Warrumbungle Observatory in Coonabarabran, New South Wales | Museum

Warrumbungle Observatory

Locality: Coonabarabran, New South Wales

Phone: +61 488 425 112

Address: 841 Timor Rd 2357 Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia

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23.01.2022 Photo taken here of the Swan Nebula 2 nights ago. A huge cloud of hydrogen gas glowing due the young hot stars within. It lies in Sagittarius 5000 light years away. Best viewed in the winter months with at least an 8 inch diameter telescope or larger with dark skies.

22.01.2022 Hi We have the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured at Dubbo Observatory on its fly by on Sept 22 2017 on 3 images a few minutes apart, 60 seconds duration. Launched ...12 months ago it has come back near the Earth to get a gravity assist and slingshot to meet the potential hazardous asteroid Bennu. There it will take a sample and return it to Earth. The 4th image was taken at our sister observatory at Coonabarabran (Warrumbungle Observatory) the following night showing it streaking across the sky. This is a 20 second exposure. Asteroids have pristine material from the formation of the solar system and this mission will further our understanding. Bennu also has a chance of hitting the Earth in the late 22nd century and so the information will give vital information on the asteroids makeup.

21.01.2022 Newly discovered UGWZ type variable star ASASSN-16js in superoutburst. Charts show how the variability has changed within 24 hours. These stars are amazing how the superhumps evolve during their rare outbursts. UGWZ types are a category of cataclysmic variables star, which is made up of in fact 2 stars in close orbit. One star is a white dwarf star (core of a dead star) called the primary with a very small main sequence star in orbit. called the secondary. Material from the... secondary star falls into an acretion disk around the primary which then can pile up on the surface of the primary. The acretion disk contributes most of the light we observe. This arises as gas spirals inwards losing potential energy and angular momentum. This energy is radiated as light we observe. During superoutbursts the acretion disk becomes tidally unstable due to the mass build up over time (30 or 40 years for UGWZ types). Superhumps are observed when the acretion disk beomes elllipsoidal when it grows in size and the disk precesses with the orbital period of the secondary star. Here the superhump period is 85 minutes. UGWZ types are highly evolved cataclysmic variables where the secondary star has lost most of its mass with little more to give. This results in a very slow build up of material onto the acretion disk hence these outbursts are rare.

20.01.2022 http://www.sydneyweekender.com.au/sw/hostings-coonabarabran If you did not see us on Channel 7s Sydney Weekender program, heres the link

20.01.2022 Online LIVE Stargazing shows every clear night from our observatories at Dubbo and Warrumbungle, Coonabarabran. Since you cannot come to us to experience our da...rk skies due to COVID 19, we will bring it to you and help you escape from your home isolation. Cost is $15 and join us via ZOOM from your computer. We will show you images of the sky with our cameras. Show you the planets, the Moon, galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and more for 60 - 90 mins through our telescopes live and explain the universe and night sky to you and answer all your questions. Email you a photo we take during the session as well, for example The Eta Carina Nebula below. More details and bookings http://www.dubboobservatory.com/night-sky-telescope-viewing

19.01.2022 Checkout this article which features Marco Lorenzis work whom owns a remote observatory here. http://www.slate.com//vela_supernova_new_huge_mosaic_of_an

19.01.2022 Photo of the Lunar Eclipse over Warrumbungle Observatory at Coonabarabran taken by our tour guide Sharik Burgess-Stride

18.01.2022 Watch Sydney Weekender on channel 7 or prime on Sunday 11th at 5:30pm. Astronomy in Coonabarabran is featured including Warrumbungle Observatory.

18.01.2022 Cool flyover of Pluto showing tall ice mountains. Click on animated fly over. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pa/newhorizons/main/index.html

18.01.2022 You better rug up for the star show tonight.

15.01.2022 We observed the Elon Musks Tesla Roadster cruising over both of our observatories at Coonabarabran and Dubbo last night. for those who can read Dutch, it made the news there. Couldnt make out the number plate though. Need a bigger telescope. https://www.scientias.nl/astronomen-zien-tesla-elon-musk-v/

15.01.2022 Quite a number of shooting stars high across the southern sky at Warrumbungle Observatory last night. This is probably start of the Delta aquarid meteor shower that comes by every year. This should be visible for the next 2 nights. So have a look from where ever you are, they are quite spectacular.

