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/

I had a lot of fun with the children who came along for the two astronomy and space sessions for Easter at the shopping centre. We put up lots of space posters to make the community room all spacey and had lots of hands on space items for the kids to touch and look at :-)
 
The children enjoyed learning about our amazing Solar System and hearing all about the different spacecrafts out there exploring the planets, my mother Pam came along to help me…thank you Mum Xxx
 
Runaway Bay Centre Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/runawaybaycentre
​

Have you ever wanted to know all about this amazing Universe that you live in?
Then come along to Runaway Bay Shopping Centre during the Easter holidays for some fun Astronomy and Space talks and activities.
 
We will learn all about the stars, planets and our beautiful Moon, and other mysteries things like black holes, galaxies and are there really aliens out there in space!
 
Learn all about the different spacecraft exploring the other planet in our solar system and how one day we may be on a journey to Mars…its all so amazing.
 
When: Wednesday the 10th April, 2pm - 3pm.
When: Monday the 15th April, 2pm - 3pm.
Ages: 6 – 12years.
 
Bookings essential.
​Book at the Customer Service Desk outside Big W.
 
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes the co-ordinator of the Stardust Junior Astronomy Club at the Runaway Bay Library and member from the Southern Astronomical Society on the Gold Coast.

Omega Centauri is a stunning globular star cluster made up of millions of stars, it’s approximately 16,000 light-years away from us and an amazing 150 light-years in diameter, it’s the largest globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy and it’s on show now for you to enjoy high up in the southern sky.
​It’s one of my favourites objects to observe at this time of the year :-)
 
This image was taken at my Stardust Observatory at Leyburn in April 2019 with a Meade 80mm refractor telescope and a Canon 70D camera. 15 images with exposures of 90 second and ISO 800, plus 5 dark frames were stacked in DSS, and processed in PS CS4. 

The Stardust Junior Astronomy Club has just celebrated its 8th birthday on the 4th April 2019 at the Runaway Bay Library and all the children had a wonderful day.  
 
They learnt all about why stars have different colours, then we played pass the parcel and enjoyed some yummy space food that included a ‘Star Cake’ that I made…we all had a great Starlight Party :-)

Here in the southern hemisphere we know that winter is on its way when we see the Southern Cross (Crux) and other celestial wonders riding high up in the southern sky at midnight.
 
I have an observatory at a place in western Queensland where we have extremely dark skies and I'm able to capture the beauty of our night sky with just a camera and wide field lens on top of a tracking telescope.
 
This image shows the pointers to the cross known as Alpha and Beta Centauri, then the Southern Cross (Crux) in its entirety and then the pretty pink nebulous stellar area around the star called Eta Carinae known as the Eta Carina Nebula.
 
This star is in the end throes of its stellar life and it’s pumping out astronomical amounts of gas (excuse the pun J) as it fights its gravitational battle, many astronomers worldwide are keeping a close eye on this star as its one that will eventually go Supernova!
 
At the bottom of the image is an unusual dark streak known as the Doodad nebula, I was very happy to have captured this funny named object too :-)
 
This image was taken at my Stardust Observatory on the 10th March 2019 with a Canon 70D camera and a 18-400mm Tamron lens set at 23mm and F4.5 (the image is slightly cropped).
​
​There were 12 x 3 minutes images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and ISO1600. The camera was being tracked on top of a larger telescope set up in the observatory.

I used my Meade LX200 10inch to track the camera piggybacked on top of the telescope which was at a very difficult angle (upside down) so it was a bit of back breaking work to focus the camera.
But it was worth it as I got the pictures :-)