This was the stunning view late this afternoon which marked this special day for the  ‘Vernal Equinox’ here in the southern hemisphere, the whole western sky had these spectacular crepuscular rays right up to the zenith…absolutely beautiful :-)
 
Image taken at 5.17pm on the 23rd September 2019 with a Canon Gx7 Mark11 camera set on manual at focal length of 11mm, ISO 125 and exposure was 1/1250th second.

This very pretty planetary nebula is quite large and bright and can easily be found among the stars in the northern sky in Vulpecula.  
 
About 4,000 years ago an elderly, bloated giant red star, gave its last gasp and shed off its outer skin exposing its still pulsating heart. What’s left now is an extremely hot white dwarf star that’s exciting the bubble of ionized gas that still surrounds it.
 
This was the first planetary nebula ever discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 while he was comet hunting in the night sky. Please see more details on (M27) on the SEDS website at:
http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m027.html
 
Image taken at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn on the 1st September 2019, with a Meade 80mm refractor and a Canon 70D camera, which was tracking on the larger 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. There were 15x3 minute images with 10x3 minute darks stacked in DSS and processed in CS4, ISO 2000 and image is cropped.

At this time of year here in the southern hemisphere, the Milky Way straddles each side of the zenith and over the night arc’s down into the western sky, so there is plenty of time to capture lots of deep sky objects in this area around the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.
 
So over the next couple of months on the dark new Moon weekend I’ll try and image as many of these beautiful deep sky objects as I can and share them with you from my Stardust observatory at Leyburn in Australia.
 
~ The Eagle Nebula M16 in Serpens ~
 
The Eagle nebula is a diffuse emission nebula and star cluster in the constellation of Serpens (Cauda), it’s a region of star formation with glowing hydrogen gas due to the excitation from ultraviolet radiation emitted by hot young stars embedded in the nebula. The star cluster associated with the nebula is called (NGC 6611).
 
There are two shapes you can see in this nebula, one is the overall shape that does look like an eagle with its spreading wings but the other shape is in the heart of the nebula where the Star Queen gets it’s name and where the Hubble Space telescope imaged the astounding ‘Pillars of Creation’ area in 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation
 
It’s estimated that the distance to M16 is about 6000 light years and its diameter is 35 light years, the estimated age is 2-6 million years old.
 
The other two open star clusters close to M16 (in the top right) is called Trumpler 32 and the denser star cluster (in the bottom right corner) is called NGC 6605.
 
I took this image with a Meade 80mm refractor telescope and a Canon 70D camera that was being tracked on top of a larger Meade LX200 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in my observatory.
I managed to capture only 7x3 minute images before the clouds came rolling in, I’ll try and capture this object again next month to obtain a lot more data and a smoother in-depth picture.
 
For more information about this wonderful area of sky please go to the links below:
NASA’s Hubble Messier Catalog at:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog
 
Wikipedia Messier Objects:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object
Eagle Nebula (M16)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Nebula
 
SEDS  (The Messier Catalog)
http://www.messier.seds.org
http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m016.html
http://www.messier.seds.org/CONindex2.html
 
Constellation Maps to help you at IAU (International Astronomical Society)
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations

NASA News 18th September 2019

It's the final boarding call for you to stow your name on NASA's Mars 2020 rover before it launches to the Red Planet. The Sept. 30 deadline for NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign gives the mission enough time to stencil the submitted names - over 9.4 million so far - on a chip that will be affixed to the Mars 2020 rover.
This rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020 and expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021.

The Mars 2020 rover represents the initial leg of humanity's first planned round trip to another planet.
With this robotic scientist weighing 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms), the Mars 2020 mission will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

"As we get ready to launch this historic Mars mission, we want everyone to share in this journey of exploration," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "It's an exciting time for NASA as we embark on this voyage to answer profound questions about our neighboring planet, and even the origins of life itself."