15.01.2022 Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter do a dance over the next week. Look low in the western sky from 6pm to 6:30pm and you will see three bright looking stars (really planets). Venus is the brightest and appears white, Jupiter the next brightest and white, and Mercury will be more orangish.... On the 27th and 28th Venus and Jupiter will be very close to each other. From now to the 15th of August they will be in a straight line, Venus lowest and brightest, Mercury above, then Jupiter above Mercury. They will form a triangle with Jupiter and Mercury at the same height above the horizon on the 22nd of August. On the 3rd of September a thin crescent Moon will between Jupiter and Venus with Jupiter at the bottom this time. Will be quite a show the next few weeks.

14.01.2022 30 minutes to go for the Pluto Flyby. Pity it takes another 5 hours for any information to get here thanks to the speed of light. You can see an hour long update on http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ Click on featured programming Also see live broadcasts from NASA TV http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#public

14.01.2022 Reminscing back to 2015 when the asteroids were made in China https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com//an-asteroid-that-wasnt-c

13.01.2022 Meteors from Halleys Comet May 7. The Eta Aquarids meteor shower will peak on May 7 after 3am but also visible a few days either side. A moonless night and dark skies should ensure a good viewing this year as it is best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere. ... The meteors are bits of dust and dusty debris left over from Halleys comets which passes by once every 76 years. Earth will pass throught the comets orbit where the trail of dust is left behind and we observe this as shooting stars as the dust enters the atmosphere and burns up on entry. For a good view, get up between 3am and dawn, look east, and best outside of the city light pollution. A small amount of light pollution can easily hinder your view.

12.01.2022 Perseid Meteor Shower If you cant sleep tonight or the next, step outside around 4am to 5am and look to the north if you have a dark sky and you may see a shooting star avery ten seconds or so. The further north you live the better view you have, so Darwin has it over those in Hobart. Be patient while your eyes adjust to the dark (10 minutes). Meteors are the size of tiny grains of sand. These particular ones originate from Comet Swift-Tuttle which leaves a track of these in ...its orbit about the Sun. Earth passes through it this time each year. The planet Jupiters gravity perturbs these particles into higher concentrations in particular areas. This time the Earth is going to pass through one of these clumpy areas of the comets orbit. When this occurs we see more shooting stars than normal and is called a meteor shower outburst. These grains of sand will be striking our atmosphere at 60 km/sec, faster than a speeding bullet. This creates friction and we see a streak of light as the grain burns up. They will appear to be coming from the constellation Perseus which is a northern constellation. Here we see part of it on the northern horizon with the brightest star Algol is visible. People in the Northern hemisphere will get the best view but we may be in for a show in the southern hemisphere too, but the further north you live the better. These meteor showers are quite unpredictable though so if you dont see them , they might be better the next.

11.01.2022 We will appear on Channel 7s Sydney Weekender Program on September 11. Mike Whitney and his film crew set up here on Tuesday evening to film our star gazing show.

11.01.2022 Lunar Eclipse times for Coonabarabran There will be a lunar eclipse in the early hours of July 28 before sunrise low in the western sky. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the shadow cast by the Earth. When the Moon is a total eclipse it appears a blood red colour which is caused by light from the Sun leaking through the Earths atmosphere which scatters blue light leaving the red portion of light projected on the Moon. The intensity of red varies depending on ...how dirty the atmosphere is at the time, for example if there has been significant volcanic eruptions. The last one was on January 31st this year and totality lasted an hour and 16 minutes. See picture. This one is longer at an hour and 34 minutes however Coonabarabran will only see part of it before it lost in the twilight and subsequent sunrise. You will need to have a clear view of the western horizon. The further west you live from Coonabarabran,the more you will see more of the eclipse. Eclipse times for Coonabarabran are as follows Penumbral eclipse starts at 3:17am Altitude 44 deg Umbral eclipse starts at 4:22am Altitude 31 deg Total eclipse starts at 5:33am Altitude 16 deg Twilight starts to interfere at 5:40am Eclipsed Moon starts to set in the west at 6:52am Sunrise starts at 6:48am Total Eclipse ends 7:14am Below horizon Make the most of this lunar eclipse as it will be the last until May 2021

