It’s now three weeks since Saturn was at opposition and even though I’ve had some lovely clear nights the air has been very turbulent up with lots of jet streams in the atmosphere.
 
On the evening of the 23rd July I got a bit of a break and captured my best images of the planet since opposition…I’m very happy with this image :-)
 
You can see the Cassini division very clearly with some cloud detail on the surface; Saturn’s beautiful ring is now starting to close back up after being fully on display in late 2017.
 
Every year now the rings will start to close up more and more until they will be seen edge-on to Earth in 2025. They won’t be fully on display again until the year 2032…Wow, now that’s a long time!
 
My image was taken with a Meade LX200 (GPS) 10inch telescope at prime focus using a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI movie files were captured with 2000 frames that were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

~ Sharing my memory of that day as seen through they eyes and mind of a young girl ~
​
On the afternoon of Monday the 21st July 1969 on the Gold Coast here in Queensland, Australia.
 
When I was a young girl our teacher let us go out onto the veranda of our school and listen to the astronauts walk on the surface of the Moon which was being broadcast on his small portable transistor radio.
 
In those days there were no TV sets in the classroom just wooden tables and chairs and a blackboard where our lessons were written in chalk…Oh, how things have changed now! 
 
We were all very excited to be given some time out of the classroom to listen to this incredible event which happened just after our big lunch, which I later realized was at about 1.30pm in the afternoon.
 
Later that afternoon after playing with my three brothers and just before dinner I ran outside all by myself and looked up at the sky and saw the Moon…I remember having this funny feeling in my tummy of excitement to think that those men had travelled so far in a space rocket and were now up there on the surface of the Moon…
​I was truly very wide eyed and amazed, and then I ran back inside and ate my dinner all happy and full of wonderment at the adventure of it all.
 
I will honestly admit that I’ve never really stopped looking up at the night sky and being absolutely blown away with the utter beauty of the universe. As an added bonus, over many years now I’ve learnt to capture with my camera lenses and telescope so many of these incredible celestial objects.
But I always come back to my most favourite celestial body, our beautiful wonderful Moon :-)
 
I made this photomontage in remembrance of this remarkable 50th year event; two of the images are from the incredible Apollo 11 mission. The first image is of our glorious blue planet Earth as seen from the Moon that is nearly 400,000kms away, the second image is an iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin by the American flag that Neil Armstrong took just before they both blasted off from the lunar surface on the 21st July 1969.
 
The lunar image to the right is of the 9 day old Moon which I took on the 11th July 2019 so I could capture the whole of the Sea of Tranquillity and the Sea of Serenity…this is the view (or orientation) of the Moon as seen here in the southern hemisphere, with south at the top and north at the bottom. It shows quite clearly the area in the Sea of Tranquillity where the lunar module ‘Eagle’ landed.
 
My lunar image was taken with a 10 inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain with an f6.3 focal reducer with a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera attached. The ZWO camera also had a focal reducer attached to widen the field of view through this large aperture telescope. I captured an AVI movie file with 1500 frames that were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

On a recent daytime visit to the Narrabri observatory in NSW I watched for quite some time as the array of radio telescopes repositioned themselves around the sky.
 
All of a sudden all five radio telescope slewed over to the north western sky. It was then that I saw that No5 radio telescope was pointed not far away from our own star the Sun and I got an idea for an image to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. If I could take an image to convey that connection between us here on Earth and another celestial body that would be very exciting.
 
I thought to myself, this is exactly what happened when the radio telescopes at the Honeysuckle Creek and the Parkes Radio Telescope tracking stations pointed there antennae at the daytime Moon and received the monumental television signals of Neil Armstrong taking his first footsteps on the
lunar surface on the afternoon of the 21st July 1969 (AEST).
 
How proud we all are that Australia played such a pivotal role in one of mankind’s greatest achievements, this is what I see in my image to remember how an incredible instrument made by humans can benefit mankind in a wondrous way.
 
Footnote: ~ David Malin Awards 2019 ~
​
There were so many awesome images submitted in this year’s David Malin Astrophotography Competition, but I did get a ‘Highly Commended’ for my image above in the themed ‘Memories of Apollo’ section :-)
https://www.facebook.com/CWASDMA/

~ Saturday the 20th and Sunday the 21st July 2019 ~
 
It’s been 50 years since Australia helped send images of humankind’s first steps on the Moon around the world. To celebrate they are holding FREE open days at the Parkes Observatory with FREE transport to and from Parkes.
 
Please go to the link below to read all about this amazing weekend where you will see the incredible ‘Dish’ radio telescope.
https://apollo11.csiro.au/parkes-open-days/
 
~ David Malin Awards for 2019 ~
​
While at the Parkes Radio Telescope you’ll also see the latest stunning photographs that have just been judged in the David Malin Astrophotography competition, they will be on show in the gallery at the visitors centre.
​Here is a link showing some of the images that will be on display.
https://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/astrofest/DMA/2019_shortlist/

One of my images won an award last year which was very exciting and that’s why we had visited the Parkes Observatory. The story is on my Astroblob at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-david-malin-astrophotography-awards-2018
​​

Our clubs editor Julie Lancaster has put together an excellent ‘Special Edition for the Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary’
in this month’s ‘Event Horizon’ newsletter…great work Julie :-)
 
Please go to the link below to read all about this incredible achievement (or click on newsletter cover above)
and the involvement that Australia had in this remarkable event.
http://sas.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/July-EH-SAS.pdf

Google doodles have made a doodle and YouTube video for the 50th Anniversary with Michael Collins (Apollo 11 command module pilot astronaut) to celebrate the incredible achievement…. Stardust kids and parents please enjoy this video from a very special man who really went on a journey to the Moon 50 years ago in 1969 :-)
https://www.google.com/doodles/50th-anniversary-of-the-moon-landing

50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
July 19, 2019
 
Fifty years ago, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission changed our world and ideas of what is possible by successfully landing humans on the surface of the moon⁠—and bringing them home safely⁠—for the first time in history. Today’s video Doodle celebrates this moment of human achievement by taking us through the journey to the moon and back, narrated by someone with firsthand knowledge of the epic event: former astronaut and Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins. 

