THE ODDIE - BAKER - Ballarat Municipal Observatory Museumobservatory.ballarat.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2016-Jan.pdf · Jelbart Building on full Moon night Photo – Sravan Pingarli

THE

OODDDDIIEE -- BBAAKKEERR

BULLETIN

Journal of the Ballaarat Astronomical Society Inc., P.O. Box 284, Ballarat, Vic., 3353

Jelbart Building on full Moon night Photo – Sravan Pingarli See Page 17 for details

VOL. 38 No. 1 JAN/FEB 2016

O.B.B. 2 Jan 2016

Ballaarat Astronomical Society

THE ODDIE - BAKER BULLETIN

Editor: Phil Greenbank

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Office-bearers for 2015/2016

President: Saeed Salimpour 0422 408 889 Vice-President Phil Greenbank 03 5345 2335 Secretary: Phil Greenbank Treasurer: Judith Bailey 0419 103 213 Committee: Doug Stenhouse 03 5331 3572 Sravan Pingali 0438 341 527 Barry Coverdale 0439 340 631 Svanje Mertens 0423 287 068

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CONTENTS Observatory Happenings Page 4 Dr. Blake Mysteries filmed at Observatory Page 5 Pantheon Pendulum Page 10 Annual Victorian South Spring Desert star Party Page 11 Sirius Star Trail Page 14 NACAA 2016 Page 14 BAS Astrophotography Group Page 15 Page

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REGULAR MEETINGS General Meeting 7:00pm - Astronomical Talks 2nd Friday Feb, Apr, June, Aug (AGM), Oct Committee Meeting 7:00pm 2nd Friday Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov Junior Group –Contact Judith 0419103213 1st Friday of the month 6pm- 7pm Telescope Making Group - Contact Ted 0429999704 - 2nd Saturday of the month 1pm – 5pm

Viewing any Friday night except General Meeting night

Every Friday except General Meeting nights - Training in telescope use, discussions etc. Viewing whenever possible, in addition to scheduled viewing nights.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visitors are welcome on any Friday/Saturday night by booking only. If a meeting is in progress, a

member will be available to show visitors around the Observatory. The Ballarat Municipal Observatory is situated on the corner of Magpie and Cobden Streets, Mount Pleasant, with the

entrance in Magpie Street. Ph. 03 53327526.

O.B.B. 3 Jan 2016

Ballarat Municipal Observatory. Cnr. Cobden & Magpie St. Mt. Pleasant. BALLARAT Latitude: 37.34S Longitude: 143.51E Elevation 468m

B.A.S. Website - http://observatory.ballarat.net E-mail address - [email protected]

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NOTE: Contributions for the next edition can be sent to the editor’s E-mail address: [email protected].

Deadline for the next edition Friday 18 March 2016 ***************************************

O.B.B. 4 Jan 2016

Observatory Happenings WORLD RECORD is OURS On Friday 21 August, the Ballarat Observatory was one of 50 sites around Australia taking part in Mt. Stromlo's attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most number of people looking through telescope/binoculars at the same time across multiple sites. On the night the observatory had 205 confirmed participants whether using their own telescope, binoculars or purchased the special World Record Stargazing telescope made especially for the attempt. Although we were told that the result would be known on the following Monday night, it eventually took several weeks before we were told that the previous record held by Mexico with 3007 participants was smashed by Australia. The official result was Australia – 7,960 participants across 37 locations. Clean up at the Observatory After many years of requesting, in November, we finally were able to get all the large and small stumps scattered around the Observatory grounds which were ground down to wood chips. This will allow the levelling of some areas and making it easier mowing in others. Radio Telescope Building In the October 2015 OBB, we had started works on refurbishing the inside of the building. Well all the interior painting has been finished, new lighting installed, timber floor sanded and polished. A table, computer, monitors, laptop and radio equipment has also been setup. In one corner we have set up the only remaining component of the original Radio Telescope Receiving unit from the 70's and 80's.

O.B.B. 5 Jan 2016

Dr. Blake Mysteries filmed at Observatory The eighth and final episode in the Fourth Season of Dr. Blake Mysteries was filmed in Ballarat with part of the episode filmed at the Observatory over several days.

Earlier in the year the Producers had visited the observatory on several occasions scouting for locations and liked the buildings and the original telescopes. Left: Lighting, Camera & Prop trucks The first day shooting was with the prop's crew coming in on Thursday 19th to setup the Baker Telescope room for the film period and the lighting and camera crews starting at 8:30am on Friday 20 November setting up ready for filming to start

at 11am. All the filming for the day included the regular cast and Ballarat extras was done in the Baker Telescope Room. Right: 1950's Astronomical posters There was meant to have been an outdoor scene shot in the afternoon but the Ballarat rains arrived around 3pm and put an end to that. Filming finished at 5:30pm.

Left: Scaffolding being set up to house the outside camera for filming scenes in the Baker Telescope Room from above (when roof is opened).

O.B.B. 6 Jan 2016

Left: Mobile Camera mounted on rail tracks and Andy the Director checking over the script

Right: Two cameras filming same scene from different angles.

Left: Rehearsing prior to filming The same scene can be repeated multiple times so that it can be filmed from up to five different angles.

O.B.B. 7 Jan 2016

Day Two of filming was a Day/Night session on Wednesday 2 December. Left: Outside set with items for sale to view the Eclipse.

Right: Vintage cars lined up for a day's outing at the observatory

Left: Lighting crew setting up for the evenings filming

O.B.B. 8 Jan 2016

Right: Filming underway with mobile camera on the rail tracks on the left and the Producer and Director on the right in front of the Jelbart Dome.

Left: For night filming whilst making it look like daylight, this lighting balloon is being lifted up above the Baker Building by a large telescopic boom

The Moon was particularly low that night

O.B.B. 9 Jan 2016

Left: the Lighting Balloon just lit up the whole observatory as well as the filming set.

Right: Inside the Baker Telescope Room as they prepare for filming Judith Bailey and Phil Greenbank were the Observatory co-ordinators and advisors throughout the filming.

O.B.B. 10 Jan 2016

Panthéon Pendulum In late September and early October, I was on a three week ANZAC Study Tour covering the battles of the Western front from 1916 to 1918 from France through to Belgium then went over to Gallipoli to follow the battles from when we first entered the war in 1915. Whilst in France we started off in Paris and arriving on our first day at 6am in the morning we had a day of sightseeing before starting our official tour and one of the places visited was the Pantheon which has housed inside it, a copy of the Foucault Pendulum.

In 1851, physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the earth by constructing a 67-metre (220 ft) Foucault pendulum beneath the central dome. The original sphere from the pendulum was temporarily displayed at the Panthéon in the 1990s (starting in 1995) during renovations at the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The original pendulum was later returned to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, and a copy is now displayed at the Panthéon (Source: Wikipedia)

It has a gentle steady swing and would love to be there at midnight to see how it changes it angle. As you can see right, midnight is located at the bottom of the picture and also at right angles at 3 o'clock. I watched it for 15 minutes to see it slowly move from 2pm to 2:15 pm.

Phil Greenbank

O.B.B. 11 Jan 2016

Annual Victorian South Spring Desert Star Party

On the Weekend of 6, 7 & 8 November, The Annual Vic South Spring Desert Star party was held at Nhill. The skies are free of any light pollution out there (although as shown in the images there are a lot of red torches) and I was able to take some very good time exposures of the southern sky with Astronomers busy below.

O.B.B. 12 Jan 2016

In addition on the Saturday night 7th Nov an Aurora was seen and photographed for about 30 minutes, not long after sunset, it was pinkish red and purple. All photos at ISO 2000, 20 Minute exposures with an 18-70MM Zoom lens set at 18MM, F4.

O.B.B. 13 Jan 2016

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O.B.B. 14 Jan 2016

Sirius Star trail Image of a star trail with a difference. Sirius was near the horizon and twinkling (technically Scintillating) I placed the camera on a sturdy tripod, Star in far left of view, opened shutter and panned the camera to the right until Star is in far right of field thus picking up the rapid changes of colour seen by eye and caused by atmospheric refraction of the stars light when it was less than 20 degrees above the Horizon.

(Photos courtesy of Darren Bellingham on pages 11, 12 & 14 and permission from Noni Shugg to publish her Aurora - Page 12)

NACAA 2016 Registrations for the event are now open. We hope you'll spread the word for us again. We are finalising the details of what will be an interesting and varied programme, and I hope you will be able to join us in Sydney next Easter. Full details about NACAA 2016 can be found at http://nacaa.org.au/2016 Thanks! Sandy Galos, Convener, NACAA XXVII

O.B.B. 15 Jan 2016

BAS Astrophotography Group All photographs were taken by Mira & Kay Stephens and Sravan Pingarli (on a few different nights) using a Canon 5D Mark II body with 24-105mm f4 lens. Additional equipment used were a tripod, wired remote timer (for long exposure), Celestron Powertank (with white and red light) and a tri-colour pocket torch. International Space Station f4, 60secs, ISO 1000 @ 24mm. Lucky capture of ISS with a break in the clouds. Taken by Sravan

Jelbart Building Light Painting f4, 150secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Powertank was used to light up the Brittan house and the trees next to it. Jelbart building was lit up and the word ‘Jelbart’ written using the pocket torch. Clouds were reflecting light pollution from Ballarat city. Taken by Mira, Kay & Sravan

Jelbart Building Light Painting f4, 125secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Powertank was used to create the light effect on the Jelbart building. The word ‘Jelbart’ was written using the pocket torch. Taken by Mira, Kay & Sravan

O.B.B. 16 Jan 2016

Jelbart Building Light Painting f4, 50secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Powertank was used to paint the Jelbart building in red light. Taken by Mira, Kay & Sravan

Jelbart Building Light Painting f4, 100secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Pocket torch was used to light up the Jelbart Building in red light. Powertank was used to light up all the trees and Brittan house in white light. Clouds were reflecting light pollution from Ballarat city. Taken by Mira, Kay & Sravan

Jelbart, Oddie & Baker f4, 170secs, ISO 100 @ 28mm. All buildings were lit up in red light using the Powertank. The tree in the background (between Federation and Baker) was also lit up in white light using the Powertank. Taken by Mira, Kay & Sravan

O.B.B. 17 Jan 2016

Jelbart building on full moon night _ See front cover f8, 60secs, ISO 500 @ 24mm. All lights were turned on inside the Jelbart. All building and tress were naturally lit up by the moonlight. With the moonlight being so bright, the f-value was dropped down to f8 for this photo. Taken by Sravan Left: Moon view at Jelbart Scope f11, 35secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Inside of the Jelbart was lit up using the pocket torch. Again with the moon shinning so brightly, the f-value was dropped down to f11 for this photo. Taken by Sravan

Southern Cross view at Jelbart Scope f4, 35secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Natural light was used in this photo. Moon light shining on the scope and the red light in the bottom left is the light in the Jelbart turned to the lowest setting. View of the Southern Cross through the dome opening. Taken by Sravan

Trees to the north f4, 90secs, ISO 100 @ 24mm. Powertank was used to light up the trees with moving clouds reflecting the city light. Taken by Sravan