I visited the Lego store at Dreamworld here on the Gold Coast and look what I found on special for only $39.00, a Lego set on the ‘Women of NASA’…WooHoo!
 
It’s been many years since I built any Lego so I was really excited to sit down and make this wonderful set up… please see some pictures below :-)

Also, inside the box was a booklet that gave information about the NASA ladies featured, which were Sally Ride, Mae Jemison, Margaret Hamilton and Nancy G Roman, which I found very interesting. Just like the guys us ladies are very smart too and NASA really did lead the way eventually in recognising the female roles in the space program.

If you have not seen the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ about the early years of NASA and the Apollo program then you must…it’s a revelation in what the human mind can accomplish no matter what nationality you are or whether you are a man or a woman.
 
~ We are all one race here on planet Earth and that is the human race ~
 
Footnote: Lego set NASA Apollo Saturn V Rocket
Look what else I have found at the Lego store…. Wow, I can’t wait to make up this incredible model of the Apollo Saturn V Rocket!!!

​Sunspot AR2733 is now degrading after it unleashed a C5 class solar flare on the 26th January, it’s now heading toward the western limb of the Sun. Perhaps we may see a lovely prominence on the solar edge as it rotates out of view…now that would be nice to see if the weather is fine :-)
 
Images taken with a 127mm refractor telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2X Barlow lens attached, 5 images stacked in RegiStak6 and processed in PS CS4. Exposures were 1/250th second and ISO200.

(Right) I used my 127mm refractor with an Orion glass solar filter attached for safe viewing and taking pictures of the solar surface.
 
(DANGER…NEVER look at the Sun without proper solar filters on your camera lenses and telescopes)
 
Please see below a small movie of the explosion from AR2733 taken on the 26th January from
NASA’s SDO observatory.

At last, a lovely clear evening to take some pictures of the Moon, this time I’ve set up my 127mm (5 inch) refractor telescope and HEQ5 Pro mount. I’ve found that this telescope is just exceptional to use for lunar photography.
 
It was a very hot evening at 28 degrees Celsius and lots of biting mosquitoes but I was determined to get some nice pictures of the Moon and I did :-)
 
I was really happy with capturing a few interesting lunar objects with this phase, the first was the extremely bright crater Aristarchus with the long sinuous Vallis Schroteri in Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), which was just off from the terminator line, and in full relief…it looked quite spectacular!
 
The next object was the prominent low walled crater Gassendi that is on the edge of Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) and looks just like a diamond ring. And, at this lunar phase you start to see the long ejecta rays from the crater Tycho that is now fully illuminated.
 
The image of the full disc of the Moon was taken with a Canon 70D camera at prime focus, exposure time was 1/500th second and ISO100. Ten images were captured and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.
 
The higher magnified images were taken with a ZWO ASI 120MC-s camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached and captured AVI movie files, which were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

I don’t have a lot of room here at home for taking images of the night sky, this is because all our trees have grown tall and new houses have been built on either side of us. So for objects coming up in the eastern sky, I have to set up very close to the pool edge.

I just know that one night I’m going to accidently fall in… but what can you do but work with what you have,
​and hope for the best :-)
 
The refractor telescope is a 127mm North Group apochromatic, and the lunar images I’m getting out of it are very crisp, the focal length at prime focus is 760.00 mm. For the full disc of the Moon I use a Canon 70D camera, for the high magnification images I love using the little ZWO ASI 120MC-s camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached, which is shown here attached to the telescope.
 
Don’t forget insect repellent, on this summer time evening I was eaten alive by mosquitoes Ouch!!!

​I had another peek at the Sun late yesterday afternoon and Yep…it’s spotless again! 
​
When I turned around and looked up to the east I spotted a lovely gibbous Moon in a clear blue sky,
​which looked very pretty :-)
 
Both images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens with a 2x telecoverter making a focal length of 1280mm.

A glass solar filter was attached to the lens for safe viewing and imaging of the Sun.

The surface features of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) are coming into focus in these images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby on Jan. 1, 2019. These images, released Jan. 2, were taken a day earlier from a distance of 18,000 miles (28,000 kilometers) with a scale of 730 feet (140 meters) per pixels.

Ultima Thule spins like a propeller in space and looks like a bowling pin or peanut…how awesome is that!
 
