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Originally Posted by gary
Hi Mike,
I was wondering how you got on and great to hear you ran into people we
know there. Did you run into our friend Anne? I asked her to try and keep an eye out for you.
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I don't recall but we spoke to quite a few 3RF people so I recon she would have been one of them for sure
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Hope the skies were clear and you were rewarded with good views of things north.
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Absolutely we were, it was a week of mostly clear skies at night, hot days and cool nights. Now far out man! M51 was truly spectacular and even more than I had expected, we simply don't have any galaxy down here as good as this one, not even close. In a 20" or larger scope the spiral structure and HII knots are very clear, the centre of each spiral arm is noticeably brighter. Even in smaller scopes it is clearly a spiral galaxy, loved it, the perfect galaxy for showing newbies as the spiral structure is so damn clear without averted vision.
The highlight (of the many highlights of our trip), was viewing planetary nebulae through the
Hooker 100" 
... seeing two stars and faint filaments inside the very bright Ring Nebula, without averted vision!.. the detail and astonishingly intense teal blue colour of PN NGC 6572 in Cygnus and the tiny but clear red ring around Aro 11 in Cygnus, also known as Campbells Hydrogen Star and The Ghost of Jupiter looked like a soft pastel version of
this image.
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Recommend going back to Weetbix or oats for a while if you consumed a week's-worth of West Texas breakfast burritos and chicken-fried steak.
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Absolutely
how good is brisket though???
