All Categories - My Stardust Observatory

~ Mineral waxing gibbous (11 day old) Moon on 12th December 2024 ~

12/13/2024

We are heading towards the last full Moon of 2024 with this 11-day-old waxing gibbous Moon riding high in the northern sky here in Australia.

With just an adjustment in Hue/Saturation you can bring out the colours to show the different minerals on the lunar surface. Images were taken with a Seestar telescope, 25 images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.

I’m really quite impressed with the detail on the lunar surface with this little smart Seestar S50 telescope, it’s so easy to set up, it’s an absolute joy to use :-D

~ The normal coloured Moon ~

~ Sunspots AR 3917 & AR 3920 on surface of Sun 12th December 2024 ~

12/12/2024

Sunspot groups AR 3917 & AR 3920 are now growing larger on the surface of the Sun, my images were taken with a Seestar telescope with the attached solar filter. Twenty images were stacked in Registax6 and processed in PS.

My image was displayed as the daily Sunspot image on Spaceweather.com on the 12th December 2024 Yay! :-D
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=12&month=12&year=2024

For all current Space weather please go to Spaceweather.com at:
https://www.spaceweather.com

~ Sprinkling of sunspots on surface of Sun 8th December 2024 ~

12/8/2024

We are in the middle of a heatwave today with the temperature at 35 degrees C…it’s so so hot for taking pictures of the Sun…. but I did it :-D

The sunspots closest to the western limb are AR 3910 & AR 3912, toward the middle are AR 3917 & AR 3916.

Images were taken with a Seestar telescope with attached solar filter; twenty images were stacked in RegiStax6 and processed n PS.

We are not getting the daily sun images on Spaceweather.com because there has been a flood at the Stanford University that gets the data from the SDO data servers.

Here is a note from Spaceweather.com on the 8th December 2024;
They are now using our images for the daily Sunspot posts:

Note: A flood at Stanford University has damaged a number of important SDO data servers. Repairs may not be completed until 2025. As a result, Daily Sun images will be coming from readers of Spaceweather.com for the foreseeable future. Thank you, citizen scientists!

IMPULSIVE X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Sunspot 3912 erupted today (Dec. 8 @ 0906 UT), producing an X2-class solar flare and a shortwave radio blackout over southern Africa. The impulsive flare is the latest in a series of increasingly intense explosions this weekend:

https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=12&year=2024

~ Jupiter in constellation of Taurus with Orion on 7th December 2024 ~

12/7/2024

We had a lovely clear evening here on the Gold Coast last night and just before I went to bed I peeked outside and saw brilliant Jupiter among the stars of Taurus (The Bull) with Orion riding above…. it looked just so lovely!

My picture may seem strange for people who live in the northern hemisphere because here in the land down under (Australia) we see these constellations rising and travelling across the sky upside down! Not only that, everything that rises in the east heads over to the northern sky…not the southern sky like it does for you :-D

Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens, 10-second exposure with ISO1000 at 10.30pm on the 7th December 2024.

~ Sunspots AR3905 & AR3906 getting larger on surface of Sun ~

11/27/2024

We had cloud all day again, but I managed to capture these two large sunspot groups through a thin veil of cirrus cloud, they have now rotated nearly to the centre of the solar surface.

Images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter, 20 images stacked in RegiStax 6, processed in PS.

Big Sunspots AR 3905 & AR 3906…Woohoo!

11/24/2024

~ Large sunspots AR 3905 & AR 3906 on eastern limb of the Sun 24th November 2024 ~

Here we go again Woohoo! Large sunspots AR 3905 & AR 3906 on the eastern limb of the Sun, it’s all happening again for Solar Max :-)

I managed to capture these images very late yesterday afternoon between the clouds…. Images were taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter and processed in RegiStax6 and PS.

Early morning Rainbow after thunderstorm (6.40am) 23rd November 2024

11/23/2024

I just love it when we have an early morning thunderstorm, I raced outside with my camera when the Sun peeked out in the eastern sky to see what was happening in the west, and there it was!
A beautiful rainbow to light up my day :-)

Image was taken with a Canon 70D camera and Tamron 18-400mm lens with settings at 1/350th second and ISO200.

~ Incredible Mammatus Clouds before a severe thunderstorm ~

11/5/2024

~ Incredible looking storm clouds (Mammatus Clouds) ~

Oh Wow, this is what the sky looked like before the thunderstorm hit, how incredible are these clouds they looks so ferocious!!!

Mammatus clouds get their name from the cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of the cloud and are usually associated with severe thunderstorms.

We have been having thunderstorms nearly every afternoon at the moment but its been a long time since I’ve seen these amazing clouds…this time we didn’t get hail thank goodness, just a lot of heavy rain, thunder and lightning.

Images were just taken with my iPhone as the storm was approaching very quickly and I worry about getting hit with lightning!!!!

Some more information on these Mammatus Clouds at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammatus_cloud

https://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2020/mammatus-cloud-show-captured-by-lucky-scientists/

For an excellent High Resolution cloud chart please go to NOAA site at:
https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/clouds/nws-cloud-chart

~ Large active sunspots AR3879 & AR3878 on Sun 1st November 2024 ~

11/1/2024

These two large sunspots on the eastern side of the Sun are very large and active, AR 3878 has produced another X-class solar flare :-o its second in the last two days as reported on Spaceweather.com on the 1st November 2024.

Images taken with a Seestar telescope with the attached solar filter, 20 images captured then stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS. I used the 1x, 2x and then 4x feature within the telescope; it is an amazing little instrument for solar observing.

https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=01&month=11&year=2024

ANOTHER X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE, BUT NO CME: Active sunspot AR3878 erupted again on Oct. 31st (2120 UTC), producing an X2-class solar flare. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a spray of hot plasma emerging from the blast site:

Photo Credit: SDO https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

~ Large active sunspots on the surface of Sun 29th October 2024 ~

10/29/2024

Wow, there is another large active sunspot emerging on the eastern limb of the Sun (just designated AR 3879). I only just managed to capture these two images late yesterday afternoon in between banks of rolling clouds.

Images taken with a Seestar S50 telescope with attached solar filter, 20 images captured for each set, stacked in RegiStax6 and processed in PS.