Observatorio del Pangue
A public observatory, displaying powerful, premium telescopes, under one of the best skies of the world, intended for the most enthusiastic visitors to whom we deliver personalized attention...
In short, welcome! Un observatorio astronómico público, con telescopios potentes de ultima generación, bajo uno de los mejores cielos del mundo, con servicio personalizado pensado para un público mas exigente...
En pocas palabras : bienvenidos
IN ENGLISH : ALL ABOUT THE OBSERVATORIO DEL PANGUE
EN FRANCAIS : TOUS LES DÉTAILS PRATIQUES SUR L'OBSERVATOIRE
EN ESPAÑOL : TODO SOBRE EL OBSERVATORIO DEL PANGUE
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DEEP SKY SOUTH : Remote Astronomy at Observatorio del Pangue
We still offer a service of hosting telescopes or private observatories for those stargazers who enjoy accessing to the Southern sky in optimal conditions. Don't worry for technical support or high speed internet, we provide it all.
For more information and availabilities, feel free to visit us at www.deepskysouth.org
□□□Vease también:
ALERTA EN TURISMO ASTRONÓMICO:
SEPAN DE LOS OBSERVATORIOS QUE NO LO SON !... (click aqui)
□□□ CONSULTEN AQUI LAS PREGUNTAS FRECUENTES EN ASTRONOMÍA
IMAGEN ASTRONÓMICA DEL DÍA
□□□ ...Y DE PASO ECHEN UN VISTAZO A LA IMAGEN ASTRONÓMICA DEL DÍA :
Click here to link to the original site "Astronomy Picture of the Day".Cliquer ici pour accéder à la version française "Image Astronomique du Jour".
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Have you ever seen a neutron star?...
In the picture below, we succeeded to capture the light from the neutron star itself: this is the faintest of the two components of the tight apparent pair of stars near the centre of the nebula. In the close-up hereafter, see the marks to locate the neutron star (click to enlarge) Photo: Cristian Valenzuela
Observatorio del Pangue
February 16th, 2024
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade LX200 16" f/10
Total exposure 40 minutes
North is up
Three galaxies and a visitor comet...
On the evening of December 13th, the comet come to nestle in the heart of the trio of galaxies. At least viewed from Earth : you certainly noticed that the galaxies are located one million million times further away (strange enough, a proportion quite similar to that of the encouter of Ceres with the galaxy M100, ocurred 9 months ago...) And of course we've been there to capture this unusual arrangement... In the picture below, the galaxies display some structures, while the comet shows only the round, fuzzy false nucleus, surrounded by a faint hint of coma. From left to right, the faint fuzzies visibles here are : galaxies NGC7599 and NGC7590, comet ZTF, and galaxy NGC7582 Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - December 13th, 2023
North is up
The Northeast Astronomy Forum 2023 (NEAF) : we've been there !
Yes, our booth is somewhere among the many exhibitors who attended the 2023 edition of the NEAF...
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Whatever the circumstance, we never forget to connect with the heavens : the view below, taken from Brooklyn, shows lower Manhattan behind the Brooklyn Bridge but, can you glimpse the tiny white dot up in the sky ?...
This is planet Venus ! (click to enlarge)
Lately, at the Observatorio del Pangue...
Photos: (1)Eric Escalera (2)Jean Pichon / Observatorio del Pangue In this column we display some of the most relevant news, pictures, or feelings happening around the observatory. For a complete information on the place and the proposed programmes, you can visit our "facts" pages, listed at the top of the blog.
...and lastly, as to check if we really are as famous as the below picture suggests, don't hesitate to visit us, we'd be delighted to welcome you...
March 26th, a rare cosmic encounter...
M100 is a magnificent face-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, distant of roughly 60 million light-years, that is some 1,5 million of million times farther ! And even so, they succeded to meet... at least from our perspective : on the evening of last March 26th, Ceres crossed in front of M100 in our sky, in a rare event not to be missed. The picture below was taken at the beginning of the pass, with Ceres just "touching" the most external spiral arm of the galaxy. It is visible as a very bright spot at the upper left of the galactic nucleus. Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - March 26th, 2023
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade LX200 16" reduced at f/6, total exposure 10 minutes. North is up
Astrophotography at Pangue : season 2023 begins...
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor, total exposure 25 minutes.
