Bathurst Observatory Research Facility
Bathurst NSW Australia
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https://www.facebook.com/BathurstObservatory/
Bathurst Observatory Research Facility is an observatory site primarily for education, research and study, though we do offer general public viewing nights.
Open Nights Star Tours Available Now (conditions and limits apply)
Bookings will be essential for all tours.
(All tours subject to weather)
Tours are underway at the new site. The site is not complete yet, however, are able to offer tours to help complete other facilities.
Tours will be generally be available most Friday and Saturday nights.
No tours in the week of Full Moon
Please note that the main telescope is pretty big and requires use of a small stepladder for viewing. Please advise if you would have difficulties with steps and we can set up a different telescope.
* There may be some mid week research nights where tours are not available.
Reduced Tours Prices for groups
Costs :
As the site is not yet complete with all facilities, we are asking for donation towards completion (an amount you think is fair for the tour and my time).
(Note: we have NO credit card facilities)
Tour bookings and Enquiries, phone (0427292214 Please leave a message as we screen out spam calls), or email us. (Email is by far the best way to get us, if you don’t get a reply it means you have us blocked!!! Please change your settings!).
Tours require bookings and are weather dependent. (We can’t see stars through clouds!) Tour duration is about 1 hour, depending on time of year.
Our FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/BathurstObservatory/ is regularly updated, so have a look for the latest news and images from the observatory.
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Swan25B on the evening of the 14th Sept. The comet does appear a bit brighter and a disconnection event in the ion tail, not far along from the coma. Bathurst Observatory Research Facility ... See MoreSee Less
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Can you post with a ra and dec please as I tried to find it tonight and couldn’t any help Would be appreciated
Image of newly discovered comet temporarily known as SWAN25B on the evening of the 13th September. Nice long ion tail! I could see the coma but not the tail in binoculars as well. Image with a 6inch scope. ... See MoreSee Less
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How long after sunset did U get the photo
Love your work capturing it for us to see!! How absolutely exciting!!
👏
New Comet alert! New found comet, bright enough to image, below Mars and Spica, evening sky. Co-ords for the evening of 13th Sept....
RA 13 13 01.7 DEC -09 45 35 mag ~8 Temp name is SWAN25B
Please note: The comet is TOO FAINT to see without telescope or binoculars. Comets do not streak across the sky, but only slowly change position when observed night to night. This comet is also low in evening twilight, which will make it a bit hard to image as well. There will be updates on prospects for this object in coming days. ... See MoreSee Less
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Oh cool!! That's interesting to come across!!
It was a very early start, and I was very lucky to have a clear patch of sky for most of the lunar eclipse on the 8th of September. These are a selection of images taken from 3:30am until 4:30am using a small telescope. Next lunar eclipse is March 3 next year, and at a more convenient time! ... See MoreSee Less
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Don't forget to sign.
Thankyou so much for sharing this
Gorgeous capture….
Great photos and I saw some good ones from Tasmania too. Very grateful for being able to see them ..
Yes I like this, pretty special
I got the Moon rising but that was it, Nice captures 👍
www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN7346
👍👌😎😎😎😎😎
Brilliant 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Some from Townsville Qld
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A rare fine day on the 31st August allowed me to image the sun. The large sunspot group numbered 4197 unleashed a large solar flare that may produce aurora on late on the 2nd September. The sun certainly looks crowded with sunspots at present. As it was a clear night too, I also imaged the Moon!
The one to mark your calendar for is the total lunar eclipse in early hours of the 8th of September. The times here are for eastern Australia. The Moon will start to enter Earth’s umbral shadow at 2:27 am and be totally in the shadow at 3:31 am (getting lower in the west). It will take on the copper colour that a total eclipse is famous for and mid eclipse occurs at 4:11 am! The Moon will remain eclipsed until 4:53am, when it starts to leave Earths shadow. By the time it fully leaves Earth’s shadow it will be pretty much on the western horizon for eastern Australia.
Tours will recommence once the run of cloudy weather goes away for a weekend!!! Did you know that there has not been a clear weekend for some 10 weeks!!! Sometimes I want to give away doing tours as a result. ... See MoreSee Less
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Please save our night sky by signing ADSA petition. www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN7346
See the little dot near the arrow? That is the interstellar comet 3I Atlas. It is still really faint and hardly noticeable other than its movement (I will make a gif of it this week). The top is a raw image from the 24th of August. While the one below is a stack of images processed and shows the comet as a blurred streak due to its movement through the solar system imaged over 15 minutes. The comet is producing some dust and gas, but will NOT be a spectacular object! I had to mark its location with the red arrow or you may not see it! ... See MoreSee Less
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It is the 3rd interstellar object recorded first seen around July this year by the Atlas telescope. A Harvard scientist Avi Loeb has speculated that it may not be a comet but a made object. It should be closest to us in November.
So.. it's not an alien starship... on it's way to menace Earth. How could Facebook get it so wrong!
I cant even find the arrow.
Nice, hopefully it will still be a good target for a scope. Details on gear please.
Where’s the arrow?
If it's travelling so fast as they all say. Why hadn't it passed earth yet.
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Watch this Space August and September 25
Tours have been very difficult to fit into my schedule as you may have noticed. The weather has not been kind, with a LOT of cloud and rain cancelling tours and putting my own work well behind schedule. At present, this does not look to be changing anytime soon. Tours are sadly paused for a bit, until the weather improves AND I catch up on my own work I need to do with the telescope.
As September begins, we do have a few interesting objects to observe. Saturn is making a return to the eastern evening sky. This year the rings are pretty much edge on, so will be harder to see. However, it will still be a good sight!
There are still good prospects for aurora as well, with the sun still very active. Hopefully I’ll get some more images of sunspots too. Folks will have noticed I haven’t imaged the Space Station for a while. So I might try for that as well!
The big event though is in the early hours of the 8th of September. There will be a total lunar eclipse visible for Australia. The times here are for eastern Australia. The Moon will start to enter Earth’s umbral shadow at 2:27 am and be totally in the shadow at 3:31 am (getting lower in the west). It will take on the copper colour that a total eclipse is famous for and mid eclipse occurs at 4:11 am! The Moon will remain eclipsed until 4:53am, when it starts to leave Earths shadow. By the time it fully leaves Earth’s shadow it will be pretty much on the western horizon for eastern Australia. I will post a reminder closer to the date! ... See MoreSee Less
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Ps. There are lots of fake stories about a six planet alignment, among others flying around social media. Some have tricked some highly regarded pages. Very sad.
Is your museum open?
As visitors to the observatory may recall, the museum I have has a collection of minerals, fossils and meteorites. There has been a bit of cloud about of late, so I joined up with a few friends from a fossil club and went on a collecting trip to gather some local fossils (from Forbes) to add to our growing museum. It is still cloudy, hence why no space image, but hope the trilobite fossils I found are still interesting!! ... See MoreSee Less
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We will have to drop in the next time we are in Bathurst, we are from Forbes, I didn't know about fossils at Forbes, we have been to the Age of Fisher's quite a few times.
Always something awesome to share with us, Ray.
Any day with a trilobite in it is a good day!
I turned the telescope towards the Lagoon Nebula (M8) after finding I needed to tweak the telescope. This nebula is a fairly bright and a good target for those branching out in astrophotography.
Comet 3IAtlas will be excited to image later this year (still too faint for my scope, I tried!). It will likely remain too faint to be seen without a telescope. I will though post some information in the coming months.
August tour dates will be posted as soon as I know my schedule. I haven't had many free nights of late I admit! ... See MoreSee Less
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