Saturn’s 2024 opposition will be on 8 September. Around that time, its rings will appear to glow brighter than usual due to retroreflectivity. Soon afterwards, however, the rings will be edge-on and become entirely invisible.
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What is retrograde motion in a planet?
Every month, I present a talk at the Astronomical Society of Victoria on what’s up in the sky. They’re uploaded to YouTube and a few other video sites, and I…
Read MoreImaging galaxies using Hydrogen Alpha
Taking monochrome images of a galaxy in red, green and blue light allows you to make a full colour image, in a similar way to your eyes detecting the three colours and your brain combining them in the colour image. But you add exposures taken through a Hydrogen alpha filter, which draws out emission nebulas in the galaxy.
Catching a Lunar Eclipse using a remote facility
For the Lunar Eclipse of September 2025, Bill used a remote facility that Sidereal Trading had installed at a club in Victoria to get a sequence of images. It didn’t go quite to plan, but he got the shots anyway.