with a nice picture and a couple of videos.

If you did see this why not let us know in the comments?

Chris

February Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:33:00 +0000

The February 2012 meeting will take place on Tuesday 28th February at 7.30pm in the church hall as usual.

There will be a news update, tea-coffee intermission and a talk entitled "Postcards from Cassini", a photographic voyage around Saturn and its moons.

Everyone is welcome. If you have any difficulties with a telescope or would like some advice then bring your equipment if you like and we can help point you in the right direction during the intermission or after the meeting.

See you there!

Jeremy

January meeting update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:43:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who came along to our January meeting and special thanks to Ian for holding the fort as Jeremy was injured and I was away with work. It sounds like it was a successful meeting and the high level is interest we had through our Stargazing LIVE events continued with many more people attending the meeting and hopefully joining the society.

Our next meeting is on 28th February. Keep an eye on the website for more details.

Chris.

Astrophotography tips

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:39:00 +0000

It was great to meet so many people last weekend who are interested in having a go at astrophotography or who are already dabbling.

Below are some useful links to software and hardware that will help you progress:

Registax - a freeware program that produces stunning images of the moon and planets using webcam video footage
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/setupregistax6.exe
Clamping arrangements to attach a compact digital camera to the eyepiece of a telescope. These can be useful to ensure the optics are aligned properly and held steady. This will allow straightforward imaging of planets and the moon through your telescope.
http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/camera-adaptor/univerasal/digiscoping
Phillips 880SPC or Phillips Toucam Pro II (SPC900) are excellent cameras for webcam imaging. Unfortunately I can't find any in stock anywhere...but keep your eyes open. Morgan Computers were selling them for £17.90 recently. All you need in addition to the camera is a nose piece and IR cut filter, which can be purchased from many astronomy shops online such as Altair Astro for example ( http://www.altairastro.com/product.php?productid=16449&cat=0&page=1 )
Digital SLRs are a great way to get into astrophotography if you already own one. The best are either Nikon or Canon. I use a Canon 300D which I have had modified to remove the daylight colour balancing filter as this blocks a lot of the red spectrum that we really want to record. Astronomiser.co.uk is the service I used to modify my Canon 300D and the service was first class. The camera was returned to me within 2 days. You can also purchase pre-modified cameras from Andy Ellis from about £500.
However, if you are going to invest a significant amount of money in a camera for astronomy you may want to consider a dedicated astro-CCD camera, rather than a DSLR. There are many brands and prices available, too many to discuss here. The two benefits of a DSLR over an astronomy CCD in my opinion are: (i) DSLRs can be used for normal daylight photography not just astronomy, although you will have to do some colour balancing if you have the chip modified and (ii) the field of view of a DSLR is much larger than many dedicated astro-CCD cameras £ for £.
If you are going to get into imaging stars, galaxies, etc (not planets and moon) then an image processing software is essential. Again there are many options. I use the excellent package called ImagesPlus developed by Mike Unsold (www.mlunsold.com) and selling for $230 at the moment. Tutorials and support are excellent. But as I say there are many options out there.
If you don't want to invest yet in image processing software then try out this freeware:
http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html or have a go an manually aligning images in Photoshop (warning this will take a LOT of time). Deepsky Stacker is fantastic for a free package and there are some good explanations of the theory behind image stacking on the website (click on the "How To Create Better Images" link on the left hand pane of their website).
I also use a piece of software called NeatImage which helps to reduce noise in processed images. Be careful not to overprocess the image though.

Hopefully this will set some of you off the journey to taking your own images. If you need any specific advice get in touch via email: j.g.hunt@btinternet.com

Stargazing Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:48:00 +0000

Some photos from our Stargazing Event in Cockermouth

Thanks to everyone who was involved in making the day a great success.

Don't forget our next meeting is on Tuesday (31st January). Usual place and time; St Joseph's Church Hall, Cockermouth, 7.30pm. I can't make this one, but I hope lots of you can and I hope to see you at future events.

Chris.

Stargazing in Cockermouth initial report

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:18:00 +0000

A quick report from our stargazing event today. We had a really good turn out all afternoon for our exhibition and talks. Thanks to all the CAS members who came along and brought equipment and displays and spent all afternoon talking to people and helping them with telescopes etc. Thanks to Stuart for coming from Kendal to show people his meteorites and Mars 3D pictures.

Unfortunately, yet again, the weather didn't co-operate so we have had to cancel our observing event this evening. There was almost total cloud cover when our talks finished.

