16 April 2012

Saturn was at closest distance from Earth for this year. The image is very similar to what it looks like through an 8" telescope

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22 March 2012

Venus made spectacular appearances next to M45 or "The Pleades", also know as Seven Sisters during early evenings of 2-4 April. In the top left corner of the image there is also a bright flare from an Iridium Satellite.

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22 March 2012

Orion nebula (M42) together with De Mairan's Nebula (M43). My latest attempt to show the whole region of the Sword of Orion. Image was produced by blending 7 images and by applying only minor adjustments of levels, saturation and contrast to the final image.

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24 February 2012

Mars at it's opposition during February 2012. Imaged through an 8" telescope and Canon DSLR camera.

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07 February 2012

The rise of Full Moon on Feb 7 2012 was covered by the clouds over Johannesburg, but a bit of creativity helped to re-create the event couple of hours later, when clouds have almost disappeared. The bright dot in the center of globe must be reflection from the Sun :-) For more fun pictures of the Moon go to "The Moon" page.

For more images go to "The Moon" page

02 February 2012

The International Space Station as seen from Johannesburg.

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Update: 30 January 2012

A 40 seconds exposure produces a unique and unpredictable autograph-like graphics. Intrigued? Find out about how Comet Lovejoy was photographed from an ocean cruise liner. Click here: COMET LOVEJOY PAGE

22 January 2012

Another rocket fuel dump has been captured! This time it is from Sutherland, South Africa, by Willie Koorts, who writes: "I was alerted by a group of enthusiasts, who specialize in tracking down launches, that I may be able to spot the fuel dump of the Delta 4 WGS 4 satellite launch from Sutherland, even though it is nearly 12,000km away. Unfortunately it meant getting up at 03h00 local time, but the view was worth it! I managed to track the cloud of fuel to ~20,000km, then only 2.6 degrees above my local horizon from SAAO Sutherland. Around 03h40, I noticed a bright blob to the left and below the Moon, in between the cloud layers!  Now, checking the camera's display as every new picture appeared, it was seen to be slowly moving!  So, this was where I was hijacked since I continued shooting until ~04h00 by which time it disappeared into the cloud, but dimmed substantially as well."

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January 2012

Welcome to Astronomical.co.za 2012 web site - your prime source of astronomical news and images from Southern Africa! As always, we are looking forward to all the surprises the universe has for us and to your astro-images. Big THANK YOU to all our visitors and to everyone, who provided us with unique material for this web site during 2009-2011 period, it's been a wonderful journey, let's see what is waiting for us in 2012.. This is a very special year, which promises us a lot of "out of this world". Maybe good place to start is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon ?

Couple of years ago, during one of my talks on astro-photography, I've shown the image of the Sun, setting over Johannesburg. A fellow astronomer asked: "But what does it have to do with astronomy?". My answer is a question: "What doesn't it have to do with astronomy?" So, let's start this year with the sunset over the Indian ocean, as was seen from aboard of an ocean cruise liner.

Comet Lovejoy photographed from an ocean cruise liner. Click here: COMET LOVEJOY PAGE