A team of some 400,000 people from around the world worked on Project Apollo—mostly factory workers, scientists, and engineers who never left the ground. Within those 400,000 were the mission’s astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Their historic journey began when a Saturn V rocket blasted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969. After achieving orbit around the moon, the lunar module, known as “the Eagle,” separated for a 13-minute journey to the surface. Meanwhile, astronaut Michael Collins stayed behind in the command module, which would eventually bring all three astronauts back home to Earth.

Along the way to the moon’s surface, Armstrong and Aldrin lost radio contact with Earth, the onboard computer showed unfamiliar error codes, and fuel ran short. As millions watched on television with anxious anticipation, they successfully steered the module to a safe landing on the crater dubbed the “Sea of Tranquility” on July 20, 1969.
Not long after, Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon, stating the now infamous words “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” 

Returning safely to Earth on July 25, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew were followed by 10 more astronauts, with the final mission taking place in 1972. Countless scientific breakthroughs—from CAT scans to freeze-dried food—took place thanks to the mission to the moon.
​
Space exploration continues to this day, with milestones such as the International Space Station and plans for a mission to Mars. Most recently, NASA’s Artemis program—named for Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology—aims to bring the first woman to the moon.

I got all prepared here at home to take pictures of the full Moon rising through the pine trees using a Canon 70D camera and a 400mm lens set up on a tripod.
 
I continued taking images for a little while as the Moon climbed up the horizon, the different colours of the rising Moon were quite remarkable going from a deep ruddy red to a soft golden colour, which is shown in my image.
 
Each full Moon has many names and in the northern hemisphere the July full Moon is called a Buck Moon, Thunder Moon or Guru Moon…I so name this full Moon here in Australia 'Kangaroo Moon' because of all the kangaroos on my observing field :-)
 
Other capturing details, Canon 70D camera on tripod with a Tamron 400mm lens set at 400 mm, image was cropped and is a composite (two images at different exposures to capture what was seen in the sky) and combined in Photoshop CS4.
 
More information on the July full Moon is at:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/995/july-2019-the-next-full-moon-is-the-buck-moon/

Please click on image above from NASA's website to go to all the links and broadcasts
https://www.nasa.gov/

NASA will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 Moon mission and look to the future of exploration on the Moon and Mars with a live, two-hour television broadcast Friday, July 19, and partner-led events taking place across the country from July 16 through July 20.
 
On July 16, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a journey to the Moon and into history. Four days later, while Collins orbited the Moon in the command module, Armstrong and Aldrin landed Apollo 11’s lunar module, Eagle, on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, becoming the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface.
 
NASA Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Historic Moon Landing with Live TV Broadcast & Events.
Please go to the links below to find out all about the exciting events:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-adds-events-to-celebration-of-50th-anniversary-of-historic-moon-landing
 
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-historic-moon-landing-with-live-tv-broadcast

I have now set up my Meade LX200 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope here at home in preparation for a few weeks of imaging the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Saturn was at opposition on the 2nd July, which meant the planet was closest to Earth. This is the best time to get some really great images of the ringed planet, that is,
if the weather's kind to me!

It just so happens that I have a small part of sky between the house next door and our house which happens to be the elliptic path in the sky where the planets are seen…how lucky is that :-)
 
Jupiter is now quite high up in the sky in the constellation of Scorpius and by the time Saturn is high enough to image it's looking just stunning, I've named some of the features as seen on the planet. Processing the AVI movie files brings out much more detail than the eye can see and for that I use the free software called RegiStax6.
https://www.astronomie.be/registax/

I’ve set up the telescope in azimuth mode instead of using the equatorial wedge because the exposure times are very short, as long you do the star alignment to track that's all that is needed to capture the planets.
 
Image captured on the 10th July 2019 with a Meade LX200 10inch telescope at prime focus using a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached. An AVI movie file of 2000 frames were captured which were then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.
 
Below you will see my capture setup of the telescope, computer and ZWO camera.

The colours in this sunset were just magnificent, it’s not very often you get to see such vibrate and vivid colours like this in the sky, and it was just stunning!
 
I quickly ran a grabbed my little Canon G15 point and shot camera and took some images, there’s no processing here, this is the real colour of the afternoon sky…just magnificent :-)
Exposure settings were aperture f2.8, ISO320 and time was 5.02pm.
 
What courses all these stunning colours?
 
At sunset the Suns light has a lot more of the Earths thick atmosphere to pass through as it sets low on the western horizon and depending on how much dust particles or other aerosols are in the sky this determines how colourful the sunset will become.
 
On the electromagnetic spectrum red has the longest wavelength of any visible light, this is why sunsets are often a beautiful golden yellow or red colour on the horizon, the extremely long path of sunlight as it travels or scatters through the atmosphere blocks all the other colours.
 
Below you will find a few websites that explain the science behind a beautiful sunset…but really they are just so beautiful so just enjoy them :-)
 
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/activities/GreenSun.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/
 
http://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1767/red-sky-at-night-the-science-of-beautiful-sunsets/