Thanks to everyone else who came along to visit us the enthusiasm and questions from everyone made the day.

More update and photos later.

Chris.

Directions to Stargazing in Cockermouth events tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:38:00 +0000

If you are unsure of the locations for tomorrow's events the map below shows the locations of the United Reformed Church (events start at 1pm) and the Memorial Gardens (observing starts at 8.30pm).

View Stargazing in Cockermouth Locations in a larger map

Fingers crossed for clear skies!

Stargazing in Cockermouth timings

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:55:00 +0000

Just a quick reminder of timing for our event on Saturday.

We start at the United Reformed Church in Cockermouth at 1pm with exhibitions and short talks. No booking is necessary just come along and drop in when you can.

At 6.30pm we will have a couple of longer talks. One providing a Tour of the Solar System and the other an introduction to astrophotography.

Finally from 8.30pm we will be in Memorial Gardens in Cockermouth with telescopes and binoculars observing the night sky. Weather permitting we will be there until at least 10pm.

Hope to see as many people as possible throughout the day.

Chris.

Potential aurora tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:58:00 +0000

The sun is really active at the moment and yesterday there was another massive solar flare and coronal mass ejection. What that means is that loads of charged particles are on there way towards Earth and could potentially cause aurora (northern lights).

There is no guarantee this will happen and the weather looks pretty cloudy at the moment. However if it does clear after dark it is well worth going outside and looking to the north. You may see the northern lights as a faint shimmering curtain of light.

There has been lots of activity recently and the aurora got a fair bit if TV coverage yesterday and this morning.

Good luck.

Stargazing report: Low Gillerthwaite event

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:49:00 +0000

Yesterday's event at Low Gillerthwaite Field Centre was a great success despite the fact that the weather didn't co-operate. Clouds stubbornly refused to clear as the sky got dark and after a while the observing was abandoned in favour of a few more talks. Everyone there could certainly see the potential for great observing with the dark skies and fantastic setting.

There was a great turnout for the event with well over fifty people visiting during the day, and it was great to see so many family groups. The inflatable planetarium was a favourite. Provided by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the planetarium was set up in the barn and allowed around 30 people at a time to be taken on a tour of the solar system and the night sky. The enthusiasm of the presenter, Alan, was infectious and he was bombarded with questions at the end of each session.

Over in the classroom we had a range of astronomy books, posters and equipment on display. I did a number of talks during the afternoon all of which were well attended and followed by questions and answers. Topics such as finding extrasolar planets, what to look for in the winter sky and the ten most amazing places in the solar system were covered. There was also an opportunity for younger enthusiasts to get hands on making planetarium umbrellas. Perhaps the most appropriate equipment for the day!

Thanks to the CAS members who came along with telescopes and spend the day answering people's questions.

We will get another chance for some observing on Saturday 28th at our Cockermouth event.

Chris.

Stargazing Events - Press Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:53:00 +0000

We have been fortunate to get quite a bit of press coverage in the local press for Stargazing LIVE events, which is great for our events, but probably a bit too much for me personally !!

Unfortunately there is some confusing information in some of the papers about what events are taking place when. I'd hate people to be disappointed turning up at the wrong place or time, so I'll try and clarify as simply as possible. Here goes . . . .

There are TWO events taking place, one this weekend and one next weekend.

The event this weekend is at Low Gillerthwaite Field Centre in Ennerdale and has been organised by them. I and other members of Cockermouth Astronomy Society will be attended to help out with some talks and observing weather permitting. I haven't got full details of the timing of this event but I understand the main part of it will start early on Saturday afternoon and continue into the evening (21st January). For more details check the Low Gillerthwaite website.

The event next weekend is on Saturday 28th January in the United Reformed Church on Cockermouth Main Street. This event is organised by Cockermouth Astronomical Society and will consist of an exhibition and talks during the afternoon and early evening (starting at 1pm) and observing in nearby Memorial Gardens from about 8.30pm weather permitting.

I hope that clarifies things. Both events are free and it would be great to see as many people as possible.

There are some other confusions in the articles not least we are of course Cockermouth ASTRONOMICAL Society not astrological society (how many times ?. . . . ). So if you are coming along to see what the stars hold for your future expect an appropriate response!

Finally for the avoidance of doubt, with regard to the photos, the good looking bloke on the left is Professor Brian Cox and the other bloke is me! Brian will not be at our events but I hope to see you there.

