Tony M took the society's Seestar on holiday to the Orkney Island and came home with this image of the Pleiades (M45).  The image clearly shows the remains of the nebula that gave form to the stars. The image has 54 * 20 second subs and tweaked in Pixinsight.

Dr Meg Schwamb presented this week's talk.  Meg described the Centaurs,a group of bodies orbiting beyond Jupiter, especially Chiron, and how data from ATLAS and other sky surveys are used to analyse them before looking at JWST data and anticipating that from the Vera Rubin Ob.

With the Sun low in the sky Mick N has turn attention to the Moon.  He took this image of Montes Riphaeus, just south of the Lansberg Crater. This range of peaks are about 120 by 30 miles and rise to about 3000ft above the surrounding lava plain of Oceanus Procellarum.

Dr James Lees joined us in person and led us through nearly 100,000 years of humans observing the universe. Starting with the problem of seeing all seven stars of the Pleaides to the fist radio dish he explored the drivers behind our need to look at and understand the night sky.

Dr Marie Gorman joined MSAS this week to describe her work on sunspots and flares. She described how sunspots are formed and their relationship with flares and the dangers the later pose to life and modern civilsations on Earth, including efforts to predict CMEs.

MSAS members have dodged the cloud and rain over the past few weeks and Tom W managed 5 hours of exposures over two nights to produce this image of NGC6946, the Fireworks Galaxy.

MSAS welcomed Dr Martin Braddock this week.  Martin described the difficulty that humans will face in their attempts to explore and colanise the Solar System. Starting with the physical  and mental issues current astronauts face he went onto discuss issues faced on long missions.

Trevor W sent this image of the Orion Nebula taken in Hα. It shows the detail in the centre often more difficult to make out in colour versions.  Trevor took a total of 11 hours of exposure for the image.

If Santa left you a telescope (or if you have one gathering dust) and would like to know how to use it, bring it along to the JA Jones Observatory Date and time: Saturday 28 Dec 2024 16:00 - 20:00 GMT Location: J.A. Jones Hoober Observatory, Lee Brook Lane Wentworth S62 7SH

MSAS welcomed Prof Martin Hendry who started off our 2025 talks by bringing us up to date on the reasearch into Gravitational Waves. Martin described the work leading up to the first detection of GWs nearly 10 years ago in 2015 and the additions and improvements made

During the winter months MSAS member Mick N turns his attention away from the Sun and exercises his skills on the Moon and other objects. Here he caught February's first quarter Moon from his home in north-east Sheffield.

How Important is the Moon, a talk tonight by Dr. Donnacha O’Driscoll - We are all familiar with the lunar affect on the tides here on Earth but the Moon's influence on the evolution of life on Earth msas.org.uk/about/programm…

Astronomy Beyond the Visible Spectrum Thursday, 27th February 2025 (19:45 - 22:00) The light humans can see is but a small fraction of the light that exist in the universe, and using that light we find weird objects, incredible events, and the answers msas.org.uk/about/programm…

Getting ready to work the ISS voice repeater or send some APRS packets? Check your power levels. Best practice is to use 5 watts and a directional antenna.

The light humans can see is but a small fraction of the light that exist in the universe eventbrite.co.uk/e/astronomy-be…

Astronomy Beyond the Visible Spectrum Speaker: Dr Alfredo Carpineti Thursday, 27th February 2025 (19:45 - 22:00) msas.org.uk/about/programm…

I’ve just found this great free prize draw website. myoffers.co.uk/thankyou/255-2… via MyOffers