Events

The image shows a colour image of the open cluster NGC 581 also known as M 103. It is a composite of a 5x1 minute exposure in the astronomical B and V filters as well as 2x1 minute exposure in the R filter. All images were taken on 5th December 2014 by A Owens and L Blacketer two 3rd year NTU students.

This cluster of stars is in the constellation of Cassiopeia and the most distant galactic open cluster at a distance of 8,000 to 9,000 light years. It contains at least 172 stars of an approximate age of 21 million years. The bright orange star in the centre is not an actual member of the cluster.

The image above shows a colour image of the cluster Collinder 421. The image is a composite of six different images taken in May, 2010 with the 0.5m NTU telescope. The data was taken by Guillaume Rambaud, a 2nd year student from Universite de Limoges in France, and analysed by Shan Yang, a Nuffield Bursary Placement student.

This open cluster is quite old (1.2 billion years) and 3,000 light years away. Its lose distribution of stars indicates that this cluster is already dissolving. Astronomers believe that most of the stars in our Galaxy were formed in clusters and then dissolved into the disk of our Galaxy.

The above sequence of images and animation shows a transit of one of Jupiter's moons Io. The images were taken on October 10, 2010 with the Meade ETX-125 at NTU at the labelled times.

A transit occurs when a moon moves in front of Jupiter and casts a shadow onto the surface of Jupiter. This is not uncommon, since Jupiter has a large amount of moons. The most famous are the Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. In the 1676 these transits were used by the Danish astronomer Ole Rømer to determine the speed of light.

You might also notice that there seems to be only on prominent band of clouds on Jupiter at the moment. The other one in the upper half is hidden by bright high level methane clouds.

This image shows part of the spiral galaxy M 101 in which a supernova occurred in September 2011 as seen in next image. The  image is a previous observation of M101 on May 8, 2009.

The supernova is labelled by astronomers as a Type Ia. This kind is used to measure the most distant regions of space. SN 2011 fe is quite close and offers us the chance to explore how exactly they go bang, helping us to further our understanding about the future of our Universe.

This image show part of the spiral galaxy M 101 seen in the previous image. It contains the supernova SN 2011 fe and was taken on September 12, 2011 with the Meade LX200 14 inch and consists of three unfiltered 30 second images.

This supernova is labelled by astronomers as a Type Ia. This kind is used to measure the most distant regions of space. SN 2011 fe is quite close and offers us the chance to explore how exactly they go bang, helping us to further our understanding about the future of our Universe.

This image shows the galaxy M51 known as the Whirlpool Galaxy and its companion galaxy NGC 5195 (at the bottom of the image). It was taken with the Meade LX200 14 inch telescope on 12 May 2012 by Pierre Vaurs, a second year student from IUT Clermont-Ferrand in France.

It is a combination of eight B images with a 90 second exposure time for each one of them.

This colour image, showing the globular cluster M53, was taken by Amandine Belledent, a second year student from IUT Université d’Auvergne - Clermont in France. The image was taken on April 10 and 12, 2011 with the Meade ETX-125 at NTU and consist of a 10-minute red, 10-minute green, and 24-minute blue image.

A Globular cluster is a dense group of stars and it is situated in the constellation Coma Berenices. It has a diameter of roughly 220 light years. M53 is 58,000 light years away from our solar system; this is the farthest globular cluster in our Galaxy.

The image shows a globular cluster (M92) which is a dense group of stars containing more than 100,000 stars that are 12 billion years old and nearly as old as the Universe.

The cluster was imaged on 22 June, 2010 with the Meade ETX-125 at NTU. It is a combination of 9 images which were each exposed for 1 minute using a colour camera.

It is one of the brightest globular clusters in the northern hemisphere. But it is frequently overlooked, since it is so close to the striking globular cluster M13.

The above sequence of images shows the beginning of a total lunar eclipse observed by G Wells and D Brown on December 21, 2010 with the Meade ETX-90 at NTU at the labelled times.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the shadow of the Earth. This eclipse is very rare since it happens on the winter solstice or astronomical start of winter, 21 December. The last time this happened was in 1638. What makes it even more special is that the maximum occurs while the Moon is actually setting for Nottingham. Such a selenelion allows you to see the eclipsed Moon and Sun at the same time, but also made it disappear behind low clouds on the day.