Chris

Monkey Head Nebula

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:12:00 +0000

During the first in the series of BBC Stargazing Live I was in and out of the house to the observatory, capturing the following image of the Monkey Head Nebula or NGC2174.

NGC2174/2175

Skywatcher MN190

Canon EOS300D modified

EQ6 Pro autoguided

28 x 5 minute exposures

Stargazing LIVE update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:33:00 +0000

I hope everyone is enjoying the BBC Stargazing LIVE series on BBC2, over 4 million people watched the first programme last night. Judging by the number of people visiting this site and the number of emails I've had quite a few people have been inspired by the programmes and are looking for further events to get involved with. There are plenty of events around Cumbria check out the BBC Things to Do website.

We will be following up on many of the items covered in the TV series at our exhibition and talks on 28th January including more on; finding things in the night sky, choosing telescopes, photographing the night sky and getting hands on with the scale of the universe.

You will have seen plenty of examples of amazing astrophotographs on the TV series, just as impressive are the ones Jeremy has posted on this site including the fantastic Flaming Star nebula one below. Jeremy will be sharing more images and giving advice on how to start taking night sky images yourself.

IC405 - The Flaming Star Nebula

noreply@blogger.com (Polaris Jerry) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:04:00 +0000

With the lovely spell of clear nights I've been out getting some new shots and the first to be processed is of the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga. It's a stunning object with deep red emmision and haunting blue reflection nebulae intermingled.

This is the second time I've shot this object, but the first time with this scope. I've done a very deep exposure totalling 3.5 hours colour and 1.5 hours hydrogen-alpha.

IC405 - Flaming Star Nebula

Mak-Newt 190mm f/5

Canon EOS300D modified

EQ6 Pro autoguided

43 x 5 minute exposures (colour) ISO800

plus

9 x 10 minute exposures (hydrogen-alpha) ISO800

Stargazing LIVE starts with events around Cumbria

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Stargazing LIVE starts tomorrow on BBC2 and the series runs for three nights.

Events are already taking place all around Cumbria. Eddington Astronomical Society had a successful observing evening on Saturday, the details are on Stuart's Cumbrian Sky blog. It looks like they had a great turn out from the Kendal. Border Astronomy Society are also holding observing evenings at their observatory in Carlisle.

Check the BBC Things to Do site to find other events in the area.

One event we are involved with is the Low Gillerthwaite Dark Sky Discovery Siite event on Saturday 21st January. Details are here.

Then, of course, there is our own Stargazing in Cockermouth event on Saturday 28th January.

I hope to see you at one of these great events.

Chris.

Welcome to 2012 - Some dates for your diary

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:17:00 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone.

2012 promises to be an interesting and exciting year for astronomy with plenty for us to get involved with. Later in the year we will have the opportunity to see at least part of a transit of Venus for the last time for 105 years! In August NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover is due to land on the red planet, Opportunity is still going strong 8 years after she landed!

We will of course have a full programme of CAS meetings for 2012, but the activities start before our first meeting on 31st January so take note of the following dates.

16th - 18th January: BBC Stargazing LIVE airs in BBC2, so sit back and enjoy.

21st January: Stargazing event at Low Gillerthwaite Dark Sky Discovery Site at Ennerdale. Various activities including an inflatable 'star lab'. We need society members to come along with telescopes to help with observing later in the evening. More details to follow.

28th January: Our own Stargazing in Cockermouth event at the United Reformed Church on Cockermouth Main Street from 1pm and observing in Memorial Gardens from 8.30pm. We will have plenty of displays in the hall with activities for young stargazers to get involved with. During the afternoon and early evening there will be a number of talks on astronomy subjects and the obviously the observing sessions, weather permitting. We need society members to come along and help set up and bring telescopes and equipment where possible. Everyone else is welcome to just turn up, entry is free for everyone.

31st January: CAS January meeting, 7.30pm in St Joseph's Church Hall.

I hope to see you there.

Chris

Season's greetings

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Hopefully 2012 will be a good year for astronomy.

Clear skies.

Chris.

Telescope for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:37:00 +0000

I've had someone contact me looking to sell a secondhand telescope.
The 'scope is a Meade LX90 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and comes with a computerised 'GOTO' mount and accessories including eight eyepieces.
The owner describes the telescope as 'hardly used' and as this is a high end telescope is looking for £1250 for it. If anyone is interested please contact me and I will pass on the sellers details to you.
Chris.