[Kunama]

Never occurred to me to even attempt this until I read Allan's recent report of his APM120BT, so on Saturday night I travelled to a very dark site at Kiandra in the Snowy Mountains.

I set up beside the Link Road at the old mining equipment display and waited for the Sun to set.... This place is so very dark, and with the sounds of a pair of howling dingoes in the valley and the noise of a dozen brumbies just 200 metres away, a rather eerie setting when trying to relax at the eyepiece.

Anyway, after the last light faded, I aligned the AZ-EQ6 and set out to view some faint galaxies and other targets before turning the scope to IC434 and the asterism that lines up with the Horse's neck ....

and there it was, a dark patch that was blocking the light of IC434.... no real definition was seen other than a slightly oblong dark patch along the nebula but it was definitely the Horse.

I also spent a couple of hours viewing a list of NGCs, ICs and M objects but once the temperature dropped below freezing I (nursing the flu at the moment) retreated to the ducted heating of the motorhome.....