Night Sky Photography Tasmania: October 21-22 2014
For anyone into night sky photography Tasmania is a joy. As well as regular displays of the southern aurora, the dark skies of Tasmania mean many distant objects can be sought out relatively easily.
The Orionids Meteor Shower
My main aim heading out last night was to witness the Orionids meteor display. I have never made the time to get outdoors for a meteor shower, but with such a stunningly clear night last night I made up my mind to head out at around midnight, given the best of the show was expected to be from around 1:00 onwards.
Night Sky Photography Tasmania
While waiting for Orion to rise, I did some deeper sky images. Having heard that a comet was again in our skies I was interested to see just what, if anything, I would capture with my humble 200 mm and astro tracer. I was quite happy to find I had indeed captured a distinct greenish glow, not dissimilar to Comet Lemmon a couple of years ago, but nowhere near as spectacular as a previous Comet Panstarrs from around the same time.
Spring is also the only time of year we here in Tasmania have a chance at spotting the Andromeda Galaxy. The shot above was taken through the glow of Hobart, so a darker location would yield even better results!
Given the subject of the night was the Orionids, I also fired off a few shots of the famous Orion Nebula, and Orions belt including the harder to image Horsehead Nebula.
So in the end the orionids meteor display was a complete fizzer, but the night was far from wasted 🙂 For those wanting to explore the southern skies more, check out “Astroblog” which contains invaluable information about what can be seen in the night sky from week to week.