North is up
ZTF, the "Green Comet"
The picture below shows the bright, extended coma (left side) followed by the flared, irregularly shaped dust tail (right side). The green color of the coma, rather common on comets, is due to the presence of diatomic carbon (C2), while the brownish (reddish?) tint of the tail is produced by the usual interaction of sunshine with dust. Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - February, 2023
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade LX200 16" reduced at f/6, ISO 3200, total exposure 10 minutes.
A pair of distant stellar explosions, both bright enough for visual telescopes...
To identify the supernova among the stars, you may need some help from the bottom picture, where it is marked by the two lines... The other one, labelled SN2023bee, shown up in a more distant galaxy, NGC2708 (Hya), located some 85 million light-years away. Even so, at a magnitude of 13.4, it looks much brighter than "axu", hence evidencing a much more powerful stellar explosion... Hereafter we display a picture that we took near its maximum magnitude, followed by the marked view to identify the supernova : Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - February 24th, 2023
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade LX200 16" reduced at f/6, ISO 4000, total exposure 14 minutes. North is up.
A private event at the observatory / edition 2023
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3
Winter came, finally
April 30th and May 16th : a doublet of solar and lunar eclipses...
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
North is up
Every year has its bright supernova...
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
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3
Comet Leonard !
Indeed, it is not so commom to be able to capture any detail of what's happening right around the proper nucleus of a comet, and this is maybe what makes C/ Leonard trully exceptional ! .
. The comet arrived with a periodic orbit of around 80,000 years, but apparently it leaves with an hyperbolic orbit, that means an open, no-return path, so we've been lucky to be allowed to fully enjoy this short and one-time visit... Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - December, 2021
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3, ISO 4000, total exposure 22 minutes
Astrophotography at Pangue
The little smudge to its lower right is the galaxy NGC205, while the bright fuzzy dot left of centre is the galaxy M32, both being satellites to M31. Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - December, 6th, 2021
Canon 60D at prime focus of 71mm refractor f/5.3, ISO 4000, total exposure 20 minutes
West is up
A deep partial eclipse of the Moon,
a stellar explosion in a distant galaxy,
the return of an historical comet,
and a farewell to planet Pluto...
The two pictures below, taken at an interval of 24 hours, show the star field around Pluto : hence the planet is the only dot that moved in the meantime... Can you spot it by yourself, above the centre of the field? If you do, you are repeating the procedure that led to its discovery in 1930...
November 24th. :
November 25th. : Just in case, here is the same field, with the planet marked... (click to enlarge) Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - November, 2021
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade 403mm, exposure 100 seconds, ISO 3200 ;
West is up □ Comet 6P/ d'Arrest, discovered in 1851, is a short period body (some 6.5 years), so it can be witnessed several times in a lifetime, although some of the approaches are not favourable to observations. On November, 24th, we succeeded to capture it, in Piscis Austrinus, at a respectable magnitude of 10.2, an easy target under clear skies.
The view below shows the brighter nucleus, slightly shifted (it moved some 15 arcsec. during the exposure time), all embedded in a subtle greenish coma. Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - November, 2021
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade 403mm reduced at f/6, exposure 10 minutes, ISO 4000; East is up □ A few days ago, the Type Ia supernova SN2021aefx has been discovered in the galaxy NGC1566 (Dor): both the galaxy and the supernova are bright, so the resulting view is quite spectacular...
We took the above picture on November 24th, when the supernova was shining at a visual magnitude of 12.5, that is quite bright for such a distant event (estimated over 60 million light-years).
On this view we can appreciate the two main spiral arms of the galaxy, with the supernova standing to the right of the upper arm (see the marks on the small icon at left).
Photo: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - November, 2021
Canon 60D at prime focus of SCT Meade 403mm reduced at f/6, total exposure 15 minutes, ISO 3200 ; East is up □ On November, 19th, at dawn, there was a partial eclipse of the Moon visible in almost all Americas, reaching up to 97% of the lunar disk covered, hence giving a nice display of contrasted colours.
Eclipse begins, the eastern limb already appears darkened : Eclipse progress, now displaying the neat and curved border of the earth shadow : Eclipse close to its maximum, with the usual orange coloured shadow of Earth : Photos: Cristian Valenzuela / Observatorio del Pangue - November, 2021
Astrophotography at Pangue
Canon 60D, lens 135mm, ISO 3500, total exposure 14 minutes;