This was the stunning view late this afternoon which marked this special day for the  ‘Vernal Equinox’ here in the southern hemisphere, the whole western sky had these spectacular crepuscular rays right up to the zenith…absolutely beautiful :-)
 
Image taken at 5.17pm on the 23rd September 2019 with a Canon Gx7 Mark11 camera set on manual at focal length of 11mm, ISO 125 and exposure was 1/1250th second.

This very pretty planetary nebula is quite large and bright and can easily be found among the stars in the northern sky in Vulpecula.  
 
About 4,000 years ago an elderly, bloated giant red star, gave its last gasp and shed off its outer skin exposing its still pulsating heart. What’s left now is an extremely hot white dwarf star that’s exciting the bubble of ionized gas that still surrounds it.
 
This was the first planetary nebula ever discovered by Charles Messier in 1764 while he was comet hunting in the night sky. Please see more details on (M27) on the SEDS website at:
http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m027.html
 
Image taken at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn on the 1st September 2019, with a Meade 80mm refractor and a Canon 70D camera, which was tracking on the larger 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. There were 15x3 minute images with 10x3 minute darks stacked in DSS and processed in CS4, ISO 2000 and image is cropped.

At this time of year here in the southern hemisphere, the Milky Way straddles each side of the zenith and over the night arc’s down into the western sky, so there is plenty of time to capture lots of deep sky objects in this area around the heart of our Milky Way galaxy.
 
So over the next couple of months on the dark new Moon weekend I’ll try and image as many of these beautiful deep sky objects as I can and share them with you from my Stardust observatory at Leyburn in Australia.
 
~ The Eagle Nebula M16 in Serpens ~
 
The Eagle nebula is a diffuse emission nebula and star cluster in the constellation of Serpens (Cauda), it’s a region of star formation with glowing hydrogen gas due to the excitation from ultraviolet radiation emitted by hot young stars embedded in the nebula. The star cluster associated with the nebula is called (NGC 6611).
 
There are two shapes you can see in this nebula, one is the overall shape that does look like an eagle with its spreading wings but the other shape is in the heart of the nebula where the Star Queen gets it’s name and where the Hubble Space telescope imaged the astounding ‘Pillars of Creation’ area in 1995.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation
 
It’s estimated that the distance to M16 is about 6000 light years and its diameter is 35 light years, the estimated age is 2-6 million years old.
 
The other two open star clusters close to M16 (in the top right) is called Trumpler 32 and the denser star cluster (in the bottom right corner) is called NGC 6605.
 
I took this image with a Meade 80mm refractor telescope and a Canon 70D camera that was being tracked on top of a larger Meade LX200 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in my observatory.
I managed to capture only 7x3 minute images before the clouds came rolling in, I’ll try and capture this object again next month to obtain a lot more data and a smoother in-depth picture.
 
For more information about this wonderful area of sky please go to the links below:
NASA’s Hubble Messier Catalog at:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog
 
Wikipedia Messier Objects:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_object
Eagle Nebula (M16)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Nebula
 
SEDS  (The Messier Catalog)
http://www.messier.seds.org
http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m016.html
http://www.messier.seds.org/CONindex2.html
 
Constellation Maps to help you at IAU (International Astronomical Society)
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations

NASA News 18th September 2019

It's the final boarding call for you to stow your name on NASA's Mars 2020 rover before it launches to the Red Planet. The Sept. 30 deadline for NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign gives the mission enough time to stencil the submitted names - over 9.4 million so far - on a chip that will be affixed to the Mars 2020 rover.
This rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020 and expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021.

The Mars 2020 rover represents the initial leg of humanity's first planned round trip to another planet.
With this robotic scientist weighing 2,300 pounds (1,040 kilograms), the Mars 2020 mission will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

"As we get ready to launch this historic Mars mission, we want everyone to share in this journey of exploration," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "It's an exciting time for NASA as we embark on this voyage to answer profound questions about our neighboring planet, and even the origins of life itself."

The opportunity to send your name to Mars, which opened on May 21, 2019, comes with a souvenir boarding pass and "frequent flyer" points. This is part of a public engagement campaign to highlight missions involved with NASA's journey from the Moon to Mars. Miles (or kilometers) are awarded for each "flight," with corresponding digital mission patches available for download.

​ More than 2 million names flew on NASA's InSight mission to Mars, giving each "flyer" about 300 million frequent flyer miles (nearly 500 million frequent flyer kilometers).
You can add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:
https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass

I was asked by the team leader Casssie to come and visit the girls and give them an astronomy and space evening so they could obtain there astronomy patch on behalf our astronomy society (Southern Astronomy Society).
http://sas.org.au
 
When I arrived the girls were busy making models of the Apollo 13 spacecraft that had an explosion on its way to the Moon, there were all sorts of bits and pieces as they taped the lunar module and lunar lander together so the astronauts could safely arrive back home. This activity was in connection with NASA’s 50th Anniversary of the landing on the Moon.
 
