Category Archives: Deep Sky Observing

Posted on by July 20, 2021

CAROL BOTHA’S LYNGA 7 (in Norma)

Nightfall contributing writer Carol Botha has been opening new vistas for her ASSA colleagues. Foresaking the joys of South Africa’s ever present tremulousness thanks to Jet Stream, our subtropical humidity, the frigid winds and practically inescapable light pollution, Carol now sits in her comfy office surrounded by panoramic computer monitors, and a web link to the Slooh network of robotic telescopes located in Chile and the Canary Islands

In the process she captures spectacular star fields that hide objects very few observers have ever seen or photographed. One of them is this faint but distinct snap of the old Galactic thick-disc Globular Cluster Lynga 7

This Cluster’s location and colour spectrum suggests that it originated in a dwarf galaxy that the Milky Way shredded multiple billions of years ago. Spot it? (it lies at x_-5.y=0 on the grid) At 26,000 light years from the Sun, it is a faint fuzzy indeed

Written en published by Nightfall Editor, Douglas Bullis – https://assa.saao.ac.za/sections/deep-sky/nightfall/

Centaurus A

Posted on by November 2, 2022

Long long ago, before internet, computerised telescopes and dslr cameras sketching at the eyepiece was a bit tougher than today but for me, no reason to throw away all pencils and blending stumps. I still believe that if I want to get up really close and personal, I have to sketch the objects that I observe.

To stay in practice I sketch the first mission that catches my attention in the live feeds on Slooh, preferably not my own mission. Each mission is 5 minutes and I have to pay close attention. The process of reducing my rough sketch is much easier now with the added bonus of an image and imaging software. The coolest is the ‘invert’ tool in photoshop!

Some may argue that sketching while observing online is crooking. Then maybe doing astro photography using specialised cameras and software falls in that category too 😛

I say as long as you enjoy doing astronomy to the full, any which way is more than ok.