This is the first cloud free day we’ve had here in Queensland since the New Year started, and the solar surface is completely spotless…here’s hoping some solar action starts up again soon,
​as I’m waiting for some excitement to happen :-)
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a 18-400mm lens set at 400mm with a 2x teleconverter making a focal length of 1280mm. A glass solar filter was attached to the lens for safe imaging of Sun. Twelve images were stacked in RegiStax6 with exposure times of 1/500th second and ISO100.

ABC Science 1st January 2020
By: Genelle Weule

~ Stars, galaxies, dust clouds and Uranus: take a tour of the January night sky ~
​
Genelle Weule (Science writer for ABC) has written another excellent article on the wonderful objects you can see in the January sky, but don’t worry if you don’t catch them in January as they will still be on show for the next couple of months as they head down into the western sky.
 
I was very happy to have been asked to contribute my images again for this article; you will also see some beautiful images in the article from my fellow SAS astro friend Dylan O’Donnell.
 
Dylan’s YouTube Channel is at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgOf4wBnoGg8WHHHr_h4otQ
 
So hop off your comfortable lounge, grab a star chart, binoculars or telescope and have a lot of fun exploring the night sky in your own garden with family and friends :-)
 
Other helpful tools to help find your way around the night are a FREE app called ‘Star Chart’ at: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/star-chart/id345542655

Or download or print a FREE sky chart at Skymaps.com at:
 http://www.skymaps.com
*If you’re in Australia make sure you download the star chart for the Southern Hemisphere*

I looked up into the sky and saw this pretty partial Sun halo, all day long there were beautiful high wispy cirrus clouds over the sky and at some stage I was sure a halo would appear…and it did :-)
 
Image taken on the 28th December 2020 with a Canon G7X Mark11 on manual focus and F11 aperture using ISO125.

Keep looking up…you never know what you’ll find!

This is the first time our sky has been clear since the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the 21st December and you can see quite clearly how far both planets have now moved apart from one another on the ecliptic.
 
If you are a lover of the night sky then this was an extremely wonderful event to have witnessed, but to the naked eye for most people I think they were a little disappointed. When I explained how big these planets were and to see them just about on top of one another in our line of sight, then I think they understood that this was quite an awesome astronomical event!
 
Again I used the house across the road with all its pretty Christmas lights flashing as the foreground for my pictures of this special planetary event so I’ll never forget that it happened at Christmas-time 2020 :-)
 
The images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod; the first image was an exposure of 2 seconds and ISO200, the second image was zoomed in to 400mm with an exposure of 1 second and ISO 640 and the image is cropped.

We have had so much cloud and rain for over two weeks now, but last night the cloud cleared just long enough to view this great conjunction between the two largest planets in our Solar System...Woohoo, I was so excited!
 
To the naked eye the planets looked like one point of light, but as soon as you magnified the view with a camera lens you could just make out the tiny separation between them.
 
I again chose my favourite house across the road to take the wide field image of the planets above their home, because it looked so pretty with all there Christmas lights on display, the children who live there will be so excited when I show them these pictures :-)
 
It would have been wonderful to have captured the event with my telescope, but it was not to be, I just had to make do with running up and down the street to find a good place to take pictures and dodging all the trees, house roofs and clouds…and I did it :-))
 
The images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod; the first image was an exposure of 3.2 seconds and ISO400. With the second image I attached a 2x convertor to make a focal length of 1280mm with an exposure of 0.6 second and ISO1600 the image is cropped.

It’s now the beginning of summer here in Australia and the sky is still very light in the evening to at least 7.30pm. You can clearly see that the two largest planets in our solar system are now getting closer and closer together in the western sky.
 
Our neighbours across the road have just put up all there outside Christmas lights and I thought it would be a lovely idea to capture this wonderful event and make a picture with the heavenly lights also above there house…. and I did it :-)
 
In the second image below, I moved away to under the trees, the sky was so clear you could even see the tiny pinpoint lights of Jupiter’s Moon beside the planet!
 
My images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens, exposure time for the first image was 1.6 seconds and ISO400. The second image was using the same camera setup with an exposure time of 4 seconds and ISO 500.
 
To read more about this once in 20-year event when Jupiter and Saturn will be just about on top on one another on the 21st December 2020 (As viewed from our line of sight here on Earth).
Please find some links to a couple of excellent articles below:
 
Jupiter and Saturn come together in a 'once in a lifetime' show in the December sky
ABC Science by Genelle Weule
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-11-27/jupiter-and-saturn-in-a-once-in-a-lifetime-grand-conjunction/12895088?nw=0
 
If you haven’t seen Jupiter and Saturn, you’re missing something!
Posted by Deborah Byrd and Bruce McClure:
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/great-jupiter-saturn-conjunction-dec-21-2020
 
If you would like some help on taking some images please go to NASA’s link at:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1615/how-to-photograph-the-conjunction-of-saturn-and-jupiter/
 
Please enjoy this wonderful event :-)

~ Sunspots AR2786, AR2785 & AR2783 ~
On the 26th November 2020 
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​It’s very exciting to see the Sun becoming so active again and this new active region AR2786 is really putting on a spectacular display, smaller sunspots are now developing close by and it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens in the couple of days :-)
 
Images were taken on the 26th November 2020 with a 127mm refractor telescope fitted with glass solar filters for safe viewing and imaging of the Sun (Please see my setup image attached) using a Canon 700D camera.
 
The full disc image was taken at prime focus with ISO200 & 1/640th second exposures. The close up image had a 2x Barlow lens attached, exposures were 1/60th second and ISO 400, twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

(Please be careful looking at the Sun)

~ Moon with Jupiter & Saturn ~
 
The five-day-old waxing crescent Moon looked just stunning in the evening sky last night as it made a close encounter with the planets Jupiter and Saturn.
 
All three celestial bodies were enclosed within a 6-degree circle in the constellation of Sagittarius with the Moon and Jupiter only 2 degrees away from one another.
 
Keep watching the western sky after sunset as Jupiter and Saturn get closer and closer for their 20-year conjunction on the 21st December 2020…what an amazing view it will be for Christmas J
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm @128mm, exposure time was 2 second and ISO640.

This is the first chance I’ve had to image this huge sunspot AR2781 because of cloud cover and its now facing toward the Earth on the solar surface.
 
This is the biggest sunspot of the new Solar Cycle 25 and it looks like the Sun is now awakening from its slumber!
 
There have been some really stunning images posted on Spaceweagther.com one in particular is from Alan Friedman, which featured on the front page at:
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=11&year=2020
 
The image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens with a 2x converter making a focal length of 1280mm, which was mounted on a non-tracking camera tripod. 15 images were stacked in RegiStax 6 and processed in PS CS4, the e27812727xposure time was 1000th second and ISO320.

This was the lovely wide angle view of the planets Jupiter and Saturn with the nine day old waxing gibbous Moon low in the south western sky just before midnight on the on the 26th September 2020.
 
Jupiter & Saturn are fully in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) and the Gibbous Moon has just entered into the neighbouring constellation of Capricornus (The Ram).
 
The sky was very bright because of the Moonlight but you could still see the patterns of the constellation with the brighter stars on display. I’ve also named some of the other constellations in the area that are now setting in the western sky.
 
Jupiter and Saturn will now been seen coming closer and closer together for there rare 20 year conjunction that will happen on the 21st December 2020…so keep an eye on this wonderful astronomical event over the next couple of months :-)
 
Image taken at on the field at Leyburn at my Stardust Observatory with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a camera tripod. The setting were set at ISO400 and exposure 15 seconds the focal length was 18mm and image was cropped slightly.