The opportunity to send your name to Mars, which opened on May 21, 2019, comes with a souvenir boarding pass and "frequent flyer" points. This is part of a public engagement campaign to highlight missions involved with NASA's journey from the Moon to Mars. Miles (or kilometers) are awarded for each "flight," with corresponding digital mission patches available for download.

​ More than 2 million names flew on NASA's InSight mission to Mars, giving each "flyer" about 300 million frequent flyer miles (nearly 500 million frequent flyer kilometers).
You can add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:
https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass

I was asked by the team leader Casssie to come and visit the girls and give them an astronomy and space evening so they could obtain there astronomy patch on behalf our astronomy society (Southern Astronomy Society).
http://sas.org.au
 
When I arrived the girls were busy making models of the Apollo 13 spacecraft that had an explosion on its way to the Moon, there were all sorts of bits and pieces as they taped the lunar module and lunar lander together so the astronauts could safely arrive back home. This activity was in connection with NASA’s 50th Anniversary of the landing on the Moon.
 
After setting up my telescope, all the girls came outside and I gave them a star tour around the night sky, we were lucky enough to still see the Southern Cross going down in the west with alpha and beta Centauri following.
 
Then I showed them the stunning constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion) that was right above our heads at the zenith with Sagittarius close by. Both Jupiter and Saturn were on show and after that we all went and had a look at the Moon through the telescope…which is always very exciting with lots of Wow’s!
 
Everyone had a great night and all the girls and team leaders thanked me, I got a very special surprise and was given my own girl guides astronomy patch, thank you so much…its just lovely :-)

It was still quite light when I set up my telescope to take images of this rare event, Saturn looked ever so small as it neared the darkened western limb of the 11 day old waxing gibbous Moon at 6.30pm.
 
I had to keep a very close eye on the planet, because it was going to disappear very quickly behind the really dark shadow area of the Moon that was unlit by the Sun.
 
Once Saturn disappeared it took nearly one and a half hours to reappear, it was a bit tricky working out where it would come into view again because the eastern limb was extremely bright!
 
In reality, Saturn is a huge planet at a distance of over 1.3 billion kilometers away from us here on earth, but it looks so small as compared with the Moon which is only 384,000 kms away it’s all just an optical Illusion, like most things in the Universe….
 
I used a 127mm APO refractor telescope and a Canon 700D camera that was attached to a tracking HEQ5 Pro mount. I used this lower powered set-up so I could captured the full disc of the Moon and do a composite image of the entire event…it worked out just as I planed :-)
 
1st image is of Saturn just before it disappears at 6.40pm, 12 images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in Photoshop CS4. Exposures were 1/200th second and ISO 200. Image is cropped.
 
2nd Image is the full disc of the Moon, 12 images were stacked in Registgack6 and processed in Photoshop CS4. Exposures were 1/200th second and ISO 200.
 
3rd Image is a composite of the three images to show the whole event of the occultation of Saturn by the Moon over a period of one and a half hours from 6.40pm until 8.15pm. 

Right now is the time to get your telescopes out and look at these two stunning planets in our Solar System. No matter what size telescope you have, you’ll still see the four moons of Jupiter doing an ecliptic moon dance around the planet and you'll see the ring around Saturn.
 
If you don't have a telescope, you could use a large pair of binoculars (10X50mm or more) to see Jupiter and its moons but with the rings of Saturn you’ll definitely need a telescope, as the planet is over 1.3 billion kilometres away from us here on Earth!

The images of Jupiter & Saturn were 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.

Early in the evening you’ll still see the magnificent Milky Way at the zenith and the wonderful deep sky objects that abound in the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius.
 
Please go to Skymaps.com to download your free star chart to explore your night sky in your own garden…just make sure you download the relevant star chart for your latitude and hemisphere that you live in.
http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

You can also download a FREE App called ‘Star Chart’ from the Apple store which is an excellent planetarium App that you just hold up to the night sky and its shows you the planets and constellations, I always share this App with teachers and students for them to learn the night sky…have lots of fun :-)
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/star-chart/id34554265

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 :-)
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