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Russian Komsos 428 is about to return to Earth - and not in a good way One of the big space news items this week is the expected crash landing later today of the Soviet era Kosmos 428 spacecraft.  This was originally launched on a Molniya 8K78M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the 31st of March 1972. The Russian Soviet space program had an early focus on exploring Venus which has some unique challenges compared to landing on the Moon or even Mars. The atmospheric pressure at the surface on Venus is over 90 times greater than at sea level on Earth, with a temperature more 450 degrees C, due to it being closer to the Sun and a massive runaway greenhouse effect.  Despite these extreme conditions, the Russians managed to land successfully on Venus and even broadcast some images from the surface. Sadly, Kosmas 428 was not a mission that even made it out of extended Earth orbit. During the burn to send the probe towards Venus, the multi-part booster partially failed and the rocket disintegrated. Two parts of the spacecraft fell towards Earth and landed near New Zealand a few days later. What is thought to be the main probe only received enough of an increase in speed to put it into an extended orbit, but did not have enough to escape Earth's gravity. It's remained there since, with its orbit slowly decaying.  It's now predicted to impact the Earth this Saturday 10th May 2025 in the afternoon Sydney time. Even this close to impact, there's still a large degree of uncertainty about when and where it will land. A model of the Venera-4, very similar to the lander due to impact the Earth this weekend. Image via Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics Will it survive a journey through the Earth's atmosphere? Won't it burn up? There's a lot of space junk whizzing above our heads with items ranging from small nuts and bolts or scraps of metal falling to Earth every day, sometime producing a quick flash much like a "shooting star". Even much larger pieces rarely make it through the heat of re-entry intact.  Kosmos 428 is a different critter.  The lander was designed to enter the much denser and hotter atmosphere of Venus. It's unlikely to be bothered too much by the journey through our own thinner and cooler atmosphere. It's basically an armour plated ball that will land at several thousand kms per hour. The chances of it causing damage to property is very remote however.  NASA Receives the Artemis II Spacecraft  Earlier this week, NASA received the Orion crew module for the Artemis II mission.  Image via Lockhead Martin This is the first time NASA has been in possession of a spacecraft destined to take humans to the Moon since 1972 when all the "Moon walkers" including Neil Armstrong and original Apollo designers and engineers such as Wernher von Braun were still alive.  The Artemis II mission is now due to launch in 2026 and its flightpath is a loop around the Moon on a free-return trajectory. There are no plans for Artemis II to enter Lunar orbit as was achieved by the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 and by Apollo 10 in 1969.  NASA's position is the Artemis III mission slated for 2027 will be the return to the Moon's surface. Given the delays in the program and cuts to NASA's budget, this date might change.  SPHEREx starts mapping the Universe Another space telescope, Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explore or SPHEREx to its friends, has commenced its two year mission of cataloguing some 450 million galaxies and 100 stars in the Milky Way. Image via NASA This image of an emission nebula was released this week and marks the first patch of sky captured by SPHEREx.  Over the next couple of years it will take more than 3,600 images per day, with each of its six different detectors each taking 600. These are combined into a single exposure. The mission aims to probe the origins of the Universe and more locally, investigate the ingredients to life in the Milky Way. The whole spacecraft moves after each imaging run, rather than the instruments moving.  This video shows how SPHEREx captures the sky in different wavelengths. “Thanks to the hard work of teams across NASA, industry, and academia that built this mission, SPHEREx is operating just as we’d expected and will produce maps of the full sky unlike any we’ve had before,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This new observatory is adding to the suite of space-based astrophysics survey missions leading up to the launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Together with these other missions, SPHEREx will play a key role in answering the big questions about the universe we tackle at NASA every day.” Cheers, Earl White  BINTEL 10th May 2025

Celestron StarSense Explorer Model Guide The StarSense Explorer range from Celestron is no doubt the bestselling line-up of telescopes in the world. They've helped turn complete novices into keen star gazers, delighted families and found homes with the young and young at heart.  Plus, it's not just beginners - many have found a home with more experienced observers who want something ultra simple to setup and transport with just enough tech to assist without it getting in the way. There are a few different options in the StarSense Explorer range and this is a quick explainer to help you decide the best one for you (and maybe some hints about selecting telescopes in general.) With all of these telescopes you'll be able to see planets such as Saturn, Jupiter and Mars but as we like to point out, there's much to observe beyond the Solar System. You will easily view other deep-sky astro objects such as nebulae, star clusters and much more. All StarSense Explorer telescopes use Celestron's technology to help you find objects in the night sky using your Android phone or Apple iPhone.  Think of it being similar to the maps system in your car.  StarSense Explorer doesn't control your telescope, rather it tells you where to move it to so you can find what you're looking for. For example, you've heard the Great Orion Nebula is worth a squizz, so you put that into the StarSense app on your phone attached to the telescope and it will put arrows on the screen to show you where to move the telescope to find  If you are not sure what to look for, the StarSense Explorer app can take you on a personalised tour of "what's up" for your location. You also don't need Wi-Fi or even a 4G/5G connection. All the data you need is loaded onto your phone when you install the app. You can head away the bush to observe the night sky without having to worry about needing a phone signal.  