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…
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…
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…
A Constellation With a Sting In Its Tail.
I write this while on a ship in the South Atlantic travelling from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia on a wildlife expedition to see the amazing creatures and plant life in the polar regions and Antarctica before the environment is altered through climate change. Image Credit: Glynn Bennallick To get here, on the way down south to Buenos Aires, I glanced out of my plane window at night over the wing to the…
Latest Member Image : Pickering’s Triangle
Pickering’s Triangle, also known as Pickering’s Triangular Wisp, is a fascinating part of the Cygnus Loop, the remains of a supernova explosion that occurred 10 –15 thousand years ago. It was discovered photographically in 1904 by Williamina Fleming at the Harvard Observatory, although the credit went to the observatory’s director, Edward Charles Pickering – a process that happened all too often then. The Triangle is a complex network of shimmering filaments and expanding gas…