Meet the astronomer whose rare photograph has made it into a Canadian magazine
By Deborah Bowyer 17th Jul 2024
An avid astronomer is celebrating after an image she took of a rare sight in the sky has appeared in a Canadian astronomy magazine.
Majorie Somerville, who taught physics and ran an astronomy club at Sandbach School many years ago, photographed a rare form of cloud with a Comet Neowise.
And she will also be celebrating all things astronomy this weekend for the 55th anniversary of Man Landing on the Moon on Saturday (July 20th).
The chance to see the two together is extremely rare and it wasn't until the Rode Heath resident looked closely at the image taken near Mow Cop that she saw spotted the two.
So good was her image, that the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada decided to include it in their magazine.
"Noctilucent clouds are a rare form of cloud thought to be formed from ice crystals and dust from meteors," said Majorie.
"They are only usually visible in summer at high latitudes. Comet Neowise was the brightest comet seen in the Northern Hemisphere for nearly a quarter of a century.
"Its closest approach to Earth was in June 2020. It brightened in July and my photograph was taken on July 11th at around 2.30 am from the hills overlooking the Cheshire Plain."
Majorie has loved astronomy all her life. She has seven telescopes dotted around her home.
When her children were babies, she would go outside with a telescope after getting up in the night to feed them and look up at the sky.
Majorie has a life-size cut out of Neil Armstrong and a framed piece of the foil from the Apollo 11 command module.
Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon on July 20th, 1969, when he stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility.
"I've always been fascinated by moon landings and remember watching it in 1969," said Majorie.
"There's something very special about the sky and astronomy. I've always been fascinated by it."
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