Astronomy & Space by Noeleen Lowndes
~ For all current observations of the night sky please go to my Astro Blog ~
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog
~ Science Week 13th – 21st August 2022 ~
Runaway Bay Library Thursday 18th August 2022 from 1.00 – 2.00pm
Starry Starry Night - How to learn the night sky.
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes from the Southern Astronomical Society
(Please click on poster to find more information)
~ Young 3-day-old Moon showing the lunar phenomenon ‘Earthshine’ on its surface ~
~ Wow! An enormous Prominence on South Western limb of the Sun ~
~ Waning crescent Moon & Venus in volcanic coloured predawn sky ~
What was it like at dawn this morning…just breathtaking!
~ Stunning coloured twilight skies seen before Dawn & after Sunset ~
On the Gold Coast in QLD, Australia in the Southern Hemisphere
Australia and most of the Southern hemisphere have been experiencing amazing displays in the sky before sunrise and after sunset, where the sunlight is being scattered by volcanic aerosol high up in our atmosphere.
In January this year an underwater volcano in Tonga erupted called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai with the explosive power of nothing like we’ve seen since Mt Pinatubo erupted in 1991. This explosive event reached up high into the mesosphere of our Earth’s atmosphere and for 6 months now its been spreading out through the stratosphere.
At first we were only seeing these incredibly coloured skies once or twice a week, but now we are viewing them nearly every night. To add to the beauty of this event we now have a rare planetary alignment on show before dawn every morning, which makes for some breathtaking displays to view and to photograph.
Please go to my Astro Blog, Where you’ll see many images that I’ve taken since March 2022, that’s when our skies finally cleared here in Queensland after months of cloudy wet weather. http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog
If you would like to take some images for yourself, all the information on how I took the images are with the photographs, the best time is 45 minutes before dawn and up to 45 minutes after sunset…. good luck and enjoy this stunning atmospheric event :-)
The link to the NASA website explaining the Hunga-Tonga eruption is at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/sun/nasa-mission-finds-tonga-volcanic-eruption-effects-reached-space
YouTube Channel - Geology Hub - has just posted another excellent video with scientific information about this very explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano; please see the latest YouTube video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4B8HIdyW1E
In January this year an underwater volcano in Tonga erupted called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai with the explosive power of nothing like we’ve seen since Mt Pinatubo erupted in 1991. This explosive event reached up high into the mesosphere of our Earth’s atmosphere and for 6 months now its been spreading out through the stratosphere.
At first we were only seeing these incredibly coloured skies once or twice a week, but now we are viewing them nearly every night. To add to the beauty of this event we now have a rare planetary alignment on show before dawn every morning, which makes for some breathtaking displays to view and to photograph.
Please go to my Astro Blog, Where you’ll see many images that I’ve taken since March 2022, that’s when our skies finally cleared here in Queensland after months of cloudy wet weather. http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog
If you would like to take some images for yourself, all the information on how I took the images are with the photographs, the best time is 45 minutes before dawn and up to 45 minutes after sunset…. good luck and enjoy this stunning atmospheric event :-)
The link to the NASA website explaining the Hunga-Tonga eruption is at:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/sun/nasa-mission-finds-tonga-volcanic-eruption-effects-reached-space
YouTube Channel - Geology Hub - has just posted another excellent video with scientific information about this very explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano; please see the latest YouTube video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4B8HIdyW1E