Back at our favourite bush camp site near the old gold-rush hamlet of Kilkivan. This time I managed over four hours of imaging whilst our camp fire gently illuminated the trees in the frame. A stunningly dark site and a great camp to visit if you are in SE Qld.
Here’s a neat event from tonight. This asteroid cast a 16.354 second shadow across Samford, and I caught it on video! The event was a little longer than expected and it is a poorly defined object. We learned that it is probably lozenge shaped rather than round and it disappeared gradually suggesting maybe an irregular protrusion (sticky-out bit!) at the leading edge.
It is not often that a planet gets blotted out by the Moon, and even rarer to have my favourite planet, Saturn, disappear behind a crisp dark edge as we saw this week. I partnered the broadcast with Slooh once again and enjoyed a very pleasant evening chatting on air with the team!
I made my second broadcast with the Slooh team yesterday, this time a live show with the potentially hazardous asteroid 2014 HQ124, fondly known as the beast.
It was top fun and the Slooh guys had lined up some really informed experts to lend commentary to the event – its certainly worth watching through the near 70 mins of broadcast if you are interested in near earth objects. If you make it to the end, you will find me waffling on about my kit. Of course, having had almost no sleep in the run up, I was only semi-coherent, but you’ll get my drift!
All in all, a very good show and with an interesting rock plodding on by…
After a few days build-up under superb skies here in Queensland, the big day comes and it clouds over! It is surprisingly rare that the moon passes in front of our solar system neighbours, so when it happens we get excited. These events are special in their beauty and rarity more than for any scientific value and 2014 has given us Australians three chances to watch Saturn disappear. This was the second and only partially successful for me as I recorded glimpses of the event through thick cloud.
Others have done much better and I’ll post some links as I get them!
I’d been hoping to post a nice light curve of brightening as the star popped through the atmosphere, but the bad conditions made the video a little wild!
Very beautiful in its own way…
This one came from nowhere!
2014 DX110 was discovered only three days ago, and flew by tonight at less than a Moons distance from us. It is on the Possible Impactors list with an impact with Earth scheduled for 2046 – As we learn more, and refine the known orbit, we will hopefully remove it from the list!!!
Whilst it’s probably under 50m, I still would prefer to avoid it (if I live that long)
Sorry for the poor quality, it was a misty night and low in the North…
I guess that on Australia Day I should have been pointing towards the Southern Cross, but the camp site is directed otherwise!
Ularra is an old Gold town high up on the range in Northern NSW. At 1000m (3300ft) its a very different climate to Brisbane and MUCH colder at only 15 degrees C this evening and a stiff breeze to make it feel much less. Brrr…
This shot shows just how starry the sky is up here with Orion foremost in the shot. It’s a four photo collage from zenith to the ground which explains why the tall trees on the right come in from the side!
Ever seen an Iridium Flare?
The Iridium communications satellites turn their solar panels towards the sun at predictable times during their orbits and cause them to brighten dramatically for a few seconds as they pass.
I photographed this one this morning at 4am, not normally a time I’d be up, but the dog was demanding attention and then my Iridium flare app started screaming too! I took the camera out as well; this is the first time I have tried to capture one and am glad I did as the event was bright at mag -8 and passing high in the West.
So go find an app (there are plenty freebies) and have a look – they are very lovely to watch and happen every few days – Happy hunting!
[For the photographers: Canon 650d, Samyang 14mm, ISO 400 for 30 seconds]