The Sun has these incredibly active sunspot groups on its surface numbered AR2866 & AR2868 with another sunspot developing not far away numbered AR2869.
The two smaller sunspots nearing the western limb are AR2863 & AR2865.
 
I’m at my Stardust Observatory this weekend and just had to take some images of these wonderful active regions on the solar surface  :-)

My image was taken with a Canon 70D camera & Canon 100-400mm lens with 2x teleconverter = 1280mm focal length with solar filter attached…. The exposure was 1/500th second and ISO100, 20 images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PSCS4.

Movie taken with my Canon 70D and Canon 100-400mm lens plus 2x teleconverter = Focal length 1280mm

I was out at my Stardust Observatory and even though it was a lovely clear sky all around me, when I went to take a photo of the setting Sun, there was this huge smoky band on the western horizon from a large bushfire. Within minutes the Sun was setting into the thick fiery atmosphere and being pulled into an egg shape!
 
I had to quickly take the solar filter off the lens to capture the Sun as it was disappearing into the thick smog; it went this amazing bright pink colour before it completely disappeared…it was very exciting. You can also just make out those two large sunspot groups AR2866 & AR2868 on the surface.

My images were taken on my last new moon weekend, with a Canon 70D camera & Canon 100-400mm lens with 2x teleconverter = 1280mm focal length with solar filter taken off the lens, the thick smoke acted as filter.
(This is the real hot pink colour of the Sun with no processing)

On the evening of the 10th September the 3 day old waxing crescent Moon came to within 4 degrees of Venus low in the western sky. With this phase of the Moon you can also see that wonderful celestial phenomenon called earthshine displayed on the lunar surface.
 
Earthshine is now well understood as sunlight from Earth’s clouds being reflected back onto the lunar surface producing this beautiful soft glow on the Moons unlit surface.
 
I post a lot of my images onto Dr Tony Phillips website called Spaceweather.com
​Dr Phillips has written an article call ‘What is the Da Vinci Glow?’ It’s a very interesting read, please go to the link below and see how Leonardo Da Vinci over 500 years ago worked out what earthshine really was :-)
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2018/05/16/what-is-the-da-vinci-glow/
 
I found this really nice YouTube video by Dr John Mason from the Southern Downs Planetarium & Science Centre. Where he takes you outside into the garden to look at the Earthshine on the Moon and view the De Vinci Glow. His view on this night was very similar to what I have captured here with my image.

In this video Dr John Mason talks about the magnificent conjunction of the crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus.

What a stunning view it was this evening in the western sky at my Stardust Observatory, with the crescent Moon near Mercury and Venus above with the star Spica not far away.

Its not very often you can see or even capture this elusive planet as its orbit is very quite close to the Sun, also you have to have a clear western horizon even to see tiny Mercury low in the sky.

My Image was taken at my Stardust Observatory with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm lens @28mm; exposure time was 4 seconds and ISO400 :-)

It’s winter here in Australia and at this time of year you can see right into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy at the zenith. It’s a magnificent sight to behold when seen from a very dark sky site with no city lights.
 
Along with wanting to capture the whole Milky Way sky from Aquila to the Southern Cross, I’ve always wanted to capture the dark shape of the “Emu in the Sky” that’s in the same area of sky and I’ve drawn onto the image to show the shape.
 
This well known aboriginal story of the Emu was once an important time for the indigenous people of Australia to know when to collect Emu eggs, as they were an essential food source for there people. They used the dark shape of the Emu to guide them during this very important seasonal event…what a wonderful celestial story J
 
Image taken at my Stardust Observatory with a Canon 6D Mk11 camera and a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens set at 17mm, the camera was attached to the top of a tracking telescope; because of the very wide sky view you’ll also see the planets Jupiter and Saturn plus the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) in the image.
 
There were 20 images captured with an exposure time of 1½ minute each with corresponding dark frames, using ISO3200. Images stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.
 
To find out more about indigenous astronomy and the Emu story please go to the links below:
 
The Kamilaroi and Euahlayi Emu in the Sky
By Robert Fuller
http://aboriginalastronomy.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-kamilaroi-and-euahlayi-emu-in-sky.html
 
Exploring the Astronomical Knowledge and traditions of indigenous Australians
By Duane Hamacher
http://aboriginalastronomy.blogspot.com/2011/04/coal-sack-and-emu-in-er-i-mean-llama-in.html
​

Download a Skymap for the Southern Hemisphere at Skymaps.com at:
​ http://www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

On the last new Moon weekend in July, I only had one clear night at my Stardust Observatory, so I tried out my new Canon 6D Mk11 full frame camera with a couple of wide field lenses to capture some pictures of the star filled sky of the Milky Way.
 
At this time of the year the Southern Cross with the brilliant stars in Centaurs are starting to head down into the south-western sky, and the starlight from the Milky Way is blazing above at the Zenith.
 
With the camera attached to the top of a tracking Meade LX200 10inch telescope I captured a few lovely images of the dark Milky Way night sky.
 
This image shows to the left the spectacular stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri that point the way to the Southern Cross.  These two stars are also known Rigil Kentaurus (Alpha Cen) and Hadar (Beta Cen). Alpha Centauri is a triple star system with one of its stars called Proxima Centaui that’s the closest star to our Sun at just 4.3 light-years away!
 
The Southern Cross (Crux) is the smallest constellation in the sky and has some very colourful stars. At the top there is the pretty yellow star Gamma Crucis, the bottom blue star is Alpha Crucis and points to the south celestial pole. The other stars are to the left Beta Crucis with the Jewel Box star cluster (NGC 4755) close by and to the right is another blue star called Delta Crucis with the orange-hued star Epsilon Crucis just below.
 
To the bottom of the Southern Cross is the large dark nebula known as the Coalsack Nebula that spans 7x5 degrees and when viewed from a very dark sky looks just magnificent. There’s so much gas and dust in this area it’s blotting out the starlight from behind.
 
Images taken with a Canon 6D Mk11 camera and Canon 50mm F1.8 lens set at f4 and ISO3200, 15 images were captured and stacked in DSS with corresponding dark frames and processed in PS, the image is cropped.
 
To find out more about this area of the sky please see star map below or click on link below to print one out.
https://www.iau.org/static/public/constellations/gif/CRU.gif
​

Venus looked brilliant in the western sky with the pretty sunset colours reflected in the billabong water at Leyburn near my Stardust Observatory…it made for a very beautiful picture :-)
 
Image taken on the 10th July 2021 at 5.46pm with a Canon G7X Mark 11 camera on manual focus. The aperture was set at f2.2 with an exposure time of 1/60th second and ISO1600.

In the image above, I moved around the billabong to position Venus so I could get the planet reflected in the still waters, it looked very lovely indeed with the sunset colours and trees :-)
 
My Image was taken with Canon G7X Mark 11 camera on manual focus with an exposure of 1/30th second, f1.8 and the ISO1600.

Venus looked brilliant in the early twilight sky with planet Mars above on the ecliptic; you can still see the golden colour of sunset on the horizon.
 
Image taken at 5.56pm on the observing field at Leyburn near my Stardust Observatory with a Canon G7X Mark 11 camera on manual focus. The aperture was set at f2.8 with a 1 second exposure and ISO200.

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*

On the Sunday night after the InOMN I wanted to spend some time with Mars and do a series of images to show the rotation of the planet. I was at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn and the sky was very clear.
 
I waited until Mars was quite up in the sky so the air was not so turbulent and proceeded to take my AVI movies, over a period of three hours.
 
I just loved the way so much detail was on display with this little ZWO planetary camera…is just so amazing!
 
Clearly on show right across the planet, in the dark area that is shaped like a large caterpillar, were Sinus Gomer, Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenum, it’s just so exciting to see so much detail on the surface of the planet. (I have marked more features on the image for you to see)
 
Opposition of Mars will be on the 14th October 2020 and I cannot wait to see what will be on show on the surface, the planet will also be at its largest so it will be very bright…he’s hoping the dust storms stay away until then :-)
 
Images taken with a Meade LX200 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO 120 MC-S camera with 3x Barlow lens attached, AVI movies were captured with between 2500 & 3000 frames then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS CS4