09.01.2022 Latest Pluto images, first on with a white heart like feature, 2nd is an image taken on the 11th of July and the 3rd showing Pluto with its moon Charon. 2 days to go for fly by.

09.01.2022 Well did anyone see that in the sky an hour ago. A large white cloud spraying from apoint of light, drifting across the northern sky for a few minutes. My first thought was that someone has launched a rocket and must be high in the atmosphere from the look of the cloud. Picked it up in the telescope but could not grab a camera quick enough. Never seen anything like it before. Perhaps it could be the Indian rocket launch to the Moon

08.01.2022 Hope this will be ok , when we are all needing a little humour at this difficult time , but Space kind of related,,,

07.01.2022 The video shows the motion of Comet C/2014 Q1 Panstarrs over 30 minutes last night (10 Aug 2015) low in the west. It is 200 million km distant. Notice the 2 tails. The main tail is caused by the solar wind and not from the comets motion. The comet is moving away from the Sun at 62 km every second towards its tail. The gases in this tail are ionied which there fore interacts with the charged particles (electrons and helium nuclei) flowing away from the Sun The second tail is... a dust tail (unionised) and is unusually bright. May have been caused by the huge shock the comet got when it rounded close to the Sun last month. The comet was just visible a little over a week ago but is fading fast as it moves away from the Sun. Comets can be described as dirty snowballs. They are made up of chunks of rock, gravel, and dust cemented together by frozen gases. They are usually around 10km across in size. they originate from the theorised Oort Cloud way out past Pluto on the edge of the solar system. They have long period elongated orbits sometimes millions of years. As they approach the Sun the frozen gas start to sublime and form a kind of atmosphere around the comet many times the size of the Earth. This is the coma or main spherical part we see in pictures. The solar wind ionises these gases and form the main tail or ion tail. It always points away from the Sun.

07.01.2022 A supernova has not been observed in our Milky Way Galaxy for over 400 years now, the last being Keplers supernova in 1604. The one before was 32 years before in 1572 named after Tycho. Click on this link to see a 15 year timelapse of the remnant of Tychos supernova which is still evolving expanding out into space.https://astronomynow.com//chandra-captures-expanding-debr/

06.01.2022 INSPIRED THOUGH THEY ARE, COONABARABRAN'S SKYWRITERS ARE DISADVANTAGED BY POOR INTERNET SERVICE Peter Starr, proprietor of both the Warrumbungle Observatory an...d the Dubbo Observatory, inspired us all at the Coonabarabran Skywriter Launch, with his deepsky photos and personal anecdotes about his childhood observations of the planets, and his passion for astronomy. Many of us gathered around the table also recalled skystories from our own childhoods, such as seeing the first sputnik and watching the first moon walk on TV. Others recalled the days when astronomers from all over the world stayed in Coonabarabran to do their research at Siding Spring Observatory. These days, of course, they operate the telescopes remotely and need never visit Coona, a great loss to this little town. And, it's a mad irony too, as more than one of our skywriters observed, that people who live in a shire which hosts some of Australia's most advanced optical telescopes, don't yet have reliable internet access, and, in some cases, don't have any access from their home or office at all. For these skywriters, their local library's computers are a lifeline to the rest of the world, but my suggestion that skywriters hone their skills with a free creative writing MOOC, (Massive Open Online Courses), such as one of the courses offered by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, may not be an option. So what are our politicians doing about the still-poor internet and mobile phone access in the bush? Just don't get me started ....!! Coona skywriters at this event included Kaittyn Estens, Elizabeth Macintosh, Dorothy Morrissey, Geoff McDonald, Barbara Anne Young, Philip Munge, Christine Munge, Simon Pochley, Rod Aylett, and Antonia (who didn't want her photo on FB). All of these skywriters have some great, even profound skystories waiting to be told. Our thanks to our Coona hosts, librarians Leonie Heslop and Liz Cutts, for providing a very comfortable venue, tasty lunch, including some mouthwatering homebaked slices, and for the practical support they are giving our skywriters. Thanks to them, too, for their display of Skywriters Project posters in the library's shop front window, which no passer-by could miss.

