The full Constellation of Leo (The Lion) in the Northern Sky with (M44) Beehive Star Cluster in Cancer and Coma Berenices Star Cluster. If you are in the northern hemisphere you will notice that we see Leo upside down…Hehe :-)
 
If you are in a very dark sky it’s quite amazing how much detail you can capture with just your DSLR camera and a wide field lens on a camera tripod.  Just open up the aperture as far as it will go and do about a 20 second exposure and up the ISO to about 2000 or more. (You will have to check the picture to make sure the stars are not trailing, if they are, then shorten the exposure time an up the ISO a little bit to capture the detail)
 
Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens, with an exposure of 20 seconds and ISO2500.

​I’m out at our dark sky site at Leyburn where my Stardust Observatory is located and while checking to see if the sky was clearing, I looked back toward our caravan and saw the whole constellation of Orion setting in the western sky…the car and caravan looked perfect to take a photo :-)
 
The purple hue in the background sky is from the volcanic aerosols still lingering in the atmosphere from the Hung Tonga volcanic eruption from last January.
 
I could see there were some rolling dark clouds coming in from the east so I quickly took some wide field pictures around the sky with just my camera on a tripod. It’s quite amazing how much detail you can get with just a 20 second exposure in a really dark sky with no tracking!
 
Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens, with an exposure of 20 seconds and ISO2500.

This was the beautiful view this evening at 6.20pm with the large open star cluster Hyades in Taurus going down in the pretty pink twilight sky in the west. I was hunting for planet Mercury that was near the Pleiades, but it was hidden further down on the horizon behind the treetops!

A little later at 6.35pm the Constellation of Orion was also following with still the pretty colours of purple and pink in the twilight sky. 

I have finally made it out to my Stardust Observatory for the May new Moon long weekend after many months of flooding rain here in Queensland.  I’ll post more images if I’m lucky enough to get a couple of clear nights of observing :-)
​
These two Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a 28-400mm lens on a camera tripod; the Hyades image was an exposure of 6 seconds and ISO640. The Orion image was an exposure time of 8 seconds and ISO2500; both are just a single image.

We’ve had some strange colourful sunsets in the western sky for the past couple of days here on the Gold Coast.  Then I realised from some postings on Spaceweather.com that it could be aerosols in the atmosphere from the volcanic plume left over from the Tonga-Hunga eruption.
 
Thank you Peter Lowenstein from Zimbabwe & Tara Williams from Pottsville NSW for highlighting this with your postings on Spaceweather.
https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=183195
​
https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=183147
 
I got really excited to see what I could capture but had to drive up to Mt Tamborine to get a good western horizon, so I grabbed my husband and said we were going on an adventure, told him to grab a beer and lets go…
 
After the Sun had set, we waited and watched the sky above where the Sun has set and you could definitely see the aerosols in the sky all along the horizon and up into the sky.

​As the time went by, you could then see crepuscular rays forming in this material. I was so pleased to have made the effort to drive up the mountain; it was well and truly worth it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm lens, my husband took the image of my taking photos with his iPhone :-)

Please go to NASA’s JPL Earth Science website to read more on this eruption at:
Tonga Eruption Sent Ripples Through Earth’s Ionosphere
Feb. 4, 2022
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tonga-eruption-sent-ripples-through-earths-ionosphere
 
When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, 2022, it unleashed a violent explosion with the equivalent force of 4 to 18 megatons of TNT, according to estimates from NASA geologist Jim Garvin.
 
This explosion produced an acoustic shockwave that was strong enough to perturb the ionosphere, the outer layer of the atmosphere that starts about 50 to 56 miles (80 to 90 kilometers) above Earth’s surface and contains electrons ionized by the Sun’s energy.
 
Further reading at:
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149367/dramatic-changes-at-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai 
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149474/tonga-volcano-plume-reached-the-mesosphere

​Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

​While visiting the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, I came across an awesome mineral exhibition on display on the Mezzanine Level at the museum and it’s FREE.
 
There are so many beautiful pieces to look at and you’ll be blown away by the beauty and colour of some of the specimens of our Earths minerals.
 
I think all of us astronomers just love our Earth’s rocks and minerals, and I’m always so excited when I come across beautiful display like these showcasing some of the Earths wonders.
 