These three adjacent craters on the surface of the Moon are well visible during half moon. The image was taken on May 21, 2010 with the Meade ETX-125 at NTU.

The craters are called Ptolemaeus (lower), Alphonsus (centre), and Arzachel (upper). Arzachel is the youngest of the three, 97 km in diameter and 1 km deep. Before the Apollo missions, patches in Alphonsus were initially linked to volcanic activity. Now they are thought to be darker material thrown up by meteorites.

Alphonsus has also been linked to transient lunar phenomena that are changes of brightness or colour of certain regions on the Moon. Scientists have observed Radon gas being emitted from this crater that could cause these effects.

The image was taken by Guillaume Rambaud, a 2nd year student from Universite de Limoges in France. The galaxy was photographed on 9 May, 2010 with the 0.5m telescope at NTU. It shows a barred spiral galaxy, NGC 2903, located at a distance of approximately 20.5 million light-years in the constellation Leo. It is has quite blue spiral arms due to all the new stars that are currently formed there.

This colour image is a combination of 10 blue, 5 green, and 5 red images which were each exposed for 2 minutes.

This is how our ringed planet – Saturn – appeared to us on May 21, 2010 with the Meade ETX-125 at NTU. It is a combination from the best images obtained from more than 1000 single images.

Unfortunately, the rings cannot be seen very well as a result of Earth being very close to the plane of Saturn's rings. This happens every few years. Compare this image with our other Saturn picture in the gallery and see for yourself how much difference only a few years have.

The image shows the motion of an asteroid, named Eunomia. Asteroids are rocky and much smaller than our planets. Most of them can be found between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, but some can get close to Earth.

This image was produced over two observing nights, 6 and 7 May 2008, with the 20 inch telescope using a green filter. The images were taken over three hours and combined. Eunomia can be seen as a bright trail. The image is a composite of catalogue data and the actual observed images.

Such data is useful in deriving the position of asteroids and their orbit in our solar system. This allows us to find them again and even predict if we would get hit by them in the future.

The image is a composite of the Comet Holmes. They were taken with the 0.5m NTU telescope on 10 December, 2008. They are the result of a combination of three images (of 3 minute exposures) to give a better overview of the tail close to the comet’s head.

A comet is a dirty snow ball that visits briefly from the outer parts of our solar system. When comets get closer to the Sun they start to melt away in the heat; this creates a glowing tail. Holmes had such a long tail that we could not see it all at once, not even in the image above, which is almost the size of a full Moon.

This is an image of the galactic supernova remnant, M 1 (crab nebula), which was taken using the 20 inch telescope on 11 February 2008. It is a colour composite with red, green, and blue channel made from five, two minute exposures in the R band and three, two minute exposures in the B and V band. 

Stars much larger than our Sun end their lives in a giant supernova explosion, which leaves behind very pretty nebula. The star that created M 1 (crab nebula) exploded in the year 1054 and was observed in both China and Arabia.

All of the elements vital for us to survive are created in stars. Supernova explosions release these elements from the star and into space, which means that new stars can be formed with planets around them that have the potential for life.

This is an image of the supernova remnant, called M 1. It was taken using the 20 inch telescope on 11 February 2008. The image is an unusual composite of a blue 3 x 2 min long image taken in the B band and a red 5 x 2 min long image taken with a Halpha filter

The blue areas represent very hot thin gas left inside the explosion cloud. The red filaments show areas of dense gas, being swept along, that surround the explosion cloud. The gas around the outside of the cloud is far more dense than that inside; it forms clumps, strings, and it cools rapidly. The very hot gas is heated by the remains of a dead star, known as a pulsar. This is an incredibly dense, small, and rapidly rotating star. It can be compared to a star that has twice the mass of our Sun, but is squashed into a 12 km ball and spins around itself 30 times in just one second. 

This image, which is a 28.5 minute exposure without a filter, was taken with the 0.5m NTU telescope on the 8 May 2009. It shows a spiral galaxy also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, which is 27 million light years away. Our Galaxy is also a spiral galaxy and would look similar to M101 when viewed from the top.

The spirals contain young stars, gas and lots of dust. You may spot the thin lanes of dust inside the spirals.

