The Anglo-Australian Telescope, The Emu in the Sky (The Milky Way), the Southern Cross, Carina Nebula, Large Magellanic Cloud, Jupiter, Saturn… and me! Single 15s shot using a CANON 5D Mark III with a 14mm lens at f2.8, 1600ISO. Photo taken at 1.15am AEST, Saturday 6th April 2019.
Full resolution image in my Flickr.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University).
April 7, 2019 in Amateur, Astrophotography, Observation, Personal
Tagged 2019, AAT, astronomy, astrophotography, SSO
During the last few months my 6 years old son, Luke, and me have been taking photos of the Moon using my telescope (a Skywatcher Black Diamond 80, f=600mm) and my CANON 5D Mark III camera. We are trying to get all phases of a full lunation of the Moon compiled in ~28 images.
I’ve been compiling some of those images in a Twitter thread, let me include here some of these images:
Today’s #moon. Luke got the images an hour ago, after his birthday party. He is finally sleeping (come on! He was awake at 6am and has been playing non-stopping all day till 9pm) and I just did a quick processing of the ~50 shots he took. One #moon less to go! pic.twitter.com/8Ab2hR5wmr
— Ángel López-Sánchez (@El_Lobo_Rayado) January 18, 2019
Luke is already sleeping (it’s midnight in Sydney, I’ve been working all-day as crazy in my Python code for reducing KOALA@AAT data) but I’m taking some shots of the #moon for our project, we will combine the images tomorrow. Good night! pic.twitter.com/v7irnWbtDl
— Ángel López-Sánchez (@El_Lobo_Rayado) January 22, 2019
Another #LunaLuke photo. As the #Moon was still high in the sky it was easier to focus than the previous one besides the sun. Moon was 23.1 days old, phase=0.40, 8:35am AEST. 97 shots, 1/500, 400 ISO with CANON 5D at primary focus Skywatcher BD F600mm, D80mm, processed Lynkeos+PS pic.twitter.com/ut6VK1ceXJ
— Ángel López-Sánchez (@El_Lobo_Rayado) January 28, 2019
Besides the clouds, today’s #LunaLuke shots have been taken. Now sleep time, tomorrow will be another long day… pic.twitter.com/WQObzNAM2i
— Ángel López-Sánchez (@El_Lobo_Rayado) February 18, 2019
I hope that we can show you the result of this work soon! I’m so happy Luke is showing that enthusiasm taking the photos and helping me to combine the data. That seems a very nice project for kids!
Posted in Amateur, Astrophotography, Moon, Observation, Outreach, Personal, Solar System
Tagged 2019, astrophotography, Luke, moon
How can I say it in just few words? It was both very exciting and exhausting, with a little bit of bitter too. But, overall, last week at Siding Spring Observatory was one of the best experiences I have had in a long time working at the telescope, combining science research, amateur astronomy, outreach and science communication during the Stargazing ABC Live shows.
The AAT is ready for #StargazingABC. Hosts Julia Zemiro and Prof Brian Cox are sit in the piano, while Brian still rehearsing. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez.
When I’m writing this, at 6:44pm 30th May 2018, I’m still observing at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. I’m doing it remotely from Sydney. It is my last night in a very long run (18 nights in May) for my own research project, which I will detail here eventually. I’m exhausted and need a good break, body and mind can’t survive this crazy rhythm, sleeping an average of 4-5 hours per day, and without any break during the weekends.
But let me at least quickly mention here my contribution to the 2018 Stargazing Live shows:
1. I provided A LOT OF information about Astronomy and the Anglo-Australian Telescope to the ABC and BBC crews. This is something that I’ve been doing during the last months, and might be considered as part of my role of “AAO Science Communicator Officer”.
2. I provided plenty of astrophotography and video-timelapse material, which was used during the shows. The most important of these is the new timelapse video “Stargazing at Siding Spring Observatory“, that you can enjoy here:
3. I spent some of my scheduled time at the Anglo-Australian Telescope to prepare a nice, new image of a beautiful astronomy object, that was later discussed during the show. It was the planetary nebula NGC 5189, for which I provided extra information in the previous post.
4. But the most important contribution for the show was actually observing with the AAT two transients reported by the citizen scientists who participated in a program to search for type Ia supernova in other galaxies. After confirming that the transient was there, we got spectroscopic information using KOALA+AAOmega, reduced the data, analysed the data, confirmed that both transients were type Ia supernova in distant galaxies, and wrote a science report with the discovery!
This was something I originally didn’t plan to do, but, as I said, it was my own research program that scheduled at the AAT during the StargazingABC, so I decided to do it and it got a reward, as this also allowed us to submit two science reports with the discoveries!
Screenshot of the ATel #11667 by López-Sánchez et al. submitted on 23 May 2018.
Screenshot of the ATel #11671 by López-Sánchez et al. submitted on 24 May 2018.
