​I nearly missed this exhibition because of all the COVID lockdowns but in the last few days of the exhibition on the 25th January, I grabbed my husband, got on the train and we were off to Brisbane to see the huge LEGO Space Shuttle and ISS.
 
There were lots of other amazing LEGO builds with the theme being ‘Wonders of the World’ but what I really went to see was an amazing build of NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantic that took an incredible 167,891 LEGO bricks and took 775 hours to build!

Here is a YouTube video of how the Space Shuttle was built:

I also got a big surprise to see the International Space Shuttle high about the entrance door to the exhibition.  I’ll include a couple of my favourites displays for you to see…just for fun :-)

~ Please click on images below to see the full images in the gallery ~

​https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2021/06/18/top-5-things-to-see-at-brickman-wonders-of-the-world-at-queensland-museum/
 
https://www.thebrickman.com/wonders/

I finally got a break this afternoon from the rainy, cloudy and windy weather to take some images of this huge sunspot group AR 2936. There is also quite a bit of activity on the eastern limb, so it looks like more exciting sunspots to come :-)

We are away at the moment at Lennox Heads in NSW and I don’t have a telescope with me so I’ve used my camera and lens setup to take a picture of the Sun. Most importantly, I have a glass solar filter fitted to the end of the lens for safe imaging of the solar surface!

DANGER…. Please do not look at the Sun without a solar filter!

Images taken on the 31st January 2022 with just a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 100-400mm lens with a 2x tele-converter attached, making a focal length of 1280mm.
Twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in Photoshop.

I was very welcomed at the Southport Library to give our first presentation on Uncover & Discover series to the children and their parents. It was a full session with Covid19 restriction for everybody’s safety.
 
Everyone was very excited to hear about all the different spacecraft exploring the solar system and mainly how they take all those amazing images of the planets. They were so amazed at the new Rover on Mars called Perseverance with its little companion helicopter called Ingenuity…Wow, how cool is that little helicopter!!!
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Activities-For-Kids
 
I gave an in-depth talk about how the Cassini spacecraft travelled through the solar system to go into orbit about the stunning ringed planet Saturn. And explained how for nearly 15 years the spacecraft took incredible pictures of Saturn and its remarkable Moons, for us to marvel at!
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/
 
I had a lot of fun on the day and really enjoyed getting back to taking about all the awesome things happening with the exploration of our solar system, please see some pictures from the day below, Noeleen  :-)
 
 
Please note:  Unfortunately the other Astronomy & Space sessions had to be cancelled because of a resurgent of the new Omicron variant of Covid. Hopefully we’ll rescheduled the events at a later date, please keep safe and well until then, all the best...Noeleen

​It finally cleared long enough to quickly set up the telescope and take some pictures of these two large Sunspot groups AR 2924 & AR 2924. On the eastern limb another sunspot could be seen developing now named AR 2927…so more activity coming our way :-)
 
The Sun is firing up and becoming more active there are hardly any days now where there are no sunspots or activity on the solar surface.
 
Please go to Spaceweather.com if you are interested in solar activity and seeing images taken of the Sun and other astronomy objects at:
https://www.spaceweather.com
 
My Images were taken with a 127mm refractor telescope with a glass solar filter attached and a Canon 700DSLR camera with a 2x Barlow lens. Twenty images were captured with an exposure of 1/400th seconds and ISO 400; the images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

A short video taken with the Canon 700D to show how detailed and large these sunspots really were,
taken with my 127mm refractor telescope, Noeleen :-)

The images above were taken with my 127mm North Group apochromatic refractor telescope with a ZWO ASI120 MC-S (Colour) Planetary camera attached.

~ Gold Coast Libraries for 6 – 12 years old ~
 
~ Discover the planets in our Solar System ~
Southport Library  - Tuesday, 11th January 2022 at 2 - 3pm
Every planet in our Solar System is so incredibly different. How did NASA take all those amazing pictures of the planets and send them back to Earth for us to see? Come along to the library and lets discover how they did it!
 
~ Discover Our Amazing Moon ~
Burleigh Waters Library - Thursday, 13 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
The Moon is our closest neighbour in space, how old is it, what is it made of and how does it light up our night sky?
Come to the library and lets discover all these things and how mankind is going back to the Moon and building a Moon base…Wow!
 
~ Discover and explore the night sky ~
Helensvale Library - Tuesday, 18 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
Have you ever wondered why the stars are different colours, or where you can find the constellations in the night sky? How do you use a telescope and what will you see with a pair of binoculars? Come along to the library and see how to discover so many amazing things in the night sky from your own back garden.
 
Bookings are essential at:
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on
 
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes, Southern Astronomical Society Member (Gold Coast)
https://sas.org.au

​The sky cleared enough this evening to finally have a look at Comet Leonard…Yay!
 
We’ve had lots of cloudy weather here for many weeks with an active Cyclone still off our coastline called Cyclone Seth. The last time I saw the comet was on the 19th December when it was very small and faint.
​(Please see my previous post)
 
I had to take these pictures from home where there are a lot of urban lights, but it didn’t matter as I could just make out the comet in the western sky and capture it with my camera…. Wow, it’s got such a long tail :-D
 
First image was taken with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70-200mm lens @ 140mm, 25 x 4 second images captured with corresponding dark frames that were stacked in DSS with ISO3200.
 
The second image shows you how light the sky was and how low the comet is at 8.30pm, its just one image taken with the same lens set at 70mm, with a 10second exposure and ISO1600.