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Did anyone manage to catch the Saturn and Venus conjunction? (A bit tricky from most of the east coast the moment though... :( )
If you didn't. head out tonight and over the coming days to see if you can notice how far they've moved apart.Venus, the Goddess of Love (brightest one in this iPhone pic) is completing Her current series of planetary conjunctions with a close passing move on Saturn (dimmer one in this pic).
Even though Saturn is 9 times bigger than Venus, he is also currently 18 times further away, 90 million km compared to 1650 million km.
Joining them both in the same line of sight tonight is Pluto, not visible because he is small and very far away from this pair. Pluto is less than a quarter the size of Venus and 3 times further away than Saturn.
Cash back on Sky-Watcher Esprit telescopes!
For a limited time until the end of January, we're offering cash back on purchases across the entire lines of the Sky-Watcher Esprit APO refractors.
This is the first time we're ever offered any specials on these telescopes.
These are absolute "top gun" telescopes for serious astrophotography and super popular both here in Australia and across the world.
Full details on this offer here: bit.ly/2s8WbQQ
Vijay Ladva posted his image of Rosette Nebula to the Sky-Watcher Australia Facebook group.
He used a Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED APO refractor on a Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 mount. The vivid colours in the image are due to the use of Narrowband Filters that only allow light from certain wavelengths through, while keeping out light from other sources such as light pollution. This technique enables the imaging and examination of details of astronomic objects that would hard otherwise.
Congrats Vijay on this magnificent effort.
ZWO ASI 1600MM camera
Filters: ZWO Ha Oiii Siii Hubble Palette
Image 4mins x 168 Sub
Total Integration 11.2hrs
Processed in Pixinsight / Photoshop
#skywatcheraustralia #astrophotography #ASTRO #astronomy #azeq6 #RosetteNebula #narrowband #hubble #hubbletelescope #hubblepalette #deepskyphotography #nightsky #zwocamera #pixinsight #universetoday #telescope #apotelescope
There's a public astronomy session on tonight at Wauchope if anyone is interested.
Why do we polar align telescope mount? So they point at the north or south celestial pole - the spot in the sky aligned with the Earth's axis and around which the Universe rotates above us.
This lets the telescope mount more easily follow the sky throughout the night for viewing and astrophotography.
The dramatic 2 hour long exposure image from @pilot_astro shows his Sky-Watcher mount and telescope polar aligned and working away.
Thanks for the share Thomas!
#telescopemount #telescope #deepskyphotography #skywatcheraustralia #nightsky #longexposure #longexposure_shots #nightscape #universe #universetoday @canonaustralia
