​Wow! These three sunspots groups are looking very interesting indeed and growing bigger and bigger by the hour! I just managed to captured them late this afternoon before the clouds rolled in :-)
 
Twenty-five images were captured with Seestar S50 telescope using the attached solar filter, images stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

Oh my! What a beautiful sight it was to see the (Perigee) Super Moon rising in the evening sky.
 
At the moment there’s a lot of aerosols in our sky because of many bush fires and dust, which is why the full Moon low on the horizon looks this beautiful rustic red colour :-)

​A few hours later at 9 pm when the Moon was high up in the sky it was it’s normal colour.
 
I was quite surprised to see that the Seestar S50 telescope picked up the beautiful red colour of the Moon, 25 images were captured for both shots then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

We had a beautiful clear evening for NASA’s International Observe the Moon night (InOMN) event.

Our astronomy club the Southern Astronomical Society (SAS) here on the Gold Coast held a public field night but I was unable to attend. My husband and I enjoyed looking at the Moon together at home and I took some images with the little Seestar S50 telescope.
 
I hope everybody worldwide had an awesome night looking at our amazing Moon :-)
 
InOMN website at: https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/

If you observed the Moon or participated in an event download your own InOMN Participation Certificate at:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/participate/participation-certificate/
​

The Sun today with the large active sunspot AR 4232 on the surface of the Sun, images taken with the Seestar S50 telescope and the attached solar filter.

​Twenty images were captured, then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

The Southern Astronomical Society is proudly hosting the International Observe the Moon Night 
Saturday 4 October 2025 - 6-9 pm
Oxenford Pony Club
Charlies Crossing Rd N Charlies Crossing Park, Upper Coomera QLD 4209
https://www.sas.org.au

~ INTERNATIONAL OBSERVE THE MOON NIGHT (InOMN) 2025 ~

​International Observe the Moon Night is an annual worldwide public engagement program that encourages observation, appreciation, and understanding of our Moon and its connection to NASA planetary science and exploration.
 
Everyone on Earth is invited to join the celebration by hosting or attending an event.
For more information about International Observe the Moon Night and how to get involved, visit moon.nasa.gov/observe.

You can download a lunar map to find your way around the Moon at:
https://moon.nasa.gov/observe-the-moon-night/resources/moon-map/
 
I’ll be observing and taking pictures of our beautiful Moon from home this year, as I’m unable to be my fellow members at SAS, have fun everybody :-)

​I managed to quickly set up the little Seestar S50 telescope just outside our cabin in town and capture this stunning comet low in the western sky.

It was not ideal conditions because of all the lights from the local hotel that was across the road…but I took the chance and I caught myself a beautiful comet :-)

​ I love the pretty green colour of the coma and its long delicate flyaway tail that stretched right up the sky. Images taken with a Seestar S50 telescope four images were stacked in DSS and very lightly processed in PS, the pretty green colour in the image is natural.

There is an excellent article from the UNSW in Australia that explains why comets heads are green by chemist Professor Timothy Schmidt, the link is at: https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2021/12/comets--heads-can-be-green--but-never-their-tails--after-90-year
​

​I’m out at my observatory this new moon weekend specifically to capture Saturn at opposition; the sky is just so clear and magnificent. Saturn looks so beautiful up in the night sky in the faint constellation of Pisces (The Fishes).
 
These images of Saturn were taken at opposition on the 20th September 2025 with my 10-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain LX200 telescope using a ZWO ASI120 MC camera with a 3x Barlow lens attached. AVI video files were captured with 3000 frames then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.
 
You can see two of Saturn’s moon very clearly in the image, the largest moon Titan is above the thin ring and Rhea is at the tip below the ring.
 
There is an excellent App called Gas Giants that helps identify Saturn’s satellites (also Jupiter) in real time, the ZWO Seestar App also gives excellent information which I’ve include here in my blog on Saturn’s opposition.
 
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gas-giants/id397831483
 
I must say, I’m extremely happy with the detail in this image and the edge on rings in silhouette looks amazing  :-)

Tonight looked absolutely beautiful with the golden moonlight being reflected on the water as the Moon was rising, just 12 hours previously in the early morning there was a partial eclipse of the Moon.
 
I was unable to take any pictures of the eclipse, as the sky was cloudy, this lovely view makes up for it :-)
 
My image was taken with Canon 70D camera and a 28-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod; exposure time was 3 seconds, ISO200.

We had a lovely clear evening for moonrise, I took a lovely wide field image of the full Moon rising with the pretty pink and blue colours know as the Belt of Venus.
 
Once it got dark enough I took some more images with the Seestar S50 telescope, this full Moon in September is referred to as the ‘Corn Moon’ or sometimes if it’s close to the equinox date as the Harvest Moon.
 
Tonight’s full Moon will be a total eclipse of the Moon, but with my position here on the east coast of Australia we will only see a partial eclipse at 3.30am and finishing at 4.30am in the early morning of the 8th September 2025.
 
Footnote: I woke up to view the partial lunar eclipse, but only got a glimpse of it through heavy cloud, then it was gone completely, Oh well I tried :-)

Oh my, I just had to have this new science set by LEGO, I saw it in the morning on the Dreamworld LEGO website and by afternoon it was in my hot little hand :-)
 
There are so many cool pieces to this set, it’s a bit hard to know where to start but the overall theme of the open book is mankind’s ability to make sense of the world we live in and a couple of the people who were giants in that field.
 
The figures on Sir Isaac Newton (holding his apple) and Marie Curie (holding her discovery of the element Radium) are just superb. For just one LEGO themed set there really is a lot to take in here for anybody interesting in all the sciences. I don’t know much about the other figure, George Washington Carver but I’ll found out about him.
 
I’m sure many science teachers will love this set to display in there classrooms, along with science and space enthusiasts like myself.
 
In my own words looking at the themes it leads to biology with the little bee, space exploration with NASA’s space shuttle and Voyager spacecraft. It even has the golden plaque that’s attached to the Voyager about the people of the Earth that’s now heading toward interstellar space.
 
The Carbon atom leads to chemistry, and the DNA strand leads to the genetic code of all living things on Earth. I love the little blackboard that shows the golden ratio formula and other things like satellites, robotics, computers, as I said there’s a lot here to take in with this clever compact science set!
 
There are also two hidden panels in the book on either side, which shows the spectrum of the Sun and some moss code…Wow! The little Ford car is also just a delight showing us how far we’ve come in creating our road vehicles.
 
I’ll try and make this set up in the coming week and will post my building pictures for you to see how it comes together, Noeleen :-)

Product information from LEGO at:
https://www.lego.com/en-au/categories/adults-welcome/article/the-evolution-of-stem
 
Open a brick-built book on the evolution of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) with this LEGO® Ideas collectible display model for adults (21355).
 
An inspiring science gift for women, men and history-lovers, the set features a buildable base in the shape of an open book topped by mini builds that represent historic innovations. Build an early car and a home computer, the NASA Voyager Probe with the Golden Record on board for any extraterrestrial life form that may find it, and much more. Turn the dial to make a 3D replica of a carbon atom float upwards and a DNA strand rotate.
 
The set includes LEGO minifigures of 3 famous scientists: Marie Curie, the first person ever to win 2 Nobel prizes; Sir Isaac Newton, famous for his law of universal gravitation; and pioneering agricultural scientist George Washington Carver.

To see more of my Space LEGO go to:
https://www.mystardustobservatory.com/space-lego.html