First up: how do we measure telescopes? The main thing a telescope does is collect light and either concentrate it on an observers eyeball or camera sensor. The tiny Celestron FirstScope and the Hubble Space Telescope both work on the same principle.   The width of its main lens or mirror - also called the aperture - is one of the main contributors to how powerful a telescope is. Basically, the larger the aperture the more light it collects. This lets the telescope see things that are fainter and in more detail.  For example, the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ is the introduction to the range and its lens has diameter of 70mm. It's also one of our most popular telescopes. By comparison the "lens" at the front of your eye has a diameter of about 7mm. Celestron StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ This means the StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ can see collect about 100 times as much as your eye can, letting it see things that are too faint to be seen with your eyes alone. A slightly larger and more expensive model is the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT80 AZ.  This has a 80mm aperture lens. You might think "why am paying for such a tiny increase in size? It's only centimetre bigger!"  Yes, it's one 1cm larger in size, but compared to the 70mm lens, the 80mm has a 30% larger surface area in total. This mean is doesn't collect 100 times as much light as your eye, but rather about 130 times - a very useful bump in capability if it's within your budget. Reflector vs Refractor You'll notice two types of Celestron StarSense Explorer telescopes. The LT70 AZ and LT80 AZ are refractor type telescopes. They have lens at the front of the telescope and you view through the other end.  The StarSense LT114 AZ and LT127 AZ models use curved, parabolic mirror at the end of the tube. It collects and concentrates the light and then use a small mirror at 45 degree angle to view at the side of the tube. This style of telescope is often called a Newtonian Reflector as it was invented by Sir Isaac Newton back in 1668. The design was so effective, we still use it today! Why use a mirror? The main reason Sir Isaac came up with his design back in the day was to avoid the colour fringes around objects that were common with early refractor telescopes.  We can now get around this with refractor telescope by using a more complex lens, however it costs much less per cm of aperture to make a reflecting telescope.  The LT114 AZ telescope has a mirror 114cm across and you can probably guess what the size of the mirror in the LT127 AZ. In much the same way the amount of light captured by the LT80 AZ is greater than the LT70 AZ, the larger telescope collects more light and will let you "see" more.  Reflecting telescopes like these produce an image that's upside down. There zero problems with this when looking at objects in space, however it's less than ideal for things on planet Earth. The Celestron StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ and LT80 AZ will also produce an image that's the right way up.  This is something you might want to consider if you're planning on using your Celestron telescope for viewing scenery or say whale watching.  Another model is the even larger DX130 telescope. Celestron StarSense Explorer DX130 Newtonian Telescope This has a 130mm aperture main mirror that collects more than 340 times the amount of light compared to the human eye, so the reason for observing with a larger telescope is images will be brighter and clearer.  What can be seen will in the StarSense Explorer LT70 AZ will be more detailed in the DX130 and there's things that you'll see that are too faint to be seen in the smaller LT70 AZ.  The DX130 also has a sturdier tripod as well as slow motion control for fine tuning the movement of the telescope.  Another option is the tabletop versions of the StarSense Explorer range.  Celestron StarSense Explorer 130mm Tabletop Dobsonian Telescope If you have a solid picnic table or outdoor place to put these telescopes onto, their Dobsonian mounts will provide a smooth movement and rock steady viewing.  Can I take astro photos with StarSense Explorer telescopes? These are great visual telescopes and not designed to take astro photos as they don't have electric motor drives to follow the movement of the night sky. Having said that, the Celestron have an accessory that holds a mobile phone over the telescope's eyepiece. This lets you take great photos of the Moon and maybe the planets.  Celestron NexYZ Photo Adaptor Are there any upgrades that would be useful? Yes, additional eyepieces for both higher power magnification and wider field viewing would be handy. Have a chat with us for your best options. There's also a very complete Celestron Eyepiece and Accessory kit.  Celestron Eyepiece and Accessory Kit We can also supply Solar filters for safe viewing of the Sun - it's a great time to catch sunspots! To wrap it up -  There's a few different Celestron StarSense telescope to suit different budgets and requirements.  Larger telescopes in the range will deliver better viewing and all models feature the ability to find astro objects in the night sky via an app on your phone.  This makes discovering and learning about the night sky an easier process, even under city and suburban skies.  Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 9th May 2025  

