Gordon Garradd's Astronomy Page

This page shows some of my astrophotography and CCD images, featuring recent images of comets and asteroids, along with many other astronomical and non-astronomical subjects.
Please note that all photographs and CCD images are Copyright Gordon Garradd. Specifically NO use by millennium/conspiracy theory/UFO websites is allowed. Private and educational use IS allowed, however anyone who wishes to reproduce them, including on the internet, should contact me first at:
loomberah@nowires.com.au (remove the AT and .NOSPAM)

*LATEST ASTRONOMICAL and OTHER IMAGES *

*A time-lapse animation of the Uppsala Telescope and night sky taken on the night of 5-6th May, 2008. It shows numerous Earth-orbiting satellites, including 2 Iridium flares in morning twilight, aeroplanes, and a couple of eta Aquarid meteors, and is composed from nearly 1300 images. 8.5MB Night Sky animation

*January and February 2007 photos of Comet McNaught latest image added 2007 02 11
A2 POSTERS and A3 and A4 PRINTS NOW AVAILABLE

* Large explosion visible over Australia on 20th February 2007, Now with a 20MB animated GIF covering half an hour, the rocket fuel explosion and debris cloud from the Breeze-M rocket body

* Scenic Panoramas made with a digital camera in various locations

*Downburst at sunset to the west of Warrumbungle National Park, 22nd November, 2006 10MB animation

*A photo of Scorpius showing the newly discovered Nova

*Scott 24 hour mountain bike race in Kowen Forest on 7/8 October 2006, Images of MTB-OZ listees

*Scott 24 hour mountain bike race in Kowen Forest on 7/8 October 2006, First selection of images

*Sporadic fireball and its glowing train avi movie made with D200 digital camera photos taken 2006 September 23 at 20:14 to 20:25 local time showing a bright fireball and its drifting train

* Fly agaric toadstools in Nundle State Forest

* Solar Halo display on 2nd March 2006 at Siding Spring

* Lightning photos from a storm on 18th February 2006 at Siding Spring Observatory

* 2 time-lapse animations of the night sky on 20th and 21st January 2006 11MB night sky animation .. 20MB night sky animation

* Aurora Australis from Siding Spring Observatory D70 digital camera photo taken 2005 August 24 at 19:54 local time showing a dim red display

* Deep Impact mission to Comet Tempel 1 images from July 3, 4 and 5 showing the expanding cloud of material from the impact on 4th July.

* Aurora Australis from Loomberah D70 digital camera photo taken 2005 May 15 at 19:23 local time showing a dim pink display through clouds and a short animation

*Comet C/2004 Q2 Machholz on 2005 Jan 6th New image showing long gas tail near the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus.

* Venus in transit across the face of the Sun animation and still photos 2004 June 8th.

* 2 naked eye comets in one view! May 19th and 20th fisheye lens views of Comet LINEAR in the WSW and Comet NEAT in the Northern sky.

* Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) Large animation showing moving tail structure, and digital camera image taken May 20th showing coma and 10 degrees of tail. This comet has moved to the evening sky and is easy naked eye visible from dark sites.

* Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) New image taken 2004 May 19th showing the comet's long tail as it recedes from Earth and the Sun in the Northern evening sky .

* Aurora Australis from Siding Spring Observatory digital camera photos taken 2003 Oct 30th between 4 and 5am local time showing a dim but nice display

* Comet 2000 WM1 (LINEAR) images taken 2002 Feb 01.75 and 02.76 showing the comet after its huge brightness increase

* Comet 2001 A2 (LINEAR) see images taken June 21 2001 showing the split nucleus and large coma in colour, a similar image from June 19 plus mosaic images from May 18 and 22 showing the first 1.5 and 1 degree of tail respectively

* The Stardust spacecraft had its Earth Gravity Assist encounter on 2001 Jan 15. See an image taken at a range of 31720km at 10:04UT here

Equipment: I am currently using my home-made 25cm f/4.1 Newtonian and either hypersensitized film or my HI-SIS 22 CCD camera.
I have also constructed an equatorially mounted 45cm f/5.4 Newtonian which will be situated on top of the hill near the 25cm under a roll-off building. On this telescope I use an Apogee AP7 CCD, aquired with thanks to The Planetary Society Gene Shoemaker NEO Observing Grant. This CCD has a 512 square array of 24u pixels, and a peak efficiency of 85%.

Location: Loomberah Observatory is situated at Longitude 151.05 East, Latitude 31.33 South, Altitude 845m ASL. (IAU observatory code 422) approximately 300km North of Sydney NSW.
The telescopes are on top of a hill, about 300 metres altitude above the bottom of the valley.

Here are a few of my photographs

Storm moving over the Warrumbungle National Park 12th Dec 2004



A very large animated gif of a storm moving Northwards,
west of the Warrumbungles on 24th November 2005 17MB Storm Animation

Acoustic Gravity Wave images

Mountain biking images- photos of the May 22/23 2004 Sydney 24 hour race

Mountain Biking - pics and story 1st May 2003 - Werrikimbe National Park

Mountain biking images- spectacular views and single track, Blue Mountains May2000 + USA July2000

Images from my April-May 1999 visit to the USA

A page of various views around my place- waterfalls, eagles, and a beautiful storm images
A very large animated gif of anticrepuscular rays and a rainbow at sunset from my hilltop Animation
A panoramic view from the hill to the North Image
A panoramic view of the hill shrouded in cloud Image
A picture of a friendly Red-necked Wallaby that lives here Image
Here is a panoramic view of Sydney at night from Cremorne Point Image
 
 

My current astronomical activities: include a program of astrometry of Comets, Asteroids and other newly discovered objects such as Novae and Supernovae, with emphasis on recently discovered Near Earth Asteroids and Comets. This astrometric data is submitted to The Minor Planet Centre. I also observe some radar targets and deep space mission targets for JPL. Images of comets were contributed to projects such as the Ulysses Comet Watch, whereby comets are observed in co-ordination with Solar observations by the Ulysses Spacecraft in a high inclination orbit around the Sun. The SWUIS project where an Ultraviolet camera is flown aboard the Space Shuttle and an Infrared camera aboard a high altitude jet also requires ground based Visible light imaging, which I contributed.
Images of Comet 9P (Tempel 1) are being taken on an ongoing basis for the  Deep Impact Small Telescope Science Program to determine the characteristics of this comet.
CCD imaging (time series photometry) of cataclysmic variables is done for the Centre for Backyard Astrophysics. Cataclysmic variables are a field I have had interest in since the mid 80's when I began photographic patrols of the Magellanic Clouds, discovering 4 novae in the LMC in 1988-90.