In April 1957 Sir Patrick Moore began his monthly “The Sky at Night” which is still going strong today making it the longest-running program with the same presenter in television history. Sir Patrick, in his own unique eccentric and fast talking way often referred to “The Summer Triangle” which is an asterism or distinct pattern of stars located in the northern sky. This is a title which he said he coined but the triangle…
Our Next Meeting: 19, June- Summercourt
Image Credit: Frank Johns The main talk of the evening will be given by Dr Nigel Price – Planetary Nebulae… how do they form and what can they tell us about their progenitors? This talk will consider the origin and evidence for the different ways in which planetary nebulae form and how that can explain their fantastic morphologies. I hope to find a few colourful examples to whet our visual appetites as well an…
It’s the wrong Planet, Gromit!
You may have seen in the news last month that we had to keep our heads down as a piece of ancient Russian space junk was going to fall back to Earth with most of the world in the possible landing zone, including us. It finally plummeted harmlessly into the Indian Ocean on 10th May. Phew! This was one of the 35,000 bits of debris bigger than 10cm orbiting the Earth waiting to eventually…
Our Next Meeting: 15, May – Summercourt
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Palomar Observatory Tonight we will have the double act with Jacquie and Dean Ashton. The main talk of the evening will be by Jacquie Ashton – Detecting Exoplanets. The search for exoplanets has escalated since the first one was confirmed in 1995 – 51 Pegasus b. Jacquie will describe the techniques that were developed in the discovery of exoplanets and their characteristics, and how these are being used to find Earth-like planets…
Latest Member Image
The Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga (top left) with the Tadpole Nebula (bottom middle) and Spider and Fly (bottom left). A widefield (5×3 degree) SHO-image. Telescope: Askar FRA600+0.7x reducer, Mount: AM5N, Camera: ASI6200MC, Askar D1+D2 filters: 97x180s D1, 87x180s D2, Processing: PixInsight. Nigel M. Price The Flaming Star Nebula (IC405) in Auriga (Top right of image): IC405 is an emission line and reflection nebula shown here in false colour with Sulphur II shown as…
Do Little Green Men have a pulse?
Image Credit: Martin Burnell, University of Dundee Last month, on the clear April 5th evening at Carnewas, Kernow Astronomers held one of our “Sun and Stars” where anyone can come to view the setting Sun and Moon and planets through telescopes. A perfect discovery evening for young and old! Looking north in the distance was the Trevose Head Lighthouse blasting out its bright white beam every 7.5 seconds. Every April some of the Kernow…