This exhibition began in late January 2022 and will now be on permanent display until further notice, so if you are in Brisbane please visit the museum, which has free entry and enjoy the exhibition :-)
 
https://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions/Exhibitions/Permanent/Minerals+Inspirational+Treasures+from+the+Earth
​

​I nearly missed this exhibition because of all the COVID lockdowns but in the last few days of the exhibition on the 25th January, I grabbed my husband, got on the train and we were off to Brisbane to see the huge LEGO Space Shuttle and ISS.
 
There were lots of other amazing LEGO builds with the theme being ‘Wonders of the World’ but what I really went to see was an amazing build of NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantic that took an incredible 167,891 LEGO bricks and took 775 hours to build!

Here is a YouTube video of how the Space Shuttle was built:

I also got a big surprise to see the International Space Shuttle high about the entrance door to the exhibition.  I’ll include a couple of my favourites displays for you to see…just for fun :-)

~ Please click on images below to see the full images in the gallery ~

​https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2021/06/18/top-5-things-to-see-at-brickman-wonders-of-the-world-at-queensland-museum/
 
https://www.thebrickman.com/wonders/

I finally got a break this afternoon from the rainy, cloudy and windy weather to take some images of this huge sunspot group AR 2936. There is also quite a bit of activity on the eastern limb, so it looks like more exciting sunspots to come :-)

We are away at the moment at Lennox Heads in NSW and I don’t have a telescope with me so I’ve used my camera and lens setup to take a picture of the Sun. Most importantly, I have a glass solar filter fitted to the end of the lens for safe imaging of the solar surface!

DANGER…. Please do not look at the Sun without a solar filter!

Images taken on the 31st January 2022 with just a Canon 70D camera and a Canon 100-400mm lens with a 2x tele-converter attached, making a focal length of 1280mm.
Twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in Photoshop.

I was very welcomed at the Southport Library to give our first presentation on Uncover & Discover series to the children and their parents. It was a full session with Covid19 restriction for everybody’s safety.
 
Everyone was very excited to hear about all the different spacecraft exploring the solar system and mainly how they take all those amazing images of the planets. They were so amazed at the new Rover on Mars called Perseverance with its little companion helicopter called Ingenuity…Wow, how cool is that little helicopter!!!
https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/#Activities-For-Kids
 
I gave an in-depth talk about how the Cassini spacecraft travelled through the solar system to go into orbit about the stunning ringed planet Saturn. And explained how for nearly 15 years the spacecraft took incredible pictures of Saturn and its remarkable Moons, for us to marvel at!
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/
 
I had a lot of fun on the day and really enjoyed getting back to taking about all the awesome things happening with the exploration of our solar system, please see some pictures from the day below, Noeleen  :-)
 
 
Please note:  Unfortunately the other Astronomy & Space sessions had to be cancelled because of a resurgent of the new Omicron variant of Covid. Hopefully we’ll rescheduled the events at a later date, please keep safe and well until then, all the best...Noeleen

~ Gold Coast Libraries for 6 – 12 years old ~
 
~ Discover the planets in our Solar System ~
Southport Library  - Tuesday, 11th January 2022 at 2 - 3pm
Every planet in our Solar System is so incredibly different. How did NASA take all those amazing pictures of the planets and send them back to Earth for us to see? Come along to the library and lets discover how they did it!
 
~ Discover Our Amazing Moon ~
Burleigh Waters Library - Thursday, 13 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
The Moon is our closest neighbour in space, how old is it, what is it made of and how does it light up our night sky?
Come to the library and lets discover all these things and how mankind is going back to the Moon and building a Moon base…Wow!
 
~ Discover and explore the night sky ~
Helensvale Library - Tuesday, 18 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
Have you ever wondered why the stars are different colours, or where you can find the constellations in the night sky? How do you use a telescope and what will you see with a pair of binoculars? Come along to the library and see how to discover so many amazing things in the night sky from your own back garden.
 
Bookings are essential at:
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on
 
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes, Southern Astronomical Society Member (Gold Coast)
https://sas.org.au

I really had everything against me in finding this comet, a very light twilight sky with lots of passing cloud, trees and hundreds of mosquitoes biting me!

Comet Leonard is very small and faint, I could not see it visually but picked it up with my camera…
​I’m so happy that I captured a picture :-)

First Image taken at 7.48pm with a Canon 70D camera and Canon 70-200mm lens @200mm, the exposure was 4 seconds and ISO500 set up on a camera tripod.

The second Image below was taken with same lens @70mm, ISO640 and 2 second exposure.

​To view other images being taken worldwide of the Comet Leonard please go to Spaceweather.com at: https://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=leonard