EdwinQuail
@edwinquail.bsky.social
UK/Sydney
Astronomy, Astrophotography, Fireworks, Science stuff
Astronomy, Astrophotography, Fireworks, Science stuff
Quick crop of a quick stack - #Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) passing Antares below the Dark Horse nebula in the Milky Way - also visible - #asteroid #Vesta and other things. 10th Oct at Palm Beach, New South Wales. Canon 6D on Askar SQA55 on SA Pro mount. Two versions, second one has things labelled 🧪🔭
October 23, 2025 at 2:43 AM
For the closest approach between #comets #SWAN & #ATLAS on 20th Oct I went to a darkish site with everything but a power pack for the mount. Next night was problematic - windy, light leaks, I messed up the flats - hence this belated and grubby rendition - see Alt texts. 🧪🔭
October 2, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Well the smoke pretty much cleared and I got the two comets 4.5 degrees apart in one picture, along with Mars. They are moving in different directions, so are blurred against the fixed stars. I can fix this but for now here's a quick star-aligned stacked image along with an annotated version 🧪🔭
September 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Well the smoke pretty much cleared and I got the two comets 4.5 degrees apart in one picture, along with Mars. They are moving in different directions, so are blurred against the fixed stars. I can fix this but for now here's a quick star-aligned stacked image along with an annotated version 🧪🔭
Guess the location.. 🧪🔭
September 18, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Guess the location.. 🧪🔭
Hoping some of the 'controlled hazard reduction burn' smoke leaves before the comet shows up 🧪🔭
September 18, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Hoping some of the 'controlled hazard reduction burn' smoke leaves before the comet shows up 🧪🔭
Here are 'close-ups' of the two #comets as they appear in relation to each other and #Mars on the evenings of 20th & 21st September. Spica is out of shot. Comet #SWAN is likely to be about 2 magnitudes brighter than comet #ATLAS, but comet magnitudes are a bit - unpredictable.. 🧪🔭
September 16, 2025 at 2:42 AM
If you're more than 50 degrees north or south of the equator - and if it's dark, there could be some auroræ happening:
(Times are in UT, which is ~same as GMT, or BST minus 1 hour).
(Times are in UT, which is ~same as GMT, or BST minus 1 hour).
September 15, 2025 at 3:24 AM
If you're more than 50 degrees north or south of the equator - and if it's dark, there could be some auroræ happening:
(Times are in UT, which is ~same as GMT, or BST minus 1 hour).
(Times are in UT, which is ~same as GMT, or BST minus 1 hour).
Spent an hour in a local park in #Sydney to image the 'new' #comet SWAN25B as it appeared just below Spica and Mars. Bit of a tail despite the seeing conditions (light pollution, haze, low elevation). Canon 6D Mk1 on Askar SQA55 on SA Pro mount. Not yet visible to naked eye (use binoculars)🧪 🔭
September 14, 2025 at 6:55 AM
July 4, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Two more images from pre-dawn on 26th April in #Sydney Australia - this time two telephoto pics of the #Moon. Note the difference between the two exposures - 1/2 second shows #Earthshine while 1/40 second shows detail in the smiley crescent 🔭🧪
April 29, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Two more images from pre-dawn on 26th April in #Sydney Australia - this time two telephoto pics of the #Moon. Note the difference between the two exposures - 1/2 second shows #Earthshine while 1/40 second shows detail in the smiley crescent 🔭🧪
A whole bunch of things arrived in the east before dawn yesterday - among them the 5.6% illuminated #Moon with #earthshine, just 4 degrees from the #planet #Mercury.
Here's the view from #Sydney - Sigma 18-300mm lens at 170mm on Canon 600D. 🔭🧪
Here's the view from #Sydney - Sigma 18-300mm lens at 170mm on Canon 600D. 🔭🧪
April 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM
A whole bunch of things arrived in the east before dawn yesterday - among them the 5.6% illuminated #Moon with #earthshine, just 4 degrees from the #planet #Mercury.