NASA's Lucy spacecraft has an encounter with a strange object: say g'day to Asteroid Donaldjohanson This week, the spacecraft Lucy made its second close up observation of an asteroid.  Astronomers had observed asteroid Donaldjohanson as having quite a variable brightness and was thought to be a contact binary - two asteroids touching each other.  Image via: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab They were surprised to find Donaldjohanson is not just two asteroids, but also has a connecting bridge between them. This is the second close up view of asteroids Lucy has produced on the way to its main target, the Jupiter Trojan asteroid Eurybates, in August 2027. Asteroids are seen as ideal ways to study the formation of the environment surrounding the Sun. “These early images of Donaldjohanson are again showing the tremendous capabilities of the Lucy spacecraft as an engine of discovery,” said Tom Statler, program scientist for the Lucy mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The potential to really open a new window into the history of our solar system when Lucy gets to the Trojan asteroids is immense.” Read more here. 35 years since Hubble was launched This week the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) celebrated 35 years since its launch.  After a troubled start due to flawed optics that required a daring fix in space, Hubble has churned out a stream of science results and images that have changed our view of the Universe and delighted us folks here on planet Earth.  NASA has produced a wonderful online gallery here as well as this YouTube video of Hubble highlights.  If you can, well worth a watch on a big screen TV. It's also worth remembering that Hubble was launched a little while before the web was generally available to the public! The world's largest Solar Telescope receives a major upgrade Many of our customers have been taking detailed images of the Sun during the current Solar Maximum using a variety of gear from Lunt, Sky-Watcher and Vaonis. At the other end of the scale, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii has received a new camera after a 15 year development process. Inouye Solar Telescope  The new instrument is the Visible Tunable Filtergraph (VTF) and is now producing images of the Sun with more detail than has ever been seen previously. The first image take with the VTF. Further enhancements will reveal further details.  If you'd like to see this in more detail, click here for a high resolution image - each pixel in it is about 10km across! The VFT was developed in Germany and you can read more about it here. Say farewell to Mars for a little while The view from Sydney around 7.30pm local time on the 27th of April 2025 facing north west.  Mars will appear as a bright red star low on the horizon. Mars is now low in the early evening sky and will disappear into the glow of the setting Sun shortly. This and the next few weekends will be your last chance to observe Mars until it returns to our pre-dawn skies.   Cheers, Earl White BINTEL 26th April 2025        

Have we discovered life on an another planet? Short answer - there's a possibility we have! Keen BINTEL newsletter readers will remember that in the first blog entry for 2024 we chatted about what was on the horizon for that year. We mentioned that the discovery of life on another planet via the detection of biological processes in its atmosphere by the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) could possibly happen and a number of leading figures thought this was entirely possible and would be announced soon. You can read the January 2024 post here.  I wrapped up the blog with this as such a discovery was on the cards. Many astronomers have long thought this is how life outside the Solar System would first be found. They now have the tools (in the form of the Webb telescope) and the ever growing list of exoplanets and more detailed knowledge about them. It's long been thought that life would most likely be found on a rocky terrestrial planet like the Earth, although "ocean worlds" might also be targets to investigate.  A few months into 2025 and it looks like such an announcement has been made! What was found. Astronomers from the University of Cambridge used data from Webb to detect the fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS).  These chemicals seem to exist in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b. This planet orbits K2-18, which is a red dwarf star some 124 light years away from Earth and is in the host star's "habitable zone" - meaning conditions on the planet might be suitable for life to exist. It's a hycean world, with a hydrogen atmosphere and likely a deep ocean.  Since its discovery in 2014, water vapour and then methane and carbon dioxide have been found in its atmosphere. You can read more about this in the NASA article from 2023 here. These earlier results were important as they also hinted at the presence of the chemical, DMS. While they were not robust, they warranted further investigation using Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) which observes through different wavelengths. Further evidence of DMS was found, along with the discovery of DMDS in K2-18b's atmosphere. Why is the discovery of DMS and DMDS important? Both of these chemical are found on Earth and are the results of life processes from phytoplankton and other very small aquatic lifeforms. The concentrations of DMS and DMDS in the atmosphere of K2-18b are also vastly larger than what is found on Earth and in-line and what we'd expect life on hycean planet to produce.  Currently, we know of no purely chemical process outside of life that produces DMS and DMDS in the quantities found in the atmosphere of K2-18b.  How confident are astronomers in this result? Does is mean life on another planet has been discovered? Astronomers have calculated the result as being a 0.3% chance  or about one-in-three hundred of them occurring by chance. This means the results are likely but not fully confirmed. A "five sigma" confirmation of a 0.00006% confidence requires more time spent observing K2-1b with either Webb or future telescopes both in space and in the ground.  For example, a recent study suggested the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) which is under construction in Chile and due to start observations in 2028 could possibly confirm life on planets orbiting nearby stars through detecting chemicals in their atmospheres within hours. An illustration of the ELT when completed. Image via Swinburne Astronomy Productions/ESO There's still the possibility of scientists working out how DMS and DMDS can be formed and replenished in large volumes without the involvement of life processes. It's not the announcement of the discovery of life on another world, rather that life on K2-18b is highly likely and worthy of a lot of further investigation. The results published by the team from Cambridge University are likely to be vigorously  debated for some time to come.   Can I see K2-18b with my telescope? No. You won't be able to see K2-18b. Even Webb observes the planet indirectly by the way it changes how the host star, K2-18 appears. K2-18 is a magnitude 13.8 red dwarf star in the constellation of Leo. It could be seen in very large amateur telescopes but would be extremely hard to observe or image.  