Bathurst Observatory Research Facility

Something I haven't done for a while. I imaged the planet Venus in twilight on the 2nd of August. Venus is currently the very bright object in our western sky after sunset. The planet itself generally looks a bit disappointing through a telescope. As it is totally covered in clouds of carbon dioxide, you can't see any surface features. We also see it somewhat from behind, hence why it shows phases.

Here is another recent image from the new wide field telescope. This is the Cat's Paw Nebula! Waiting to do more testing once the moon has past full. I am also taking this break in tours to update the technology in the observatory! Hopefully the closure of the highway isn't the full year they are saying it will be. Tours will resume once the highway reopens.

I used a clear night to image the Moon in a bit of detail on the 20th of July.

First image from the new wide field telescope and camera of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. This was a test of the system and the frames were a bit shorter than I plan in the future. But it does show the quality of the new scope and camera. The processing of the images is very different and I have to learn again!

It has been a very long run of cloudy weather, so I have been making changes and adjustments to the main telescope. I have had some extra horse power involved as well. I am still way behind on my own work, so still unsure when the next tours will be. A big issue is the closure of the highway for up to a year. I do have running costs that just aren’t being covered with only a few people per tour. It may be a case of waiting until it opens again so I at least break even on tour nights.

Some of the new camera gear has arrived!!! Just waiting on a connector and then will put it through its paces. Although I have cut back on tours (so I can image and do research) I will still be offering some tours, though likely a bit more randomly than before. That said, I should be able to squeeze in a couple in school holidays.... Watch this space.

Unfortunately due to personal reasons and much discussion with my friends and family, I've had to make to decision to ease back on tours for perhaps the rest of the year. I will still be offering some special nights, but the regular weekends I will be having to allocate for catching up with a few observatory projects of my own. I will also be investing in some new equipment for the observatory to hopefully improve the images I take. For example.. Wait and see what the new equipment will do with the galaxy NGC 5128 I took recently with the old! But please stay following me as there will be more frequent images posted and stay tuned for special nights, particularly if you are an astronomy buff! Plus I'll keep you posted with what you can see in the sky!

The comet R3 Panstarrs, isn't as bright as a few nights ago, and you still need binoculars to see it, but it was nicely place next to the Orion Nebula (M42) on the evening of the 10th May.

My first larger telescope image of comet R3 Panstarrs on the evening of the 5th of May. I should be able to get better as it gets higher in the sky.

I had my first view of comet R3 Panstarrs in evening twilight on the 3rd of May. With all the cloud about, I hadn't expected to see it at all! But with a gap in cloud, I grabbed the camera and 50mm lens for a quick snap. Nice long tail! Can't wait to get the telescope on this one!. It will be slowly getting higher in the western evening skies over the coming weeks.