Hi All,
This is my first report posting here and it was the first proper light under true dark skies for my 22" f/3.6 Dob named Nyx.
We arrived at Sea Lake (NW Vic) on Friday to attend the
Lake Tyrrel Star Party. That night, after an informal meeting with the organising committee I set up in a relatively dark spot on the sports oval in town. We shared the views of brighter objects at the beginning of the night - 47 Tuc, Tarantula, M22 and friends, Jupiter, etc. The seeing was good and everyone was impressed. The electrician who came to switch the outside lights off appeared to be most excited with the views. After more than two hours of viewing people left and it was just me, Nyx and the stars.
The first object I dialled in Argo Navis was the Silver Coin galaxy (
NGC 253 in Sculptor). When I saw it in the 21mm Ethos (95x magnification with 1.1° field) my jaw almost dropped on the grass - so much detail. The spiral structure was recognisable, dark dust clouds everywhere. I spent good 15 minutes observing it before moving to a next target.
I changed the eyepiece to 13mm Ethos (152x and 0.7° field) to view
NGC 134 in the same constellation. The dust lane going across the edge-on galaxy was evident and a I could see some mottling. A small galaxy in the same field was a bonus.
Comet 10P/Tempel was nice with bright core and extended green coma.
Just after midnight M31 in Andromeda got to its highest elevation of 13° and I quickly pointed the telescope at it. Even though it was so low on the horizon and I had to almost lie on the ground to look through the 21mm eyepiece, it was worth it. I was rewarded with the breath-taking view of the bright soft core, extended halo separated by an obvious dark lane. This kind of excitement might sound odd for Northern Hemisphere observers but we rarely get to see the Great Andromeda nebula down here.
Then I slewed to
NGC 1365 in Fornax and it was very much like in the images with bright core and extended arms. I decided to spend the rest of the time that night in Fornax and let Argo Navis give me a tour of galaxies there.
NGC 1097 (Arp 77) looked like a "script l" with two arms extending out. I could not quite make out the dwarf companion but I guess I am asking too much.
NGC 986 was a beautiful sight - a distinct letter "S" with two arms extending out.
When I got to
NGC 1380 and two others in the 13mm Ethos field, I put the 21mm eyepiece back and could count nine galaxies in the 1.1° field and two more were just outside. All of them were obvious with direct vision.
The other galaxies in Fornax kept me busy for more than an hour before I decided to pack up around 1.30am to be fresh for Saturday lectures.
The lectures were fantastic, Dr Victor Gostin and Paul Curnow from Adelaide gave great talks on gelology of Mars and Aboriginal Skies. Olga Gostin gave a great presentation about Lake Mungo and the important archaeological remains found there. The closing lecture by John Morieson about Boorong Night Sky had a wealth of fascinating information about the constellations and stars of Boorong clan, once inhabiting the area.
On Saturday night there was public viewing at the Lake Tyrrel observation platform. I set up the scope and pointed it at 47 Tuc, which is a delightful sight in 21mm Ethos with Type2 Paracorr. I could count at least 40 people lined up to see it. Then Paul Curnow gave a great talk about the objects in the sky, followed up by public viewing of Jupiter and its moons, Swan and Tarantula nebulae and a few galaxies.
I used a lot of superlatives but it describes what I felt quite accurately. The first time with my large Dobsonian under true dark skies and great atmosphere created by citizens of Sea Lake and guest speakers ought to bring that out.
Alex
other terms apply here 