Could observers on other planets find life on Earth using this technique? Yes. The Earth's atmosphere is full of observable carbon molecules that could be spotted from other planets as "biomarkers" for the life processes that occur here. We could also be found via our technosignatures - radio transmissions etc.  How significant is this discovery? There's also implications about how common life could be in the Milky Way. If life occurs only every 130 light year or so and even if we discover no more life nearby - in other words there's nothing "alive" between us here on Earth and K2-18b - that could still indicate that there might be life on over 800,000 other planets in the Milky Way. When humanity decides that life does exist elsewhere in the Solar System or further out in the Milky Way, the results announced the team at Cambridge University on the 17th of April 2025 will always be remembered as an important milestone.  You can read more about their research here. A planetary alignment in the pre-dawn sky on ANZAC Day If you're heading to the ANZAC Day dawn services next Friday,  there will be a lovely planetary alignment in the eastern sky a little while before the Sun rises.  The view towards the east around 5.30am the ANZAC Day, 25th of April 2025 as seen from Sydney Low in the sky as dawn approaches will be the crescent Moon, Saturn and Venus. A little below that will be hard to spot Mercury.  Planets in the sky this weekend This chart shows the rise and set times for planets over the next few days. You can create this chart at any time from Stellarium. A New "Dish" for the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex The 70m DSS-43 at the DSCC outside of Canberra this week.  I was fortunate to visit the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (sometimes called the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station) a couple of days ago on a stunning autumn day in the ACT.  Last month this facility celebrated 60 years of being a part of NASA's Deep Space Network tracking station, helping to keep track of hundreds of missions including the Apollo Moon landings and the Voyager spacecraft.  On the 8th of April NASA announced a "New Dish" to be built at the facility. “Canberra has played a crucial part in tracking, communicating, and collecting data from some of the most momentous missions in space history,” said Kevin Ferguson, director of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. “As the network continues to advance and grow, Canberra will continue to play a key role in supporting humanity’s exploration of the cosmos.” You can read more about this via the NASA website here. Has Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) disintegrated? A recently discovered comet, found by several astronomers including Australian Michael Mattiazzo, seems to have brightened and then appears to be fading quickly. This is often a sign that a comet has broken up as it nears the Sun and common fate for many.  News about this is coming in at the moment. You can get the latest here. I hope all our BINTEL customers and friends have a safe and relaxing Easter long weekend! Cheers, Earl White  BINTEL  19th April 2024      

What's the perfect sized binoculars? We talked about different sizes of binoculars last week. (You can read more here.) Binoculars capture the light that falls on their front lenses,  concentrates it, magnifies the image and presents it to your eyes. The larger the binoculars, the more light is collected and the better the image will be. The problem is that as binocular increase in size and complexity their cost and more importantly their size increases dramatically.  For bird watchers and nature viewers especially, getting the right balance becomes important when you need to travel out in the field.  The magic "just right" number for many are binoculars with a lens of 42mm in diameter. In fact, 42mm binoculars are probably the most popular in the world, with around 60% of global sales being this size.  So, while there's no one "perfect" binoculars, the 42mm size is very popular as it's large enough to collect enough light for great views, while not being too heavy carrying around. Why go bigger? There's certainly advantages in using larger binoculars. 50mm binoculars will gather more than 40% more light than a pair of 42mm. This results in brighter views, especially in the early morning or when it starts to get dark at the end of the day. The additional "information" collected by the larger lenses will also produce a more detailed image, even at the same magnification.  For example, the birds on the other side of the river will appear the same size in the eyepieces of 8x42 and 8x50 binos, except there will be more details visible the larger size.  The larger exit pupil in the 8x50 is larger for more in-depth experience. BUT - the 8x50 binos will be heavier and larger.   Why not both?  The ZEISS SFL 50 What's exciting us here at BINTEL about the new ZEISS SFL 50 binoculars is the chance to have the advantages larger optics in the smaller form factor normally found with 42mm sizes.  All of the ZEISS SFL 50 - the 8x, 10x and 12x - are all shorter than other premium 42mm sized binoculars. More importantly, they're also lighter. ZEISS has been able to achieve this with the use of thinner glass lenses, along with use of magnesium throughout the chassis.  The current SFL 30 and 40 binoculars are remarkable small for their optical size and have become popular with our bird watching customers and we imagine the new ZEISS SFL 50 models being a popular choice for serious observers. They simply let you see more while carrying less. You can check out the entire ZEISS SFL range here. We're expecting the new SFL 50 models to available in Australia next month. Cheers, Earl White BINTEL  12th of April 2025

