Taking the Dwarf3 to Australia

This past May, I spent three weeks in Australia for family reasons. I was down in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne. My main reason for being there was to care for my ailing father, but I took my Dwarf3 telescope with me in case I had both a clear night and a chance for some respite. For the three weeks that I was there, I only had one clear night to work with, so made the most of it.

My Dwarf3 sitting on a well-lit Aussie football field.

I set up my scope up the road from my parents' house on an Aussie Rules football field. Interestingly, I used to take my first telescope, a 3" refractor, up to the spot many years ago as a teenager when I lived there. It's funny how modern tech can enable you to do interesting things like this - take a mobile observatory halfway around the world and take images of deep sky objects you explored many years ago as a teen.

I targeted three objects for the night. Firstly, Comet C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS. this was somewhat low over the horizon to my northwest, which placed it right in the middle of the massive light pollution being emanated from the city of Melbourne. Still, with short-ish exposures and some processing trickery, I was able to pull out the brighter part of the comet. Given its orbital path, I'd need to wait another 170,000 years to try again!

Comet C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS. 10x30 seconds @ Gain 60

Second target was the amazing Omega Centauri globular cluster. I still remember the first time I found this as a teen with my beginner refractor and how amazing it looked. Being able to image it and get this lovely result was just brilliant. The theory behind this cluster is that it is actually a remnant of a dwarf galaxy as evidence points to the existence of a black hole at its center. It's a stunning object both visually and photographically.

Omega Centauri. 200x15 seconds @ Gain 60

The third object I sough was the famed "Fighting Dragons of Ara" nebula, or NGC6188. this is an emission nebula that lies around 4,000 light years away. This was difficult with high-level clouds rolling in, but I'm happy with the result. I used the Dwarf's built-in DuoBand filter to pull out that hydrogen gas and darker dust lanes. This image is completely processed on my Samsung phone with the Dwarf app as well as Adobe Lightroom. I was really pleased to have been able to capture this interesting object. 

NGC1688. 200x15 seconds @ Gain 60

Again, how cool is it that we can now take this amazing smartscopes across the world and enjoy the hobby of astrophotography wherever we go?! I may be heading back to Australia later this year, and will have some additional targets to choose from if the weather cooperates.