Australia's largest optical telescope needs your help We almost never ask members of the BINTEL community to get involved with local causes, however this is an exception! Most of our readers would be familiar with The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) which is located at the Siding Spring Observatory just outside Coonabarabran in NSW, which many people call the astronomy capital of Australia.  This is the largest optical telescope in Australia and constructed at time when just about all major telescopes were located in the northern hemisphere. Currently there are no other large optical telescopes planned for Australia.  The AAT over the decades has produced a vast quantity of astronomical research and for quite a few years was regarded as one of the most productive telescopes on planet Earth.  As of the time of writing, the future of the AAT is up in the air. I was sent this by Professor Karl Glazebrook, in his role as AAT Council Chair which offers some further reading. (Karl's also a keen Seestar S50 user!) In a nutshell, the Federal Government's funding for the AAT is due to expire on the 30th of June 2027. In the next few years, our largest optical telescope will complete its current programs that includes wide field survey, exploring the evolution of our galaxy, and planets orbiting other stars. The issue is, what happens after that? Funding is uncertain at this stage.  At a local level, Coonabarabran and surrounding areas are at the very heart of Astro Tourism in Australia and either short or long term mothballing of the AAT would be a terrible blow to the region and we'd lose a remarkable experience for inspiring the next generation of Australian astronomers.  There's a vigorous local campaign underway to help raise awareness of this situation and to preserve and develop Astro Tourism for the Coonabarabran region. There are a number of ways to get involved to help keep this valuable resource open. You can visit their change.org petition here. I spoke today with Mark Osmond, one of the folks behind this campaign and he summed up the situation by saying that both professional and amateur astronomers across the country of all levels would be staggered if they realised their beloved AAT faces an uncertain future.  You can find a range of extra resources to help you learn more about possible future plans here.  Plus, the Siding Spring Observatory is the direct path of the Total Solar Eclipse in July 2028! ZWO Seestar S30 Pro or Seestar S50 Pro which one is right for you? This week saw the biggest astro product launch of 2026 (well at least so far...). It would be hard to miss the roll out of the new ZWO Seestar S50 Pro. This has grabbed the attention of many of our existing customers, many of whom are adding to their existing collection of regular and smart telescopes, as well as those who are starting off their astro journey with a Seestar S50 Pro. You will spot a vast number of videos from the various YouTubers and other influencers who've been busily going through the spec and comparing the new S50 Pro to the existing S30 Pro. They all seem to be quite informative and entertaining, and after spending a couple of late nights watching them on the large screen with my long-suffering Chihuahuas, I'd suggest you do the same.  Because of the large amount of helpful detail on offer online, I won't do a deep-dive into the specs of the new telescope, but there's a few highlights worth mentioning. New image sensor and upgraded optics = larger FOV (Field of View) This is the biggie. In much the same way ZWO upgraded the Seestar S30 to the S30 Pro with a larger 3840 x2160 4k sensor and improved 4-element APO optics, the same changes were made to the Seestar S50 to produce the Seestar S50 Pro.  This means the Seestar S50 Pro will capture a much wider field of view compared to the older Seestar S50, imaging almost 4 times the sky area. The upgraded APO (Apochromatic) means sharper details as well. By comparison, S30 Pro will cover some 150% more sky than the S50 Pro. What does the larger (50mm vs 30mm) main lens mean for my astro images? A larger lens collects more light and reveals finer details. This means the images produced by the S50 Pro will be "sharper" in nebulae and galaxies and stars will be brighter for exposure of the same length.  Why do I want to capture a larger chunk of the sky? Shouldn't I want to "zoom" in as much as possible to see small astro objects? One of the surprising things that anyone starting off in astronomy quickly finds out is how large many deep-sky object appear, often covering several times the size of the Full Moon in the night sky. Regions containing nebulae and star clusters might be spread over several square degrees, whereas the Moon whereas the Moon is only about half a degree across. These astro objects are faint though and that's why long exposures with a telescope like the S50 Pro will reveal intricate details and colours.  An official ZWO image showing the respective FOV (fields of view) of the original S50, S30 and the newer S30 Pro and S50 Pro models Other improvements Apart from increased onboard storage, one other major improvement to the S50 Pro is the inclusion of a second, wide-field lens and camera system. This is designed for taking astro panoramas, especially of the rich details contained in the Milky Way. We've seen many BINTEL customers take stunning photos of the Milky Way, especially during our Australian and Kiwi winters, using DSRL/mirrorless cameras and star tracker mounts to handle long exposures as the world spins beneath our feet.  