Brisbane Astronomical Society Inc

Another great night at the Mt Coot-tha Lookout sharing the night sky. We hope we inspired lots of little astronauts and space scientists to look up and wonder.

Brisbane Astronomical Society is CONFIRMING that we will proceed with our Mt Coot-tha Lookout telescope night on Saturday June 15th from sunset to around 8:00pm. Bring the kids. Even the big ones.

Congratulations to the Sunshine Coast members of Brisbane Astronomical Society, and in particular Dr Ken Wishaw, for all the effort they are putting into the Sunshine Coast Regional Council initiative to have a Dark Sky Reserve declared in the hinterland. Far too few SEQ residents have ever seen the band of our Milky Way Galaxy arch across the night sky. These efforts to protect the night sky may provide this opportunity to future generations.
Light pollution - just a waste of space.

Sunshine Coast hinterland's bid to attract stargazers by becoming Dark Sky Reserve Renowned for its multi-million-dollar wedding industry, Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland hopes to add stargazing to its tourism drawcard.

Brisbane Astronomical Society Inc is hosting a public telescope evening at Witton Barracks , Indooroopilly, on Friday 14 June. 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the Barracks courtyard/paradeground.
Telescopes will be available to view the moon, star clusters and possibly even other astronomical objects such as nebulae and galaxies.
This free family-friendly event promises to ignite curiosity and wonder about the universe. Plus, Witton Barracks will be serving hot chocolate to keep you warm!
Rug-up and bring the kids. Find us between Indooroopilly Station and the river.
Find out more: https://loom.ly/Buwr8-8

BAS members are encourage to bring their telescopes along. (BAS members, email President Peter for more details.)

Astronomer, stargazer and tour guide Greg 'Space Gandalf' Quicke dies The Kimberley astronomer who rose to national and international prominence on ABC and BBC outer space specials has died, aged 62.

A huge loss to the popularization of astronomy. Farewell Greg Quicke.

Astronomer, stargazer and tour guide Greg 'Space Gandalf' Quicke dies The Kimberley astronomer who rose to national and international prominence on ABC and BBC outer space specials has died, aged 62.

Start planning ahead for the Moon passing in front of Saturn on Thursday June 27th. Saturn will be initially occulted (covered) by the Moon around 10:49pm and then reappear from the other side of the Moon around 11:46pm. Naked eye, binoculars or telescope, it is an amazing process to watch.

Sunshine Coast Regional council is considering the creation of a Dark Sky Reserve in the Sunshine Coast hinterland Obi Obi Valley. Council is now evaluating whether to proceed to a formal application under the International Dark Sky Places Program.

As part of its evaluation process Council is seeking community comment via a “have your say” page on their website - see link below.

https://haveyoursay.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/dark-sky

The page will be open for comments from May 20 to June 16.

The number of completed surveys and nature of comments are critical to determining whether Council will proceed with this initiative.

Please click through to the survey and express your support for this excellent community initiative.

Proposed Dark Sky Reserve Have your say on a proposal to establish a Sunshine Coast Dark Sky Reserve through the International Dark Sky Places Program.

Reminder for tonight's BAS Monthly Zoom Meeting – May 20th
Time: May 20, 2024 07:30 PM Start, Brisbane

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81837472575?pwd=v32iJcapXcoI8VfcotkAIvaxtlrsW3.1

Meeting ID: 818 3747 2575
Passcode: 874829

Sorry, but the cloud and scattered rain forecast for tomorrow has forced BAS to cancel its planned Mt Coot-tha public telescope evening scheduled for tomorrow Saturday May 18th. We will try again on June 15th.

If you would like to view an Aurora Australis from Australia, you should monitor this website and its solar activity ratings and coronal mass ejection forecasts: https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/ and https://www.sws.bom.gov.au/Aurora We might get lucky and have another opportunity during this solar cycle peak.

Space Weather, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

A few BAS members are going to attempt some aurora photography at Cunningham Lookout this evening. No guarantees re clouds and aurora, but probably worth a try if members want to give it a go.

