Southern Cape Astronomy Club

Home
South Africa
Pearly Beach
Southern Cape Astronomy Club

Call Directions Website Contact the organization

Astronomy Club in Pearly Beach, Western Cape,SA. Active in outreach at schools & Public venues. Promoting astronomy & science.

Membership is open to anyone interested in astronomy, no fees or subs are required.

30/10/2026

Visited a few galaxies and the Which Head nebula last night (29/10/26).
RIP Sir Patrick Stewart.

29/10/2026

NGC 246 (also known as the Skull Nebula or Caldwell 56) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Cetus (The Whale), discovered by William Herschel in 1785.

• Distance: Approximately 1,600 to 3,500 light-years from Earth
• Constellation: Cetus
• Apparent Magnitude: 8 mag. nebula and 11.8 mag. central star.
• Diameter / Radius: Roughly 2 to 3 light-years across.

• Hierarchical Triple System: NGC 246 is the first known planetary nebula centered on a hierarchical triple star system.
• Components: It features a white dwarf (HIP 3678 A) and a close red dwarf companion (HIP 3678 C), with a third outer companion star orbiting the pair.

S30 Pro on EQ mode, just over one hour exposure time from Pearly Beach.

26/10/2026

Full Moon halo last night from the Little Karoo. October's Full Moon is called the Whale Moon.

From the center of Astronomical Heritage.

The largest mammal of all – in South Africa and the world – is the blue whale, which can grow to 33 metres in length.

Of the eight whale species found in South African waters (including the dramatic black-and-white killer whale), the most frequently seen is the southern right whale. This imposing creature comes into coastal bays to calve, allowing for superb land-based viewing.

The southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) are the two best known whale species that calve along the South African coast between June and December. These giant aquatic mammals were once hunted almost to extinction, an activity in which whaling stations along the South African coast were active participants. Now the numbers of these giants of the ocean are slowly recovering and they return to the warmer waters along the south and south east coasts of South Africa, where they were once butchered in large numbers, to calve in safety. Their arrival and stay has become a welcome attraction for the general public and tourists in coastal towns.

The southern right whale represents one of conservation’s success stories. Once considered the “right” whale to hunt, its population became so depleted that it was designated a protected species.

With the greater familiarity that their return to the coastal bays has produced, they are now as well loved as the many dolphins in our coastal waters.

Place names associated with whales:

Umkomaas is a town in the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality of the KwaZulu-Natal Province situated at the mouth of the uMkhomazi River. Many whales once used the estuary as a nursery and the Zulus named the river accordingly. In isiZulu ‘uMkomaziʼ translates to ‘whale-cowʼ.

UMngenga is a river in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality of the Eastern Cape Province which runs into the Indian Ocean at Coffee bay. The name sometimes seen as ‘Ngengaʼ is derived from the isiXhosa word ‘imnengaʼ, ‘whaleʼ. In 1844 the name ‘Whale Riverʼ was still in use.

Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) is a city in Namibia as well as the name of the bay on which it lies at the mouth of the Kuiseb River.

Whalehaven is a w**ery in the Overstrand Local Municipality of the Western Cape Province. It is the third oldest w**e producer in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley ‘Heaven-and-Earthʼ and has been crafting w**es since 1995.

https://cfah.org.za/fullmoon/whale-moon/

22/10/2026

Had half a chance in Pearly before the cloud ☁️ rolled in. First up was the Moon, followed by the Helix nebula, by the time I swung to the Western Veil nebula it was all over.

19/10/2026

The Moon in between the clouds tonight, hopefully it will clear later on. The Moon is full on the 26th October at 06:12 SAST, and is known as the Whale Moon in South African star lore. Rather apt for this time of the year from Pearly me thinks.

19/10/2026

Some early morning (3am) astrophotography over the weekend from Pearly Beach. Targets were, The Rosette Nebula, The Thor's Helmet Nebula, The Great Orion Nebula, and M46 with the planetary nebula NGC 2438. Taken with the S30 Pro on EQ mode with 60 second light frames. Open each image for further information (source Wiki).

16/10/2026

Please note, this is not an AI generated site. Our images and wording/text are created by real people and are authentic, so be assured that any mistakes are made by genuine humans (carbon based lifeform)😀.

11/10/2026

Just a quick stack of a few dso's from the early hours on Sunday morning (11/10/2026). First up is comet 161P Hartley-IRAS, followed by B33 the Horsehead nebula, and NGC 2072 the Tarantula nebula. Last is a short grab of NGC 2359 Thor's Helmet.

Will annotate each image shortly. Taken with a S30 Pro on EQ mode from Pearly Beach.

08/10/2026

Some stunning Little Karoo skies as we head towards New Moon. Caught the Andromeda galaxy (M31) and Saturn (at opposition), in the same image, so cool to see the galaxy with the naked eye.

Key facts on M31.

• Light travel time: Because it is 2.5 million light-years away, the light we see from M31 left the galaxy 2.5 million years ago.
• Nearest major neighbor: It is the closest major spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way, though smaller dwarf galaxies (like the Canis Major Dwarf) are closer.
• Size: It spans roughly 220,000 to 260,000 light-years across and contains an estimated 1 trillion stars.
• Future path: M31 and the Milky Way are moving toward each other and are expected to collide and merge in about 4 to 5 billion years.

05/10/2026

Three images with a S30 Pro on EQ mode from last night (04/1
/2026).

First image:
Comet 161P/Hartley-IRAS is a Halley-type periodic comet with an orbital period of about 21.5 years that recently passed its closest approach to Earth on October 2, 2026.
QUICK FACTS
• Orbit Type: Halley-type periodic comet on a retrograde near-polar orbit.
• Orbital Period: 21.46 years, with its next perihelion (closest point to the Sun) expected on November 27, 2026.
• Closest Approach: Reached its nearest point to Earth on October 2, 2026, at a distance of roughly 75.3 million kilometers (0.503 AU).
• Discovery & Recovery: Originally discovered in November 1983 by Malcolm Hartley and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS); recently recovered in mid-2026 ahead of its current return.
• Visibility: Features an apparent magnitude hovering roughly between 11.2 and 14.2, meaning it is far too faint for the naked eye and requires a medium-to-large amateur telescope to observe under clear dark skies.

Total of 50 minutes of data captured.

Second image:
NGC 6822 (also known as Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57) is a barred irregular galaxy approximately 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Part of the Local Group of galaxies, it was discovered by E. E. Barnard on 17 August 1884, with a six-inch refractor telescope. It is the closest non-satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. It is similar in structure and composition to the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is about 7,000 light-years in diameter.

Total 80 minutes of data captured.

Third image:
The Tarantula Nebula (also designated as 30 Doradus or NGC 2070) is an immense, highly active star-forming region located approximately 160,000 to 170,000 light-years away from Earth. It sits in the constellation Dorado within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is a dwarf satellite galaxy orbiting our own Milky Way.
Spanning an incredible radius of roughly 931 light-years (nearly 1,862 light-years across), it holds the title of the largest and most intense cosmic stellar nursery known in our entire local galactic neighborhood. Its name is derived from its unique appearance: an intricate web of glowing gas filaments and dark cosmic dust lanes that spread outward like the sprawling legs of a tarantula spider.

Total of 78 minutes of data captured.

Address

Portion 1, Farm 321 Kleinhagelkraal
Pearly Beach
7221

Telephone

+27791484934

Website

https://xplorio.com/gansbaai/southern-cape-astronomy-club/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Southern Cape Astronomy Club posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.