News Blog

News on what’s been happeing in BAS.

Witton Barracks – Public Telescope Night Venue

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Witton Barracks is a community hub facility located adjacent to Indooroopilly Railway Station, at 9 Lambert Road, Indooroopilly: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KLe79sRzyAcuLW2r6    The courtyard behind the main buildings is the venue for our periodic public telescope evenings.  Our volunteers can carefully drive their vehicle right into the courtyard and setup gear directly from the vehicle – no heavy lugging required.

Event start and end times vary with sunset times, but typically run from about 30minutes prior to sunset through to about about 2hours after sunset.  Most events are timed around first-quarter Moon.  Event status updates are posted on the BAS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BrisbaneAstronomicalSociety

Astronomy Information Sheets

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Brisbane Astronomical Society has created a number of PDF information sheets that may be of interest to educators and anyone interested in astronomy.

Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on our Milky Way Galaxy. Click HERE
Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on our Solar System. Click HERE
Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on our Moon. Click HERE
Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on the constellations. Click HERE
Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on star clusters. Click HERE
Click here for a downloadable PDF information sheet on some amazing astronomical objects. Click HERE

June Telescope Targets for Beginners

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This is the June list of targets suggested for beginner astronomers.  BAS has lots of members taking their first steps in astronomy and telescope mastery. Finding, and observing, the Moon is pretty easy, however just about every other object, other than the brighter planets, can be a challenge to bring into view in a telescope eyepiece. As a result, we have produced a short list of targets appropriate for beginners. The list includes objects visible from within the bubble of city light pollution, plus other objects that require a trip to a rural dark sky. The list also includes maps to help you find the objects and links to sources of additional information.

Click HERE for the PDF document list.

Dobsonian Telescope – Getting Started Videos

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Brisbane Astronomical Society recommends beginner astronomers should start their astronomy journey with a Dobsonian telescope.  The reasons for this recommendation are outlined in our blog article on the topic of “What telescope should I buy”.

However, there is more to using your new scope than just plonking a Dob down in the backyard and taking a look.  There are a few basic steps and procedures we recommend you learn as soon as possible.  Skipping the basics can quickly lead to frustration and your telescope relegated to a cupboard and hosting spiders.

 BAS has created three tutorial videos to get you, and your Dob,  started.

Dobsonian Telescope a Beginner’s Guide 

This video shows you how to setup your telescope, align the finderscope and push the scope around to get target objects in the eyepiece field of view.  Find the video on our Youtube Channel.
https://youtu.be/mfToaBjc1W8

Light Pollution – Go beyond the City

This video explains why it can be frustratingly difficult to see astronomical objects from within the light pollution bubble of cities and major towns.  It also provides advice on what to do about the problem. Find the video on our Youtube Channel.
https://youtu.be/Q2_8XirciTE

Stellarium Tutorial on Deep-Sky Star-Hopping

This video provides an introduction to the Stellarium planetarium application and how it can help you find and observe countless deep-sky objects such as star clusters, globular clusters, nebulae, comets and galaxies.  Find the video on our Youtube Channel.

https://youtu.be/RIMJlCESq2g

You might also find the BAS lists of observing targets for beginners a useful source to get you started with deep-sky observing. 

Find a list for the March evening sky HERE.

Find a list for the June evening sky HERE.

March Telescope Targets for Beginners

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BAS has lots of members taking their first steps in astronomy and telescope mastery. Finding, and observing, the Moon is pretty easy, however just about every other object, other than the brighter planets, can be a challenge to bring into view in a telescope eyepiece. As a result, we have produced a short list of targets appropriate for beginners. The list includes objects visible from within the bubble of city light pollution, plus other objects that require a trip to a rural dark sky. The list also includes maps to help you find the objects and links to sources of additional information.

Click HERE for the PDF document list.

Why are comet heads green?

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If you have ever wondered why the heads of comets are green, but their tails are not, wonder no longer!

Check out this research paper published on October 2021 and cease the head-scratching!
Seriously, this is a good read as it answers a very old question…

Finding Telescope Alignment Stars

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Frustration often rules when you are just starting to learn the sky and get your new electronic mount set-up and properly aligned.  One source of frustration can be finding, and correctly identifying, specific alignment stars.

Every telescope mount manufacturer seems to use a different list of stars that can be used for an initial 1, 2 or 3-star alignment of their mount.  The names of stars can be another source of frustration as some manufacturers use different star names – many of which are obscure stars you may never have heard of.

