After taking those lovely pictures of Venus & Jupiter earlier in the western sky at sunset, I waited until it got darker to try and find and capture that elusive Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). 
 
This Comet has been putting on quite a show in the northern hemisphere as it headed toward the Sun, but now it’s heading back out of the Solar System and becoming fainter.
 
Observers here in the southern hemisphere are only just seeing it, but not at its best and where I am here at home with all this cloud and urban light, it’s impossible to even find with the naked eye in the northern sky.
 
So using the star chart App called Stellarium and aimed my camera and lens up near Mars in the constellation of Taurus, I took some long exposure images and got it in between the clouds!
 
It was ever so faint but you can see make it out above Mars; I’ve also captured the two star cluster in Taurus, Hyades and Pleiades. It’s not the best picture by a long shot… but at least I captured it :-)
 
Images taken with a Canon 70D camera and 18-400mm lens, the Comet images were between 6 and 10 second exposures with ISO1600 & 2500.

I travelled out to ‘My Stardust Observatory’ specifically to try and take some images of Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) in a dark sky and was rewarded with one clear night of observing.
 
The comet was easily seen and positioned near the bright star Dschubba in the head of the constellation of Scorpius and showed a lovely clear tail. The pretty greenish colour is due to emission of diatomic carbon gases and looked just stunning among the countless stars in this part of the starry sky.
 
I wanted to do a wide field image to capture the full beauty of this colourful area of nebulosity around the brilliant star Antares so I used a Canon 70-200mm F2.8 lens and Canon 6D Mark 2 camera that was piggybacked on top of my tracking Meade 10inch LX200 telescope.
 
The first image was a wide field taken at 135mm with 25x2 minute images stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4…. The second image was taken at 200mm with 5x4 minute images stacked in DSS and processed in PS CS4.
 
The Comet made its closest approach to Earth on the 14th July 2022 and from observations it seems to be still brightening. It will reach its closest point to the Sun at perihelion on December 19th 2022.
 
If you want to keep a live track of the comets journey through the stars please go to The Sky Live at: https://theskylive.com/where-is-c2017k2
 
Happy Comet Hunting, Noeleen :-)

Have you ever wanted to learn the night sky?
Join Noeleen from the Southern Astronomical Society to see how easy it is to find the constellations, planets and other beautiful celestial objects in the night sky, even from your own back garden.
 
Please scan the QR code on the poster below to book or go to GC Libraries What’s on at:
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D160827310

Noeleen Lowndes is the former president of the Southern Astronomical Society on the Gold Coast and is now a lifetime member. She has actively been involved with astronomy and space education for over 25 years and has supported Gold Coast Libraries with astronomy events since 2003.
 
Noeleen has been a member with NASA’s Saturn Observation Campaign (SOC) for the past 20 years where she educates the public on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn, then shows the real planet through her large telescope to everyone’s delight.

~ Gold Coast Libraries for 6 – 12 years old ~
 
~ Discover the planets in our Solar System ~
Southport Library  - Tuesday, 11th January 2022 at 2 - 3pm
Every planet in our Solar System is so incredibly different. How did NASA take all those amazing pictures of the planets and send them back to Earth for us to see? Come along to the library and lets discover how they did it!
 
~ Discover Our Amazing Moon ~
Burleigh Waters Library - Thursday, 13 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
The Moon is our closest neighbour in space, how old is it, what is it made of and how does it light up our night sky?
Come to the library and lets discover all these things and how mankind is going back to the Moon and building a Moon base…Wow!
 
~ Discover and explore the night sky ~
Helensvale Library - Tuesday, 18 January 2022, at 2 – 3pm
Have you ever wondered why the stars are different colours, or where you can find the constellations in the night sky? How do you use a telescope and what will you see with a pair of binoculars? Come along to the library and see how to discover so many amazing things in the night sky from your own back garden.
 
Bookings are essential at:
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/libraries/Whats-on
 
Presented by Noeleen Lowndes, Southern Astronomical Society Member (Gold Coast)
https://sas.org.au

​The sky cleared enough this evening to finally have a look at Comet Leonard…Yay!
 
We’ve had lots of cloudy weather here for many weeks with an active Cyclone still off our coastline called Cyclone Seth. The last time I saw the comet was on the 19th December when it was very small and faint.
​(Please see my previous post)
 
I had to take these pictures from home where there are a lot of urban lights, but it didn’t matter as I could just make out the comet in the western sky and capture it with my camera…. Wow, it’s got such a long tail :-D
 
First image was taken with a Canon 70D and a Canon 70-200mm lens @ 140mm, 25 x 4 second images captured with corresponding dark frames that were stacked in DSS with ISO3200.
 
The second image shows you how light the sky was and how low the comet is at 8.30pm, its just one image taken with the same lens set at 70mm, with a 10second exposure and ISO1600.

I really had everything against me in finding this comet, a very light twilight sky with lots of passing cloud, trees and hundreds of mosquitoes biting me!

Comet Leonard is very small and faint, I could not see it visually but picked it up with my camera…
​I’m so happy that I captured a picture :-)

First Image taken at 7.48pm with a Canon 70D camera and Canon 70-200mm lens @200mm, the exposure was 4 seconds and ISO500 set up on a camera tripod.