UPDATE: Last night we were 24 hours late and a few thousand km too far north to see the aurora. The aurora was only visible to long-exposure photos. Below is the best we could do from Cunningham Lookout. We now await the next 1 in 100 year blast from the Sun.

BAS had a great evening at Calvert last night, apart from a drop or two of dew. The afternoon went from heavy cloud to a beautiful clear evening sky. And a brief glimpse of the comet too.

Another cloud-spoiled New Moon weekend. To help take your mind off the wasted astronomy opportunity, you might like to explore some images from the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbitor Camera: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/images Click the link for some amazing Moon images.

Very quick image of comet 12P/Pons -Brooks as it headed for the trees and western horizon.

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will be a challenging object to see in the southern hemisphere. You will need a good clear view of the western horizon following sunset. As an example, On April 25th at 6:21pm the comet will be just above Jupiter on the western horizon. However, you will have to wait until the sky is sufficiently dark to perhaps glimps the comet. But every minute you wait, the comet gets closer to the horizon and will hide behind more atmosphere, dust etc. But good luck. Try on multiple evenings.

CANCELLED - Mt Coot-tha. Sorry, but continuing bad weather means we have cancelled our planned Mt Coot-tha Lookout telescope evening for Saturday April 20th. We will try, yet again, in May...

North American eclipse live stream here: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2024-april-8 Totality starts around 2:38am, Tuesday 9th, Brisbane time. But the live stream starts well prior to that as the Moon slowly passes across the disk of the Sun.

Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 (Great North American Eclipse ) Total solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, 2024: Where and when is the Sun eclipse visible? Path map, animation, and local times.

BAS will conduct its April Zoom meeting for members and the public on Tuesday April 9th, starting 7:30pm. We will cover recent astronomy news and club events and plans. Here is a link to join the meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81358095304?pwd=sdCXHz2ye0kwHFYPbpKVpoHRhYfb5m.1

The New Moon curse continues. It is looking like SEQ astronomers will lose another month to clouds and rain. Can May force a change?

Sorry everyone. The cloud forecast for Mt Coot-tha Lookout tomorrow evening (Saturday 16th) is bad. Our proposed public telescope evening is cancelled. We'll try again Saturday April 20th.

Beginner astronomers might like to download an informative list of telescope targets, with finder charts, for March. This list may assist beginners with finding some of the countless deep-sky objects that hide in the current evening sky. https://bas.asn.au/march-telescope-targets-for-beginners/

We managed to find a few gaps between the clouds last night at Calvert. And the lightning was entertaining too.

We have a 4 or 5 BAS members planning to visit the Calvert observing site tonight, Saturday 2nd. Plenty of room for other members to come along too and help us find the gaps between clouds.

Time to start getting your astro-gear ready for the March 10 New Moon.

A few more images from the Unistellar eQuinox2 under dark Warwick skies last night. Almost ready to deploy at school and public telescope nights. Thanks again for your excellent Community Grant program.

Another night of experimenting with the Unistellar eQuinox2 telescope – last night under dark Warwick skies. Just about ready to deploy the scope at our 2024 school and public astronomy nights. Pity the images from Brisbane’s heavily light polluted skies will not be this good. Many thanks again to Community Grants program for assisting BAS with this scope purchase. We hope to ignite many young minds to STEM.

After an extended period of cloud and rain, BAS has finally had an opportunity to test its new Unistellar Equinox 2 telescope under a dark rural sky. The plan is to deploy this telescope at school and public nights starting in early 2024. BAS would like to express is huge appreciation to the Kedron Wavell Community Grants 2023 program for generously supporting us to make this purchase. Attached are a few images from last night's trial run.

Mt Coot-tha CANCELLED.
Sorry, but the cloud forecast for tonight, Saturday 18th, is just not good enough to proceed with our planned public telescope evening at the Mt Coot-tha Lookout. We will take a break over summer and try again next year, probably in March.

Conditions at Calvert this evening are looking increasingly dodgy, depending on which cloud forecast site you believe. I'll still be out there from about 5pm.