You've heard of a "Super Moon" - make sure you catch this weekend's "Micro Moon". Have you ever heard of a "Super Moon"?  Because the Moon travels around the Earth not in a circular orbit, but rather along a slightly elongated or elliptical path, it's sometime closer to us than other times. These Full Moons occur a few times are year and often get a lot of attention.  The Full Moon this Sunday, the 13th of April 2025 is the opposite - it's a "Micro Moon". The Full Moon will be the furthest away from us this year and will be slightly smaller than at any other of the year. While the difference won't be huge, much like a Super Moon, it will be a fabulous view. This Full Moon also plays important part in setting the date of Easter this year and we'll touch on this in more detail next week. Asteroid 2024 YR4 is not going to hit the Earth BUT it might impact the Moon - and it's HUGE! I talked a few months ago about an asteroid, 2024 YR, which was headed in our general direction. You can read the article here. At the time, the chances of it whacking into Earth were low but not so low it could be ignored altogether.  I also mentioned that the chances of it hitting the Earth would likely diminish as more data was collected. It turned out that, yes, there's now next to no chance of it hitting the Earth, however there's an approx. 3.8% of it impacting the Moon in 2032.  Yellow points showing possible paths of asteroid 2024 YR4 on Dec. 22, 2032, as of Apr. 2, 2025. Image via: NASA JPL/CNEOS The estimated size of 2024 YR has also been refined. It's now thought to be about 53-67 metres in size, or about as big as a 10 storey building.  You can read more about at NASA's Planetary Defense website here. How long is a day on Uranus? A new figure, discovered by observing aurora on the ice giant. We mentioned in a BINTEL blog post a couple of weeks ago that the JWST had observed aurorae on the furthest ice giant, the planet Neptune. The Hubble Space Telescope has been keeping a close eye on the aurora on the other ice giant closer to Earth, Uranus, for the last ten years or so. Working out the rotation period of a planet can be tricky, especially where solid features aren't visible and only clouds or weather related features can be seen from Earth. Astronomers lead by Laurent Lamy came up with a clever solution - they kept track of aurora on Uranus, and this allowed them to measure the length of the planet's "day" with more accuracy. Knowing this is critical when planning a trip to Uranus, such as NASA's Uranus Orbiter and Probe which might launch early next decade. “Our measurement not only provides an essential reference for the planetary science community but also resolves a long-standing issue: previous coordinate systems based on outdated rotation periods quickly became inaccurate, making it impossible to track Uranus’ magnetic poles over time,” explains Lamy. “With this new longitude system, we can now compare auroral observations spanning nearly 40 years and even plan for the upcoming Uranus mission.” More information here. A day on Uranus is 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds. Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) for the Moon The Lunar Gateway is a planned space station. Unlike the ISS (International Space Station) which is in low orbit around the Earth, this new space station will be in orbit around the Moon and a play key part in exploration missions to the Lunar surface and beyond to Mars. An artist’s rendering of ESA’s Lunar I-Hab module in orbit around the Moon. Image via: NASA/Alberto Bertolin, Bradley Reynolds One of the two main modules - the HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) - has now been delivered to the USA from Italy where it was manufactured.  HALO will be connected another main Gateway Module, the Power and Propulsion Element, before launching onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy sometime from 2027 onwards. Read more here. Cheers, Earl White - BINTEL 11th of April 2025  

  Welcome to the highlights of our Southern Skies for April 2025! It's now well past the autumn equinox in Australia and New Zealand. The Sun is moving into the northern parts of the sky, and the days are getting shorter. Venus is in the early morning sky. Saturn is now starting to appear in the pre-dawn skies.  Jupiter and Mars are still visible just before sunset, although they will gradually sink into the Sun's glare at sunset over the coming weeks.  1st of April is the traditional April Fool's joke day...although with the world as it is the moment, even the best of them had trouble keeping up with reality! 5th of April is First Quarter Moon.  As always, the Lunar phase we suggest for new telescope users as being the best time to start observing the Moon as the Sun is low in the sky from the Lunar surface and produces dramatic shadows and highlights across the Moon's mountains and craters. Mars in Gemini Look outside towards the northwest early in April to spot the unmistakable red glow of the planet Mars nestled in the constellation of Gemini which is also known as "The Twins." The view from Sydney around 8.00pm in the second week of April 2025 The Twins refer to the brightest stars in Gemini, Castor and Pollux, named after two twins in Greek mythology. These stars form the heads of the twins. The brightest of the two is Pollux, even though the slightly dimmer Castor has the label of "Alpha" in the constellation which is normally reserved for the numero uno in terms of how bright a star is. This due to a measurement error back in the day when stars catalogues were being drawn up. Despite being called the twins, the two stars are very different. Castor is actually a six-star system some 52 light years away. It's quite a fascinating and complex collection of binary stars. Orange coloured Pollux is a giant star, 34 light years away. Despite them appearing close to each other in the sky, the "twins" are actually only close due to their line of sight view from Earth.  13th of April - Full Moon. The entire Lunar surface that faces Earth is in full daylight and brightly lit.  Did you know that the Moon reflects back into space just 12% of the light it receives from the Sun? In other words, its "Albedo" is 0.12.  This explains why Moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo missions are so dark, yet the Full Moon appears so bright. If the Moon had the same Albedo as the clouds around Venus - 0.7 - it would several times brighter. 20th of April - An Easter treat: a planetary nebula. Hopefully the Easter Bunny will have delivered the goods and you'll be relaxing over the long weekend.  Where to find the planetary nebula, NCG 3132 around 9.30pm on Easter Sunday in the southwestern sky as seen from Sydney High up in the sky is a planetary nebula called NGC 3132, known as the "Southern Ring Nebula" or the "Eight-Burst" Nebula.  