04.01.2022 The 2nd detection of gravitational waves has been announced by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory). This they report was caused by the coalescence of 2 blackholes. Gravitational wves were predicted by Einstein in 1916 in his theory of general relativity.Any mass that is accelerating in a gravitational field will give off gravity waves that propagates in space and time. These waves are incredibly small and it takes a cataclysmic event for us to barely de...tect them like the merger of 2 blackholes. It appears that the detection of gravitatioanl waves will become more routine in the future and be used as a method of studying the universe along with detecting electromagnetic radiation (light) and detecting neutrinos. This all leads to understanding the laws of nature which we can benefit from by using the fundamental lawas we discover to engineer new devices to make our everyday living and economy more efficient. Most devices we use in our everyday lives and take for granted originates from our knowledge of how the laws of nature work. Thankfully other nations around the world invest in pure science seeing it as an investment rather than cut it like our government does with their short term focus. So sadly we will pay more for importing technology rather than inventing it and selling to others. Enough of that then, the next step is to tie in Einsteins theory of general relativity with the very small, quantum physics, as far as how gravity ties in with the standard model in quantum physics. This is the link if you want to read further into the discovery. http://journals.aps.org//ab/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.241103

04.01.2022 Earth size planet discovered next door! Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system at just a mere 4.2 light years away. This is a very small star about half as big again as the planet Jupiter, not even bright enough to see with the naked eye. Today there is an annoucement that an Earth size planet has been discovered orbiting around Proxima Centauri in its habitable zone. It is about 1.3 times more massive than the Earth and circles its red sun (stars are distan...t suns) once every 11 days at a distance of 7 million km which is 21 times closer than we are to our Sun. As the energy from Proxima Centauri is very feeble, a planet that close will experience temperatures similar to the Earth and so it is possible that water would be in a liquid state if it had water. The planet was discovered indirectly by observing a slight wobble in the star towards us and away from us. This is detected by splitting the light up from the star to make a rainbow (spectrum). Astronomers observe shifts in information in the spectrum (absorption lines) moving slightly back and forth between a redder and bluer colour in the spectrum. This means the star is wobbling. A star will wobble if there is a substantial mass like a planet nearby exerting its gravity on the star. As the planet is orbiting the star, this waill cause the star to wobble. Stars are too far away for us to see a side to side wobble, only from analysing its spectrum. This is how many exoplanets are discovered. There was some evidence that there maybe a planets there 3 years ago but after many observations earlier in 2016, astronomers are 99% confident it exists. Further observations will either improve the odds or discount it. About 4 years ago an Earth size planet was announced to be orbiting our closest naked eye binary star alpha centauri 4.3 light years away using the same method. This was later found likely to be an error. Though many exoplanets ahve been confirmed using this method.

