A guide to what's up in the sky for Southern Australia
Starwatch May 2024 - Thu 2nd May 2024
Published 2nd May 2024
A myriad of bright stars adorn the late autumn evening sky.
Galaxy NGC 5128 - Wed 1st May 2024
Published 1st May 2024
Galaxy NGC 5128—Centaurus A
Comet Pons-Brooks - Wed 10th Apr 2024
Published 10th Apr 2024
Looking west on the evening of April 27., 30 minutes after sunset. Locate the orange star Aldebaran, then scan to the left until you come to a fuzzy spot in the sky. Train your binoculars on it, the comet will be 239 million kilometres away. Graphic generated with Stellarium planetarium software.
M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy - Tue 9th Apr 2024
Published 9th Apr 2024
M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy. Distance: 31 Million Light Years
Starwatch - April 2024 - Mon 8th Apr 2024
Published 9th Apr 2024
Some of the brightest stars in the whole sky can be seen during these crisp autumn evenings.
Starwatch - March 2024 - Wed 6th Mar 2024
Published 6th Mar 2024
What a wonderful time of the year this is to be observing the night sky. The weather is warm, the nights clear, and the Milky Way shines directly overhead!
Object of the Month - Mon 4th Mar 2024
Published 4th Mar 2024
Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372)
Distance: 7500 Light Years
Right Ascension: 10 : 43.8 | Declination: -59 : 52
Galaxy NGC 5128—Centaurus A
Galaxy NGC 5128—Centaurus A NGC 5128 is the nearest large elliptical galaxy to our sun, at a distance of 12.5 million light years. It is also the nearest of the giant radio galaxies, possessing an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and optically one of the most luminous galaxies in the sky.
NGC 5128 is believed to be the result of the merger between 2 galaxies within the last billion years. Strikingly apparent within the galaxy are two major components, a large elliptical structure which generates about 90% of the luminosity and a massive disk of stars, dust and gas.
The odd appearance supports the premise that a large scale merger of an elliptical galaxy with a large barred disk galaxy occurred to form disk galaxy occurred to form NGC 5128