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Toowoomba Astronomy

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25.01.2022 The Dumbbell Nebula by Mike Geisel, 13 August.

24.01.2022 Geoff Partridge, 3 September: Last night using a f8.3 800mm lense. Still experimenting with the lens, a lot of shake from wind and camera shutter causing blur in the pics.

23.01.2022 Any advice on good landmarks to star gaze from in Toowoomba? Is Panoramic Park a good place to go?

23.01.2022 Mike Geisel, 18 August. Rho Ophiuchi area: DSLR widefield on the Sky Watcher AZ_EQ6 ... unguided just using the mount. 40 x 60 seconds using a Canon 5D Mk111. Canon L series 135mm at f2.8 and iso 2500.

22.01.2022 The globular cluster Omega Centauri, by Trevor McDougall.

22.01.2022 And here's the Helix Nebula and Dumbbell Nebula, this time from Trevor McDougall. (Telescope and camera: WO Zenithstar 103 APO. Canon 760D mod).

21.01.2022 Single 10 minute exposure with a Pentax K7. Kendric Rendle-Short.

20.01.2022 Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud by Mike Geisel. (Sky Watcher Esprit APO 150 EQ8 ZWO 1600 mm-c narrow band Hubble palette. Ha, S11 and O111 all subs 5 minutes).

20.01.2022 A great piece on astrophotography featuring work by Noeleen Lowndes, who does a lot of her photography in the dark skies south-west of Toowoomba. Dylan O'Donnell from Byron Bay is also featured, who has had past work presented on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

20.01.2022 Open star cluster M46 in Puppis. The small ring is planetary nebula NGC 2438, a shell of ionized gas ejected by the central star late in its life. NGC 2438 lies in front of the cluster and is not part of it. 2020-12-27 ED120/NEQ6 30 x 60" EOS 7D ISO1600... Moon illumination 93%. Tel Lekatsas, 29/12/20. See more

19.01.2022 The Small Magellanic Cloud by Mike Geisel.

19.01.2022 Wow, check Mike Geisel's Mars image out: "These are by far the best shots I have ever got of Mars. Sky Watcher Esprit APO 150, EQ8 mount ZWO 290 mc and 2.5 and 4x teleview powermates. Both 6 minutes each in Autostakkert at best 50%"

18.01.2022 Hi lovely folks! Myself + telescope will be visiting Toowoomba this week. I'm not very familiar with the area for stargazing - where in or around Toowoomba would folks recommend? Thank you in advance ^_^

17.01.2022 Mars! The 2020 Mars opposition is 7 weeks away, when Earth and Mars will be at their closest points to each other in their orbits. This means Mars will appear much larger and brighter in our sky, the best time for observing and photographing it. Image by Mike Geisel. (Equipment: ZWO 290 mc, Sky Watcher Esprit APO150 and 2.5 teleview powermate, 6 min, Autostakkert at 10%).

15.01.2022 An image of the Helix Nebula and explanation from Franco Rodrigo: The Helix nebula is a view into our sun's distant future. This is the final end point of medium sized stars like our own. When the star runs out of nuclear fuel, it becomes unstable and starts to puff off layers until a white dwarf star remains. Very hot, it give off UV radiation which we see here making the puffs of hydrogen red and oxygen blue (sulfur us depicted as green here). This is a narrowband image collected over many nights. The data here has been extensively tweaked here and is more 'purty pictures' than scientific accuracy, although there's a lot of photons collected, around 80 x 20 minute shots in all.

14.01.2022 The Milky Way by Trevor McDougall.

14.01.2022 Just the core of milky way with my dslr and tripod. No tracking.50mm lens f2 20sec at 3200iso. Lagoon nebular is bright. Can also see Trifid nebula, swan nebula and Eagle nebula right on the edge of frame. Couple clusters in there too. Trevor McDougall, 11 August.

13.01.2022 Some information from Tel Lekatsas: The Great Conjunction. December 21 2020. Jupiter and Saturn are racing towards each other in the Western sky just after sunset. On December 21 they will be a mere 6' (0.1 degree) apart. This is the closest they have been since 1623. It will be worth looking at the conjunction through binoculars or a telescope from around the 16th. Jupiter and Saturn will be 37' apart on the 16th. The moon is 30' wide. If you can see the entire disc of the ...moon in your scope then you'll be able to see both planets in the same field of view from about the 16th onwards. They will draw closer each day until the 21st. They will be low in the western sky around sunset. The best views will be around 7pm but you will need an unobstructed western horizon. While Great Conjunctions recur every 20 years, the 2040 and 2060 conjunctions aren't very well placed for observing. The next easily visible Great Conjunction will be in 2080. The finder chart for Toowoomba is below. The planets will be around 20 degrees above the Western horizon on December 21, in twilight. See more

10.01.2022 On tonight on ABC.

09.01.2022 Over the last few days, two of our members have captured Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) in the sky near galaxies. The first image by Tel Lekatsas has NGC4826 in the frame (also known as the 'Black Eye Galaxy' for good reason). The second by Trevor McDougall shows the comet near NGC4251. The comet was in reality nowhere near the galaxies since it is a solar system object, and the galaxies are millions of light years away from our own Milky Way galaxy.

09.01.2022 Very moonlit night last night but finally was able to get C34 The Veil Nebula. 15x120sec. WO Zenithstar 103 APO with flattener. Skywatcher EQ5. Trevor McDougall, 1 August.

08.01.2022 The Helix Nebulae by Mike Geisel, 13 August. (For those interested in the technical details of the equipment and software used to produce the image: Sky Watcher Esprit APO 150 EQ8 mount ZWO ASI 1600mm-c pro Ha, O111 and S11 Hubble palette. 6x 5min each channel. DSS Nebulosity 4 lightroom).

07.01.2022 M31 quite close to horizon having to shoot through a lot of light pollution in Toowoomba. Trevor McDougall, 18 October.

06.01.2022 From Cam Smith on 1 January 2020: "Carina Nebula NGC3372 First light for 2021. First attempt. Sharpstar 76 Canon 700D 30 X 1 min exposures 6 darks Optolong L Extreme filter. Bortle 4."

06.01.2022 Researchers from Cardiff University and MIT just published a paper in Nature in which they claim to have found phosphine, a possible biosignature, in the clouds... of Venus' atmosphere. Join David Grinspoon, astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute who serves on the SETI Institute's Science Advisory Board, and Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, in a discussion about the possibility of life on Venus. See more

05.01.2022 Veil Nebula C34, by Trevor McDougall.

04.01.2022 Ralf Stoeckeler, 13 January: "42 minutes on the Horsehead Nebula tonight before the clouds rolled in. Hyperstar on a C14 Edge HD. Looks like I captured a lens flare just above the horsehead. Needs a lot longer exposure to capture more detail."

03.01.2022 The Rosette Nebula. Not a huge amount of exposure time between cloud banks last night. 10x180sec 1600iso. Optolong L-enhance filter (first time) did a good job with a lot of moon glow and light polution. WO zenithstar 103 with eq5. Canon 760D mod. Trevor McDougall, 27 December.