Palmerston North Astronomical Society

20/01/2025

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This is the Official page of the Palmerston North Astronomical Society.

19/01/2025

Something in the Orange: Comet C/2024 G3 continues to climb out of the bright twilight. I was joined by P.N.A.S. members John Honore and Stefan Krivan, before my neighbours came over right on cue. Tonight, we had the advantage of two late primary school age girls whose young eyes picked out the comet before the adults gathered at my place! The head and tail were both distinct to the naked eye by 9.30 p.m., and once again the comet was great in binoculars and small scopes. The golden colour of the tail was brilliant enough to standout against the orange twilight. Tomorrow night (Jan 19th) the comet will be at the top of the picture, above the star 24 Capricorni, at the same time.

17/01/2025

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) captured at 9.35 p.m. on January 17th, 2025, using a 400mm telephoto lens from Glen Oroua, Manawatu. The comet is best seen in binoculars and small telescopes in the direction where the sun sets.

28/12/2024

When the sky becomes fully dark at the end of Astronomical Twilight, which at this time of the year is a minimum of 90 minutes after sunset, we are afforded the chance to see the path of the sun, the ecliptic, and where the sun will be over the next six months or so. Occasionally we might find the Moon and some bright planets to plot the invisible line across the sky. Right now, late December, at around 11p.m. local time we have four bright planets stretching right across the sky in the north from west to east, that help us to define this great arc. When we plot this onto an all sky photo (see the annotated version) we notice just how low the ecliptic is at night, especially when we think of how high the sun is around true noon at the moment. The photo was taken at 11.11 p.m. N.Z.D.T. 8mm fisheye at f/3.5, 30 seconds on ISO 6400. Taken from Sluggish Creek Observatory, Manawatu.

04/11/2024

While photographing the conjunction of Mercury & the Moon , and then my final shot of the comet last night, I also took what will be my last chance for this year to capture the winter Milky Way setting in the west in the evening. You will notice the crescent Moon on the horizon and if you look really hard you might spot the comet too. Also note the angled glow of the zodiacal light reaching up from the Moon through Venus and beyond. The glow on the left silhouetting the trees is Levin and Foxton. The glow on the far right is the city of Whanganui. The bluer glow just to the right of centre is from the governments secret listening station near Tangimoana. Only about a dozen people work there overall so I'm told, and yet their security lights rival the light of Woodville, a town of 1,500 people. Those lights are so bright they would most likely be detected with a small telescope on Mars! 'Top Secret,' Yeah Right! Taken from my front, roadside, fence at Glen Oroua, Manawatu, New Zealand at 9.35 p.m. local time. A 5 shot panorama with a 20mm Sigma ART lens @ f/3.5. 6 seconds on ISO 6400.

03/11/2024

Last night I said farewell to the "Fine Comet" of 2024, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). It turns out that this comet will never return to the inner solar system again. This was the 3rd comet discovered in the first fortnight of last year, hence the designation C/2023 A3. As always there was much speculation about what this comet might look like once it got close to both the sun and earth, based upon hundreds of years of astronomical knowledge learned from the study of hundreds of previous comets. In the end, and for once, the predictions were very close to spot on. We in the southern hemisphere did not see it when the comet was at its brightest, Oct 14th - 18th, and locally the poor weather throughout late September and all of October, meant we had limited chances to see it anyway. It was never an easy naked eye comet for us, but it made up for it by being very photogenic! in my photos the tail only stretches out 1.5 degrees, compared to over 20 degrees just two weeks ago (see the second photo for comparison). Even in bino's it was quite faint last night. We had a "Good Comet" in Comet P12 (Pons-Brooks) six months ago. A Fine Comet just now, but we are overdue for another "Great Comet." Bring it on!

03/11/2024

It cleared nicely at dusk tonight. I went out by the road to capture the comet for the last time, but I got this nice little conjunction of Mercury and the crescent moon with the head of Scorpius. The wider shots have Venus as well.

13/10/2024

For those who stayed up long enough, and who weren't swamped by clouds, there was a final outburst between 11.00 and 11.30 p.m. that was among the best I have seen in 46 years of observing the aurora australis from the Manawatu.