This image was taken on 8 May 2009 with the 0.5m NTU telescope. It is a 15 minute exposure that was taken without using a filter. It shows the spiral galaxy, M108, which is 45 million light years away. As spiral galaxies are very flat and this image was taken from the side or 'edge on', the spirals are not very well visible. However, the dust inside the galaxy is visible as obvious dark patches.

Our Sun is 4.5 billion years old, which in astronomy it is not very long and some stars are much older. Most very old stars appear in big groups, forming globular clusters.

This image was taken on 26 September 2008. It shows the globular cluster, known as M 13. Nearly 100,000 stars make up clusters like M 13 and each one of those stars is around 14 billion years old. M 13 is 25,100 light-years away from the Earth.

This colour image is made up of three, one minute exposures in the R, V and B band.

Our Sun will die in 4.5 billion years. Following this event, what will remain will look quite similar to the planetary nebula, shown in the picture above.

This image was taken on 26 September 2008, with the 20 inch NTU telescope. It shows the planetary nebula, known as M 27 (Dumbbell Nebula). It is a false colour image made up of the following exposures: Red channel 5 x 1 minute in SII, green channel 5 x 1 minute in Halpha and blue channel 5 x 1 minute in OIII.

Just visible in the centre of this nebula, are the remains of the star that created it, which is called a 'white dwarf'. The only source of energy for these dead stars is their remaining heat. They are doomed to eventually cool down and become invisible dark rocks in space.

This image shows M 33 (Triangulum Nebula) a 'spiral galaxy', which makes it similar to our own. The shapes can be compared to those of pancakes; here the galaxy is being viewed from the top or bottom.

This galaxy is approximately 3 million light-years away from Earth and belongs to the 'local group' of galaxies. This, together with the Andromeda Nebule (M 31) and our galaxy make up the three largest galaxies of the group.

The image shows the innermost area of this object and was produced by the combination of five red, green, and blue images that were each exposed for one minute.

This image shows M 34, which is an open cluster of stars. This means the hundreds of stars in this region are close together and form a cluster.

The groups of stars tend to be relatively young in comparison to the ages of stars. M 34 is around 250 million years old. This is much younger than the life span expected for our Sun, which is around 4.5 billion years.

M 34 is a cluster of stars within our own galaxy and is approximately 1,400 light-years away from us.

The image only shows the innermost area of this object, and was produced by the combination of five red, green, and blue images that were each exposed for one minute.

This image shows a planetary nebular.

After 4.5 billion years our Sun will create a planetary nebula, similar to the one imaged above. This image shows the 1,600 year old galactic planetary nebula, M 57, also known as the 'ring nebula'; it is 2,300 lightyears away. M 57 appears as a ring since the dying star has thrown off most of its material in a shell.

This picture was taken on the 20 September 2008. It is a colour composite of three images taken by the 20 inch NTU telescope: blue is a 5 x 1 minute in OIII, green is a 4 x 1 minute in H alpha, red is a 5 x 1 minute in SII.

This is another image of the ring nebula that was taken from the NTU observatory on 27 July 2009.

This image is a combination of a 40 minute H alpha, 15 minute OIII, and 14 minute B image. As a result you can just about see a very faint second ring surrounding the nebula.

The main nebula was created by a central star throwing off nearly all of its gas. The much older and larger second ring was created when the star lost some gas as it aged. This demonstrates how stars, including our Sun, are constantly pushing out large amounts of material into space.

This image shows the spiral galaxy M61, which is 52.5 million light years away from Earth. This galaxy is one of the larger members of the 'Virgo Cluster', a very large group of galaxies that are close together. Due to its large distance, it appears to be much smaller than other galaxies, such as M101 also in our gallery.

This image was taken by the NTU 0.5m telescope on the 17 June, 2009. It is a combination of 6 images in the V band (green) with a total exposure time of 9 minutes.

This image shows the galaxy known as M 74, which is a 'spiral galaxy' like M 33 and our own galaxy. M 74 is approximately 31 million light-years away from us and is therefore even further away than the galaxy, M 33.

This image was produced by the combination of five red, green, and blue images that were each exposed for 1 minute.

This image shows the spiral galaxy, M81, which is 11.8 million light years away from Earth. M81 is the largest member of a group of galaxies, which are the closest to our own group of galaxies.

