Night, The Second, Wind and Aurora at Font Hill

The second night of our astro odyssey at Font Hill, we were driven inside by high wind and very patchy but predominantly cloudy skies.

At about 9pm we were beckoned outside by reports of 'lights in the sky' and we were greeted by a southern horizon 'aglow'.

An initial handheld mobile phone camera shot revealed the underlying colours.

Spurred on by the sight of the auroral vertical lines 

I pulled out my Canon 760D and Tripod to help tease out some finer details. 

This second shot more to the west shows the Milky Way Galactic Glow partially subsumed by the aurora.

Some more clouds came through soon after converting the sight to more iridescent appearance.

A welcome diversion and visitation making the night at least worthwhile 'astronomically' wise.

First Night of Astronomy Observations /AstroPhotography

The wind and cold awaited us for olur first night but while the dedicated Deep Space guys couldn't steady their auto-guided astrophotgraphy rigs, despite clear skies, the visual observers hung onto their telescopes to get graet views of Comet Swan, Messier 22 Globular Cluster and even though close as grazing the southern horizon, Eta Carina Nebula, NGC 3372 which looked great in the now luckily  fully assembled twelve inch Meade Lightbridge.   With the aid of a Argo Navis telescope computer and wifi connection to the Sky Safari Samrt Phone App  I was able to push the telscope to the exact point in the sky to view the comet.

Evening Friday Night 17th October 2025

The Meade Lightbridge telescope looking south with some sub-auroral glow which wsa only visable to the camera.

The Emu (Milky Way)  at midnight on it's back and setting to the southwest.

Deep Space (somewhere in the sky near Scorpius/Sagittarius)  50 x 15 second frames with a Dwarflab 2 Camera. 

With some help from Siril and Pixinsight.

Original stack from the Camera itself

On the Road Pre- Arrival Jitters! Arrival and Tea!

And so after avoiding a total disaster, vis a vie leaving part of a telescope behind,  on the road the realisation hit me that I left my mini iPad behind on the kitchen bench!

This poses the problem that my ancient SkiFi 1 device connected to my Argo Navis telescope computer will only talk to certain non android devices.

Fortunately earlier in the day I had grabbed a SkiFi 2 device which does work on android so another momentary decision like taking Winnie for walk(see previous post) saved my bacon

The upshot is okay even without it as the Argo Navis is hardwired to the Meade 12 Inch Light bridge telescope.  The SkiFi makes possible a further secondary connection to the Planetarium App Sky Safari allowing me to see where the telescope is pointed on a virtual on-screen version of the night sky.

Time for Tea and then some cloudless skies this evening (Dreaming)!

Pre-report:Font Hill Astronomy Camp Oct 17th 2025. Attend/Arrive in 'Haste, Repent at Leisure!'

What's a contented and dozing dog(Hi everyone meet Winnie a 6 year old Bulldog Boxer Cross) to do in connection with Astro Camp?

Well she was a little restless and whiny, like many of her breed,  and a short walk will often settle her, successfully today at least.   

For myself just a bit of fresh air and a breather from the flurry of packing clothes, food and importantly for the subject of this post equipment.

Packed?!?!?! 12 Inch Meade Light bridge, Vale RIP Meade if course.

Well maybe?  NOT!!! entirely.

Thanks Winnie,  you are what you are and the whole world loves you,  especially the Vetinary and Orthopaedic Team we spent $12000 with to mend her broken leg earlier this year.

The walk sufficiently cleared my brain to remember to grab the secondary mirror and Eyepiece holder, Focuser etc.

Here's the 'beast setup a week or so ago at the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory, Cambridge Tasmania.

So lucky to have the great Telescope and Winnie to help with the packing.

Next Post at Font Hill, Lemont, near Oatlands, Tasmania.

Nocturna at Spring Bay Mill Triabunna Tasmania

On the night of a Full Moon  a small group from our Astronomical Society of Tasmania travelled to Triabunna, Tasmania to do some public 'side-walk' style astronomy to the patrons of Tasmania's premier dark sky event Nocturna at the Spring Bay Mill. 

Cloudy drama!  We were hoping to at least get some moon observations going but the clouds had thier own agenda for the night.

 

Clouds unfortunately dominated the evening but fabulous skyward views nonetheless!

Mathew, Dallas and an event participant.

The Amphitheatre, a fabulous performance space.

The Main Complex 

Partial Solar Eclipse over Tasmania 4th December 2021

A group from the Astronomical Society of Tasmania gathered at the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory to view a small solar eclipse in the evening of 4th December 2021 around 8pm. Clouds threatened but we got some great sights of the eclipse regardless.  I managed to take the solar shots with a smart phone through the eyepiece of a William Optics ZS70 refractor with a solar filter attached.   There were no sunspots visible but the grainy detail of the sunspots surface was visually evident seen through a Coranado PST.

A.S.T. Lunar Eclipse Gathering Hobart Under the Clouds Friday 19th November 2021

 The Herbarium Rooftop Lookout University Tasmania Sandy Bay. 

Also See My 2018 Solar Eclipse Pics !