~ InOMN at My Stardust Observatory at Leyburn in Qld Australia ~
(Saturday the 26th September 2020)
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/
 
Because of Covid-19, I decided to drive out to my Stardust Observatory in country Queensland and just have an up close and personal experience with our Moon :-)
 
It was a beautiful clear night with no clouds at all in the sky and the most notable lunar features on display on the terminator line were the magnificent Crater Copernicus and the huge Crater Clavius in the southern highlands, which looked just stunning.
 
I did manage to show a couple of people the Moon through my telescope as they were visiting the owners of the property where my observatory is located, there were many exclamations of Wow…is that for real!
 
So I feel very happy to have shown some people the beauty of our Moon :-)
 
If you participated in InOMN please download you certificate at:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/participate/participation-certificate/
 
The close up images that I took with the little ZWO camera are just amazing, so much detail on show…I’m very pleased with the result and will do a lot more lunar imaging with this camera in the coming months….
 
Images were taken with 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope using a Canon 700D camera for the full disc image, and then adding a 2x barlow lens to take closer pictures of the lunar features on the terminator line. I then replaced the DSLR camera with my ZWO ASI120MC-S camera and a 3x Barlow lens to capture the high-resolution images of the lunar surface.

If you participated in InOMN please download you certificate at:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/participate/participation-certificate/
​

​I can’t believe how big Mars is getting now as compared with just one month ago and the detail on the surface is just amazing…Woohoo! :-) :-) :-)
 
I took this image with some light cloud in the sky and can’t wait until we finally get a clear night to capture even more detail on the surface.

The image was taken with a Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached.

​An AVI movie file was captured with 1400 frames that was stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

Like all the planets in our solar system, Earth and Mars orbit the sun. But Earth is closer to the sun, and therefore races along its orbit more quickly. Earth makes two trips around the sun in about the same amount of time that Mars takes to make one trip. So sometimes the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun, very far apart, and other times, Earth catches up with its neighbour and passes relatively close to it.
 
Please read more at about the opposition of Mars at NASA Science Mars Exploration Program website at: https://mars.nasa.gov/all-about-mars/night-sky/opposition/
https://mars.nasa.gov
​

The waxing gibbous Moon looked so pretty in the evening sky on the 29th August with its close conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn on the ecliptic in the eastern sky.
 
The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn are all fully within the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) and you can see one of the familiar asterism of stars to the top of the image with the bright stars Nunki & Ascella.
 
The image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm lens @40mm; the exposure time was 4 seconds and ISO100.
 
I took another image at the same time with a shorter exposure of 1/60th second to capture some detail on the lunar surface and softly blended it into the image to closely show what was on view in the sky :-)

I managed to captured Jupiter and Saturn just before midnight on the 9th August, and then the planet Mars a little later when it cleared the two-story house roof next door.
​This was at about 2.30am on the 10th August 2020…I have lot of obstacles in my garden!
 
The sky conditions were not as good as the last time I captured Jupiter and Saturn on the 1st & 2nd of July, but I’m still very happy with the detail. 
 
In this montage, all the planets were taken with the same focal length and imaging setup, so they are all to scale in size, last time Mars was at opposition it was as large in size as the body of Saturn…quite remarkable!
Mars will be at opposition on the 14th October 2020.
 
I used Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI movie file were captured then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.

The waning gibbous Moon was a beautiful golden colour as it rose in the eastern sky just before midnight with the red planet Mars just above and only 3 degrees away from the planet.
 
I’ve also inserted an image of Mars in the photo to show what the planet looked like just a few hours later through my large telescope.
 
Below you will find the image of Mars where I have labelled some of the terrain on view, as the planet becomes closer to Earth in the coming months this detail will become a lot more detail.

The wide field image was taken at home with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens set at 200mm with ISO100 and a 1/15th exposure.
 
The inserted image of Mars was taken with a Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. An avi movie file was captured with 1200 fames and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.
 
Below I’ve also tried to do a 3D picture of Mars; if your able to slightly cross your eyes you will see the effect :-)

I was extremely lucky to have three clear evenings to capture the conjunction of the waxing gibbous Moon travelling through the constellation of Sagittarius to meet with the two gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. This event happened on the evenings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of August 2020.
 
This event is quite rare as Jupiter and Saturn are only seen close together on the ecliptic every twenty years as they orbit about the Sun. To have all three celestial bodies in the same constellation, well that’s just awesome J
 
You’ll have another wonderful opportunity to see it all again on the evenings of the 24th, 25th & 26th of September with the waxing gibbous Moon.
 
All images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod in my garden just before 6pm.  I had a bit of trouble selecting exposure times because the Moon was so bright and also a light twilight sky.
 
1st Image taken 1st August 2020: ISO640, exposure time 3.2sec at F5.6.
2nd Image taken 2nd August 2020: ISO640, exposure time 2 sec at f6.3.
3rd Image taken 3rd August 2020: ISO400, exposure time 2sec at f7.