Scientists believe the spiral arms of the galaxy have actually been generated by the interaction with its close companion M82. M82 is a galaxy also included in our gallery; have a look at what this interaction has done to M82.

The image was taken using the NTU 0.5m telescope on the 17 June, 2009. It is a combination of 13 images in the V band (green) with a total exposure time of 19.5 minutes.

This image shows M 82, which is a galaxy (like M 33 and M 74) that is 11 million light-years away from us.

M 82 is a very active galaxy, which means it creates many stars at once. This is caused by its close companion galaxy, M 81, that is 130,000 light-years away from M 82 and much larger. M 81 cannot be seen in this image.

The image was produced by the combination of ten red, green, and blue images that were each exposed for one minute.

This colour image shows our neighbouring planet, Mars, which has been the target of recent searches for signs of water and possible life.

The image was taken with the 20 inch telescope, using three different coloured filters. It shows the typical red colour of the planet and a hint of different regions on its surface.

The image was taken on 26 February 2008

This image of the Moon's surface was taken with the 20 inch telescope, using no filters, on 10 June 2008 and is a result of 500 single images which were each exposed for 0.01 second.

Apart from several impressive craters, such as the 44km wide crater, Agrippa, this image shows some straight lines, called Rimae. Rima Ariadaeus is 220 km long and runs from the centre to the lower left of the image. Rima Hyginus is to the top right of the centre and makes a sharp turn when encountering the small crater, Hyginus, which is 10 km wide. These Rimae are caused either by collapsed lava channels or through a sudden cracking and shifting of the surface. These theories explain many Rimae, however there is still some debate. In particular, Rima Hyginus with its crater still seems to puzzle scientists. 

This image of the Moon's surface was taken with the 20 inch telescope, using no filters, on 10 June 2008 and is the result of 500 single images each exposed for 0.01 second.

The image shows the mountainous regions of Montes Caucasus (on the left hand side) and Montes Alpes (on the bottom right) still partly shadowed.

On the right a long valley can be seen, deep in the shadows. This gorge is known as Vallis Alpes and is nearly 180 km long. This feature was caused by a sudden cracking and shifting of the surface, which could be linked to the massive impact that caused the neighbouring Mare Imbrium - a huge 1300 km wide crater, now filled with solid lava.

This is an image of the waxing Moon's crescent as seen low on the western horizon on 8 May 2008.

Under these lighting conditions the mountainous regions on the Moon are most prominent. It is also possible to see the slight hilly areas on the darker flatter regions of the Moon, called 'mare'. Here, the round Mare Crisum is most visible on the right encircled by mountains.

The image was produced by combining the best four, out of twenty, images that were taken without using any filters.

This image of the Moon was taken with the 14 inch telescope at the NTU observatory on 9 December 2009. The Moon at this time was seen at a very low Western point. The image is a mosaic consisting of at least 20 images.

It is possible to see many dark areas, known as 'Mare' or ocean as well as an impressive crater close to the centre of the image. This crater is called 'Copernicus' and was formed by a meteor impact around 810 million years ago. The crater has a diameter of 75 km.

Giovanni Riccioli, a Italian Jesuit, named Copernicus after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus to show his opposition to him. As the crater is in the middle of the Ocean of Storms as it is known, Riccioli was implying he wanted to throw Copernicus into the middle of a stormy ocean.

The image was taken by Guillaume Rambaud, a 2nd year student from Universite de Limoges in France. The galaxy was photographed on 9 May, 2010 with the 0.5m telescope at NTU. It shows a barred spiral galaxy, NGC 2903, located at a distance of approximately 20.5 million light-years in the constellation Leo. It is has quite blue spiral arms due to all the new stars that are currently formed there.

This colour image is a combination of 10 blue, 5 green, and 5 red images which were each exposed for 2 minutes.

This image shows the ringed planet, Saturn. Saturn is a gas giant, even further away than Jupiter. The rings surrounding Saturn can be seen clearly with a tiny bit of Saturn’s shadow on the back of them.

You may just make out some bands on the planet. These are due to a high level atmospheric haze covering Saturn. It is also possible to see that the rings show a slight separation inside them, which is only visible as a change in brightness. This tells us that the rings are made out of very small rocks, dust, and ice circling around Saturn.