After setting up my telescope, all the girls came outside and I gave them a star tour around the night sky, we were lucky enough to still see the Southern Cross going down in the west with alpha and beta Centauri following.
 
Then I showed them the stunning constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion) that was right above our heads at the zenith with Sagittarius close by. Both Jupiter and Saturn were on show and after that we all went and had a look at the Moon through the telescope…which is always very exciting with lots of Wow’s!
 
Everyone had a great night and all the girls and team leaders thanked me, I got a very special surprise and was given my own girl guides astronomy patch, thank you so much…its just lovely :-)

On a recent daytime visit to the Narrabri observatory in NSW I watched for quite some time as the array of radio telescopes repositioned themselves around the sky.
 
All of a sudden all five radio telescope slewed over to the north western sky. It was then that I saw that No5 radio telescope was pointed not far away from our own star the Sun and I got an idea for an image to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. If I could take an image to convey that connection between us here on Earth and another celestial body that would be very exciting.
 
I thought to myself, this is exactly what happened when the radio telescopes at the Honeysuckle Creek and the Parkes Radio Telescope tracking stations pointed there antennae at the daytime Moon and received the monumental television signals of Neil Armstrong taking his first footsteps on the
lunar surface on the afternoon of the 21st July 1969 (AEST).
 
How proud we all are that Australia played such a pivotal role in one of mankind’s greatest achievements, this is what I see in my image to remember how an incredible instrument made by humans can benefit mankind in a wondrous way.
 
Footnote: ~ David Malin Awards 2019 ~
​
There were so many awesome images submitted in this year’s David Malin Astrophotography Competition, but I did get a ‘Highly Commended’ for my image above in the themed ‘Memories of Apollo’ section :-)
https://www.facebook.com/CWASDMA/

Please go to the live broadcast that both NASA and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will be broadcasting from 5.30am on the 3rd July (Australian EST).
 
NASA has partnered with the Exploratorium in San Francisco to bring live views to people across the world of a total solar eclipse, occurring Tuesday, July 2, over South America.
 
The eclipse will only be visible directly to observers within the path of totality, which stretches across parts of Chile and Argentina.

Live webcasting for Total Solar Eclipse 2019 at La Silla
https://www.eso.org/public/
NASA Live:
https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

With the upcoming Total Eclipse of the Sun due in two days times in Chile I’ve turned my mind to our wonderful solar eclipse we had here in Queensland, Australia on the 14th November 2012.
 
We were at a place called Ellis Beach just north of Cairns in tropical Queensland and at that time of year its notorious for heavy rain, and so it was as day dawned that the eastern sky was leaden with clouds, but then a miracle happen and from our beach location we saw the incredible eclipse of the Sun.
 
I wish everyone who has ventured to Chile and other places under the shadow best of luck for the 2nd July, seeing this spectacle is one of the most amazing things you will ever experience in your life :-)

~ Wow…Stardust Kids loved learning all about Black Holes at the Stardust Junior Astronomy Club  ~
 
I don’t know what it is about black holes but children always love to learn all about Black Holes, they are mysterious and dangerous so I think that’s why they are so appealing. Mind you, after our exciting space session they know not to go too close to one them in their space rockets or they won’t be coming home for dinner!
 
All the children had a lot of fun and they did lots of wonderful drawings, please see some of them below :-)
 
Please find below some excellent NASA links to children’s teaching resources:
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

~ Black Hole Image Makes History ~
NASA News: APRIL 10, 2019
 
Scientists have obtained the first image of a black hole, using Event Horizon Telescope observations of the center of the galaxy M87. The image shows a bright ring formed as light bends in the intense gravity around a black hole that is 6.5 billion times more massive than the Sun.
 
To read all about this outstanding achievement please go to:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7372

Drawing from Sophia aged 5 from the Stardust Junior Astronomy Club; thank you it’s beautiful :-)

​
Mission Facts
Launch Window
July 17 - Aug. 5, 2020
Launch Location
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Landing
Feb. 18, 2021
Landing Site
Jezero Crater, Mars
Mission Duration
At least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days)

NASA's Mars 2020 Rover is heading to the Red Planet. 
Submit your name by Sept. 30, 2019, 11:59 p.m. ET, and fly along!
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/
https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/learn
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

NASA News: May 21, 2019
NASA Invites Public to Submit Names to Fly Aboard Next Mars Rover
 
All Aboard for Mars 2020: Members of the public who want to send their name to Mars on NASA's next rover mission to the Red Planet (Mars 2020) can get a souvenir boarding pass and their names stenciled on chips to be affixed to the rover.
Sign up at go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass. 
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
 
Although it will be years before the first humans set foot on Mars, NASA is giving the public an opportunity to send their names — stenciled on chips — to the Red Planet with NASA's Mars 2020 rover, which represents the initial leg of humanity’s first round trip to another planet. The rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020, with the spacecraft expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021.
 
To read more about this exciting new mission Mars please go to:
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8440/nasa-invites-public-to-submit-names-to-fly-aboard-next-mars-rover/