Category Archives: Astronomy

This category is for all things relating to astronomy and astrophotography.

Full Moon in May 2012

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Julian Kay

There was plenty of talk in the news of the “supermoon” phenomenon, which meant that the full moon appeared to be visually larger and brighter in the sky than usual. Here’s a picture of the moon taken on Saturday night in Thorner just outside of Leeds.

As you can see there was just enough cloud to stop a clear shot, and on Sunday night it wasn’t much better.

Though to be honest I didn’t mind the cloud, as I really like these pictures of the full moon rising through them in the distance, as taken from The York Astronomical Society‘s observatory just outside of York.

The problem with the moon being so bright (and orange when rising) is that you don’t get much detail, but by putting the shutter speed down you can pick up much more detail on the surface.

While I was at it, I also directed my camera towards Venus to take this rather cool photo of it directly below Alpha Arietis.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Canon 7D, Moon, Venus, York Astronomical Society | 1 Comment

The York Astronomical Society 40th Anniversary

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Julian Kay

This last weekend marked the 40th anniversary of The York Astronomical Society, and what a weekend it was – action packed with no less than six talks and plenty of fun.

On Friday night we had the company of Dr. Allan Chapman talking about Johannes Hevelius which was absolutely fascinating, then on Saturday morning we had Prof. Monica Grady, talking about how science analyses the materials brought to earth via meteorites to build models on the creation of the solar system, then Martin Dawson shared a brief history of YAS which included lots of information about previous observatories.

Saturday afternoon included cutting of the cake, and three more talks including Paul Money on his favourite images of The Space Shuttle, Nik Syzmanek with some amazing astrophotography and Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell on the story of gold. As a space flight fan, my favourite talk had to be Paul’s, however I found all of them extremely interesting.

To finish off the weekend, the faithful returned to the observatory on the Sunday night to do some real astronomy in the cold. I took the opportunity to capture a few photographs of a very impressive looking moon like the one shown above (and more to come!)

I’ve been a member of The York Astronomical Society for a few years now, and I thoroughly enjoyed the celebrations.

Many thanks to everyone who was involved in making it all happen.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Canon 7D, Moon, York Astronomical Society | Leave a comment

Photographing the colours of a star’s twinkle

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Julian Kay

Here’s a very cool photograph of the colours that Spica twinkles.

Want to do it yourself? Just simply follow these instructions as shown to me by fellow astronomer Conna Bramley…

Point your camera at the brightest star you can see, maybe Sirius or Spica.
Set up for a long exposure, maybe 5 to 10 seconds.
Open the shutter and move the camera around in various ways.
Enjoy awesome colour lines like the one above!

I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of this before! Very cool.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Canon 7D | 5 Comments

New Moon in March 2012

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Julian Kay

Last night I went to Scarborough for some Astro Dog Astronomy and took these lovely pictures of the New Moon in March 2012.

This photo was actually taken with a lens borrowed from Annette Newby – thanks! It looks great, and you can see a close up below.

As well ask the new moon, Jupiter and Venus were pretty close by giving us the fantastic view of these two great planets that we have been used to for the last few months. Venus is on top in this photograph…

And how could I resist getting a close up picture of Jupiter with three of its largest moons in view.

I had a great night, and I also managed some firsts. While I had seen the phases of Venus before, I’d never seen them with such clarity, and a definite first was seeing detail on Mars (including ice caps and dark features!) Very impressive.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Venus | Leave a comment

Mars and The Moon in March 2012

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Julian Kay

Just a cheeky little picture of Mars and The Moon taken in Thorner.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Mars, Moon | Leave a comment

Jupiter, Venus and The Moon in February 2012

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Julian Kay

I took this picture last night at Clifford’s Tower in York, it shows Jupiter, Venus and The Moon in a line from left to right.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged Jupiter, Moon, Venus | 1 Comment

Stargazing Live in York January 2012

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Julian Kay

This year York took part in the BBC’s Stargazing Live by getting the public out to meet astronomers, look through telescopes, and try space food. The event was extremely successful, bringing around 1500 people to the Museum Gardens.

While the weather was very cold (my toes were actually frozen) the sky was clear, and lots of people got a very good view from the telescopes that had been set up for them.

Venus (shown above) was quick to disappear, but Jupiter was one of the stars of the show. With lots of people seeing it for the first time, or seeing details that they’d never seen before – like banding and the Galilean moons.

There was plenty of news coverage of the event too, The Press wrote an article and Glen Berry and Martin Lunn from the York Astronomical Society were also interviewed on BBC Look North.

The York Astronomical Society has been no stranger to the BBC recently; offering up interviews for The Sky at Night while at enjoying the best of a clear sky at Kielder Star Camp, as well as a couple of interviews on BBC Radio York in the run up to Stargazing Live.

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged York Astronomical Society | Leave a comment

The Moon, Jupiter and Venus in January 2012

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Julian Kay

As the sun was starting to set this evening, I thought I’d quickly pop out and take a photo of the Moon and Jupiter next to each other. Jupiter is the few pixels of light in the bottom-left of this photograph.

While I was out there I was also on the lookout for Venus – which is a little more tricky to spot so early in the evening, but once you see it it pops right out at you.

Here’s a photograph of Venus with an aircraft flying under it. There’s no way I can get any detail from Venus with just my camera, but it’s a nice sight to behold at sunset.