Benz World Blog » Telescope

Orion Nebula

Jason Benz — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 03:18:56 +0000

This is the Orion Nebula also known as Messier 42. To the naked eye it appears to be the middle star in Orion’s sword. We were lucky enough to see it at the Warrumbungle Observatory where you could attach your DSLR to the telescope. I say lucky because this is the second time we have visited this area and the clouds seem to follow us each time. Our host Peter Starr did his best to point the telescopes at various features between the clouds. We are on our way to visit the Barrick Gold Mine in New South Wales and hope to be in Sydney by Friday in time for Karen to fly back to UK.

Optical Telescope

Jason Benz — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:22:18 +0000

This is The Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales. It is Australia’s largest optical telescope. It was the first telescope designed specifically to be controlled by a computer. It was also the last large telescope to use an equatorial mount instead of the more compact and stable alt-azimuth. Despite the old mount, the computers allowed the telescope to set new standards for tracking accuracy.

This photo definitely qualifies as Mechanography.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Radio Telescopes

Jason Benz — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 09:42:10 +0000

This is the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. The telescopes move along rail track which used to take trains between Cambridge and Bedford.

Tomorrow we hit the road to Grantham, to continue our tour of the UK before we fly back to Australia next month.

The Dish

Jason Benz — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:57:20 +0000

This is the CSIRO Radio Telescope in Parkes. It was used in 1969 to receive the pictures of the first Moon landing. Its story was further immortalised in 2000 when it played the starring role in the film “The Dish”. Today it is still a working Telescope and thanks to upgrades it is 10,000 times more sensitive than when it was built in 1961. Last night we camped outside Parkes and are now approaching the Blue Mountains from the west.