Maraekakaho Dark Sky Project

Here's a small collection of images from the auroral storm last night and the sunspots earlier today.

The aurora photos are all direct from the camera, no processing at all.

What a night!

Every light impacts the night!

This international Dark Sky Week you can celebrate the night by doing your part to protect it.

Check out our Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting to prevent and reduce light pollution around your home and community!

Learn more by visiting https://bit.ly/3U0zrNy

Yes, I am a fan of spaceflight and I still get a kick out of watching rockets launch from Mahia. I also love the scientific exploration that comes from various probes and observatories. However, I detest the pure commercialised space industry, such as the mega constellations of starlink. They pollute the upper atmosphere, reduce the natural beauty of the night sky, and are causing ground based photography and science to take a back seat for the profit of a few.

Now, it seems there may be another very good reason for international moves to outright ban such constellations - it seems they may actually be weakening our protective magnetic field...
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2024/02/01/will-satellite-megaconstellations-weaken-earths-magnetic-field/ #:~:text=According%20to%20a%20new%20study,her%20PhD%20in%20plasma%20physics.

Will Satellite Megaconstellations Weaken Earth’s Magnetic Field? Feb. 1, 2024: Something unprecedented is happening in Earth orbit. In only a few short years, the satellite population has skyrocketed, more than doubling since 2020. In the past year alone, more s…

Rocket Lab launches "the beat goes on" from LC1 at Mahia Peninsula, while the Aurora Australis decorates the southern sky above Magrathea. Image taken around 10:15pm 24th March 2023.

I haven't shown any images yet from the Friday night. Here's one from before the rocket launch (photos of which I will post later). It was a smaller display than in the previous morning, but the colours were lovely. Image taken around 10:00pm 24th March 2023

The video is a couple of years old now, but good to see this subject is still getting attention...

Protect NZ’s famous dark skies: Top astronomer appeals for new law Astronomer launches Parliamentary petition for NZ to adopt light-cutting laws like France.

Fantastic to see the results of a lot of hard work by the astronomy community in the Wairarapa!

I hope that the Hastings District will one day join the club!

Wairarapa districts named as dark sky reserves The two districts join just 20 others worldwide in the International Dark Sky Reserve movement.

Prof. John Hearnshaw has submitted a petition to the New Zealand Parliament proposing that legislation is introduced to reduce light pollution and promote dark skies. If this is done on a nationwide basis, then the process of getting accreditation for dark sky places in this country will be so much simpler, as the whole country will have a uniform light pollution abatement law, and this will greatly reduce the efforts required from individual district and city councils.

The petition can be read at https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/petitions/document/PET_130407/petition-of-john-hearnshaw-new-zealand-needs-a-national.

Anyone can support this petition by signing it on-line, and the more people that do so will strengthen the message to Parliament.

In addition, he would be grateful if you could forward the link to any ecologically-minded friends and colleagues who may be interested in giving their support.

The petition will be open for supporting signatures until 20 April 2023, after which it will go to the Petitions Select Committee before being presented to the House.

Thanks for your support!

A light pollution map of Aotearoa New Zealand. Artificial light from our cities bleeds into the night sky, creating a ‘bowl’ of light that blocks our view of the cosmos. Not only does light pollution block our view of the stars, but it is also known to have negative health effects on humans like fatigue, lack of sleep, and anxiety. It also causes large disruptions for many nocturnal animals and can cause confusion for navigating birds. Light pollution is a major issue around the world, and it is calculated that 85% of all humans live under light-polluted skies. Despite this, New Zealand still has some of the darkest skies in the world, and dark skies are only ever a few hours from our major cities.

Images of Frogstar Observatory and the pond taken exactly two years apart... My how things have grown!

This is the last chance to see a total lunar eclipse from Aotearoa until 2025, so fingers crossed for clear sky...

TONIGHT! Are you ready to watch a total lunar eclipse here in New Zealand? 🔴 👀 Here’s how you can see tonight’s blood Moon in our southern skies!

Fly Me To The Moon - June 28th 2022 -
Rocket Lab launches "Capstone" - New Zealand's first ever lunar mission for NASA, from Mahia Peninsula...
Shot through a Canon EF 35mm lens with a Canon 6D @ ISO 1600. f4.5, 14 X 30 second exposures. Layers, levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

Matariki Dawn - June 24th 2022 -

Matariki glows faintly through the pre-dawn glow produced by the January 15 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano. All the visible planets also joined in for the show...
Shot through a Canon EF 15mm lens with a Canon 6D @ ISO 1250. f4.5, 10 second exposure. Labels added, levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

A recent study shows that even plant behaviour is affected by artificial lightning... https://phys.org/news/2022-06-artificial-affects-seasonal-rhythms-cities.html

Study shows how artificial light affects seasonal rhythms of plants in US cities A new study led by Iowa State University researchers shows how artificial light has affected the natural seasonal processes of plants in urban regions of the United States.