These two nights were really exciting! I really want to thank my friends and colleagues Lluís Galbany and Yago Ascasibar, as well as the AAT Night Assistant Kristin Fiegert (AAO), for their wonderful help in all of this.
The discovery of the transients and the confirmation that they were type Ia supernova in distant galaxies has appeared in many media news these days, including in ABC Science News, and also here: “Citizen scientists find two supernovae and (slightly) revise the age of the cosmos“.
It was also a privilege talking with Prof Brian Cox, who is absolutely great, and even recorded a short video with me for my son. Thank you a lot, Brian!
Prof Brian Cox and me are ready for #StargazingABC.
Where is the “bitter” I mentioned in the first paragraph? Well it is when the credit is not given. And not credit was given to me during the shows. I was still hoping at least having my name in the screen, in an ideal world even participating in person during the shows. But with my name (Ángel) and my strong English accent… well… perhaps in another life… I know what I did and I know how important my contribution was, and as I said I really enjoyed a lot all the time.
I hope I’ll be back if #StargazingABC returns in 2019!
PS: If you are in Australia, you can watch anytime the 3 episodes of 2018 #StargazingABC following this link to the ABC webpages.
Posted in Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Energy, Nebulae, Observation, Observatories, Optical, Outreach, Planetary Nebulae, Profesional, Timelapses, Wavelengths
Tagged 2018, AAO, AAT, astronomy, astrophotography, Astrophysics, Outreach, Siding Spring Observatory, SSO, StargazingABC, Timelapse
See below the new Media Release published by the AAO. This new timelapse video has been also used for StargazingBBC and StargazingABC on March and April 2017.
This new astronomical time-lapse video features the unique SAMI (Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field unit) instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the beauty of the dark sky over Siding Spring Observatory.
One of the most powerful instruments at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (Siding Spring Observatory, NSW) is the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field unit (SAMI). SAMI provides 13 fibred based IFUs called “hexabundles” that can “dissect” astronomical objects using spectroscopy. This instrument is used by the SAMI Galaxy Survey, that aims to “dissect” 3000 galaxies in different environments to help astronomers understand galaxy evolution and the tight relationship between gas and stars in galaxies.
However, unlike what the 2dF robot does, SAMI hexabundles must be plugged and unplugged manually very carefully by an expert user.
This video tells the story of a typical observing night with SAMI at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. In the first part, observers carefully prepare the SAMI instrument unplugging the plate they observed the previous night and plugging a complete new plate to be observed that night. SAMI observers usually need half an hour to complete this task, but in this timelapse video it is done in just a minute. Later they move to the AAT Control Room and start observations just as the sun sets. The twilight moves to a moonless, dark night, when only the stars shine over the Anglo-Australian Telescope, providing an spectacular view of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere, and clear skies for the SAMI Galaxy Survey team to dissect distant galaxies.
In this timelapse you will see the Milky Way rising and setting, the Southern Cross with the Coalsack, the globular cluster 47 Tucanae near the Small Magellanic Cloud, the Large Magellanic Cloud with its strong star-forming region the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), star clusters like the Pleiades moving behind the AAT, Orion rising and setting, the Carina Nebula rising, the magestic Emu in the Sky, and circumpolar stars (with the International Space Station) turning above the dome of the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
All the sequences have been filmed and processed in high resolution (4K) by astronomer Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory / Macquarie University) while observing at the AAT for the SAMI Galaxy Survey, between September 2015 and March 2017. He used a CANON 5D Mark III with different lenses, all at f2.8. The night sequences tipically have 24 frames per second, each frame lasting 30 seconds in real time. Therefore 1 second of the night sequences corresponds to 12 minutes in real time.
To enjoy this video, watch it in full screen and at least in Full-HD (4K resolution recommended), in a dark room. As in real live, the details in the sky appear when we are far from the light pollution.
Credits of the video: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory / Macquarie University)
Featuring: Luca Cortese (ICRAR-UWA), Jesse van de Sande (University of Sydney) and Steve Chapman (Night Assistant at the AAT)
SAMI plugger: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU)
Music: It’s personal (World in flames, 2011), Celestial Aeon Project.
Posted in Astrophotography, Outreach, Timelapses
Tagged 2017, AAO, AAT, astronomy, astrophotography, SAMI, Timelapse
Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, and Anglo-Australian Telescope. Combination of. 6 frames, each of 30 seconds, CANON EOS 5D Mark III, 16mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600. Thursday 2 March 2017. The dome was illuminated in one of the frames by a car leaving the building.
More sizes and high-resolution image in my Flickr.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU).
March 4, 2017 in Amateur, Astrophotography, Observation, Observatories
Tagged 2017, AAO, AAT, astronomy, astrophotography, LMC, Milky Way
A/Prof. Ángel R. López-Sánchez 