News Release January 15, 2019
New Movie Shows Ultima Thule from an Approaching New Horizons
NASA Spacecraft Begins Returning New Images, Other Data from Historic New Year's Flyby
Please go to the link below to see the movie and other information on the mission.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190115
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php
https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons
​

This diagram suggests how the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, could have formed.

Yay! There’s a new sunspot on the Sun today for the New Year and it’s been designated AR2732, it’s quite small and faint but it may turn into something exciting for us solar observers :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm with a 2x teleconverter, a glass solar filter was attached to the lens for safe viewing and imaging of the solar surface. 10 images were stacked in RegiStak6 and lightly processed in PS CS4…Happy New Year to everyone!

The moment when the message was received that the spacecraft had successfully flown by Ultima Thule!
​Alan Stern with a reporter who is the Principal Investigator for the mission.
(Screenshot image taken during the live broadcast with my mobile phone)

NASA does it again another first in the exploration of our Solar System for humankind :-)

On 1st January 2019 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Ultima Thule!
 
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is about to make a flyby of the mysterious elongated object nicknamed Ultima Thule (Ultima thoo-lee) that is located at an incredible 1.6 billion kilometres beyond Pluto in the distant Kuiper Belt.
 
At around 3.30pm (AEST) on New Year day, New Horizons will swoop past Ultima Thule three times closer than it buzzed by Pluto in 2015. Because it takes ~6 hours for radio signals from the Kuiper Belt to reach Earth, first images will not be released to the public until Jan. 2nd.
 
The watch the live coverage of the event and find out more about this amazing mission to the outer reaches of our solar system please go to the mission website at:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(486958)_2014_MU69

We have had just a beautiful clear sunny day for Christmas Day after many weeks of stormy weather and it lasted out for the evening so I could take a picture of the Christmas Day Moon.
That was my plan and it worked out beautifully :-)
 
Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm with a 2x telecoverter attached, the camera was on a static camera tripod and exposure time was only 1/400th second, ISO320.
 
~ Merry Christmas to everyone on planet Earth, Peace and Goodwill to you all ~

Christmas Day Sun Today :-)
Our beautiful Sun today on Christmas Day after weeks and weeks of rain and thunderstorms…Merry Christmas to all and happy holidays!
 
I just had to add a Santa hat to our very bland Sun for fun :-)
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter attached, a glass solar filter was fitted to the lens for safe viewing and imaging. Exposure time was 1/500th second and ISO200.

~ Current information on the Sun ~
 
The Sun is now experiencing a period of solar minimum with over 200 days this year without sunspots on its surface, gone are the days when so much activity could be see on the surface of the Sun…I really miss all the excitement!
 
The image (left and above) of the Sun that I took on Christmas Day is completely bland and spotless!
​
To safely take images of the solar surface you must always use a solar filter on the lens of your camera or telescope. I haven’t even used my Lunt 60mm (Ha) solar telescope much this year as the Sun has been very quite in this H-alpha wavelength as well.
 
But there has been another type of activity on the Sun that’s quite intriguing, and that is these corona holes that open up and expel subatomic solar particles throughout the solar system. They are not as powerful as a CME but they still produce some awesome aurora when they hit our atmosphere.
 
When these solar particles hit the oxygen and nitrogen in our Earths atmosphere they excite the gases and release a photon of light that produces the coloured curtains of light of the auroras.
 
It was one of these incredible episodes that produced the stunning northern lights  (Aurora Borealis) that my husband and I witnessed in March 2018 when we were on board the Hutigruten ship called the Nordkapp that cruised up and down the Norwegian coastline. Wow…what a magical experience that was!!!!

~ The Northern Lights in the Arctic Night ~
My aurora image won a David Malin award this year in the Nightscapes section. If you go to the link you will see my picture and all the other stunning astronomy images that won awards this year at: https://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/awards/

The children had lots of fun at our Star Christmas Party, but before they could get stuck into the ‘Star’ themed party food I set them some work to do!
 
First of all they had to think about their favourite place in the solar system and imagine that Santa was going to visit that planet and then draw Santa flying through the solar system.
​ (Some of there lovely drawings are in the photomontage above)
 
Then we played pass the space parcel where Braxton was so excited to win the prize, then it was Party Time….WooHoo!!
 
I really enjoy my time with the children, they have such a wonderful time learning all about space, Merry Christmas to all the families and have a happy holiday, see you all in the New Year, Noeleen :-)