A planetary nebula is the shell of gas ejected by large, red giant stars towards the end of their lives. Star like these around one to eight times the mass of the Sun, with larger stars producing supernova. They're not planets at all - they appear like faint ghosts of the large Solar System planets and were called this by early telescopic astronomers.  You'll be able to spot NGC 3132 even in a small telescope. Stepping up to a 6" or 8" Dobsonian will reveal more details.  21st of April is Third Quarter Moon.  Like the first quarter, a perfect time for Lunar observations with the Sun in the sky on the Moon's surface producing dramatic shadows that highlight features.  The Southern Cross high in the sky - great viewing for binoculars At little bit later in April and a few hours after dark, the famous constellation of the Southern Cross or Crux is riding high in our Australian skies. The view south around 10.30pm Sydney time on the 21st of April 2025 Nearby are the familiar two bright pointers to the constellation of Southern Cross or "Crux". If you head out before the Moon rises a bit after 11.30pm, you'll discover it's an ideal time to explore the dense star clouds of the Milky Way as they run through this part of the sky and into the nearby constellation of Carina. There's large collection of deep-space objects within our home galaxy that are easily spotted even with a small telescope, but don't forget just about any pair of binoculars will also worth using on this part of the sky. Both of two Magellanic Clouds can be seen and appear like a detached parts of the Milky Way and are also worth spending time on.  They're galaxies, home to billions of stars and large regions of star formation. We'll be talking about galaxies in an upcoming blog entry. 25th of April - pre-dawn Solar System treat. If you're rising early to attend ANZAC Day Services you'll be greeted by a wonderful alignment of the crescent Moon, Saturn, Venus and even Mercury- all shining brightly in the pre-dawn sky.  The orbit of Venus has taken it away from the sky near the setting Sun and is now a bright "morning star" - after the Sun and Moon it's the brightest object in the sky.  The Moon, Venus, Saturn and Mercury on the 25th of April around 5.30am as seen from Sydney It will also be an opportunity to spot the Solar System's innermost planet, Mercury. The small rocky world is often hard to observe due to its closeness to the Sun and can only be low spotted in the pre-dawn or dusk skies. 27th of April - New Moon There's no Moon visible in the night sky: the perfect time for deep-sky observing or astrophotography.  Cheers, Earl White  BINTEL 4th April 2025  

The North East Astronomy Forum  - NEAF 2025 -  is the world's largest gathering for astronomy and space fans.  There's always new products and announcements and 2025 was no exception! We'll be adding to this post over the coming days, keep checking in. ZWO  The release of new Smart Telescopes continues and ZWO have announced the first of their Pro series, the Seestar S30 Pro telescope. What's new compared to the current Seestar S30? The main upgrade is the addition of the Sony IMX585 (Starvis 2) to the main camera as well as a Sony IMX586 to the wide angle camera. (The Seestar S30 has two cameras and optical systems.) The main lens in the Pro is now a four element APO in place of the three element design. There's also been an upgrade of internal storage to 256Gb. Fans of Milky Way wide angle astrophotography will be chuffed to learn that the wide angle camera on the Seestar S30 Pro is now fully capable of capturing deep-sky views up to 84 degrees wide in full 4K resolution.  Combined with the new EQ (equatorial) mode with Polar Alignment assistance that's been rolled out to all ZWO Seestar owners, the new S30 Pro is likely to be the astronomy tool to capture expansive images our wonderful southern skies. Bear in mind these S30 telescopes are tiny critters and easily fit in a shoulder bag  - many folks might the S30 Pro a possible replacement for a heavy DSLR camera and lens, star tracker and tripod when travelling to grab Milky Way shots. In fact, there will a be dedicated Milky Way mode in the Seestar app as well as a star trail mode. Head of ZWO, Sam Wen, posted some test images taken with the main camera and upgraded sensor of the Seestar S30 Pro. This is an image of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebula (M8, M20) region in the constellation of Sagittarius. This is the result of just 4 minute of exposures, highlighting the potential of this new telescope.  We'll have pricing and availability of the Seestar S30 Pro soon, but it will be a few months away. ZWO also announced the ASI585MC Air and the ASI2600MC/MM Air.  These are all-in-one cameras that now include a built-in ZWO ASIAIR  This enables the camera to handle the entire telescope mount control, astro object tracking, telescope focusing, image processing and more via phone or iPad/tablet app.  Small but super handy upgrades for astro imagers from ZWO is their new 30F5 Guidescope that's already been announced, as well as the new ZWO EAF that now has an internal battery and on-board buttons, reducing the need for an external hand controller. Celestron made their product announcements ahead of NEAF and were highlighting their new releases on their stand. The Celestron 6" RASA (Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph) is a compact, widefield telescope that's dedicated to astrophotography. The fast f/2.2 optical system can take wide angle, highly detailed deep-sky images in minutes. You can read more about the RASA 6" on the BINTEL website here. This new telescope has a great combination of portability and optical design to make it a popular choice for serious astrophotographers, especially when you need to travel to dark sky sites.  Cheers, Earl White  BINTEL 6th April 2025

