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Sky-Watcher Australia

1 day ago

Australia Geographic shops will be holding public Star Gazing nights across a few locations in Sydney and Shellharbour this coming Thurs night (18th July).

You'll get a chance to look through some telescopes and have a chat about telescopes and astro stuff in general. Depending on the surrounding views, Jupiter will be visible, the Moon will be up around 7pm and possibly Saturn as well. You can come along to:

+ Westfield Carousel - rooftop dining area

+ Westfield Hurstville - LVL 3 (outside taste baguette)

+ Stockland Shellharbour - Lamerton Crescent (grass area next to the old Council building)

+ Macquarie Centre - Purple Rooftop Carpark

We'll be at a couple of these ourselves to help out.

If you're coming along, wrap up warmly and take your time. Several hundred people are likely to attend each event, so there might be a short wait. It's also not dark enough for astronomical viewing until at least 5.3 or 6pm. Viewing will wrap up sometime after 8.00pm.

The Australian Geographic events last week were a lot of fun. Lorna Basil took her first astronomy pic by using her phone to take this image of the Moon through a Sky-Watcher 150mm (6") Dobsonian at Westfield Miranda. Not bad for a first effort.

Thanks for Sharing this Lorna!

#astronomy #stargazing #australiangeographic
#moon #astronomynight #westfields #skywatcheraustralia
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Sky-Watcher Australia

3 days ago

Today we celebrate the launch of the Apollo 11 - 50 years ago today on 16th Juily 1969.

The Saturn V that launched all of the Apollo astronauts (with the exception of Apollo 7 which used a Saturn 1B) remains the most powerful rocket ever made.

NASA carried out two test launches (Apollo 4 and Apollo 6) and from the first mission carrying astronauts in December 1968 with Apollo 8 through to Apollo 17, the massive rocket performed flawlessly. Every Saturn V launch placed the Apollo spacecraft in the correct Earth and Lunar orbits.

The final Saturn V launch was in May 14 where it lofted the Skylab space station into orbit.

The first stage F1 engines are still the largest rocket engines flown into space. NASA used 65 of these massive kerosene and liquid oxygen burning motors during the Saturn V program and every one of them worked perfectly.

The second and third stages were powered by liquid hydrogen fuelled J1 motors. The single motor J1 third stage fired again once in Earth orbit to send the Apollo spacecraft away from the Earth to the Moon.

Guidance and control was via the Apollo instrument unit. This is a ring shaped module that was made by IBM by and sat on top of the third stage just behind the Lunar Module. (LEM).

Due the cancellation of the remaining Apollo missions, there was a considerable amount of Saturn V hardware left on Earth! One rocket was used to launch the Skylab. There's three Saturn V rockets in various condition on display in the USA, including one at the Kennedy Space Center. Has anyone been to see any rockets still on display.

Truly monuments to one of one of humanity's most amazing achievements.

(image of Apollo 11 launch via NASA)

#skywatcheraustralia #space #apollo11 #apollo #saturn #saturnv #ksc ... See MoreSee Less

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