These are more photos from the Herstmonceux trip (see earlier news). The photos show the amazing rising floor in Dome E, home of the 26-inch Thompson Refractor. Look at the door in the photos, you clearly see it is rising, you may also notice J.D.R posing for us next to the door, lovely!

Once the floor had risen fully we got a talk from one of the experts that worked there. She explained that the telescope was not touching the dome at all. It was free-standing, on top of a huge concrete pillar. This is so the telescope does not get nudged while taking a picture. She told us many interesting facts while we were there, but sadly it was over too fast and we were on out way down again. I think we can all say this was a out of this world experience. These awesome photos were taken by one of the astronomy reporters, thanks Asteroid Adam (Adam Farmer).





In other news
We all take astronomy seriously, we are dedicated, work hard and always.... eat sour sweets!! Well just the once. I think we all know who pulled the funniest face though. I shall be kind and name no names, SIR.

By Mr Meteor (Jack Morgan)

Herstmonceux Trip 9/11/2010

On Tuesday 9th November the GCSE Astronomy class visited the Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux. This famous site was set up in the 1950s when too much light pollution in London forced the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to relocate. It is a picturesque site set in lovely country side.



It has 6 domes housing the following:
Dome A - The 30-inch Thompson Reflector
Dome B - The 36-inch Yapp Reflector
Dome C - The Hewitt Camera
Dome D - The 13-inch Astrographic Refractor
Dome E - The 26-inch Thompson Refractor
Dome F - The Congo Scmidt and The Domes of Discovery Exhibition

We travelled to Herstmonceux in an Uplands mini bus arriving at 6pm in dark, windy and rainy weather. This meant starting off inside on the excellent hands on exhibits, followed by a baked potato supper. It looked like it might clear, but it was still raining so we then went into dome E.
This dome is really big – so that the huge telescope in there can be moved around to point to any part of the sky. In order to reach the eye piece the floor of the building moves up. It was like being in a James Bond movie!
We then had pockets of clear sky between the cloud, so we moved to dome D where the 13 inch telescope was lined up on Jupiter and its 4 largest moons. A really great sight: the moons in a row around Jupiter, and bands of colour easily seen on Jupiter itself.
We then looked inside dome A to see a large reflecting telescope with its complicated set of mirrors so that the light can be used for spectroscopy in a separate dark room.
The rest of the evening alternated between outside observing (our host pointing things out with his 50mW green laser) and back inside on the exhibits to warm up.

A really great evening for which a special thanks goes to the great Herstmonceux staff. Uplands students were a credit to the school, being enthusiastic, polite and good natured.

Not too sure about the singing on the way home though...

Mr Pert

11b1 Ingenious use of technology!

Period 4 today Year 11 used FTS and got some images.

We knew about the possiblility of seeing Hartley's comet, but didn’t know if it was observable from Australia at this time.

We had RA and dec so tried it – but no luck. We then went for the easy option of the guided tour – only to find it didn’t work! I then frantically tried various Messier objects until one was observable and we went for that – M42 Orion’s nebula.

A quick thinking student in the group, Kleber Noel, used his ipod planisphere to see what other Messier objects were around Orion, and found M30 and M79, two Globular Clusters.

(Kleber gets a badge for quick thinking and saving the lesson!)

- Mr Pert

Orion Nebula M42 Sky Object Name: M42
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 12:43:11 UTC
RA: 5h35'16"
DEC: -5°23'23"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 10 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Orion Nebula M42 Sky Object Name: M42
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 12:45:52 UTC
RA: 5h35'16"
DEC: -5°23'23"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Globular Cluster M30 Sky Object Name: M30
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 12:51:38 UTC
RA: 21h40'22"
DEC: -23°10'45"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 2 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Globular Cluster M79 Sky Object Name: M79
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 12:56:31 UTC
RA: 5h24'12"
DEC: -24°31'31"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 2 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Globular Cluster M79 Sky Object Name: M79
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 12:58:02 UTC
RA: 5h24'12"
DEC: -24°31'31"
Filter: Blue
Exposure time: 1 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Astronomy club catches Hartley's Comet

The Astronomy Club had some fun thanks to Anne booking FTN four 4pm GMT – when comet 103P was available. Got some fine pictures of this. We did a colour one (which you know about), also did a few fed only ones without moving the telescope. With these we hope to see the motion of the Comet against the background stars? Also got M42 and M43.

It is their Herstmonceux trip next week...

-Mr Pert

Sky Object Name: UNKNOWN
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:04:22 UTC
RA: 0h00'00"
DEC: 0°00'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:08:17 UTC
RA: 7h00'48"
DEC: 9°51'44"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: M42
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:13:40 UTC
RA: 5h35'16"
DEC: -5°23'23"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 4 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: M43
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:17:04 UTC
RA: 5h35'31"
DEC: -5°16'03"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: M35
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:21:17 UTC
RA: 6h09'05"
DEC: 24°20'19"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:23:58 UTC
RA: 7h00'51"
DEC: 9°50'23"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:25:06 UTC
RA: 7h00'51"
DEC: 9°50'23"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:26:14 UTC
RA: 7h00'51"
DEC: 9°50'23"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:27:12 UTC
RA: 7h00'51"
DEC: 9°50'23"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 2 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:28:19 UTC
RA: 7h00'51"
DEC: 9°50'23"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 1 secs.
Instrument: EM03
Sky Object Name: 103p
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Nov 2, 2010 16:03:35 UTC
RA: 7h00'48"
DEC: 9°51'52"
Filter: R
Exposure time: 3 secs.
Instrument: EM03

Faulkes Telescope Tue 14 July, 2009 14:30 UTC

Around a few months ago, we (the astronomy group) got to use the Faulkes Telescope to get our own pictures of the universe. In the end…we were left with 3 pictures.

lc 5146: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) filters

mgc 7686: H-alpha (hydrogen) filter

M15: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) filters

To get these pictures, we did this:

First we chose which stars/galaxies/clusters we wanted to look at. This was done simply with Stellarium, which gave us the coordinates of what we wanted to look at. It also proved useful as we could also see what would and wouldn’t be visible on the day we used the telescope.
For the next part, we chose which out of the stars we wanted were best and then planned which order to photograph them. This was to save time when the telescope had to shift position between images. With Mr. Pert helping us, this was quickly done.
Finally we could use the telescope. For this, all we needed to do was input the coordinates of the star we wanted and wait for it to be photographed. When Mr.Pert had put in the coordinates, we got a live feed of the telescope moving. In the 30 min time frame, we got the 3 images you see above.
Overall, it was a fun experience that I learned a lot from. If I got the chance to do it again, I would.

by Connor Lynch (Yr10)
Badge Winner

Solar Eclipse 3rd Oct 2005

No special equipment was needed to record this solar eclipse in July 2008. A pair of binoculars, a tripod (though unnecessary helped obtain a clearer picture), an old cereal box with a pinhole made in it, and a piece of plain paper to project the image on:

The spaces between the leaves on the tree above created its own show of the eclipse...many times over!