The northern end of the Gold Coast was hit with a savage storm late on Christmas Day with winds over 100 km, this dreadful storm ripped up huge trees, tore down power lines and did so much damage to property in our neighbourhood.
 
The next day on boxing Day, another storm was brewing but this time it was much more sedate and other than a lot of this beautiful spider lightning, thunder and heavy rain no damage was done…thank goodness!
 
I was able to get this short video of some beautiful spider lightning captured with just my iPhone…. it’s very detailed and shows the beauty and power of nature in all its glory :-)

Video taken with my iPhone Credit: Noeleen Lowndes

We have had so much bad weather here this summer and for just a couple of hours there was a break in the clouds so I could capture some images of Jupiter.
 
For the first part of the evening I used my little ZWO ASI 120 mc planetary camera to take some pictures of Jupiter’s GRS, then changed over to use the new planetary camera that I brought in September to see how they compare,
it's a ZWO ASI 662.
 
By the time I changed over to the new camera the GRS has rotated to the western limb and went out of view, but that is fine I still got to see the difference in both the cameras…hopefully if the weather clears I can use the new camera to capture the GRS.
 
Using the new camera was the same as the other one except it captures the frames at a lot higher rate, which is excellent because it means the capture time will be shorter. This will help with detail because Jupiter rotates very fast on its axis so the quicker the frame rate, the better the detail.
 
I did have a memory problem with the computer as the new cameras files are a lot larger instead of 3gb for 3000 frames they are now 5.5gb for 3000 frames.
 
I did have another problem also when it came to processing these new files in the ZWO ASI 662 camera, but I will explain that later as it took a lot of working out to do!

It’s been so cloudy here today but for a very brief period between 4.30 and 5pm late this afternoon a break in the cloud happened and I was there waiting to take some images of that very long filament on the suns surface!

Wow, it’s even longer than when I took pictures of it on the 18th December at:    https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=202526
 
My images taken with a 60mm Lunt solar telescope and Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were captured one set for the solar surface and one set for the faint prominences, then images stacked in RegiStax6 and combined in PS.

There was a very long and dark filament on the surface of the Sun late this afternoon it looked just awesome in the (Ha) solar telescope :-))
 
Image was taken with 60mm Lunt solar telescope and Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached.

​Two sets of images were captured one set for the solar surface and one set for the faint prominences, then images stacked in RegiStax6 and combined in PS.

~ Jupiter with shadow transit of Ganymede, Callisto, Europa & Io at 9pm on the 9th December 2023 ~
 
What a surprise to see the main moons of Jupiter spread out more or less around the planet usually they are seen nearly in straight line on either side.

There was an excellent shadow transit of Ganymede in progress on the lower limb :-))
 
There is an excellent App called Gas Giants that helps identify which moons are doing what near Jupiter, it also helps if you want to know when the GRS is on show.
 
My images were taken with a Meade 10inch LX200 telescope and ZWO ASI 120 mc planetary camera with 3x Barlow lens attached, AVI movies captured and processed in RegiStax6 and PS.
 
For more Information on Jupiter & Saturn in 2023 and beyond
​Please go to an excellent website at Cambridge University Press called:
‘Turn Left at Orion’
 
https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/pages/the_planets/jupiter_and_saturn_2023
https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/pages/the_planets/jupiter_and_saturn
https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/the_planets

​I took this image of the Sun at 9am this morning, there are quite a few small sunspots sprinkled across the solar surface with another new sunspot just appearing low on the eastern limb.
 
There were some cloud patches in the sky so its not as clear as it could be, also hopefully that new sunspot will be designated number AR 3515 :-)
 
Images taken with 80mm Skywatcher telescope fitted with a glass solar filter and Canon 700D camera with 2x Barlow lens, 20 images stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

Lift-off…active prominences on the limb, the cloud finally cleared late yesterday afternoon and to my delight there were quite a few active prominences around the limb. One in particular on the northern limb was like a rocket ejecting away into space…how exciting was that!!!
 
Image was taken with 60mm Lunt solar telescope and Canon 700D camera with a 2x Barlow lens attached. Two sets of images were captured one set for the solar surface and one set for the faint prominences, then images stacked in RegiStax6 and combined in PS.

~ Movie captured in movie mode on Canon 700D camera at 1/30th second exposure and ISO400 ~

We had such a fun day at our Stardust ‘Star Wars’ Christmas Party on Thursday the 7th December 2023 at the Runaway Bay Library …Yay!
 
This space session also coincided with our 10th birthday; I’ve had so much fun over the last 10 years bringing the beauty of the universe to this next generation of budding little astronomers :-)
 
Unfortunately this will be my last astronomy session with the children; I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my love of astronomy and space with the Stardust kids and introducing to our beautiful night sky.
 
The librarians at the Runaway Bay Library have supported me in this endeavour with a safe and happy place to present these sessions to the children and their family and for that, I am very grateful…thank you!
 
Please see a montage of images that I’ve made up from our ‘Star Wars Party’ and thank you for the lovely goodbye gifts from the ladies at the library.
 
Yes, I will come back every now and then to give the children an update of the new discoveries being made in our universe, so watch this space…
 
Happy Stargazing everyone, Noeleen Lowndes  :-D
~ May the heavenly force be with you ~

Thank you to the wonderful librarians from the Runaway Bay Library for the lovely goodbye gifts :-)

~ Time Is Running Out to send Your Name to NASA's Europa Clipper ~ 
The campaign closes at 11:59 p.m. EST, Dec. 31, 2023.
 
Time to hurry if you want to add your name to a microchip that will ride aboard the spacecraft as it explores Jupiter’s moon Europa.
https://europa.nasa.gov/message-in-a-bottle/sign-on/

Go behind the scenes in the Microdevices Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to see how your name could be sent to Jupiter’s moon Europa as part of NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign. Names will be stenciled in tiny letters on special microchips that will ride aboard the Europa Clipper spacecraft as it journeys 1.8 billion miles (2.6 billion kilometers) to the icy moon.
 
See how technicians will use an electron beam to stencil names onto microchips, where each line of text is smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. The microchips will be attached to a metal plate engraved with the original poem “In Praise of Mystery,” written by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón to celebrate the mission. That plate will then be attached to the exterior of the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
 
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission aims to determine whether Europa has conditions that could support life. Once spacecraft assembly has been completed at JPL, the orbiter will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for launch in October 2024.
 
You can add your name to the “Message in a Bottle” campaign through Dec. 31, 2023.
To sign, go to: https://go.nasa.gov/MessageInABottle
Find more information about Europa here: https://europa.nasa.gov/
​JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech