Winter came, finally

Snowing is not common in our area, but when it happens, it does it well ! This year the winter was notably wet and cold, and we even got snow all around.

Here are some views of the observatory, the day after the snowy night...

Below, aerial view of the whole region surrounding the observatory.

Indeed, this is a good time for taking holidays, but we'll be back in September!

April 30th and May 16th : a doublet of solar and lunar eclipses...

Each eclipse of the Sun is unique, and every one is worth to watch, and this one didn't fail :despite being "only" a partial eclipse (24% deep at our location), it was fun to observe it on a sunny autumn day at the observatory...
The view below shows the aspect near the maximum, with the limb of the Moon simultaneously adjacent to the only two major sunspots visible on that moment.

The sun set with the eclipse still in progress, so we could appreciate the curious contrast between the curved border of the Moon, and the flat (!) silhouette of the Earth landscape.

Indeed, such a circumstance is a unique opportunity to witness the "New Moon set" : the view below captures the exact moment of the contact between Moon and Earth. Once again,it was worth to watch...

Keeping the alignement, we've been granted 2 weekd later by a total eclipse of the Moon, conveniently located high in the sky, in the first half of the night (May 15th to 16th), hence visible completely, in optimal conditions.

Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - 2022
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3

The Open Cluster Messier 7

This is not really a popular target, but the young star cluster Messier 7 (M7), in the constellation of Scorpius, offers stunning view of the central areas of our galaxy, with countless stars and complex dark nebulae all together... The cluster itself is the group of a few tens of brighter stars spread all over an extended area around the centre of this view. The picture has been taken in the Full Moon night... but in the middle of the total phase of a lunar eclipse, hence in a conveniently dark sky !

Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - May, 15th, 2022
North is up

Every year has its bright supernova...

Indeed, supernovae in distant galaxies are rather common, but bright supernovae involved with a Messier galaxy are quite rare. A few weeks ago we've been granted with SN2022hrs, a type 1a supernova appeared on the border of NGC4647, a small galaxy adjacent to the large and bright M60, both galaxies lying some 60 million light-years away, in the constellation of Virgo.

The picture below shows this pair (M60 is the larger one), with the supernova appearing just in between as a tiny white dot very close to the nucleus of NGC4647. We captured it precisely when it peaked in brightness, reaching the remarquable magnitude of 12.4.

Incidentally, we can note that the spiral galaxy NGC4647 shows much more structures than the elliptical M60... Furthermore, the small elongated smudge at the lower right corner of the field is the galaxy NGC4638.

Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - April 28th, 2022
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade LX200 16" reduced at f/6, ISO 4000, total exposure 25 minutes. North is up.

A very personal astronomical alignement

We know that the sunset shifts a little from day to day. On February, when viewed from our place, it happens behind the domes of the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO), one day exactly behind the main dome, the next day behind the smaller domes. On the following view we combined both, hence showing the dayly shift of the Sun in its annual path.

Sunsets over the CTIO seen from El Pangue, Feb. 7th. (left) and 8th. (right)

Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - February, 2022
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3