Recently we have been blessed with the presence of Comet c/2024 G3 (Atlas) so we were wandering down to the beach hopefully. Naturally it being high summer one would expect clear skies by we actually had an overcast sky and rain one of the best viewing nights! High winds also did not help at all the next day or two, but we did get some shots.
I have many more photographs of the comet but this will do for now, took it with the Dwarf 3. rdm had an interesting discovery, this comet is going to move toward the south, and stop setting, a bit like that Pole Star the Northern Hemisphere folks have and we're totally not jealous of because we can do that thing with the Southern Cross and the Pointers, and anyway we've got the Carina Nebula so nyeer.
*Deep Breath* So anyway we've been giving some attention to the Pleiades and Hyades, and other stuff that's a bit North for us. Nyingarn, the Echidna (or Orion if you like) is in the clear for us at home so stuff around there is good to look at before bedtime.
We all know by now that I'm a nebula kinda girl, so when I was scrolling around the Star Atlas I found a nebula that was just the right size for my telescope's field of view. It's called the Monkey's Head Nebula or NGC 2174. Unlike a lot of these fancifully named objects, it, to me, really does look like a primate head, although more apelike - even gorilla like than monkey. See what you think - here's a shot straight out of camera for you.
A couple of hours there.
In the same area we also have the Jellyfish Nebula, so the next night I targeted that. The photo will follow, I've run out of room to post it here.
Again only a couple of hours - but that's the gap we get of usable dark sky between astronomical night and beddybyes. I think it needs more time but even so straight out of camera we do get an intriguing image. I shall dicker with it some, but I like to share the unenhanced image with you first.
If you embiggen it you can see that there's plenty more nebulosity kicking around so more time and a bit of enhancement may be rewarding, I'll report back. rdm is getting us a funky SIIOIII filter so that will be interesting compared and combined with the inbuilt HAOIII in the Dwarf3. You know, I love these nebulas - I'm always looking for things that aren't tiny in the screen of the Dwarf and these are nicely sized, these along with the Rosette Nebula (aka Unicorn Nostril) are just the thing to have fun with the telescope.
And for me they don't have dirty great buildings and trees in the way which is unfortunately the case at home for most of the interesting stuff to the South, you know that Galactic Core and Carina stuff.
#WesternAustralia #PerthWesternAustralia #astronomy #astrophotography #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy #DrivewayAstrophotography #dwarf3