A useful link from the Dark Sky Network...

This recent paper highlights the problems that exist with the limited linear design approach to outdoor lighting, the serious gaps in awareness of various decision-makers/ stakeholders, as well as critical missing elements in sustainability development goals. Unfortunately, in regard to street lighting here in NZ, we are also fettered by outdated and incorrect standards, specifications and guidelines, imposed by Waka Kotahi (NZTA). This means failed LED retrofits that reduce safety, impair visibility, damage eye tissue, harm general health, lower life quality, adversely impact wildlife, threaten biodiversity, and increase light pollution. They also ruin the ambience of neighbourhoods.
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/6062

Rethinking Sustainable Cities at Night: Paradigm Shifts in Urban Design and City Lighting Since the establishment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, various perspectives on sustainable cities have been developed and adopted in order to achieve a better and more sustainable future. However, background research has revealed that t...

Sunset Lunar Eclipse - May 16th 2022 -

Shot through a Canon EF 70-200mm 1:2.8 LIS USM lens with a Canon 7D @ ISO 1000. 1/40th second, 1/80th second & 1/20th second exposures. Layers, levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

The apparition of Comet Leonard last night was something to behold! The comet has undergone another outburst which made it very much brighter than the previous times I had observed and photographed it. A good section of Leonard was visible to the naked eye and was a great sight through binoculars.

The tail has grown so long, that I could not fit it into a single frame, so was forced to take overlapping images and combine them into one... The "extra tail" towards the upper right is some of the material ejected by a previous outburst prior to Christmas.

Details: Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) - Image taken December 26th, 2021. Shot through an Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refracting Telescope, 480mm focal length @ f-6. Guided on a Skywatcher HEQ6Pro mount. Camera: Canon 6D @ ISO 2000. Two 2 minute exposures in mosaic. RAW file adjusted in Light Room. Levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

Comet Leonard has brightened again. Even part of the tail is now visible to the naked eye! Image directly from the back of the camera.

Comet Leonard is not the first Christmas comet that I have seen... Ten years ago, the stunning Comet Lovejoy graced our morning sky. Lovejoy was a great comet, easily visible to the naked eye for 5 mornings in a row.

This image was taken at Waitangi Lagoon, Awatoto in the Christmas pre-dawn...

Merry Christmas everyone, and wishing us all wondrous things for the coming year!

I finally got things working properly for Comet Leonard last night... It has faded a bit since the previous shot, but still looks nice. In the inverted image, you can just make out the tail stretching to near the upper right corner...

Updated position of Comet Leonard for viewing tonight. Binoculars or a small telescope will give the best views, but I could see it with the unaided eye once the sky got dark last night...

It was a tough night at the telescope last night... Wind, a low target and a telescope still not properly collimated...

Anyhow, here is a rough and ready shot of Comet Leonard, plus the inverted image to reveal more of the tail... I have added updated images in the comments.

The green colour (red in the inverted image) comes from the presence of cyanogen, a carbon/nitrogen compound related to cyanide.

For those who are interested, there is a faint comet in the western sky over the next few nights...

Comet Leonard can bee seen with binoculars as a fuzzy ball with a short stubby tail... The view will get easier as it gets dark...

Westerly winds make for nice sunsets, but aren't much good for observing comets!

Star-testing and collimation of the new scope is ongoing...

This was the only shot I managed to get last night before the clouds rolled back in. The great nebula in Orion (single 5 minute exposure with minimal processing).

Partial Lunar Eclipse - November 19th 2021 -

Shot through an Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refracting Telescope with a 2X converter, 960mm focal length @ f-12. Guided on a Skywatcher HEQ6Pro mount. Camera: Canon 6D @ ISO 800. 1/3 second, 1 second & 3.2 second exposures. Layers, levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

Partial Lunar Eclipse - November 19th 2021 -

UPDATE - New version of the image in the comments because I missed some processing artifacts in the original... Was clearly in too much of a hurry to publish!

Shot through an Orion ED80T CF Triplet Apochromatic Refracting Telescope with a 2X converter, 960mm focal length @ f-12. Guided on a Skywatcher HEQ6Pro mount. Camera: Canon 6D @ ISO 800. 1/3 second, 1 second & 3.2 second exposures. Layers, levels, curves and contrast edited in Photoshop.

From the back of the camera right now...

Last night I finally managed to get some sky that was good enough to begin star-testing of the new scope... This image is very rough and the setup still needs work, but it still counts as first light for the new gear...

The main image is a 30 second exposure of the Lagoon Nebula. The stars are not very sharp due to the mirrors not being fully aligned, but it gives a reasonable idea of what the gear will be able to do. The second image is one shot through the old scope of the same region. The box within that image shows how much smaller the field of view of the new scope is by comparison.

Testing and refinement will continue...

Frogstar Observatory under mammatus cloud right now. Looks like further star testing of the new telescope will have to wait a few days...