The image was taken with the 20 inch telescope on the night of the 22 April 2008 and is the result of 1000 single images and no filters were used.

The images show the first half of the partial eclipse that was observed at the NTU observatory with the Solar Telescope. The second image captured the first contact, which was when the moon covered part of the Sun for the first time. The last few images were taken close to the maximum point of the eclipse.

Finally the Sun has woken from its slumber. Over the past few months the Sun has been very quiet indeed and only occasional small sunspots have been visible. In the last few days however, we have seen the birth of a beautiful new sunspot, which is developing into a large example of its kind.

Sunspots are regions of the Sun that are cooler and therefore darker than their surroundings; they are caused by magnetic fields on the Sun. Note how this sunspot is actually made up of a group of sunspots.

The above image was obtained on 6 July 2009 at 12:14 UT, by the NTU observatory solar sunscope.

Above is an image of the Sun taken by NTU's solar scope at 15:50 UT. Both images only use a very specific colour that highlight structures on the Sun, such as prominences.

A prominence is material that is thrown off from the Sun and follows magnetic fields along arc-like structures. These structures are very dynamic and can change within minutes.

Included above are images of the largest planet, Jupiter, and the Earth to help you to judge the size of this prominence.

This image was taken on 17 April 2008, with the solar scope. It shows a prominence on one side of the Sun, which was caused by gas from the surface of the sun being thrown into space.

The size of such a prominence is comparable to the size of the Earth.

When such material escapes from the Sun at high speeds, beautiful light spectacles on Earth known as 'polar lights', can be caused.

Our Sun isn't as quite and placid as we think!

The images above show a very large prominence of the Sun and were taken with NTU's solar scope on the 4th June between 15:57 UT and 16:44 UT.

Prominences are gigantic structures and are many times larger than even Jupiter, our largest planet; however they can change their appearance within minutes.

This short movie shows how the Sun throws off material that travels along invisible magnetic fields to rain back onto the Sun’s surface.

These three images of the Sun were taken with the solar scope on 12 May 2008. The images show the rapid evolution of features on the sun, called prominences. A prominence is where the Sun throws material off into space.

The left image marks the location of the prominences, and the two images on the right show how much the material moves in just one hour!

These images show the typical evolution of a prominence, however some can be as large as the Earth.

Far more active regions of the Sun, which can evolve within minutes, do exist; these are called flares.

This image shows what is known as a 'white light' image of the Sun. It was taken with the solar scope on 12 December 2007.

The solar telescope shows the Sun as it would appear if we could see all of its colours. On the surface you will be able to make out some dark spots, these are called Sun spots. Sun spots are areas that are actually colder regions on the Sun's surface and are therefore darker.

The inset at the top left shows a magnification of the Sun spot, and compares it to the size of the Earth. It shows the grainy structure of the Sun’s surface caused by granulation. These grainy areas are regions of the Sun that are bubbling up and down, similar to water that is boiling in a saucepan.

Uranus is the second furthest planet from the Sun. It has 27 named moons, all of which take their names from plays written by Shakespeare or Pope. The two largest moons, called Titania and Oberon, were discovered in 1787 by Herschel, and the next two largest, Umbriel and Ariel, were discovered by Lassell in 1851.

The picture displayed above shows R band images of Uranus and its moons, taken on the 20 September 2008. The image was obtained using the 20 inch telescope at NTU.

If we compare this image with the image of Uranus taken on 26 September Uranus is in a different region of the sky.In the meantime the moons moved around Uranus, with Ariel becoming visible, as it moved away from the bright light of Uranus. Oberon can now be seen, as it is in front of Uranus.

Uranus is the second furthest planet from the Sun. It has 27 named moons, all of which take their names from plays written by Shakespeare or Pope. The two largest moons, called Titania and Oberon, were discovered in 1787 by Herschel, and the next two largest, Umbriel and Ariel, were discovered by Lassell in 1851.

The picture displayed above shows R band images of Uranus and its Moons, taken on the 26 September 2008 and was obtained using the 20 inch telescope at NTU.

If we compare this image with the image of Uranus taken on 20 September Uranus is in a different region of the sky.In the meantime the moons moved around Uranus, with Ariel becoming visible, as it moved away from the bright light of Uranus. Oberon can now be seen, as it is in front of Uranus.