04.01.2022 INSPIRED THOUGH THEY ARE, COONABARABRANS SKYWRITERS ARE DISADVANTAGED BY POOR INTERNET SERVICE Peter Starr, proprietor of both the Warrumbungle Observatory an...d the Dubbo Observatory, inspired us all at the Coonabarabran Skywriter Launch, with his deepsky photos and personal anecdotes about his childhood observations of the planets, and his passion for astronomy. Many of us gathered around the table also recalled skystories from our own childhoods, such as seeing the first sputnik and watching the first moon walk on TV. Others recalled the days when astronomers from all over the world stayed in Coonabarabran to do their research at Siding Spring Observatory. These days, of course, they operate the telescopes remotely and need never visit Coona, a great loss to this little town. And, its a mad irony too, as more than one of our skywriters observed, that people who live in a shire which hosts some of Australias most advanced optical telescopes, dont yet have reliable internet access, and, in some cases, dont have any access from their home or office at all. For these skywriters, their local librarys computers are a lifeline to the rest of the world, but my suggestion that skywriters hone their skills with a free creative writing MOOC, (Massive Open Online Courses), such as one of the courses offered by the University of Iowas International Writing Program, may not be an option. So what are our politicians doing about the still-poor internet and mobile phone access in the bush? Just dont get me started ....!! Coona skywriters at this event included Kaittyn Estens, Elizabeth Macintosh, Dorothy Morrissey, Geoff McDonald, Barbara Anne Young, Philip Munge, Christine Munge, Simon Pochley, Rod Aylett, and Antonia (who didnt want her photo on FB). All of these skywriters have some great, even profound skystories waiting to be told. Our thanks to our Coona hosts, librarians Leonie Heslop and Liz Cutts, for providing a very comfortable venue, tasty lunch, including some mouthwatering homebaked slices, and for the practical support they are giving our skywriters. Thanks to them, too, for their display of Skywriters Project posters in the librarys shop front window, which no passer-by could miss.

03.01.2022 This image was taken before the fly by. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php Presently the probe is busy taking science data before it phones home later tonight.

03.01.2022 Small Magellanic Cloud, our nearby satellite galaxy.

03.01.2022 Warrumbungle Observatory was one of the observatories around the world who contributed photometric observations to the team for this discovery. http://www.sci-news.com/ast/new-type-binary-star-04059.html

02.01.2022 Now with the Full Moon just past we are back to dark skies for the next few weeks with this the best time of the year to see the Milky Way passing overhead from horizon to horizon as well as the best 2 planets to view through the telescopes Jupiter and Saturn with it rings overhead. Why not come to our observatory in Coonabarabran and or Dubbo and bring your DSLR to take some great shots of The Milky Way or through the telescope.

02.01.2022 Look up into the night sky right now straight overhead and you will see 2 bright red stars quite close together. Dont see that too often. The brighter one is the planet Mars and the fainter one is a star called not mars. Another name for Mars is Ares. I think it is greek for Mars. The star is really called antares as in anti ares or not mars.... The red star you see as antares is not really there anymore. You are seeing it as it was 400 years ago since it takes light to travel 400 years to reach your eyes. The star is likey to have blown up itself as a supernova. When the light from the explosion gets here, the star will be so bright you will see it as a star in daylight for 3 months. Keep you eye on those red ones you see with your eyes at night. They are the ones that are going to blow up next. Dont hold your breath though, the last one like that was in the year 1604.

01.01.2022 The next celestial event is a Super Moon which will be on Monday evening. A supermoon occurs when the Moon is full and near its closest point to Earth. The Moons orbit around the Earth is not circular but an ellipse (squashed circle) and therefore the distance from the Earth to the Moon changes depending on where it is in its orbit around the Earth. The distance from the centre f the Earth to the centre of the Moon ranges from 405,500km to 363,300km. ... When the Moon is closer it appears larger, and when its further away it appears smaller. The size can change by 12%. The Moon orbits the Earth every 27.3 days. So once every 27.3 days the Moon appears large. The time between 2 full moons is every 29.5 days so to get a full moon and have the Moon appear largest in the sky is a bit of a fluke. That fluke occurs on Monday evening. You may ask why is the time between 2 full moons is different from the time for the Moon to orbit the Earth. A full moon occurs when there is a direct alignment of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon in that order. As the Moon orbits the Earth in 27.3 days there will not be a direct alignment as the Earth has moved around the Sun a fair distance and it takes the Moon an extra 2 days to achieve that straight line of Sun Earth Moon. The Moon will rise in the north east at 7:24pm on Monday 14th when viewing from Coonabarabran and appear Full. Technically it is at exact Full Moon just after midnight.

01.01.2022 Milky Way over my observatory at Coonabarabran tonight