Asteroid 2011 MD on June 26 - Image by Nick James
Nick James from Chelmsford captured this fast moving near earth object on 2011 June 26. Images at 22:44 and 22:49 UT.
Closest approach will be at around 17:00 UT on the 27th June when the object will be around 8000 miles from the Earth.
More information about this interesting object can be found on the Sky and Telescope website.
If anyone else is successful in imaging this object, please email results to picture@britastro.org
At the moment it seems likely that clouds will disappoint many trying to view tonights total eclipse of the Moon from the UK.
However, BAA Member Naimul Islam Opu in Dhaka, Bangladesh is planning to Live Broadcast the eclipse. You will be able to view it at:
Noctilucent clouds on the night of 2/3 June 2011, by Alan Tough, Elgin, Moray
The 2011 Noctilucent Cloud season is now underway, with a small display seen on the night of 2/3 June 2011. Alan Tough from Elgin captured this shot at 00:07 UT.
For more reports see the Noctilucent Cloud Observers’ Homepage.
This coming Wednesday evening, on 15 June, there will be a total eclipse of the Moon. From southern parts of the UK, the Moon will rise totally eclipsed, and the majority of the second half of the total phase will be visible, provided observers have a clear, unobstructed south-eastern horizon. Sadly, from locations further north, with moonrise occurring later in the evening, most of the total phase will be over before the Moon rises; those in northern Scotland will miss totality entirely. Indeed, observers throughout Europe will miss the early stages of the eclipse because they occur before moonrise.
March 2007 Total Lunar Eclipse by Bruce Kingsley
The Moon first enters the outer, penumbral part of the Earth’s shadow at 17:25 UT, and the partial eclipse begins at 18:23 UT. The eclipse first becomes total at 19:23 UT, reaches maximum at 20:13 UT, and ends at 21:03 UT. The partial eclipse ends at 22:02 UT and the penumbral phase at 23:01 UT.
NOTE:
You will need to add an hour to all UT times given here to obtain BST.
Many BAA members have been able to view and image this bright supernova which was recently discovered. For more info about the SN see this blog post
Here are a few of their images…
ISS Transit - Nick James
Nick James writes:
“This is my first attempt at an ISS solar transit. I used Calsky for the track details and set up a portable system around 1km from the centreline just north of here. This used a Megrez 72mm refractor with a x2 Barlow and a Canon EOS550D running in HD video mode (1920×1080) at 30 frame/s. This image is the result of minimum stacking 45 video frames.
This wasn’t a very good pass since the ISS was a long way away (it can be twice this size at its closest) and I will try to use a longer focal length next time but it demonstrated that the Calsky predictions are right on.”
Guy Hurst, UK Nova / Supernova Patrol and Supernova Search Coordinator for the BAA Deep Sky Section, today issued a TA Circular (E2743) giving details of a new supernova discovery in M51.
The object is located at: RA 13h 30m 05.8s and Dec +47deg 10min 11.2sec (2000). The magnitude of SN is currently around 13.5 putting it within easy range of imagers and visual observers with medium to large aperture telescopes.
An image of the galaxy taken by Ron Arbour, with the SN marked is below.
Supernova in M51 - Ron Arbour
@britastro