The Lancaster University Astronomy Society is perfect for anybody who loves space!
We have regular observing nights (weather permitting), presentations, movie nights, socials, quizzes / game nights and more!
We offer the opportunity to use a semi-professional observatory on the rooftop of the University's Physics Dept, with a 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a Coronado Solar H-alpha solar telescope, and lots more! We encourage you to bring your own kit if you have it!
Whether you have never had any prior experience, have always wanted to have a go, or have always loved Astronomy like we do, this society will be a great opportunity to have a new perspective on the Universe and our home planet.
So sign up here to get email updates, join our discord and follow our Instagram, Twitter, and other socials!
Or visit our new website - luastro.space - to find out more about what we do!
We can't wait to meet you for the upcoming year!
Join and learn to take photos like these:
2024/25
LUAstro in 2024 and 2025
Late 2024 - Michaelmas Term:
There was a new, smaller Exec for this year consisting of Orlando Prugel-Bennett as President, John Ray as Secretary, and Finlay Daniel-McKeigue as Treasurer.
We did a small taster session just after Welcome Week, as our first event; bringing some Astrophotography posters for those who were interested.
Observing the Aurora Borealis, from the University campus!
On the 10th October, due to demand from Exec and non-Exec members alike, we run our new Exec's first Observing Night from the top of the Physics Building, expecting the usual turnout of maybe a dozen people at tops. We were wrong. Rough counts by the 3-person Exec gave a total turnout of at least 100 hundred students and staff from across the University, making it probably our biggest Observing Night so far. Due to an intense coronary mass ejection (CME) and solar flare from the Sun, a massive geomagnetic storm hit the UK and the rest of the World - giving us all a rare opportunity to observe the Northern Lights in Lancaster!
Part of a video timelapse of the Observing Night by Orlando
A turnout so big we could barely fit everyone in one photo!
Next events of the first term
After the massive success of our first Observing Night, we went on with other events for the term. These included a Scavenger Hunt, an interactive presentation teaching members Astrophotography, a Space Pirate Game, a Star Trek Night where we watched The Wrath of Khan, a quiz night, a Gartic Phone Night, and a final presentation by Professor Jim Wild on the Auroras we'd seen earlier in the year. We finished off the term with an Ice-Skating social in town.
Early 2025 - Lent Term:
As the second term started, we focused more on teaching Astrophotography - using data of the Horsehead Nebula, and some from JWST, to let members to process their own photos. We also had some other socials such as a Mario Kart Tournament, a Paper Plane Competition, another (better made) Scavenger Hunt, and a fun session where members could perform Physics experiments to determine values like the speed of light, the size of an oil molecule, etc.
Trip to Jodrell Bank (and Warrington Ikea, for some reason)
On the 23rd February we went on a trip to Jodrell Bank - a Radio Observatory site in Cheshire. We got a nice look around the telescopes and exhibitions, bought some stuff from the gift shop, and then left to go to Warrington Ikea for meatballs and a weird Scavenger Hunt game that Orlando devised.
What did LuAstroSoc Observe in 2021/22?
Jupiter (Our first photo!)
The first observing night of the year started with a photo of jupiter through a large refractor telescope.
As the second term started, we became more interested in astrophotography, and began experimenting with larger telescopes. We took Lancaster's 11 Inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope out it's box, and put it on a skywatcher AZ-EQ GT6 mount, this let us get an up close view with long exposuers of many objects, we spent the rest of the achademic year optimising our setup to achieve the best photos.
M51 (Our Benchmark)
M51 is a grand-design spiral galaxy interaccting with a seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It is one of our favourite deep sky objects, and the one we have used as a benchmark for our telescope.
The first photo was taken using our 11" Celestron Cassegrain-Schmidt telescope over the course of about 2 hours. We took exposures through 3 different filters, Red, Green, Blue and then Luminescence filters. However, the blue filter failed during the process, so to still include blue data, we took the Red and Green images away from the Luminescence image to recover at least some Blue data. This was the outcome we got! There will be many more attempts in the future, but as a proof of concept this is great!
For the second and third attempt at M51, we used the full colour camera which actively puts together the RGB filters in real-time, rather than having to deal with processing at the end. The downside is that we get slightly less detail compared to if we had done each exposure seperately and then compiled after the fact. Either way, in between us figuring out the monochromatic camera, this camera still produces some amazing photos!
The last attempt was taken using a Celestron 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain with and AZ-EQ6-Pro mount with autoguiding from a Skywatcher SCT. Camera was a ZWO ASI071MC Pro with 175 X 120s exposures through full colour. Stacking was done in AstroPixelProcessor using 20 X 120s Flats and Darks with 20 X Bias frames. Final adjustments made in PixInsight to highlight the details in the dustlanes and the gas thrown away in the interaction
Some other photos from the year; A photo of our telescopes, an obersving night (with astro hoodies!) and a nice view from the observatory. Andromeda Galaxy, Needle Galaxy, Bubble Nebula
The Sun
In the summer months, the nights got shorter and shorter, so we explored some solar astronomy, getting some pretty cool photos along the way.
Our Allsky Camera
As we cannot spend our entire lives on the physics roof, we became inpired to setup an allsky camera on the physics roof, so we could record the sky 24/7. This camera can be viewed at anytime from here.
We ended the year with a fantastic rocket launch.
The image of the Lunar Eclipse of January 2019 was taken from the rooftop of the Physics Dept. with a 5" Maksutov-Cassegrain and a Sony Alpha 7 DSLR. A group of members stayed up all night watching the eclipse, even with 9am lectures the next day!
(This image was taken with permission from all members shown within)
Up until the 2am start, the weather was not in our favour, however it suddenly took a turn for the best, allowing us to watch the eclipse in it's entirety. The image below shows a composition by Pascale (Twitter: @phdesmet), showing the transition of the eclipse.
The image of the Orion Nebula (M42) was taken using a 5" Maksutov-Cassegrain and a Sony Alpha 7 DSLR. With a single 30 second exposure, there is a large amount of blur.
Mercury transitting the sun
LuAstroSoc has access to Lancaster Universities telescopes, cameras and other equipment. We use this equipment to photograph all sorts of objects outside of our atmosphere, such as planets, galaxies, nebula, the sun, and even the international space station!
See all our photos here: https://www.astrobyorlando.com/
Whirlpool Galaxy, the Sun, Andromeda Galaxy, Bubble Nebula, Needle Galaxy
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