3D Jupiter - look into the centre between the two Jupiter images and gently cross your eyes
Jupiter should go 3D : - )

I’ve made up a picture with two images of Jupiter taken just 5 minutes apart…. If you look into the image and cross your eyes, Jupiter will pop out and go 3D…. I hope you can to see it :-D
 
My images were taken at My Stardust Observatory with a Meade LX200 GPS 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI 120MC camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached.

AVI videos were captured and stacked in RegiSta6 and processed in PS CS4.

~ ‘Starry Starry Night’ How to learn the night sky ~
18th August 2022 at 1pm
 
This is the first adult presentation that I’ve been able to do since Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and it was for Science Week 2022.
 
It was so lovely to spend time again with many very interested members of the public to show them how to learn the night sky from there own back garden.
 
I also touched on how they could also begin to take some photographs of the night sky and other helpful information to start their journey of discovery into our starry starry night J
 
Another resource is the Astrolink page on my website will help greatly in finding Star Charts at: http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-links.html
 
*** Happy Stargazing *** Noeleen :-D

I took some images of Jupiter and Saturn here at home but the seeing was not as good as I thought it would be, but still happy I managed to capture some images before the cloud came rolling in :-)
 
Images taken with a Meade LX200 GPS 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI 120MC camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached, AVI videos were captured then stacked in RegiSta6 and processed in PS CS4.

​The full Moon looked stunning rising this evening just after sunset with a soft golden glow here on the Gold Coast.
 
The full Moon in September is know in the old farmers almanac as a Harvest Moon as this month coincided with the annual crop harvest in the Northern Hemisphere.
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens set at 200mm on a tripod, the exposure time was 1/50th second and ISO200.
 

I travelled out to ‘My Stardust Observatory’ specifically to try and take some images of Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) in a dark sky and was rewarded with one clear night of observing.
 
The comet was easily seen and positioned near the bright star Dschubba in the head of the constellation of Scorpius and showed a lovely clear tail. The pretty greenish colour is due to emission of diatomic carbon gases and looked just stunning among the countless stars in this part of the starry sky.
 
I wanted to do a wide field image to capture the full beauty of this colourful area of nebulosity around the brilliant star Antares so I used a Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens and Canon 6D Mark 2 camera that was piggybacked on top of my tracking Meade 10inch LX200 telescope.
 
The first image was a wide field taken at 135mm with 25x2 minute images stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4…. The second image was taken at 200mm with 5x4 minute images stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.
 
The Comet made its closest approach to Earth on the 14th July 2022 and from observations it seems to be still brightening. It will reach its closest point to the Sun at perihelion on December 19th 2022.
 
If you want to keep a live track of the comets journey through the stars please go to The Sky Live at: https://theskylive.com/where-is-c2017k2
 
Happy Comet Hunting, Noeleen :-)

Now is the perfect time to look at and also capture pictures of Jupiter, the planet is so bright rising in the eastern sky an hour after sunset that cannot miss it!
 
Jupiter is at opposition on the 26th September, that means that the planet will rise at the same time as the sun sets and will be in the sky for the whole night, it will also be at best viewing as its at its closest to our Earth.
 
When observing and taking images of the planets the sky conditions have to be so steady, if there is any moisture or jet streams in the air it’s very difficult to obtain good videos for stacking.
 
Sometimes you have to be very patience and just keep watching your computer or camera screen and wait for that few minutes when the seeing goes calm. Or another trick is to wait until the planet is half or three quarters way up the sky or near the zenith where the seeing is usually a bit better.
 
This is my first image of Jupiter for 2022 and I’m quite happy with the result, even though there was a lot of moisture in the sky.
 
My images were taken at ‘My Stardust Observatory’ with a Meade 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI 120MC –S planetary CMOS camera.
​AVI videos were captured and stacked in RegiSta6 and processed in PS CS4.

The sky was not very steady when I took my first images of Saturn 2022, as there was a lot of moisture in the air.  But I still managed to capture a fair picture that shows the Cassini division ring and some detail on the surface.
 
Better nights will come soon I’m sure when this wet weather passes…. I hope!
 
My images were taken at My Stardust Observatory with a Meade 10inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a ZWO ASI 120MC –S planetary CMOS camera.
​AVI videos were captured and stacked in RegiSta6 and processed in PS CS4.

We finally have a lovely clear evening sky and the western sky is still ablaze with those stunning colours from those volcanic aerosols high up in the atmosphere from the Hunga-Tonga eruption.
 
About 30 minutes after sunset there is this very eerie bright yellow colour in the sky and then as that fades the sky goes a bright orange colour with a pretty pink and purple hue above. At about 45 minutes after sunset you get to see these gorgeous dark orange colours that are in my photographs, which are very beautiful.
 
Images taken at 6.25pm with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens, exposure time for first image was 8 seconds & ISO 200, second image was 10 seconds with ISO 400.
 
For the latest observations from NASA’s Earth Observatory please go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/tonga-eruption-blasted-unprecedented-amount-of-water-into-stratosphere
​

When the Moon was rising last night it looked ever so pretty with its golden colour and the bright planet Jupiter that was only 2 degrees away on the ecliptic.
 
The golden colour is caused by the Moons light having to travel longer through our Earths atmosphere because of aerosols in the sky; once it gets higher the Moon takes on its usually silvery light.
 
Image taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens @400mm exposure time was 1/30th second with ISO250 and aperture at F11.

Have you ever wanted to learn the night sky?
Join Noeleen from the Southern Astronomical Society to see how easy it is to find the constellations, planets and other beautiful celestial objects in the night sky, even from your own back garden.
 
Please scan the QR code on the poster below to book or go to GC Libraries What’s on at:
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D160827310

Noeleen Lowndes is the former president of the Southern Astronomical Society on the Gold Coast and is now a lifetime member. She has actively been involved with astronomy and space education for over 25 years and has supported Gold Coast Libraries with astronomy events since 2003.
 
Noeleen has been a member with NASA’s Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) for the past 20 years where she educates the public on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn, then shows the real planet through her large telescope to everyone’s delight.