Comet Neowise was only discovered in March this year and has been putting on a spectacular show in the northern hemisphere.
 
We here in the southern hemisphere only had a brief chance for a few days to see the comet as it headed back out through the Solar System.
 
The only trouble was, the comet was very low in the western sky and could only be seen in twilight with moonlight from a nine-day-old Moon…so all in all, I’m amazed I even captured it near the cluster of stars (Mel 111) in Coma Berenices.
 
I’m so happy that people in the northern hemisphere were able to experience this wonderful comet, the last one we had here in Australia that put on an amazing show was Comet McNaught in 2007, which was just fantastic!!!
 
I wrote an Astroblog reminiscing it when Comet ISON was in our skies at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-comet-ison-in-2013-comet-mcnaught-in-2007
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I got up at 4am to find Comet Swan, but I could not locate it in the low eastern sky as the sky was extremely light and the stars in area were so faint. In the end I just pointed the camera in the direction and hoped for the best.
(I did use my planetarium Stellerium App but I could still not visually see it).
 
The first shot I did with my camera settings were just completely blown out because of the light sky, in the end I could only take up to a 8 second shot it was then that I knew there was no way I was going to catch any of the faint wispy tail.
 
But I did capture the comet, just a telltale greenish starlike dot, but that starlike dot is the Comet, so mission accomplished :-)
 
While taking the image a bright satellite flared and I captured it in three images, which I stacked, I have since found out it was the ESA Envisat Satellite and it’s a large satellite that’s now inactive.
(It was once an Earth observation satellite)

You will see that Comet Swan was in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and I have marked the other faint constellations in the area. 
 
I also pointed the cameras right up above my head and took a couple of images of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars on the ecliptic, then turned the camera back around to take some awesome pictures of the dawn coloured sky.
Pictures will be in my following blog...
 
Information on the images: The wide field image of Comet Swan and Envisat Satellite was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400 lens @18mm, ISO 3200 and 8 second exposure. Three images were stacked in DSS to capture satellite path, the satellite flared brightly when I first saw it for one second.

Some information about the (ESA) Envisat Satellite 
​(European Space Agency) http://www.esa.int

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Envisat

http://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Envisat/ESA_declares_end_of_mission_for_Envisat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envisat

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
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This diagram suggests how the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, could have formed.

You can still see the pale green colour of the comet even through all these clouds!
 
My Photo taken of the comet 46P in between clouds on the evening of the 18th December, the comet was still in the constellation of Taurus just under the open star cluster called the Pleiades (The Seven Sisters).
No other photos were taken after this date because of the cloudy weather :-(
 
~ Please see below the news release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ~

​14th December 2018.
See a Passing Comet This Sunday
On Sunday, Dec. 16, the comet known as 46P/Wirtanen will make one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years, and you may even be able to see it without a telescope.
 
Although the approach will be a distant 7.1 million miles (11.4 million kilometers, or 30 lunar distances) from Earth, it's still a fairly rare opportunity. "This will be the closest comet Wirtanen has come to Earth for centuries and the closest it will come to Earth for centuries," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. What's more, Chodas said, "This could be one of the brightest comets in years, offering astronomers an important opportunity to study a comet up close with ground-based telescopes, both optical and radar."
 
Comet Wirtanen has already been visible in larger amateur telescopes, and while the brightness of comets is notoriously difficult to predict, there is the possibility that during its close approach comet Wirtanen could be visible with binoculars or to the naked eye.
 
Astronomer Carl Wirtanen discovered the comet in 1948 at Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton in Santa Clara County, California. With a width of 0.7 miles (1.1 kilometers), 46P/Wirtanen orbits the Sun fairly quickly for a comet - once every 5.4 years - making it a short-period comet. (Long-period comets, on the other hand, have orbital periods greater than 200 years.) At the time of closest approach, the comet will appear to be located in the constellation Taurus close to the Pleiades.
 
Please find the link to this story at:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7306&utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=daily-20181214-1
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At last, after all the cloudy weather we’ve been having I finally got to see Comet 46/P in the eastern sky
and I must say it was very very faint!
You could only just make it out in a pair of binoculars as a small fuzzy spot but it was good enough to find and point the camera at to take some pictures.
 
I must add that I do live in suburbia and the light pollution is pretty high…I’m sure if I could have got out to my Stardust Observatory in a dark sky it would have looked more spectacular!
 
I had to be quick as cloud started rolling in again so I grabbed my camera and tripod and started to take some images, by the time I took a couple of pictures the whole sky clouded over and that was that!!!
 
I was just really happy to be able to see it and actually take some photos :-)

Imaging information for the Comet:
For the wide field image above I used a Canon 70D camera and a Tokina 11-16mm lens @11mm and slightly cropped, with an exposure time of 15 seconds and set at f2.8, ISO1000.

The image below was taken with a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens @73mm and image was cropped.
​Exposure time was just 2.5 seconds and ISO6400 to capture the comet at such a short exposure.
 