13/10/2024

Now that we are all rested from the Great Auroral Storm on Friday, we can now get keen for Round Two of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan/ATLAS) in our evening sky this coming week. Observations and photos are coming in thick and fast from the northern hemisphere where the comet is putting on a fine performance. With the kind permission Antonino Brosi at Nicotera, Calabria in southern Italy, I have made up this diagram to show the different perspective from what Antonino recorded to what we can expect from New Zealand. There is a 78 degree difference in latitude between Nicotera and Palmerston North. The difference means that the tail lies way over to the right, which is a disadvantage to us south of the equator as it means that the tail is coming to us through the thicker part of the atmosphere compared to the northern hemisphere. The brightness of the dust tail will offset this a bit and the comet, although fading will slowly rise above the evening twilight, just as the Full Moon departs the evening sky from the 18th onwards. To get the best views you will need a clean (no trees, buildings or mountains) horizon, so a west coast site would be ideal or an elevated one. Be in place by 8.30 p.m. local time and look due west. Bring binoculars if you can get them. A camera on a tripod would be best with lenses ranging from 18mm to 200mm but considering that the comet will be in or near twilight a cell phone camera could also do well if you can keep it steady enough. It will be all over in an hour, so enjoy the spectacle.

12/10/2024

This little sequence is from Friday night (Oct 11th, 2024) from the first hour after it became dark in a period from 8.49-9.06 p.m. N.Z.D.T. Each picture is a 2-shot panorama with a 20mm at f/5. The exposures are 4 seconds on ISO 6400. Taken from Pyke Road, Taikorea, Manawatu Plains and featuring Ol’ Piney on the right and the North Wall of the Tararua Ranges in the distance.

11/10/2024

AURORA ALERT! Over the last 12 hours the Earth’s magnetic field has been strongly buffeted by the arrival of several Coronal Mass Ejections (CME’s) thrown off the sun in the past few days. The first one impacted us just before 5.00 a.m. this morning. I was able capture this small aurora from near Taikorea before morning twilight took over. In the meantime, the strength of the auroral storm forces has carried on around the globe. The latest prognosis is that there will still be plenty of energy in the system when night falls for New Zealand tonight. Twilight finishes around 9.10 p.m., and there is a 56% lit moon (just past 1st Quarter) but the aurora should be strong enough to be seen from suburbia. If you observe from the city, find a big city park and put yourself on the northern side. This will mean that you have an unobstructed view, no trees or buildings. Don’t look across the CBD or across the Rail Yards which have the worst light pollution. If you want to travel you don’t have to go to far west and south of the city to improve your view (see the attached map). Look for a quiet, rural road and somewhere where you can safely park. Check the area for things like subtle and deep drains. Ideally this would be sussed out in daylight but that might not be possible at short notice. The auroral activity could range from east to west along the southern horizon. This activity will fluctuate through the night, weather permitting. Happy hunting!

29/09/2024

A stunning morning afforded me the chance to change the foreground in my shots of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). I drove for nearly an hour to get 75 km northeast to me to a place called Table Flat Rd, just past Apiti in northern Manawatu, that gives a fine view of the Ngamoko Range, a part of the Ruahine Ranges that divide the lower North Island. At the northern end of the Ngamoko’s lies the prominent peak of Mt Tunupo (1,568m – 5,144ft). I arrived at around 16.00 hrs U.T. (5.00 a.m. N.Z.D.T.) I took one shot to see where the mountain was, and I wasn’t surprised to see the end of the tail sticking up behind the base of Tunupo! My calculations were pretty spot on. Once again, I used the 50mm with the Nikon D5600, set at f/2.8. I mostly used the 135mm @ f/3.5 on the D750. Conditions were near perfect. 100% clear and no wind. I was expecting it to be colder at that altitude, 660m-2,165ft, but it wasn’t. At around 16.45 U.T., once the comet’s head had cleared the horizon and before morning twilight became too obvious, I could easily see the coma and very faintly detect about five degrees of tail by direct vision. In the 15 x 70 Astronz Bino’s the tail could be traced over three fields of view. I reckon that it stretched out to 11 degrees at best. The view in the back of the camera and in the bino’s was so reminiscent of Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), the Great Christmas Comet of 2011. This is a difficult naked-eye target but a widefield telescope at low power, binoculars or a reasonable digital camera will give great results.