It’s also interesting to note from the photographs at how much the Moon moves through the sky over the three nights, the Moon orbits the earth and the earth is also in movement orbiting the Sun.
​The Moon rises 50 minutes later each night because of this movement.
 
I found an interesting answer to my question on how fast does the Moon move in its orbit around the Earth from Robert Frost an Instructor and Flight controller at NASA who writes a weekly Quora blog.

To read more blogs by Robert Frost go to:
https://www.quora.com/profile/Robert-Frost-1

This is my first image of Mars for 2020 and it’s already showing some detail on the planets surface with the bright South Pole looking spectacular, every two years Mars comes close to our Earth as it orbits the Sun. The date for this year’s opposition of Mars will be on the 13th October 2020. The planet is still far away so its size is very small with a diameter of only 12.7” and magnitude of -0.8 (Taken from Astronomy 2020 Australia edition)
 
I took this image when conditions were not very good as the planet was still low in the eastern sky and cloud was starting to come over the sky, views should get a lot better in the coming months.
​That is, if dust storms don’t cover the planet like they did in 2018!
 
Mars is exhibiting a gibbous phase because part of its disc is not being seen fully illuminated by the Sun as seen by us here on Earth. As Mars reaches opposition the Suns light will fully illuminate its surface, just like when we see a full moon in the sky. This will be the best time for observers to view and take images of this amazing red planet.
 
My image was taken on the 2nd July 2020 with a Meade LX200 GPS 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached. An AVI movie with 900 frames was captured and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4. 

To read an excellent article about these three missions please go to ABC Science written by Genelle Weule.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-07-13/nasa,-china-and-uae-missions-to-mars/12412312
 
Some website links below to follow these journeys to Mars in 2020: 
NASA Perseverance Countdown to Launch website at:
https://mars.nasa.gov
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/launch/
Mars 2020 Mission Perseverance Rover
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/
 
Emirates Mars Mission
https://www.emiratesmarsmission.ae
China National Space Administration
http://www.cnsa.gov.cn

(By Seeker)
https://www.seeker.com

Saturn is now at prime viewing with opposition on the 21st July.  The northern hemisphere of the planet has been tilted our way while the rings have been fully open, but now part of the southern hemisphere is coming into view and the rings are again closing up.  
 
Saturn and Jupiter are now close in the sky on the ecliptic, this astronomical event only happens once every 20 years (or to be exact 19.6 years).  So keep and eye on these two gas giants as both planets slowly edge closer and closer for a spectacular conjunction on the 21st December 2020.
 
I love the way I’ve managed to capture the different coloured bands on the planet and the subtle colours of the gaseous atmosphere and the most amazing thing to think about is Saturn is over 1.4 billion kilometres away from us!
 
Saturn is the most beautiful planet in the solar system because of its stunning ring, now that the Cassini spacecraft is not there up close and personal we have to make do with the view through our telescope eyepiece…. Oh, I so miss the Cassini Spacecraft and the excitement of all the wonderful discoveries it made.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/
 
My image was taken with a Meade LX200 GPS 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera and 3x Barlow lens attached. An AVI movie with 1500 frames was captured and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4. 

Late in the evening on the 1st of July, I finally got to image Jupiter for the first time this year, mainly because of all the cloudy weather we’ve been having.
 
I was amazed to see yet again how the area around the Great Red Spot has changed and there appears to be a dark red marking below the (GRS). As all the four main satellite moons of Jupiter were on show orbiting the planet, this is not a shadow transit, so I’m assuming it may be a small active storm.
 
There is another interesting feature, a large white oval storm in the South Temperate Zone that was not there last year. Usually these white oval areas are quite small, I’m finding this intriguing too. Jupiter is so interesting to observe because its turbulent atmosphere is always changing :-)
 
Jupiter comes to opposition on the 14th July and is closest to Earth for viewing, it will rise in the east at the same time as the Sun sets in the west on this date.
 
The image was taken with a Meade LX200 GPS 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at prime focus with a ZWO 120 MC-S camera and 3x Barlow lens attached.
​An AVI movie with 1200 frames was captured and stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4. 

The sunspot is now looking very small in the 127mm refractor telescope as it rotates towards the western limb of the Sun on the 11th June 2020. During this afternoon observing session I was racing against time as cloud was coming all across the western sky.
 
After taking some images with the refractor I quickly removed it off the Pro HEQ5 mount and replaced it with the Lunt 60mm solar telescope to try and capture some images in Ha. (I always use this tracking mount when using both these telescopes)
 
It was really lucky to get a break in the cloud to capture just two AVI movie movies of the area with the Ha telescope before the whole sky clouded over and that was that…no more observing!
 
The white light image was taken with a 127mm refractor telescope that was fitted with a glass solar filter and using a Canon 700D camera.

​Just one image was captured with an exposure time of 1/320h second and ISO400.  The Ha image was taken with the Lunt solar telescope and a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera attached capturing an AVI movie file and stacking in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4.