First Sunrise and Sun images for IYA2009 from New Zealand

Dawn of IYA .. Down-Under

Our key mission for New Years day was to try for the first sunrise and sun images, at the very beginning of the dawn of IYA.

We had 21 hours of Astronomy!! we left Wellington (Capital City of NZ) at midnight NYE(UT+12hrs) and arrived on our East Coast at Castlepoint (North-East of Masterton) around 4am new years day (pre-dawn), after stopping in the middle of the Waiararapa (a valley with very dark sky) and gazing at the incredible dark skys, bright with stars!!! Saw a few slow meteors ( from around Orion) and got spoken to by the police patrol. We managed to get one of the better sunrises I ever saw, despite the fastest winds I ever went out in.. Aaron (my 10 year old) was a bit freaked out as we all had to shuffle up the path to the lighthouse with both arms around the fence all the way. It was a wicked wind GALE force for about 4 hours..

Extreme Astronomy. The images don’t show it!!.

sunrise at longitude 177 degrees East

After the dawn we wandered back to Stonehenge Aotearoa for the visitor presentation, very impressive and hugely informative. (thanks to Richard Hall, Kay Leather and Jennifer Picking) The sky danced a bit more with ice crystals and cloud colours.. Finished the astro day with a shot of the first new moon for 2009.

I’ve just posted 40 shots as a shortlist to my IYA DAWN facebook album here;
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=47519&id=651354529&ref=mf


Our sillouette from the first light of IYA 2009.

I am also posting a set of images from the first day of 2009 at http://www.sky.org.nz/

Paul Moss (New Zealand)

The site of our image making, a lighthouse at Castlepoint.