Here's the view from #Sydney - Sigma 18-300mm lens at 170mm on Canon 600D. 🔭🧪
Here's the view from #Sydney - Sigma 18-300mm lens at 170mm on Canon 600D. 🔭🧪
But.. but.. still smiley - even here in Oz (Stellarium data):
April 24, 2025 at 9:19 AM
But.. but.. still smiley - even here in Oz (Stellarium data):
Oh dear. Mea culpa. As you probably know, there is pretty much no parallax effect here. I hadn't updated the asteroid's (osculating) orbital elements for years - and I believed it when I ran the erroneous simulation in Stellarium and #Flora was in a different place. Here's an update. Sorry 🙃
April 12, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Oh dear. Mea culpa. As you probably know, there is pretty much no parallax effect here. I hadn't updated the asteroid's (osculating) orbital elements for years - and I believed it when I ran the erroneous simulation in Stellarium and #Flora was in a different place. Here's an update. Sorry 🙃
Here in Australia the #asteroid #Flora misses the core of the #HamburgerGalaxy - in this animation, north is down (as in where I am) and each frame is 9pm Sydney time/date. Since Flora is 'only' 237m kilometres away and NGC3628 is 45m light years further, parallax makes a difference! 🔭🧪
April 9, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Here in Australia the #asteroid #Flora misses the core of the #HamburgerGalaxy - in this animation, north is down (as in where I am) and each frame is 9pm Sydney time/date. Since Flora is 'only' 237m kilometres away and NGC3628 is 45m light years further, parallax makes a difference! 🔭🧪
Looks like 6th May in the evening after sunset is first chance to see from here just below Aldebaran - if it makes it through perihelion..
April 9, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Looks like 6th May in the evening after sunset is first chance to see from here just below Aldebaran - if it makes it through perihelion..
Can you spot Proxima Centauri here - the closest #star to us after the sun?
It's the third star in the triple system #AlphaCentauri (See second image). It orbits the double star Alpha Centauri AB, and is currently 3.5% closer to Earth than the main binary Alpha Centauri AB. Details in Alt texts.🔭
It's the third star in the triple system #AlphaCentauri (See second image). It orbits the double star Alpha Centauri AB, and is currently 3.5% closer to Earth than the main binary Alpha Centauri AB. Details in Alt texts.🔭
April 9, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Can you spot Proxima Centauri here - the closest #star to us after the sun?
It's the third star in the triple system #AlphaCentauri (See second image). It orbits the double star Alpha Centauri AB, and is currently 3.5% closer to Earth than the main binary Alpha Centauri AB. Details in Alt texts.🔭
It's the third star in the triple system #AlphaCentauri (See second image). It orbits the double star Alpha Centauri AB, and is currently 3.5% closer to Earth than the main binary Alpha Centauri AB. Details in Alt texts.🔭
On this day a year ago I was at the Unit for Arid Zones of the Chapingo Autonomous University near Torreón, #Mexico.
This was 3.8km from the #eclipse centreline and 85km along that line from the point of maximum. These are the first images I've posted from that total solar eclipse - big backlog 🔭🧪
This was 3.8km from the #eclipse centreline and 85km along that line from the point of maximum. These are the first images I've posted from that total solar eclipse - big backlog 🔭🧪
April 8, 2025 at 3:31 AM
The recent #Moon - #Pleiades #occultation was invisible from #Oz but here's one I saw in the #UK on 7th Aug 2007. I took some pics with a cheap compact camera and sent them to Rhod Sharp on the BBC's 'Up All Night' radio show - here's what he said - Need sound on 🙂🔭🧪
April 8, 2025 at 1:46 AM
The recent #Moon - #Pleiades #occultation was invisible from #Oz but here's one I saw in the #UK on 7th Aug 2007. I took some pics with a cheap compact camera and sent them to Rhod Sharp on the BBC's 'Up All Night' radio show - here's what he said - Need sound on 🙂🔭🧪
Three #planets were within about 8 degrees of each other this morning as seen from Dee Why, #Sydney #Australia this morning before dawn. Left to right, low over the Pacific Ocean - #Venus, #Mercury and #Saturn. Image lightened a little to show the dark ocean better on a phone screen 🔭🧪
April 6, 2025 at 10:02 AM
There's been a lot of hype about #planetary #alignments again - a similar situation occurred in 2022 - but with the #planets all in the same quarter of the sky - here's the view from #Oz - note Venus's reflection in the ocean - bottom right - asteroid Vesta was also visible (1 pic - 3 versions)
March 1, 2025 at 7:39 AM
There's been a lot of hype about #planetary #alignments again - a similar situation occurred in 2022 - but with the #planets all in the same quarter of the sky - here's the view from #Oz - note Venus's reflection in the ocean - bottom right - asteroid Vesta was also visible (1 pic - 3 versions)