http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 5THE ASTRONOMY SCENE62 Astrophotography
Narrowband colour processing with
PixInsight.
By Ken Hewitt-White
66 Test report
Takahashi’s Super APO Astrograph.
By Dennis di Cicco
72 Astronomer’s workbench
An easy light shade for your eyepieces.
By Jerry Oltion
76 Gallery
Best astrophotos from our readers.
79 Marketplace
80 Index to advertisers
82 Focal Point
Building a Neolithic-style solar
observatory.
By Glenn Dawes
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ON THE COVERNASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has opened
our eyes to the Red Planet’s watery past.
See page 14.
P.62 Create your own colourful
nebula imagesASTRONOMY HAS ALWAYS BEEN one of the sciences in which
amateurs have played a major role. Many of the world’s greatest
astronomers throughout the ages have been enthusiasts, making
unpaid observations of the skies above. Think of all the comets,
supernovae, asteroids and more that they have discovered.
In today’s electronic world, amateurs can discover sungrazing comets
by accessing the archives of Sun-staring spacecraft. They can take part
in ‘citizen science’ programs such as theSkyNet (theskynet.org), the
Milky Way Project (zooniverse.org/projects/povich/milky-way-project)
and many others. And no longer are we restricted to observing from
our own backyards or nearby environs. With remote telescopes now
commonplace, we can use the best equipment located at some of the
best sites on the planet (including on the other side of the planet).
In this issue, we learn of amateurs playing a vital role in monitoring
the death throes of a planet orbiting a distant star (p. 22), and
astrophotographers helping to track down galactic gas clouds (p. 56).
With astronomy, the opportunities for contribution are endless.Amateurs prove
their worth
Jonathan Nally, Editor
[email protected]by Jonathan Nally SPECTRUM
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