2018 - summer night

Past midnight and still 28 degrees, love these summer nights.
Last night was a beautiful night, great transparency and excellent seeing. I didn't have much time, since it was late and still a work night, but Orion was high in the sky and there was no Moon - so Nebulocity 2018 starts with M42, of course.
Dragged Dobby out into the back courtyard to avoid the worst of the street lights and enjoyed Orion's Nebula through my 17mm, 30mm and added the Barlow for some magnified goodness.
Could see a lot of the nebula and made out beautiful detail in the structure. Wanted to stay longer, but started yawning and the mosquitoes had started to home in on me.
42 degree day today, so might be able to try again tonight if the change doesn't come through early.

Intentions - Dorado and LMC

So this time of year the LMC and SMC are high in the sky, so I should get out with Dobby and see what I can see from the backyard. Not this weekend though, sounds like some record breaking rain coming out way.

International "Observe the Moon" night

Saturday, Oct 28, 2017.
Missed it, for many reasons.
Principle reason, I was up in Canberra at a wedding - so I was a little preoccupied that evening.
Secondary reason, even if I had of had the presence of mind to glance upwards that evening, it was a cloudy evening with passing showers, so the weather continues to limit this year's observation record.
Tertiary reason, yeah - totes forgot.

October update

Another quiet month for Dobby. Poor thing must be feeling a bit forgotten.
Storms today, so no reprieve yet - there'll be no observation tonight.
The most astro thing this month was providing some moral and thinky support to T as he worked on an exam for his course. I learnt a bit more about Red-shift and heard about Lyman-break galaxies for the first time. Interesting!

Almost time...

DSN 43, Tidbinbilla, Canberra is looking after the comms with Cassini through to the end.

Last orders, please...

The last images have been taken by Cassini and are being received now.
The Bad Astronomer tweeted this out as an example of the gorgeous shots still being produced in these last hours.


(As an aside, reading some of the replies to his tweet it is amazing to see people who think these images are CGI, and the space program is fake. Words fail me... Incomprehensible? Tragic? )

Cassini's final days

Cassini just had it's last rendezvous with Saturn's moon Titan. This final encounter has adjusted Cassini's orbit so that it is now on its final plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Friday (in 2 days, 13 hours and 2 minutes as I write this) That's just before 9pm, while the elimination finals footy is on. Sydney should beat Geelong.

It's going to be a strangely empty feeling knowing that there will not be new amazing photos of Saturn arriving almost daily. There'll still be good science being generated from all the data, and more images to be processed and released, but nothing brand new for at least another decade.

Bon voyage, Cassini