Stour Astronomical Association (SAS) June 2025 Meeting

In Cavendish Memorial on “The Night of June the 3rd ”, as goes the song, the subject matter for the talk was one which astronomers and non-astronomers alike find fascinating and this is Auroras, or Northern Lights, but in this case with a bit of a twist. Yes, you guessed, the twist is the Extra-Terrestrial dimension.

Johnathan Clough is the vice-chair of Cambridge Astronomical Association and a specialist in Aurora. He started the talk by defining what aurora are and the conditions required, here on Earth, for their formation. The appearance of Auroras on our planet depends on a whole range of factors being just right and these include the solar wind, the earth’s magnetic field, atmospheric gasses, altitude, air density and many more, which explains why we don’t experience the breathtaking scenes on a daily or even frequent basis.

However, as Jonathan clearly explained, these same conditions are not necessarily those required for such displays to appear in other parts of our solar system or elsewhere in the Universe.

For example, the planet Jupiter, formed mostly of gas, has an immensely strong magnetic field and can experience bursts of electromagnetic radiation thirty times more powerful than on Earth, giving rise to the most intense auroras in the Solar System, with Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, playing a key role. Saturn too benefits from its own strong magnetic fields and weather patterns when it comes to aurora, with incredibly complex and dynamic displays of light featured regularly.

Most the planets of our Solar System enjoy aurora caused by differing stimuli. Mercury, Mars and Uranus are included in these and, recently, the James Webb Space Telescope has captured stunning images of Neptune’s auroras, showcasing that planet’s unique atmospheric conditions.

Travelling outside our Solar System, in terms of Jonathan’s talk at least, it has been discovered that Brown Dwarfs - those kind of not quite a planet, not quite a star celestial objects - also exhibit aurora events. These are not directly witnessed as light shows but instead from radio, x-ray and infra red emissions. These aurora emanating emissions have actually been the source of much that we know about these mysterious bodies, the research into which is ongoing, and the nearest of which is a mere 18 light years away !

Jonathan’s talk was enjoyed by all attending this SAS meeting which, like all SAS meetings is open to all for just £4, including refreshments, on the first Tuesday of each month. On 1st July our speaker will be Mike Foulkes, a director of the British Astronomical Association, who will be bringing up to date our knowledge of that most fascinating of planets - Saturn. Not to be missed !

Stour Astronomical Association (SAS) May 2025 Meeting

May’s meeting of Stour Astronomical Society, on Tuesday 6^th May, turned out to be rather unusual - very unusual in fact ! The scheduled talk, due to be given by Matthew Bothwell on the subject of Dark Matter and Dark Energy had to be cancelled at less than an hour’s notice because Dark Forces influenced the signalling on the railway line on which Matt was travelling and prevented him from reaching our meeting.

So, after apologies to all who had travelled from near and far to hear Matt speak, our very own Glynn Parsley took over and gave an excellent presentation on Solar Eclipses.

Glynn commenced his illustrated talk with a reference to solar eclipses that were noted by the Babylonians around 700BC and moved on through the centuries to the first full description in 1230 AD, the first corona observation in 1842, the first photograph in 1851 and the identification of helium in the Sun’s atmosphere in 1868. Clearly, solar eclipses have fascinated human kind for thousands of years - and why not ? So much valuable information has been gathered about the Sun and our Solar System during eclipses.

Glynn himself has been a keen eclipse observer and recorder for many years and has travelled worldwide his pursuit of these phenomena. Phenomena in the plural because eclipses come in many forms. Partial and total, some with the Sun’s corona and solar flares visible and some with the famous “diamond ring” effect.

Most recently, Glynn’s travels took him to Wyoming USA in 2017 for a totality of over 2 minutes in clear skies and again to the USA for the 4 minutes 17 seconds of totality with the eclipse which tracked across Texas and Colorado. Spectacular photographs of these event accompanied the talk which concluded with dates for our calendars for the 2026 eclipse in Greenland and Spain and the 2027 event which can be observed from Egypt.

One of the interesting phenomena that Glynn pointed out was that even if, in the approach to a total eclipse, the sky is cloudy, when the Sun’s rays are blocked by the Moon, the temperature on Earth drops and the clouds often dissipate to provide a perfect view.

One other amusing result of totality, in ancient times, was that farm workers, as the darkness came, thought the day had ended early and so packed up and went home ! No such luck today !!

Glynn Parsley MRSC, DMS has been a member of SAS for a couple of decades and contributed significantly to its organisation and running while in his day job he is a management consultant.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 3^rd June “Extra-terrestrial Aurora” by Jonathan Clough BSc (Hons) - Vice-chair of Cambridge Astronomical Association. We welcome all comers to share in this most interesting subject.

Stour Astronomical Association (SAS) April 1 2025 Meeting

"Photographing the Night Sky" by Nik Szymanek - 1st April 2025

Astro Photography at its Absolute Best

Its impossible to describe in words the absolutely stunning astrophotograpical images that Nik Szymanek presented to Stour Astronomical Society (5AS) on Tuesday lst Aprii. you had to be there !!

But Nik, who is clearly one of the nation's favourite astrophotographers, gave a very clear and easy-to-follow talk on both the subjects of his amazing photographs -and the equipment and processing he employs to achieve the results.

"Photographing the Night Sky" started with the Moon as the subject and Nik explained how our nearest celestial body provides beginners and experts alike with incredible opportunities to produce stunning images both digitally and on fllm. With either medium, the camera and a suitable lens or telescope attachment reveals so much more detail than can be seen with the naked eye, especially at phases of the Moon other than full. Craters, shadows, mountain ranges and likely meteor impacts deliver to the Grmera fascinating pictures, of Eafth's only natural satellite, which can be studied for hours.

Moving on to the Sun, Nik gave out an immediate warning to us all, ngt to look direcily at the Sun either with naked eye or with telescope or binoculars as severe and likely permanent eye damage is certainly guaranteed !! But, taken with suitable imaging equipment and filters, the SAS gathering at Cavendish Memorial Hall could see photographs of sunspots, solar flares and the transits of Mercury and Venus.

Aurora (Northern Lights) naturally came next as these too are associated with the solar activity which accompanies sunspot presence. The colour rendering of Nik's photographs was amazing and especially so as the location was not within the Arctic Circle but at Boxted near Colchester.

The subject of light pollution came up next and Nik spoke about how important it is for all of us to protect our view of the night sky by careful design and placement of street and security lighting. As examples of the benefit of dark skies, we were treated to incredible shots of comets, zodiacal light, star trails and the Milky Way.

Nik described at length the type of equipment that can be deployed beyond the standard 35mm camera with 50mm lens, through digital SLR cameras, various telescopes and attachments, tracking mounts, cooled CCD (charge coupled device) cameras and the integration of multiple images over several hours with specialised software.

Then, already gob-smacked by what we had seen, Nik produced the most amazing and stunning deep space images of nebulae, gas and dust clouds, galaxies and young star formation. Silence filled the room until a round of well deserved rapturous applause spontaneously broke out.

Nik will surely return to sAs in future and, as I said, "you have to be there" !!

Next Month :-

6th May "The Very latest on Dark Matter and Dark Energy"

Dr Matthew Bothwell of The Institute of Astronomy, cambridge university

Matt Bothwell heads up the outreach team at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University and is also an author of books on the physics of the Universe. He will update us on the latest thinking, theories and research into the fascinating subject of Dark Matter with references also to Dark Energy! - come arong and discover more about how experts believe our Universe works