ASA Skynet First Light

FIRST LIGHT IMAGE FOR SKYNET AT ASA

The image below was one of the first images taken after polar alignment of the 16" RCOS Skynet telescope at the Australian Space Academy, Meckering, on 10 May 2016.

The image is a 20 second exposure of M20 through the luminance filter with an auto-dark. Messier 20 is also known as the Trifid nebula and NGC 6514.

The telescope is still suffering from a lack of collimation, probably due to its trip from Chile to Australia, and we expect a lot finer detail to be visible when this is corrected in the near future.

ASA Australian Space Academy