Workshop: Citizen and Amateur Science Projects - 28 May 2026

Part 1 – Amateur Science Projects with Paul May

Paul started the evening with his discussion on amateur science projects covering four topics:

Spectroheliography

Paul gave an update on the progress made with his MLAstro SHG 700 Spectroheliograph. How a spectroheliograph works is explained briefly in this manufacturer's description:

“A slit is used to capture a small slice of sunlight. This light passes through a collimator, which turns it into parallel rays. These rays then hit a diffraction grating, which spreads the light into a spectrum. A lens refocuses the spread beam onto a camera sensor. By adjusting the tilt of the grating, you can choose which part of the spectrum is focused on the sensor, allowing you to observe the Sun in different wavelengths (such as H-alpha, Sodium D, Helium D3, or Ca K).

The Sun’s details and contrast are captured in slices, recorded as a video while the mount slowly slews, causing the Sun’s image to "scan" through the slit. Specialised software then reconstructs the full image of the Sun from this video data.”

Paul explained that in his setup the spectroheliograph is attached to a StellaMira 90mm refractor fitted with a field flattener/reducer, combining to give a focal length of 450mm, f/5 optics. The slit images are captured using a ZWO178MM camera and the system scanned across the Sun using a ZWO AM5 mount operating in equatorial mode. Each scan across the solar disc takes only a few seconds.

Paul uses SharpCap to capture the multiple slit image subframes and the JSol’Ex software to combine these subframes into a complete solar disc. He showed a very impressive H-alpha image of the Sun captured using this processing along with images captured at other characteristic solar emission wavelengths. These images allow the physical processes occurring in the Sun to be studied in greater detail.

A future project for this system is to try and detect the Doppler shift in the solar spectrum due to the Sun’s rotation.

Celestial Mechanics

Moving on from solar spectroscopy to celestial mechanics, Paul went on to explain how it is possible to determine the density of a planet by observation of its moon’s orbital period and orbital radius, in terms of the planet’s diameter. Using Newton’s Laws, one can determine the body’s density. He showed that his calculations from observations made on Jupiter and Io gave a result about 5% away from the actual values.

Stellar and Planetary Spectroscopy

Moving next to spectroscopy Paul described how he uses a Star Analyser 100 fitted to a small telescope to examine the spectra from stars and planets

The Star Analyser 100 is a diffraction grating which screws into a nosepiece of an astronomical camera fitted into a telescope or, into an AD-T2 adapter screwed into a DSLR’s T-Ring. The spectra produced can then be analysed using the RSpec software to produce a calibrated spectrum graph.

This graph can be used to examine the elemental composition of a planet’s atmosphere, to determine any star’s OBAFGKM Star-Type and temperature, or, identify the composition of a star from its emission and absorption lines.

A Treasure Trove of Astronomical Data

Paul ended his talk with a brief summary of the large number of sources of data collected by professional observatories and tools available for amateurs to access and analyse this data in support of citizen science projects:

The Zwicky Transit Facility (ZTF) – A wide field astronomical survey based at the Palomar Observatory studying the movement of gas clouds in nebulae.

Aladin – An interactive sky atlas that allows the user to combine astronomical images from full sky surveys with data from astronomical catalogues and databases.

Helioviewer – A solar and heliospheric data visualisation app. which allows the overlay of data from multiple sources, ground and space based. The user can make and share images and videos, and use the source scientific data for their own research.

Paul May presents his talk on Amateur Science Projects. Pictures by Mike Meynell and Tej Dyal

Part 2 – A Citizen Science Workshop with Mark Jeffery

The citizen science project Mark chose for this year’s talk was Cloudspotting on Mars. 

Mark started the talk by quoting lines from the first paragraph of War of The Worlds by H. G. Wells, very apt considering the amount of scrutiny Mars is receiving in preparation for future manned exploration.

He then showed a number of images of the planet gathered by spacecraft, starting with Mariner 9 when it became the first spacecraft to successfully orbit another planet in 1971. The Mariner 9 images are by modern standards very low resolution but they provided the first global imagery of Mars, its topography and cloud formations. Later missions to the planet revealed more details of its surface and cloud formations. NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutionN) spacecraft studied the Martian atmosphere from when it arrived at the planet in 2014, until 2025. Today there is a huge database of images of the planet’s atmosphere and cloud formations available for study.

Mark introduced “Cloudspotting on Mars: Shapes”, a citizen science project that aims to answers questions such as: “What are the daily, seasonal and yearly patterns in Martian cloud shapes and distribution? How do Martian clouds reflect wind patterns? Do the similarities that exist between Earth's and Mars’ cloud types indicate similar formation mechanisms?”

This citizen science project asks volunteers to identify different cloud types using data collected by the imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on MAVEN and to see where they occur in relation to the local topography.

Mark demonstrated that this is not easy to do without undertaking the training offered on the website, by asking us to identify various cloud shapes in images of the Martian atmosphere. Up to 25 different cloud types have been identified to date including Streak, Vortex and Disc clouds.

Mark explained that:

Streak clouds are formed when moist Martian air flows up mountain slopes, cooling as it rises and condensing into water ice crystals. High-altitude winds then stretch the cloud into a streak.

Vortex clouds are key to the Mars weather. The Martian winter is dominated by Polar vortices, massive circumpolar winds that are maintained by the latent heat released when carbon dioxide condenses in the polar winter. 

Disc or lenticular clouds are circular, lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes when winds pass over large Martian impact craters or volcanos. The Martian air is forced upwards, causing its moisture to cool and condense into ice.

It is expected that the Cloudspotting on Mars citizen science project will continue until 2030.

To supplement his talk Mark produced a resource sheet – Mars Resources for Citizen Science.

Mark Jeffrey during his talk on Citizen Science. Pictures by Mike Meynell and Tej Dyal. 

Many thanks to Paul and Mark for putting together and presenting this workshop and inspiring more of us to become citizen scientists.