​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.

I’m always looking up during the day to see if there are any sky phenomenon associated with the clouds and the Sun. When there are thin cirrus and cirrocumulus clouds about and the Sun is shining brightly close by, there is every chance some iridescence will be on show near the thinner areas surrounding the thicker bands of cloud.
 
This is an optical phenomenon that is caused by small water droplets or small ice crystals scattering the sunlight by diffraction. If the ice crystals are uniformly larger, then that is when you see that different sly phenomenon of a solar halo or a colourful corona…. I’m always on the lookout for them too :-)
 
These colourful clouds are usually soft pastel colours as seen in my photographs today; the images were taken with a Conon G15 camera on manual focus on the 12th January 2019.  Exposure was 1/2000th second and ISO80.

Have a look at one of my other Astro Blogs of another pretty cloud iridescence and solar corona
that I captured back in 2016 at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-colourful-corona-around-the-sun-and-rainbow-iridescent-clouds

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