Image Credit: STScI The next meeting of Kernow Astronomers is on Thursday 20, June at the Summercourt Memorial Hall. Gather at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. Supernovas are the explosions that happen when a star runs out of enough fuel to support it against its own crushing gravity. When stars explode they are some of the brightest and most violent astronomical events known. In tonights talk Nigel will be exploring the different types of…
Long Distance Gibberish
Image Credit: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov In 1977 when at college in Coventry I met a very nice fellow student and my world changed. In 1982 we got married. Since then on odd occasions she says I talk gibberish. She’s usually right. Another world changing event occurred in 1977. The launch of the space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 that took advantage of a rare lining up of the outer planets. These craft delivered many surprises…
Chronology of a Cornish Aurora 10/11th May
It’s been a while since we saw a Auroral display like this in Cornwall, but on the night of 10/11 May, many club members from as far as South and West in Newlyn, to as North and East in Carnewas were treated to one of nature’s greatest lightshows. But’s let go back a few days and show the progression of Sunspot AR3664 which produced the spectacular display we saw a few days later. We…
Next Meeting: May 16th – Summercourt
EAA, or Electronically Assisted Astronomy is an ever increasing popular way to do Astronomy. While it uses a camera to make observations, it’s not astrophotography and because you are not looking through an eyepiece, you don’t need to be at the telescope to do it. Nick will give an overall view on what EAA is and how you can simply and relatively cheaply use your existing go-to telescope- no matter what kind it is…
Sun & Stars: 20, April – Carnewas
The first of this years Sun & Stars events held on 20th, April. These events , are always, is dependant on clear skies, but this evening we got lucky. Lots of visitors were able to observe spot activity on the surface of the Sun and then watch Jupiter set as more and more of its Moons appeared as darkness fell. Thanks as always, thanks to the National Trust for allowing us to use their…
Twinkle, Twinkle GINORMOUS Star
Looking up at a Chinese night sky Confucius poetically said: “Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the infinite shines.” Scientifically, we now know that the stars are actually giant balls of hydrogen converting to helium in a nuclear fusion process and kicking out huge amounts of heat, light, plasma, particles and radiation in the process. But is our Sun a “normal” size and “type” of star and how does it compare…