Blog Posts - My Stardust Observatory

NASA Mission Finds Tonga Volcanic Eruption Effects Reached Space

5/10/2022

NASA News 10th May 2022

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, 2022, it sent atmospheric shock waves, sonic booms, and tsunami waves around the world. Now, scientists are finding the volcano’s effects also reached space.

Analyzing data from NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, mission and ESA’s (the European Space Agency) Swarm satellites, scientists found that in the hours after the eruption, hurricane-speed winds and unusual electric currents formed in the ionosphere – Earth’s electrified upper atmospheric layer at the edge of space.

To read more of this amazing story and see the video’s please go to the NASA link at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/sun/nasa-mission-finds-tonga-volcanic-eruption-effects-reached-space

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption on Jan. 15, 2022, caused many effects, some illustrated here, that were felt around the world and even into space. Some of those effects, like extreme winds and unusual electric currents were picked up by NASA’s ICON mission and ESA’s (the European Space Agency) Swarm.
Image not to scale.

Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

Volcanic coloured Sky from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption

5/2/2022

Please click first image for slideshow on how the sky colour changed over just one hour

~ Constellation of Orion setting in the western sky embedded in those volcanic aerosols ~

It’s just after sunset on Monday the 2nd May 2022 and I can already see that the western sky has a lot of those volcanic aerosols on the horizon from the Hung-Tonga eruption. It always starts off like a white halo and then that soft yellow colour in the shape of an arch is seen across and up the horizon.

It’s quite amazing how many different colours are displayed as the suns light is refracted off the sunlit volcanic particles. I began my first image at 5.43pm and ended with Orion going down into a fiery red coloured horizon at 6.44 pm. I’ve made a slideshow for you to enjoy :-)

Over the past couple of months the colours have been anywhere from stunning purple and pinks to these lovely golden and red colours here tonight.

My images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a 28-400mm lens on a camera tripod.

The Northern Sky with Leo (The lion) with just a camera & lens on tripod!

5/1/2022

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.

~ Caravanning under the Constellation of Orion setting in Western Sky ~

5/1/2022

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.

~ Orion & Hyades star cluster in a pink twilight sky 30th April 2022 ~

4/30/2022

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.

Dawn conjunction with Planets & Waning Crescent Moon 28thApril 2022

4/28/2022

This was the wonderful view that I saw from my bedroom window at 4.30am this morning...Wow!

There was some cloud about, but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of bed to take some images :-)
Images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens on a tripod.

~ Dawn planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mars & Saturn with Waning Crescent Moon ~

~ The Sun with Active Sunspots and Prominences on 22nd April 2022 ~

4/22/2022

I was very surprised to capture so much detail on the solar surface because of all the cloud in the sky today.

There was a lot of activity around the biggest sunspot groups AR 2993 and AR 2994 and that prominence on the lower western limb was really firing away…but alas, the cloud then completely covered the whole sky and that was the end of that!

My images were taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached :-D

I’m now starting to also capture images in the monochrome settings within the camera, as I find with this setting there is more delicate detail in the prominences. I’m not very good yet at artificially colouring the Sun in Photoshop, so I’ll stick to my colour images for the time being.

~ Wow, Jupiter, Venus, Mars & Saturn in a dawn sky on the Gold Coast ~

4/20/2022

~ The planets Jupiter, Venus, Mars & Saturn in volcanic dawn sky 20th April 2022 ~

I only took these images a few hours ago and what an incredible dawn sky awaited me when I looked out my bedroom window at 5am…I could not get outside quite enough to capture the magnificent celestial spectacle before my eyes! The planets Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn were all displayed on the ecliptic in an incredible magenta coloured sky…

Because of the fine volcanic particles in our atmosphere here in the Southern Hemisphere from the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption we are experiencing some of the most stunning colours in our dawn and twilight skies…please enjoy my pictures :-)

My mages were taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400mm lens at 18mm at between 5.15 and 5.55am 20th April 2022…Oh what a wonderful sight!
* All my images are the real colours seen in the sky, with only minute processing *

~ Jupiter, Venus, Mars & Saturn in Gold Coast dawn sky 15th April 2022 ~

4/15/2022

This was the wonderful view in the eastern sky at 5am yesterday morning when I looked up and saw Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn all embedded in a soft purple and pink coloured sky… it was so beautiful :-)

The colour is still from the volcanic aerosols high up in the atmosphere from the Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption that took place in January…The evening before I also took some incredible sunset and twilight images that went through so many different hues of colour and ended with an unusual deep purple and bright pink magenta sky…I’ve never seen such vivid colours like this before, it was quite eerie!

The dawn image was taken with a Canon G7X Mark 11 camera on manual focus. A Canon 70D was used for the first sunset photo taken at 6pm, I used the Canon G7X Mark 11 again for the deep purple twilight image taken at 6.30pm hand held, so there’s a little movement in the picture….

~ Wow ~ Volcanic Sunset sky on the 14th April 2022 ~
( At 6.00pm )

~ Gorgeous Deep Purple and Pink twilight sky from volcanic aerosols ~
( At 6.30pm )

~ Long Filaments and Active Prominences on the Sun 10th April 2022 ~

4/10/2022

It was a challenge taking this image of the Sun late yesterday afternoon, as there was a lot of cloud in the sky.

I wanted to see if there was any activity around that active sunspot area AR 2983 as it neared the western limb and was rewarded with a very active prominence. There was also an active prominence firing away on the northern eastern limb that may be a potentially new active area about to come into view.

The two large filaments on the surface of the Sun look like they’re about to join together making an extremely long filament. Safe Solar Observing is getting very interesting now J

Image taken with a Lunt 60mm PT solar telescope and a Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were taken one for the solar disc and one for the prominences and combined in PS.