NASA/ESA/CSA's JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) captures Neptune's auroras for the first time In exactly the same way highly energised particles from the Sun cause spectacular displays in the upper atmosphere here on Earth, the same process happens on the outer Solar System planets.  Images released this morning from NASA of the Aurora on the outer ice giant planet, Neptune. Astronomers had seen displays like these on Jupiter, Saturn and even Uranus, but Neptune had evaded confirmation until now.  One of the curious things about the aurora on Neptune is the planet's magnetic field that has a strange tilt away from its axis. On Earth, northern sand southern lights usually occur closer to the pole and away from the equator. On Neptune they are seen much further away from the pole. If this was on Earth, you'd be heading to Queensland to see "the lights" and not Norway. Read more on this announcement here.  Boeing to take another crack at sending its Starliner spacecraft to the ISS (International Space Station) Following on the landing last week of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams after their extended stay on the ISS, aerospace company Boeing have stated that the problems that prevented the crew from returning to Earth onboard their Starliner capsule have been solved. Boeing have now confirmed that an uncrewed Starliner flight to the ISS will take place before another crewed mission is attempted. Starliner at the ISS. Image via NASA “What we’d like to do is that one flight and then get into a crew rotation flight,” explained Steve Stitch, NASA's commercial crew program manager. “So, the next flight up would really test all the changes we’re making to the vehicle, and then the next flight beyond that, we really need to get Boeing into a crew rotation. So, that’s the strategy.” Bear in mind the Starliner capsule that originally took Suni and Butch to the ISS in 2024 returned to Earth and landed safely under remote control.  Read more about the possible return of Starliner to the ISS here. How NASA is testing Space Suit materials on the surface of Mars What's the best way to try out to see how a material handles a tough environment? Tie it to the outside of your car and drive around with it for a while to test wear and tear? The Perseverance Mars Rover and the spacesuit materials it's been testing for the last four years. Image via: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS It's pretty much what NASA has been doing with its Perseverance Rover on Mars. Since landing in 2021 tasked with looking signs of ancient life and further examining the Martian surface and environment, it's also carried a number of auxiliary experiments. One of these is to test a range of fabric and material swatches to see how they handle being on Mars.  “This is one of the forward-looking aspects of the rover’s mission — not just thinking about its current science, but also about what comes next,” said planetary scientist Marc Fries of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who helped provide the spacesuit materials. “We’re preparing for people to eventually go and explore Mars.” Scientists are about to move onto studying the results of these tests to help design spacesuits that will have to last years in the Martian environment.   Read more here. Saturn's rings have disappeared...well sort of. Did you see media reports or online posts this week about how Saturn's rings have "disappeared"? It's not exactly untrue! Saturn orbits the Sun tilted on its axis in a similar way to the Earth does. It means at some parts of its orbit or "year" the southern part of the Saturn will be pointed more towards the Sun (similar to the summer we've just been through in Australia) and at other times the northern regions will be pointing that way. (i.e. like a northern hemisphere summer) At exactly halfway or at Equinox, Saturn will point evenly at the Sun.  (We had our own Equinox only last week.) The rings of Saturn are enormous, spanning almost three quarters of the distance from the Earth to the Moon.  They're also very thin. In fact, they're probably the flattest structure we know of in the entire Universe. When Saturn goes through Equinox, its rings are pointed right at Earth edge on. Saturn during a previous ring crossing. Image via  NASA/ESA/STScI/Amy Simon Imagine a playing card -easy to see but almost disappears from view from when you view it edge-on. This is what we're seeing with Saturn's rings and the event is called a ring crossing.  Saturn is very close to the Sun in the sky at the moment and hard to observe. When it emerges from the Sun's glare you'll start to see more of the rings towards the end of year, but you'll really have to wait a couple of years before they're back to being "the rings of Saturn" as we know them. From an astronomer's point of view, it's not all bad news. It's easier to view Saturn's moons as they cross the planet if the rings are more edge on. The Cassini spacecraft also observed Saturn's rings from above during an Equinox in 2009.  Cassini at Saturn in 2009  showing the view from directly above the rings. Note the shadows. - Image via NASA By measuring the length of the long shadows cause by tiny variations in the complexities of Saturn's rings and a bit of simple trigonometry, researchers were able find these features were sometimes only a few metres high - on a flat surface some 280,000 kms wide. A favourite summer constellation, Orion, is about to leave our skies One of the most familiar and wonderful summer constellations, Orion, is about to leave our night skies for the upcoming cooler seasons.  The view from Sydney on the 29th of March 2025 around 8.00pm - and yes, Orion will appear to be on its side. Image via Stellarium Over the next few weeks, you'll notice Orion, as well as The Pleiades open cluster and the planet Jupiter will be lower and lower in the skies as it gets dark, only to reappear in the early morning skies in the coming months. The coming weeks will be your last chance to see or photograph The Great Orion  Nebula (M42) for a little while. We'll be touching on what you'll see in April and beyond next week! Cheers, Earl White BINTEL  29th March 2025

The BIG space news this week has been the return to Earth of the two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who took the initial  Boeing Starliner capsule for what was supposed to be an eight day mission that turned into a nine month long sojourn aboard the ISS (International Space Station).  There were a few folks wondering that if astronauts like these need to be stretchered off their spacecraft after landing, following months in space, how are Mars astronauts going to function after landing when they've spent 7-9 months travelling to the red planet?  It's something that's often seen when astronauts return from extended stays in space. NASA Astronaut Sunni Williams following her splashdown this week. Image via NASA BINTEL had a chat with the Dr. Jon Clarke, president of the Mars Society Australia about this: "The footage is a bit misleading.  I had several conversations with a regular visitor to Australia,  Dr Vadim Gushin of the Institute of Bio-Medical Problems in Moscow, about this topic.  