Frant Primary School - Faulkes 5th July 2010

Pupils at Frant Primary School had the opportunity to try out the Faulkes Telescope today. The sky was clear and the the viewing good. They took turns manouvering the telescope, and managed to get four good images:

M29, an open cluster in Cygnus Sky Object Name: m29
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 5, 2010 10:05:15 UTC
RA: 20h23'54"
DEC: 38°32'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 10 secs.
Instrument: EM01


M56, a globular cluster in Lyra Sky Object Name: m56
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 5, 2010 10:10:57 UTC
RA: 19h16'36"
DEC: 30°10'55"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01


M57 Ring Nebula Sky Object Name: m57
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 5, 2010 10:16:29 UTC
RA: 18h53'36"
DEC: 33°01'40"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 15 secs.
Instrument: EM01


M101 Pinwheel Galaxy Sky Object Name: m101
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 5, 2010 10:25:58 UTC
RA: 14h03'13"
DEC: 54°21'02"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 70 secs.
Instrument: EM01

Faulkes Heathfield July 1st 2010

Taken this morning at Heathfield Community College:

Messier 92 (also known as M92 or NGC 6341) is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules.

Sky Object Name: M92
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 1, 2010 10:34:44 UTC
RA: 17h17'07"
DEC: 43°08'14"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy distanced 23 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Sky Object Name: m101
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 1, 2010 10:40:31 UTC
RA: 14h03'13"
DEC: 54°21'02"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Trifid Nebula, located in Sagittarius, is so named because it is 'divided into three lobes'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the lower, red portion), a reflection nebula (the upper, blue portion) and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' within the emission nebula that cause the trifid appearance. Sky Object Name: M20
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 1, 2010 10:46:46 UTC
RA: 18h02'20"
DEC: -23°03'10"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01

NGC 5676 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Boötes.
Sky Object Name: NGC5676
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 1, 2010 10:54:11 UTC
RA: 14h32'48"
DEC: 49°28'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Rosette Nebula is located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter. Sky Object Name: Rosette nebula
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 1, 2010 10:58:03 UTC
RA: 18h04'04"
DEC: -24°19'49"
Filter: Blue
Exposure time: 1 secs.
Instrument: EM01

College Newsletter article from St Richard's, Bexhill

In an invitation to Mr Pert to return to St Richard's College for an up-and-coming conference on 12th July, Dr Durkin said of the previous visit ".... my Year 8 Astronomy potentials were absolutely buzzing and I hope to have a full class come September"

The 12th July conference will be aimed at the Yr8s from eight schools local to St Richard's as well as a few students selected from Uplands Yr8, and will feature Johny Ball , presenter of the popular science and technology television programs for children in the 1970s, 80s and 90s (eg. "Think of a Number" and "Think Again"), doing lectures in the morning. Mr Pert's Faulkes Telescope demonstration will be one of the practical activities in the afternoon. Sounds like a fun day.

This is the College Newsletter article from St Richard's (Thank you so much, Dr Durkin...It's always great to get feedback, especially when it's so positive!):



Year 8 Stargazing ‘taster’ lesson

On Wednesday 5th May, Year 8 pupils interested in starting the new GCSE Astronomy course in September, were treated to a visit from visiting Astronomy teacher, Mr. Iain Pert from Uplands School.
The pupils had prepared for the visit by identifying faint inter stellar objects, visible in the night sky over the Southern Hemisphere, using the newly installed (and free to download at home) stellarium software on the notebooks.


Guided by Mr. Pert, pupils identified binary star systems, nebulae and galaxies to observe and take images of, using the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii.
At our allotted time, we were given remote control of the telescope and were able to aim it towards our chosen regions of space. Pupils observed and imaged three different galaxies, M98 (bottom right), M101 (middle right) and M64,the ‘Black Eye Galaxy’ (top right)’.

The ‘Black eye’ galaxy has been studied extensively by the Hubble Deep Field Telescope, in orbit around the Earth, and its distinctive appearance is thought to be due to an absorbing dust cloud which was produced as two star systems merged. First catalogued in the 18th century, it is located roughly 17 million light years away from Earth.

Congratulations to the pupils who took these amazing images.

Dr. Durkin

Saint Richard's School, Bexhill

These images were taken by Yr 8 students of St Richard’s School, Bexhill, who are going to take GSCE Astronomy next year there.

Sky Object Name: M98
When taken: May 5, 2010 11:22:31 UTC
RA: 12h13'48"
DEC: 14°54'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 55 secs.
Instrument: EM01

Messier 98 (M98, NGC 4192) is one of the faintest objects in Messier's catalog. It is a beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on, and a member of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, situated in the southern part of constellation Coma Berenices.

Pinwheel Galaxy

Sky Object Name: M101

When taken: May 5, 2010 11:15:28 UTC
RA: 14h03'12"
DEC: 54°21'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 60 secs.
Instrument: EM01

Spiral galaxies, like M101, have well-defined spiral arms that wind around the galaxy within a rotating pancake-shaped disk of material. In this Hubble telescope “face-on” view of M101, bright blue areas of star formation pepper the spiral arms, which look like the arms of a pinwheel. Dark, thin dust lanes follow the spiral structure into a yellowish central bulge containing older stars.
In fact, M101’s disk is so thin that the Hubble telescope easily sees many more distant galaxies lying behind it. Seeing these background galaxies shows that a galaxy’s disk is really mostly empty space.

Sky Object Name: Black eye galaxy
When taken: May 5, 2010 11:08:04 UTC
RA: 12h56'44"
DEC: 21°40'58"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 60 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Black Eye Galaxy (also called Sleeping Beauty Galaxy; designated Messier 64, M64, or NGC 4826) was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780. It has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. It is a spiral galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation.

Faulkes telescope 20th November 2009

These pictures were taken by class 7S1:



Sky Object Name: m76
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:28:27 UTC
RA: 1h42'18"
DEC: 51°34'07"
Filter: Green
Exposure time: 50 secs.
Instrument: EM01

M76 is among the fainter Messier objects. It is known under the names Little Dumbbell Nebula (the most common), Cork Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, and Barbell Nebula, and it was given two NGC numbers as it was suspected to be a double nebula with two components in contact.
Pioneer astrophotographer Isaac Roberts found that this was not a double, but a single nebula, and first suspected it might be a broad ring seen edgewise. In 1918, Heber D. Curtis correctly classified it as a planetary nebula for the first time.

Sky Object Name: m1
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:22:51 UTC
RA: 5h34'31"
DEC: 22°02'02"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 90 secs.
Instrument: EM01

The Crab Nebula, Messier 1 (M1, NGC 1952), is the most famous and conspicuous known supernova remnant, the expanding cloud of gas created in the explosion of a star as supernova which was observed in the year 1054 AD. It shines as a nebula of magnitude 8.4 near the southern "horn" of Taurus, the Bull.

Sky Object Name: m33
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 20, 2009 10:11:49 UTC
RA: 1h33'51"
DEC: 30°39'37"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 120 secs.
Instrument: EM01
The Triangulum Galaxy Messier 33 (M33, NGC 598) is another prominent member of the Local Group of galaxies.
M33 is approaching us (our Solar System) at 182 km/s according to R. Brent Tully, or at 179 +/-3 km/s according to NED. Corrected for our motion around the Milky Way's Galactic Center, it is approaching our Galaxy at 24 km/sec.
M33 was among the first "spiral Nebulae" identified as such by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Rosse. It was also among the first "nebulae" identified as galaxies, in which Cepheid variable stars were found;