Observatory in Wattle Flat, seeing the unseeable
In our modern lives we rarely gaze up at the night sky. The stars struggle to compete with the brighter lights of our homes and communities. But away from the town and city lights in places like Wattle Flat the stars seem to shine more brightly, and on a moonless clear winter’s night the atmosphere can be very clear. The spectacle of our own galaxy- “The Milky Way” can be seen in all its glory with the naked eye.
The Milky Way as seen from Wattle Flat
The Wattle Flat Observatory
With a telescope so much more can be seen. Some images recently captured using a telescope in Wattle Flat are being appreciated all over the world. See website: https://www.astrobin.com/users/macnenia/
Niall McNiell, our Wattle Flat resident astronomer has recently specialised in capturing detailed images of Mars & Jupiter as shown below.
Image of Mars captured by Niall McNiell in 2018.
Image of Jupiter captured by Niall McNeill in 2018
For more amazing graphic information on Jupiter see webpage : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
I find it interesting to see similar though much less extreme atmospheric cloud motions in Earth’s global weather images : https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov
Parker Solar Probe departing Earth 31st July 2018, photographed from Wattle Flat by Niall McNeill
The designed Parker Solar Probe trajectory over next few years.