If the astronauts do their exercises they have no major problems, despite some muscle wastage, bone density loss, and obviously the need to readjust their vestibular systems.  Case in point, Shannon Lucid, who walked down the Shuttle stairs after six months on Mir, or the Russian cosmonauts such Musa Manarov who at the post flight media conference when asked how he felt after a record stint in orbit, did a one-arm handstand." This means astronauts are likely to be back on their feet and ready to explore the Martian surface not long after landing, even after their long journey.  "That said, they are often a bit wobbly, which is why they keep them seated. The medicos, according to Dr Vadim, also want to keep them as inactive as possible for their preliminary assessment to be as close to in space conditions as possible." continued Dr. Clarke.  JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) photographs four giant planets around the young large star, HR 8799. Astronomers have known for some years that HR 8799 is the home to a number of planets.  The first of these were discovered  in the infrared part of the spectrum with the Keck and Gemini telescopes in Hawaii.  Now the JWST has directly photographed the four giant planets orbiting HR 8799. The four planets around HR 8799 shown are above. Please note this is a direct image of them taken with the JWST, not an illustration or computer simulation. The "star" over HR 8799 blocks the light from the star itself to help image the much dimmer planets.  Astronomers also found evidence of carbon dioxide in these planets' atmospheres, indicating they were formed much like our local gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. A smaller, solid core gradually attracted gas over time. You can read more about this fascinating discovery here. Four planets found around the second closest star to Earth Most people would know that Alpha Centauri is the closest "star" to Earth. It's visible as the lower of the two pointers to Southern Cross and shines with a slight yellowish colour. Even a small telescope will show that Alpha Centauri is a double star, with two bright stars close together in the eyepiece. There's a much fainter companion to these two - Proxima Centauri, which can't be spotted so easily.   The closest single star system, or what could be described as the "second closest star to Earth" is called Barnard's Star. This is a small red-dwarf, much smaller and cooler than our Sun, and more than twice its age at over 10 billion years old. It was discovered by E. E. Barnard at Yerkes Observatory in 1916 - and we've now been trying to find planets around it for over a hundred years. An illustration of Barnard's Star as seen from one of its planets. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld There's been some debate over the years about whether Barnard's Star has any planets orbiting around it, however new results from Gemini North telescope in Hawaii have now identified four rocky planets.  These are all much smaller than the Earth, orbit quickly around Barnard's Star, and all are also far too hot to support life like we know it on Earth.   These new planets were found using a technique called radial velocity method, which measures extremely small "wobbles" in the host star's movement which allows astronomers to not only infer the existence of planets, but also confirms their number and even their mass. There's a full press release here that goes into the new discovery in more detail. These newly discovered exoplanets have not been observed directly, and are beyond the current imaging capabilities of any Earth or space based telescope.  First images from the world's largest radio telescope: it works but it's just getting going. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory hopes to make major contributions to our knowledge of some of the "big" questions about the Universe, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments, even exploring the origins of life. Still under construction at sites in Australia and South Africa, it will eventually consist of  hundreds of dishes and thousands of antennas. The SKAO’s facilities will be the two most advanced radio telescopes on Earth. The first image from an early working version of the SKA-Low telescope, using just 1,024 of the planned 131,072 antennas. The bright "stars" are in fact distant galaxies. The Full Moon is shown to indicate how much of the sky is contained.  The project this week released a wide field image taken using only a small percentage of SKA-Low's final capabilities. SKA-Low is one of two telescopes under construction by the SKA Observatory (SKAO) and is located in Western Australia.  This new image covers an area of some 25 square degrees or about as much as 100 full Moon. It shows around 85 of the brightest galaxies in that part of the sky, however it's only an initial test. Sebastian Neuweiler from the SKAO and CSIRO told BINTEL: "The first image was produced using data collected from the first four connected SKA-Low stations, which together comprise 1,024 of the eventual 131,072 antennas of SKA-Low, spread over a distance of just under 6 km." "By 2026/2027, another 16,000 antennas will make SKA-Low the most sensitive radio telescope of its kind in the world and enable it to detect over 4,500 galaxies in the same area of the sky." "By 2028/2029, SKA-Low will count over 78,000 antennas and be able to detect more than 23,000 galaxies in this field. The full SKA-Low telescope will count more than 130,000 antennas, spread over 74 km. Deep surveys performed of this area of the sky from 2030 will be able to reveal up to 600,000 galaxies." SKA-Low Lead Commissioning Scientist Dr George Heald commented: “The quality of this image was even beyond what we hoped for using such an early version of the telescope,” Dr Heald said.  “The bright galaxies we can see in this image are just the tip of iceberg. With the full telescope we will have the sensitivity to reveal the faintest and most distant galaxies, back to the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies started to form. This is technically difficult work and the first step to unlocking the awesome science that will be possible.”   Read more via the SKAO website here as well as an excellent article at The Conversation here.  It's staggering to think what we'll learn when this magnificent facility is completed in 2029.  Cheers, Earl White  BINTEL 22nd March  2025