The wide angle cameras in the Seestar Pro models also let you produce your own portrait of our home galaxy, but with a very special feature. A Milky Way panorama with a ZWO Seestar S50 Pro There is some confusion about how much AI is used by these Smart Telescopes. They DO NOT use AI to generate images. Instead, they have AI features to help assist with image composition and processing.  For example, they can "lock" the foreground features like the buildings and scenery in the image above, while tracking the stars and dust clouds as they revolve above our heads during a long exposure and combine the two to help your own astro masterpiece.   Bottom line, what does BINTEL think of the Seestar S50 Pro? As we're the only place in the Southern Hemisphere and one of only a handful of stores that sell all the various makes of Smart Telescopes on offer including ZWO, DWARF Lab, Celestron Origin, Unistellar and Vaonis, we're in a unique position to offer some independent and unbiased thoughts on what would the best for you and your astronomy plans.  Some of the Smart Telescopes currently on display BINTEL's Sydney store including the ZWO Seestar S50, S30 Pro, S50 Pro, DWARF Lab min, Vaonis Vespera and Unistellar.   In our opinion both the ZWO Seestar ZWO S30 and S50 Pro are capable of producing amazing astrophotos even in the hands of complete beginners and have the features to grow as your skills grow.  There is no hard answer as to which is best and it would be worthwhile considering how you'd like to use your new ZWO Seestar, especially if you are planning to travel with it.  The Seestar S50 Pro would be better for you if: You wanted the highest level of detail on deep-sky objects You're ok with a larger telescope, tripod and carrycase The Seestar S30 Pro would be better for you if: Travelling with your telescope is important or compact storage is a priority Capturing deep-sky objects that cover larger parts of the night sky You'd prefer a more affordable option (If you're thinking about upgrading from a Seestar S50 to the new Pro version, check out our blog here.)  Either way you will be quickly photographing the Universe. We've supplied ZWO Seestars to many hundreds of our customers over the last few years and are thrilled there's a new kid on the block. Does FOV (Field of View) matter for space telescopes? Speaking of FOV upgrades, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launching this evening our time has a massive FOV compared to previous space telescopes such as Hubble. Hubble's FOV in the top left compared to the FOV of the Roman Space Telescope. Image via NASA Roman will have a FOV some 200 times larger than Hubble while retaining the same roughly the same resolution. This means the "postage stamp" views produced by Hubble can be replaced with a wider and far more detailed views of the sky.  Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Susan Benecchi commented that Roman's wide FOV will help astronomers track moving objects that are often simply too faint to spot on their own individual images. It will “start to sample some of those smaller objects that we think of as the building blocks of planets.” by comparing different images and spotting moving objects.  You can read more about how Roman will help Solar System science here.  We'll be bringing news of Roman's launch next week! Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 29th August 2026      

Hubble points to our Milky Way's ancient past We've known for some time that the Milky Way is the result of a number of mergers and collisions with smaller galaxies stretching back billions of years. Some of these collisions such as the one with the Sagittarius Dwarf that started about 6 billion years are actually still underway! Before that, the Milky Way consumed a galaxy referred to as the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus around10 billion years ago. In the distant future, the Milky Way will merge with the Andromeda galaxy, most likely on a Tuesday afternoon, although some astronomers are not certain of this happening.  Many of the larger galaxies we observe are the results of these types of mergers and we have a ring-side seat to see these. Being embedded into one of the arms of the Milky Way it's been harder to establish the history of own galaxy.  “Our home is the Milky Way galaxy, but we do not know how our house was built,” said Davide Massari, lead author, Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory of Bologna in Italy. “In this paper we discover where the first significant batch of bricks came from: a dwarf galaxy that we call LKH.” An illustration of the early collision of galaxies in the Milky Way's history. Image via NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) The used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine globular clusters, large groups of stars that are so tightly bound together by gravity and their stars tall formed at the same time and evolve together. They're also some of the most spectacular objects to view through a telescope and we've covered them in more detail in a blog post here. Stars in some of these globular clusters were found to have formed outside the Milky Way and are remnants of the earlier LKH galaxy.  This discovery points to have merger occurring 11.8 billion years ago, extending the known merger timeline 1.8 billion back in into the past. The LKH dwarf galaxy is estimated to have contained around 500 million solar masses in stars which was a significant percentage of the mass of the Milky Way at the time.  “Some past studies have argued that the earliest phases of our galaxy’s evolution were defined by stars born only in our galaxy,” says Massari. “Here, we have shown that stars born in external galaxies also need to be considered.” More studies of these globular clusters are planned to continue digging into the Milky Way's past.  One thing to note about galaxy mergers is that while billions of stars, planets, vast interstellar gas clouds and dark matter "whack" into each other, due to the enormous distance between these objects, physical collisions between stars don't occur. Think of it more as thin clouds of smoke blowing into each other,   Read more here Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about to launch An exciting time for astronomers as the latest space telescope is heading to space ahead of time and under budget! It's due to head into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket next Sunday our time from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Named after NASA's Dr. Nancy Grace Roman who was the space agency's first chief astronomer and often called the "mother of Hubble". A NASA illustration of the Roman Space Telescope Roman's main 2.4 metre diameter mirror is the same size as Hubble, but only a quarter the weight due to advances in material technologies in the decades since. Camera This wide-field space telescope carries The Wide Field Instrument, or WFI.  This is a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will give Roman the sameangular resolution as Hubble, however it will capture around 100 times the field of view of Hubble and larger than a full Moon.  It will also carry a Coronagraph, which will cover the bright disk of stars in the hope of revealing faint details of their exoplanets.  Science We'll cover what Roman hopes to achieve in coming articles, but some of its main objects include study dark matter and energy, explore exoplanets and the structure of the Universe. Where is it being sent to? Roman is headed to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, about 1.6 million km away, where its stable orbit will be balanced between the Sun and the Earth. The Earth won't block much the view, and the space telescope will be less impacted by heat. This is also the same orbit where the James Webb Space Telescope is located. Very chance of them colliding however as they'll be in orbits millions of kms apart... Catch the best globular cluster tonight  Speaking of globular clusters, you can easily spot tonight the brightest of them and the largest one in the Milky Way galaxy, Omega Centauri. The view from Sydney towards the southwest tonight, 22nd Aug, at about 6.30pm You will see the Southern Cross on its "side" and Omega Centauri sits in the rich star clouds that in that part of the sky. It's just on the edge of visibility with your eyes, a small fuzzy ball in binoculars and a simply amazing sight in a telescope of any size.  How good is the view? Many of our customers just starting out on their astronomy journey pop in to see me at BINTEL and ask whether they'll be able to see rings of Saturn or the bands and moons of Jupiter. I tell them, "Yes, but just wait until you see Omega Centauri!" Plus, Omega Centauri mightn't be from the Milky Way.  Astronomers consider it a left over core of a dwarf galaxy the Milky Way ate billions of years ago.  When you peer up at it tonight, you're looking at the same kind of galaxy leftover the Hubble team has been checking out. Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 22nd August 2026 

The largest 2D map of the Universe has been released. 5.6 trillion pixels and you can explore from your computer Astronomers have released the largest 2D map of the Universe this week, with 5.6 trillion pixel and almost 4 billion celestial object and maps about three-quarters of the sky. It contains nebulae, black holes, asteroids, and of course, lots and lots of galaxies. It builds on previous DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys which in themselves have become standards for referencing the known Universe. The NSF Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile which contributed data to the survey “It’s part of the fabric of astronomy research now,” says David Schlegel, a co-lead of the Legacy Surveys and scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “When you're working with astronomical objects today, you often start by pulling up the Legacy Imaging Viewer to see what you’re looking at.”  There's an online viewer where you explore the data here. (Warning though, it is addictive and I'm probably already spent too much time cruising around the night sky with it....) Read more here Venus reaches greatest elongation for 2026. A great time to see it! Greatest elongation is when an inferior planet, one closer to the Sun than the Earth, ie Mercury or Venus, appears furthest apart from the Sun, For Venus, this happens at 4.00pm Sydney on the 15th August 2026. (August 15, 2026, at 06:00 UTC).   As Venus appears at its longest distance from the Sun in the sky, it will be visible for quite a while in the early evening and appear high in the sky. After the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky and is certainly putting on a display at the moment as it shines at about magnitude -4.4.   Venus and a very thin crescent Moon at around 6.30pm, Saturday 15th August 2026 as seen in the westerly sky from Sydney. Image via Stellarium.  