Sheffield Astronomical Society

Society member Vince Sellars captured this superb image of the Globular Cluster M3 (NGC 5272) in the constellation of Canes Venatici on 24/03/2015. At a distance of roughly 34,000 light years, it has an unusually large population of variable stars, and is one of the finest globular clusters to observe in the northern hemisphere.
Vince stacked his best 44 images using Deep Sky Stacker. Each image was a 30 second exposure at ISO800 using a Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera at prime focus on a SkyWatcher 200 newtonian reflector telescope.

Credit: Vince Sellars

Jupiter is the planet of the moment, dominating the evening sky in the east. Russell Atkin captured this great image of the King of the planets complete with the largest storm in the solar system in full view. Keep up the good work Russell!

Credit: Russell Atkin

The Orion Nebula (Messier 42) is always a popular target for imagers – capturing the intricate details of the nebula is always a challenge. I think you’ll all agree that Russell Atkin has done some fantastic work getting the detail out of M42 in this excellent shot.

Credit: Russell Atkin

The National Trust invited Sheffield Astronomical Society to visit the historical Eyam Hall on the evening of Saturday 28th February. Over 50 visitors attended to see presentations about the Cosmic Zoo, Constellations, and the Planet Quiz. Unfortunately, the weather was against us with cloud from horizon to horizon and some rain so no observations could be done other than nephology!

Presentations (Credit: Carl Davies)

Shop and displays (Credit: Carl Davies)

‘Mayfield Millenium’ 10″ Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain (Credit: Chris Walker)

The legendary ‘Howitzer’ 7″ Achromatic Refractor (Credit: Chris Walker)

After last week’s cancellation, the weather was looking good for the evening of Saturday 21st February with the BBC and CNtimer agreeing on the conditions. We took the society’s well known ‘Howitzer’ 7″ achromatic refractor because Jupiter was always going to be the star (planet) of the show. The evening kicked off with an early pass of the International Space Station at around 18:25. A good number of society members brought their own equipment and we had at least 10 telescopes on the go at some points! Many visitors came along to view Jupiter, the Orion Nebula, Comet Lovejoy, the Pleiades, the many open clusters of Monoceros, Auriga and Cancer, and many other celestial objects. Proceedings closed at around 10:00pm before we all froze solid, however the usual warm welcome in the Sportsman Inn granted a break from the cold. Thanks to everybody who came along. Our next Stargazing event is scheduled for Saturday 14th March. Please keep an eye on the Facebook Group for up-to-the minute updates on weather conditions or changes to the schedule.

Setting up for Stargazing (Credit: Andrew Noble)

Our own society secretary, Darren Swindells took this image of the notoriously difficult to see Barnard 33, otherwise known as the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion. The reflection nebula NGC 2023 can also be clearly seen at the bottom of the image just off centre. After Darren added the luminance data to the RGB data, the contrast of the image increased massively and the features of this famous nebula really came through. More please!

Credit: Darren Swindells

A surprisingly good observing this evening on Saturday 17th January at the Sportsman Inn on Redmires Road. The weather forecast suggested a clear night with heavy clouds and snow, which made no sense, so we rolled the dice and went along anyway. Hedging our bets on equipment we took the Celestron 72mm Firstscope mini-dobsonian and a pair of 20×80 binoculars. We were lucky. Conditions were very clear between 7 and 8pm between the snowfalls, so we had good visibility of Comet Lovejoy, the Orion Nebula, The Pleiades and Jupiter. A number of adventurous visitors braved the snowy conditions and joined us in our hunt for the comet-of-the-moment, which was fairly easy to find east of the Pleiades.
This was an exercise in making the best of inexpensive equipment and everything worked very well. It shows that you don’t have to drop £££ on shiny things to have a great observing session! We continue to be surprised at the quality of the tiny 72mm Firstscope – it’s a really good entry level piece of equipment.
As always, the welcome in The Sportsman Inn was warm and friendly, and the food and drink was to the usual excellent standard!