Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Partial Solar Eclipse from the Frozen North
A few brave society members travelled about as far as you can go without leaving the mainland to experience the partial solar eclipse of 20th March 2015 at over 95% of totality. Observing from a cottage overlooking the sea near the Caithness town of Wick, the eclipse was clearly visible from first to last contact.…
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Imaging the globular cluster M3
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…
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Imaging Jupiter
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!
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Imaging the Orion Nebula
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.
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Outreach at Eyam Hall
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…
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Imaging Orion
During the Stargazing evening on Saturday 21st February, Rob Bates spent some time imaging the constellation of Orion and managed to capture some fantastic detail of the nebulae. Orion’s belt and sword with the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), the Flame Nebula (NGC2024), De Mairan’s Nebula (Messier 43) and the unmistakeable Great Nebula in Orion (Messier…
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The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13 / NGC6205)
Darren’s doing more imaging! This time the target is The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, also known as Messier 13. This was taken through a SkyWatcher Explorer 200PDS telescope using a Canon 1000D camera.
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February Stargazing at the Sportsman Inn
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…
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Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33)
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…
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Stargazing at the Sportsman Inn
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…
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