Here's a map that shows where to see Venus in the next few nights, although it will be very hard to miss! You can enjoy the planet with just your eyes as a bright "star" and even a small telescope will reveal it as about half phase.  What's a Black Hole Star? Say G'day to MoM-BH*-1 It's not often scientists announce an entirely new type of astronomical object, but that's what happened this week with what's been labelled a Black Hole Star. (Not to be confused with the Soundgarden song "Black Hole Sun"...) Along the way, it might just have help solve a recent cosmic mystery. Not long after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began observations, it started finding what have been called "Little Red Dots." These are were announced in March 2022 and had astronomers scratching their heads as to what they were. They appeared in large numbers and dated back to some 600 million to 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang. What these compact, luminous, red sources of light were in the early Universe, and their nature remains under active investigation. MoM-BH*-1 was the brightest object of this type spotted during the Mirage or Miracle (MoM) survey by Webb. Its red colour was made even redder by the expansion of the Universe, but its colour would normally suggest something surrounded by a cloud of dust, however its appearance suggested there wasn't much there.  It's surprisingly bright, with the exception of a wavelength where a sharp change in brightness occurs. This is called a Balmer break, often a sign of dense gas absorbing light from a star forming without much dust around it.  As a further head scratcher,  MoM-BH*-1’s Balmer break was stronger than ever observed with a star. It's way too bright to have been generated by the nuclear fusion process, which powers stars such as our Sun. “It is a very special thing to find an object with no comparison, given the vast stores of data on billions of stars, galaxies and black holes that we have in our archival databases,” study co-author Rohan Naidu, said study co-author Rohan Naidu, an astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi., “MoM-BH*-1 is one in a billion!” Computer simulations by Naidu and his team point towards a strange hybrid object, which is a combination of a central black hole some 50 millions times the mass of the Sun surrounded by a cloud of gas about the size of the Solar System. The brightness of these little red dots is so bright it outshines its host, early galaxy in a range of wavelengths. MoM-BH*-1 as seen by the JWST image via the researchers The odd little red dot “shines with the energy typically associated with black holes, but at the same time bears signatures classically associated with stars,” said Naidu. There will be further studies of other little red dots especially about early galaxy and black hole formation, but it looks we can add Black Hole Stars to the growing list of astronomical objects that have been discovered.  Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 15th August 2026

Rubin peers deep into Sextans  Astronomers would know that Sextans is one of the faintest, dullest constellations in the night sky. The brightest star in the entire constellation is only about magnitude 4.5 and there's not exactly a lot of them!  Not much happening in the that region above our heads and because this, it provide a rare viewport into much deeper space. When we look toward Sextans, we're looking "out" through our local spiral arm and into intergalactic space, rather than along the flat plane of our galaxy, the pale white river of stars we see on clear nights and simply call the Milky Way. It means there's a clear view with fewer stars and interstellar dust clouds between us and really, really open space.  Sections of sky that telescopes can stare at for extended periods are called "Deep Fields" and this area in Sextans is referred to as the COSMOS Field. This area of about two square degrees has been extensively studied to learn about how galaxies form, including an extended period of observation with the HST (Hubble Space Telescope). There's been some two million galaxies observed in this region, of all ages.  Now the 8.4-metre Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has peered into the COSMOS Field and released Rubin’s Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2), the first data preview based on observations from the LSST Camera. The EDP2 release covers some 3000 square degrees or around one-sixth of the visible southern sky. The COSMOS Field is no doubt the highlight of the views! We're used to seeing rich star Milky Way star fields, capturing vast numbers of individual stars and dust clouds. In this new image, with so few Milky Way stars in the foreground, almost all of the points of light we see are not distant suns, but zooming further in reveals them to be individual galaxies.  Even with so few foreground stars, Rubin's sensitivity picks up faint glowing galactic cirrus, wisps of interstellar dust in our own galaxy.  Despite the COSMOS Field being observed for more than two decades, it's of immense value for Rubin as it allows further fine tuning of the instrument while also watching for any observable changes.  “The COSMOS field is a very important one for LSST science,” says Phil Marshall, Deputy Director of Rubin Observatory at SLAC. “Its wealth of prior observations, and its repeated targeting both during commissioning and as one of the LSST’s deep fields, will make it very valuable as a testing ground for scientists as they get ready to take on the survey data.” Read more here. Why is the Sun's corona so hot? A massive Solar Telescope reveals a hidden process on the Sun Some amazing images coming out the week from the world's largest Solar Telescope, NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope near the summit of Maui’s Haleakalā. (We featured this telescope last year in another blog article.) The U.S. National Science Foundation Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Maui, Hawaiʻi. Image via: NSF/NSO/AURA/MPS They confirm the discovery of regions Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in the form of small, swirling, intense patterns on the surface of the Sun in regions of magnetic activity. These are visible on the photosphere, which is the lowest layer of the Sun's atmosphere and the part of our nearest star that we actually see. KHI had been theorized for some time, but these observations are their long awaited confirmation.  “We believe that the discovery of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the solar photosphere, backed up by analysis of numerical simulations, is a major step forward in our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of solar and stellar plasma, and will serve as a basis for future discoveries.“ said Dr. David Boboltz, Deputy Director at the National Solar Observatory. One of the mysteries that has baffled astronomers is while the temperature of the photosphere is approx. 5,500 degrees C, the outer reaches of the Sun or the corona that we can see during total Solar Eclipses like the one in Europe next week or in Australia in 2028 and 2030 can be over a million degrees even though it's much further away. What appears to be happening is that KHI events causing swirling vortexes around the edges of magnetic regions on the Sun and these vortexes are maybe a key part of the mechanism that increases the temperature of the corona.  Part of the discovery process used computer simulations of KHI regions that were compared with observations to help confirm astronomer's theories about their formation and structure.   ”Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is likely a mechanism that contributes to the heating of the outer atmosphere and is part of the solution of the longstanding enigma of why stars have a million degrees Kelvin hot corona.” said Dr. Thomas Rimmele, Chief Technologist at the National Solar Observatory. The Sun is immensely complex and still we're still learning about how our nearest star works. You can read more about the discovery of this hidden Solar process here.  Korean probe spots the SpaceX rocket impact site on the Moon You've no doubt heard about a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper-stage rocket booster hitting the Moon during the week. This was used to send the Blue Ghost and Hakuto-R probes to the Moon in 2025. There were quite a few keen sky watchers keeping an eye out for the impact, but it was always going to be too small and awkward to be spotted from here on Earth with amateur telescopes. ESO reported that astronomers using the Very Large Telescope detected sodium and lithium gas in lunar material thrown up by the roughly 4,000 kg piece of debris, with the plume lasting five to ten minutes after impact. Korea Aerospace Research Institute images, showing before and after images of the Moon’s surface of there the SpaceX booster impacted this week. Check out their post here. The region where booster impacted into the surface was spotted by Danuri, a Moon orbiting spacecraft from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Danuri made multiple passes over the site taking from photos from Lunar orbit. The impact was confirmed in the images. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will pass over the region in the coming month or so and provide better imaging of the crash site.  Next week: What the El Niño pattern could mean for astronomers over the next few months.  Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 8th August 2026

Do thousands of satellites bother astronomers? Wait until the sky is full of massive orbiting mirrors! Sunshine is good, right? Who doesn't like sunlight! A US company, Reflect Orbital, has decided the Earth simply doesn't have enough of it and has a fairly radical solution: it's going to place in orbit a fleet of 18 x 18m highly reflective mirrors that can be positioned to reflect sunlight to areas on the Earth's surface that are underdoing periods of "sunlight deficiency." In other words, night time.  These will be used to power solar panels arrays, provide extra light for growing crops around the clock and even illuminate emergency and disaster areas. The first of these has received clearance to launch this year on the Eärendil-1 satellite, carrying an 18m x 18m mirror, with fleet of...wait for it...50,000 in place by 2035. Some of the proposed satellites in orbit. Illustration via Reflect Orbital I think it would be a fair to say that this might impact astronomers and astrophotographers and possibly even dwarf the impact of light pollution in many areas.  These satellites need to be repositioned every few minutes when operating and with chances of "flashes" while this is happening landing in the eyes of drivers or pilots, disorienting animals or straight down a telescope tube.  