I’m hoping it’s going to clear up enough to take some images on the 16th of December
​when the comet is closest to Earth…. here’s hoping for the best :-)

~ TEDx Helensvale Library ~
Gold Coast Libraries are very excited to announce the release of seven TEDx Talks from our recent TEDx Helensvale Library event!
 
Seven stories from inspirational Gold Coast locals sharing their passions for architecture, ballet, circus, music, astronomy and social enterprise. Watch the videos now and be inspired to MAKE IT! 

The presenters on the night were:
(L Top) Karl Smith, Kristy Seymour, Noeleen Lowndes, Barry Lee, Nicolle Edwards,
Jordyn de Boer & Georgia Canning.

~ Starry Starry Night ~
Look up and discover your night sky
 
Noeleen talks about her love affair with the stars and the steps we can all take to discover more about our night sky. To find out more visit mystardustobservatory.com
 
Noeleen is president of the Southern Astronomical Society, having been a member for 22 years. She is an astrophotographer, astronomy and space educator, and is NASA’s Saturn Observation Campaign member in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaXnghax8c

Please go to my TEDx talk at the Helensvale Library Blog on the 2nd June 2017
​to read all about this wonderful event at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-tedx-talk-at-helensvale-library-2nd-june-2017

I was invited by the lovely people from the Helensvale Library to give a TEDx talk on how I learnt all about the night sky as it may inspire other people to go outside and look up to discover there night sky…I hope it does!
Happy Stargazing :-)
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~ Starry Starry Night ~
Look up and discover your night sky

The theme of the event was called ‘Make It’ and there were seven wonderful presenters who volunteered there time and story’s to make people think about the topics that everyone was so passionate about.
 
I must say that I have given thousands of talks, but this one was completely different because I had to give a bit of my personal experiences for the story, which is something that I don’t usually do, but I did enjoy sharing those special moments :-)
 
I also discovered that a TED talk is not a talk where you teach, its purpose is to bring one really great idea to the audience that may help, challenge or created a desire for somebody to try something new in there lives, and to present it all in under 18minutes or less!!!
 
Also, it’s quite scary standing on that red circle, but the whole experience was just so exciting and fun. I would like to thank all the incredible people who helped out on the night, especially Karen Gunnarsson and Dani Watson the organizers of this wonderful TEDx event, for making the evening such a wonderful success for everyone that attended. I will post the link to the video here as soon as it’s ready...

​The whole event was just awesome!!

Please find the YouTube link to my TEDx talk below and I hope you feel inspired to go out outside in your garden, Look up and discover your night sky :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaXnghax8c

Link to article at:
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/entertainment/gold-coast-tedx-talk-to-see-karl-smith-aka-the-lyrical-swap-rapping-for-public-speaking/news-story/765c74f4d7646fb2ffda6ae94eca16cd

In the early hours of yesterday morning (7th April) Comet 252P/Linear was still making its way through the constellation of Ophiuchus and came close to the globular star cluster M14. You can also see to the top of the image the other very faint globular star cluster NGC 6366, that lies 3 degrees southwest of M14.
 
There is also a wide field image where you can just make out the green colour of the comet close by the rich star fields of our Milky Way galaxy. The planets Mars and Saturn also make a lovely acute triangle with the brilliant star Antares that’s in Scorpius…so there’s a lot going on in this part of the sky at the moment :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 70-200 mm lens set 200mm; exposure times were 45 seconds and ISO 400 at F2.8. Wide Field image taken with a 17-85mm lens at 17mm, exposure time was one and a half minutes at F5.6 and ISO 2000.
 
Processing Picture:
There were multiple images with dark frames stacked in DSS (Free software, Deep Sky Stacker) and processed in Photoshop… the reason for doing this is to reduce any noise (from the camera) in the pictures so you can bring out some more of the detail.
 

~ You can just make out the green colour of Comet 252P/Linear to the left in my image ~

​In the early hours of yesterday morning (3rd April) Comet 252P/Linear was making it’s way through the faint stars in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
 
This pretty green comet formed a lovely triangle in the sky with the two very faint globular star clusters called NGC 6399 and NGC 6402 (M14), which are only 3 degrees apart in the night sky.
 
From my image, you’ll see the path that the comet will travel as it makes its way close by M14 in the early hours of the morning on the 6th and 7th April…I hope the skies stay clear so I can capture it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 70-200 mm lens set 200mm; exposure time was 15 seconds and ISO 2000 at F3.5, 12 images were stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.

​In the early hours of this morning (1st April) Comet 252P/Linear was blazing through the faint stars of Serpens Cauda (The tail of the Serpent) and heading for the constellation of Ophiuchus.
 
The last quarter Moon again made the sky very light but with perseverance I found the comet by its pretty green colour among the stars :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 100-400 mm lens set 250mm; exposure time was 10 seconds and ISO 2000, 10 images were stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.