Author Archives: Astrojunk

It’s a long way to Winton!

Posted on by

Out intrepid team of Astronomers recently travelled to the Queensland Outback to look for evidence that the circular feature that I identified in 2013 using Google Earth is a meteorite impact site and not just a hole in the ground!

20160628_133657

That’s Pranvera Hyseni, Rob Black and myself weeding out meteor-rights from Meteor-wrongs over lunch.

So is it or isn’t it? Well we think it is, but it’s not as easy as that – to be formally recognised there needs to be a published peer reviewed scientific paper confirming it and that isn’t going to happen in a hurry! So in the mean time here is my write up in progress: https://shadowchaser.com.au/crater-bradshaw/

Mudjimba Star Trails

Posted on by

A star trails image, I just can’t do enough of them,  but this time using a telephoto lens at 150mm.

I’d been sat on the beach looking at the island a kilometre out and decided it may be nice to frame it up and see if I could capture the stars emerging from atmospheric extinction. When I went back on the beach later that evening, there was a fair bit of cloud about and I thought that I would get nothing of merit. I grabbed 40 mins of data anyway (There are a lot worse things to do that to lay on a beach watching the stars after all).

What came out was this shot. I don’t know why, but it’s my favourite to date – just something about the clouds and the merged wave tops being in harmony, and where did that lilac sky come from?! Other than stacking, and some gentle adjustments, it’s how it came off the camera. MujimbaStartrails

Geo-Flasher!

Posted on by

For my astro-geek friends, how about something a little closer to home! Here are some of the many objects that the human race has littered our orbit with. They put on a spectacular show for me tonight whilst I was out observing 🙂

 

Happy Xmas 2015

Posted on by

How much astronomy can you get in a single photo!

Here we see a full moon rising on Christmas day, surrounded by anti-crepuscular sun rays and on the belt of Venus (The Earth’s rising shadow)

Venus makes a splash

Posted on by

In a magical moment looking across Tin Can Bay from Rainbow Beach, Venus shines brightly over the waters surrounded by the faint glow of zodiacal light. It was so pretty I made a video too!

V_Lake_C

Monto Star Trails

Posted on by

Such a fantastic dark sky location in rural Queensland. Monto is a small but very friendly bush community and a delightful place to spend a few days. This star trails shot was taken looking back towards the campsite on the edge of town. How dark is that!!!

Monto4 (Large)

Conjunction 2

Posted on by

Up close and personal this time. It’s actually three photos blended together to see Venus, Jupiter and it’s moons together at the correct exposure. A lovely naked eye treat, I hope you managed to spot them hanging out in the West together!

V_J2

Conjunction!

Posted on by

A very pretty arrangement of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter in the night sky tonight, and with it some mightily cold air too – Wrap up warm astronomers!

IMG_8278

Rings!

Posted on by

It’s not often I can stake my claim to a first, but here is double one. First amateur to capture a Centaur (that’s an asteroid between Saturn and Neptune) occulting a star and also the first amateur to record the rings around an asteroid!

Charliko is the only known asteroid to have rings. They were discovered last year by a team of professional astronomers lead by Prof Bruno Sicardy who is a great friend to the amateur and whom provides us with great predictions so that we can help provide him data. This event was well attended by the Australian Occultation faithful and I recorded in somewhat difficult circumstances the event. Unfortunately I was the only person to capture it – the more ‘chords’ the better the scientific payload but Bruno assures me that the data will be added to the original observations and will significantly improve the positional data that we know about the rock.

And that is great news, because with better predictions, we can make even better observations in the future. Sweet.

Charliko_LMLC