Interestingly this was approved by the American FCC (Federal Communications Commission) who regulate satellite and radio transmission. As these satellites "transmit" on the visual spectrum and not on radio frequency, they decided that they have no authority to regulate the project. (Read more about that here if you're having a slow afternoon and have got nothing better to do....) The space above our heads is becoming increasingly crowded. Apart from the thousands of existing satellites which are already impacting astronomy, there are plans for strange and weird programs like artificial meteor showers, space hotels, space burials and more.  In fact, the American FCC has a new document called "Spectrum Abundance for Weird Space Stuff" (seriously, that's what it's called!) and you can read it on their government website here. I'd be out there enjoying the dark skies while you can. A companion found for Betelgeuse  One of the brightest stars in the sky is the ruby red "shoulder" in the constellation of Orion. It's not visible all night sky during our Australian winter, but as the months roll on, it will be shining brightly in the summer months. It's one of the best known stars in the night sky and it's also known to vary in brightness over long, semi-regular periods  The exact reason for the variation in Betelgeuse is still unknown and it's thought be to caused by dust clouds, the star contracting as it prepares to go supernova or even an unseen companion star passing in front it.  Announced this week is the discovery of the long proposed companion for Betelgeuse. A team lead by an astronomer from Paris Observatory spotted this hidden star in images taken by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). One of the problems with observing faint companion stars like this is the glare from the brightness of the main star. Betelgeuse is hundreds of thousands of times brighter than the newly discovered star orbiting it.  The image was obtained using SPHERE, the high-contrast imaging instrument installed on ESO’s VLT in Chile.  VLT images of Betelgeuse and its companion (Image via: ESO/M. Montargès et al. Background: N. Rissinge)   "This is the conclusion of a century-long quest." says Miguel Montargès, deputy astronomer at Paris Observatory PSL and lead author of the study. "We have shown that Betelgeuse is not single, it is accompanied by a faint stellar companion.'" As often with these sorts of discoveries, this not something you'll be able to observe or image with your telescope.  Read more here.  The largest galaxy ever observed is even bigger than we thought Astronomers have considered a galaxy called IC 1101 to the largest ever measured. It belongs to a class called brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), which form through the mergers of multiple smaller galaxies and are likely to be still growing. One of the problems working out just how large they are is the difficulty in finding out where their outer edges actually are. In other words, where does the galaxy end and where does intergalactic space start. Astronomers using Wide Field Camera (WFC) at the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in the Canary Islands have extended the size of IC 1101 to 1.7 million light-years (520 kiloparsecs) from the previous estimate of 370,000 light-years (114 kiloparsecs). It's a major upgrade which puts IC 1101 even further ahead of other galaxies.  IC 1101 is about 17 times the size of our own Milky Way and containing an estimated 3.4 trillion solar masses in stars, around 55 times the stellar mass of the Milky Way Unlike many cutting-edge astronomy discoveries, IC 1101 is within the reach of amateur telescopes. Located in Virgo, Its magnitude is about 13.2 and 14.7 depending on filters used. You'll need something in the range of 200mm (8") aperture or more but if you spot it, you can gaze at a faint smudge knowing is the largest galaxy ever found, and still growing.  Moon Phases for August 2026 Full Moon from Sydney on Thursday 30th July around 7.00pm. Taken with a DWARF mini. We get asked for local Moon phases as online and AI results can sometimes show them in US or European times.  For August 2026 they are:     Phase Date Time (AEST) Last Quarter 6 Aug 2026 12:21 pm New Moon 13 Aug 2026 3:36 am First Quarter 20 Aug 2026 12:46 pm Full Moon 28 Aug 2026 2:18 pm All times AEST (UTC+10), Sydney. Lucky 13 for SpaceX's Starship No big kaboom for the latest flight of the big rocket.  Last weekend saw the 13th flight of the largest rocket ever built, the Starship by SpaceX. Flight 13 lifted off from Starbase on Saturday morning our time, after a scrubbed attempt on 16th July when four engines failed to ignite, and a weather scrub on the 23th of July. It was the second flight of the V3 vehicles and the first Starship flight to deploy next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. The booster relit only 10 of 13 engines on descent, with five failing seconds later, resulting in a harder splashdown.  A nice planetary alignment for early risers If you like getting up pre-dawn (or maybe winding up from a big night before) there's some lovely planetary alignments in the pre-dawn skies in August. Here's the view low on the horizon from the north and northeastern skies on around 5.30am on the 9th of August 2026 as seen from Sydney. Speaking of Betelgeuse, you will see Mars and the Moon just below the red giant star, along with Saturn higher in the sky.  This image is produced with Stellarium which is popular here at BINTEL! Cheers, Earl White BINTEL  1st August 2026