Starman update

Apart from loosing the central booster when it didn't fire enough engines to decelerate and hit the water next to the drone ship at about 500kph, everything else seems to have gone perfectly!
Starman is now on his way to the asteroid belt, and I'm not sure if that is because the burn went longer by design or accident. Coolness remains undiminished.

Showed the kids the videos of the animation and then the launch that was streamed. Then left on the live stream of the Tesla drifting away from Earth for a while, it was mesmerising.


It sounds like the battery has run out now, so there will not be any more images sent. I'll need to track down some of the last footage, as the receding Earth is just beautiful in those shots.

In the 2nd decade of the 21st Century...

I sit on a train, riding to work in Melbourne, watching the live broadcast on my mobile phone of the successful launch of Space X's Falcon Heavy.
I saw the successful twin landing of the outside boosters, I saw the video black out as the core booster started it's landing (there still is no news on what has happened to it)
I have seen live streaming video from the test payload as the faring was ejected and it settled into orbit waiting to start it's journey to Mars.
Not to land on Mars, it's not clean enough. But out to the orbit of Mars, and maybe a flyby within a few hundred thousand km of the red planet.
Space X is proving that commercial space flight is going to happen, much cheaper than government programs and with reusable components.

Lunar Eclipse

The rare triple event. A second full moon in the month, at perigee, and eclipsed... or as the media insisted on calling it, the "Blue Super Blood Moon".
With that name it really should have exploded at the end, but it didn't.
I started observing just as totality started, catching the last sliver of brightness slip away, then enjoyed the dusky goodness of the moon in shadow. Took plenty of photos on the DSLR on the tripod at 200mm, and set up Dobby and used the 30mm and 25mm eps.
Had an interesting chat with a passer by (I

was set up at the front gate) about full moons, lunar eclipse, movies and werewolves. It was late...
But, he enjoyed looking through the scope and got a quick photo through the ep on his mobile.
Woke up L twice to see totality and then near the end.
Took a run of photos as the last quarter of the shadow slipped away. I'll give a go at making an animation of that.
It was a beautiful night as well, cool but better seeing conditions than I thought it would be. Swung the scope around for a brief look at M43, since it was right there anyway.
Photos!

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!