However, the SkySafari Planetarium App can help reduce these frustrations.  The app allows you to download a list of all the alignment stars specific to most common mounts – Argo Navis; Celestron; Meade LX200; Orion Intelliscope; Sky Commander; Skywatcher Synscan, and Vixen Starbook.

Once loaded into your device it becomes a simple click, or two, for SkySafari to show you exactly where to find specific alignment stars.

How to Download and use Alignment Stars List in SkySafari

Open SkySafari and click “Observe” on the main menu. Then click “Observing Lists”.

Click “Import from Online Repository”.

Click to select the alignment star list that matches your mount.

The list of alignment stars will now be saved to your SkySafari Observing Lists in your mobile device.

When you are ready to do a mount alignment, open SkySafari and click Observe, then click Observing Lists and your set of alignment stars will be available for you to click on and open (such as for the Skywatcher Synscan).

Once you have clicked a list and opened it, you can sort the list by perhaps star name or magnitude, to make it easier to find desired alignment stars.  Stars that are currently visible are displayed with illuminated text (others are below the horizon).

To find the current location of an alignment star, click its name and then center to place it on the sky map.

The alignment star you are trying to find should now be easy to identify on the app map and in the sky.

Another approach to finding alignment stars is to have SkySafari display all available guide stars for you mount simultaneously on a sky map.

As explained above – click Observe on the main menu and then click Observing Lists.  Open the Skywatcher Synscan Alighnment Stars list, for example, and then click Actions and Settings.

Then click the Highlight Objects button on the top menu of the star list.

Click the x in the top-right to close this screen and display the Star Map.

The star map makes it obvious that SynScan Alignment Stars have been predefined by Skywatcher so that there are multiple “pairs” of stars the required 10 to 30 degrees of seperation for use in a two-star alignment.  The star map makes it very easy to then accurately locate the correct stars in the telescope eyepiece. 

The same procedure can be followed in SkySafari for alignment stars for multiple other brands of telescope mount.

Skywatcher EQ Mount – Setup and Alignment Guide

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HERE is a step-by-step guide to setting-up and star-aligning a Skywatcher equatorial mount (such as the AZ EQ5 and AZ EQ6 mounts that use the Synscan hand controller) in the Southern Hemisphere.  When the guide promts you to select alignment stars, please find another blog article on this website with a list of Skywatcher Southern Hemisphere alignment stars sorted by periods of the year.

SkyWatcher Mount – SynScan Alignment Stars

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The SkyWatcher mounts such as the AZ EQ6 use a SynScan hand controller to control the mount and complete the initial 1, 2 or 3-star alignment procedure. 

While the SynScan hand controller offers about 100 stars in the southern hemisphere for initial alignment, the user manual does not provide a printed list of stars.  As a result, the star options you can choose from are hidden within the hand controller and not readily available for consideration.  Some parts of the sky may be blocked by clouds, trees or buildings and repeatedly scrolling through star names on the hand controller to find a suitable star can be slow and frustrating.  This list may aid in quickly finding a suitable star (assuming you have a great memory for obscure star names) or checking a star’s suitability in a planetarium app.

The linked PDF document contains a sorted list of all southern hemisphere SynScan alignment stars, in 3-month calendar groups, and 30 degrees or higher in northern sky declination.

Maleny Observatory

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Brisbane Astronomical Society now has a designated observatory – Maleny Observatory.

BAS has been conducting dark sky telescope nights at the Maleny Golf Club site for the last five years. During this time our Sunshine Coast BAS members have established an excellent relationship with the golf club, Sunshine Coast Council and other users and stakeholders of the public-land golf club site.

Our Sunshine Coast members have negotiated excellent site facilities for our members, including on-site telescope storage space, external lighting controls and access to clubhouse and associated facilities. This has allowed BAS to conduct many member and public telescope nights and introduced astronomy to thousands of Sunshine Coast residents.

The high level of active astronomical use of the site, and extensive outreach to the general public, has now been recognised by the Astronomical Society of Australia with their designation of Maleny Observatory as Australia’s newest astronomical observatory.

BAS would like thank our Sunshine Coast members, in particular Ken Wishaw and John Waugh, for their efforts in establishing this facility and its observatory designation status. This now creates an excellent basis for advancing amateur astronomy on the Sunshine Coast. To that effect, BAS has just completed a first draft of a Maleny Observatory Strategic Plan which maps out our plans to improve site facilities for members and the public and to expand our community outreach effort.

BAS members are encouraged to attend our upcoming observing nights at the Maleny Observatory.