The second Image below was taken with same lens @70mm, ISO640 and 2 second exposure.

​To view other images being taken worldwide of the Comet Leonard please go to Spaceweather.com at: https://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=leonard

We were on a trip to Tweed Heads and visited the Tweed Regional Art Gallery at Murwillumbah in NSW and what a delight it was to come across some stunning night sky paintings in the ‘Void exhibition.
 
I’ve really enjoyed discovering all about the lives of these three incredible artists and the story about country related to their paintings. You never know where what you’ll discover when out and about in your travels and if you find your way to Murwillumbah in NSW please visit this awesome Art gallery…it’s also FREE admission :-)

Void
Friday 7 May 2021 to Sunday 4 July 2021
The Temporary Exhibitions Gallery
https://artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au
 
The void is a multifaceted concept, not simply of presence and absence, but a place that exists between distinct worldviews, is occupied by meaning and is imbued with personal, historical and ancestral significance. The artists presented in this exhibition do not simply define the void as denoting a lack, but rather they utilise form to represent the formless.

Void brings together contemporary Aboriginal artistic practice from across the country.
 
Curated by Emily McDaniel, the exhibition features existing works across the mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, video and photography by artists including Pepai Jangala Carroll, Jonathan Jones, Mabel Juli, John Mawurndjul AM, Hayley Millar-Baker, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Mr R Peters, Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Andy Snelgar, Dr. Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher AO, Freddie Timms, James Tylor, Jennifer Wurrkidj and Josephine Wurrkidj.

An exhibition curated by Emily McDaniel, in conjunction with UTS Gallery and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, presented nationally by Museums & Galleries of NSW. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program, and through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

If you would like to know more about these incredible artists then please go to the links below:
​
Mr R Peters Artist
https://www.artbank.gov.au/news/artbank-loan-mr-r-peters-three-nyawana-yariny-country-2018
Mabel Juli Artist
https://nga.gov.au/knowmyname/artists.cfm?artistirn=26799
Freddie Timms Artist
https://www.cooeeart.com.au/artists/timmsfredd/#artist_profile

Comet Neowise was only discovered in March this year and has been putting on a spectacular show in the northern hemisphere.
 
We here in the southern hemisphere only had a brief chance for a few days to see the comet as it headed back out through the Solar System.
 
The only trouble was, the comet was very low in the western sky and could only be seen in twilight with moonlight from a nine-day-old Moon…so all in all, I’m amazed I even captured it near the cluster of stars (Mel 111) in Coma Berenices.
 
I’m so happy that people in the northern hemisphere were able to experience this wonderful comet, the last one we had here in Australia that put on an amazing show was Comet McNaught in 2007, which was just fantastic!!!
 
I wrote an Astroblog reminiscing it when Comet ISON was in our skies at:
http://www.mystardustobservatory.com/astro-blog/-comet-ison-in-2013-comet-mcnaught-in-2007
​
​

I got up at 4am to find Comet Swan, but I could not locate it in the low eastern sky as the sky was extremely light and the stars in area were so faint. In the end I just pointed the camera in the direction and hoped for the best.
(I did use my planetarium Stellerium App but I could still not visually see it).
 
The first shot I did with my camera settings were just completely blown out because of the light sky, in the end I could only take up to a 8 second shot it was then that I knew there was no way I was going to catch any of the faint wispy tail.
 
But I did capture the comet, just a telltale greenish starlike dot, but that starlike dot is the Comet, so mission accomplished :-)
 
While taking the image a bright satellite flared and I captured it in three images, which I stacked, I have since found out it was the ESA Envisat Satellite and it’s a large satellite that’s now inactive.
(It was once an Earth observation satellite)

You will see that Comet Swan was in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and I have marked the other faint constellations in the area. 
 
I also pointed the cameras right up above my head and took a couple of images of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars on the ecliptic, then turned the camera back around to take some awesome pictures of the dawn coloured sky.
Pictures will be in my following blog...
 
Information on the images: The wide field image of Comet Swan and Envisat Satellite was taken with a Canon 70D camera and a Tamron 18-400 lens @18mm, ISO 3200 and 8 second exposure. Three images were stacked in DSS to capture satellite path, the satellite flared brightly when I first saw it for one second.

Some information about the (ESA) Envisat Satellite 
​(European Space Agency) http://www.esa.int

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Envisat

http://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Envisat/ESA_declares_end_of_mission_for_Envisat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envisat

The surface features of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) are coming into focus in these images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby on Jan. 1, 2019. These images, released Jan. 2, were taken a day earlier from a distance of 18,000 miles (28,000 kilometers) with a scale of 730 feet (140 meters) per pixels.

Ultima Thule spins like a propeller in space and looks like a bowling pin or peanut…how awesome is that!
 
News Release January 15, 2019
New Movie Shows Ultima Thule from an Approaching New Horizons
NASA Spacecraft Begins Returning New Images, Other Data from Historic New Year's Flyby
Please go to the link below to see the movie and other information on the mission.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190115
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/index.php
https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons
​

This diagram suggests how the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule, could have formed.