Last night was our SVAA June Club night, and we had Scott (Tannehill) and Brian (Louwai) both new to Melbourne come up to join us for a great nights observing.
Thanks for coming along guys.
The Transparency was around 9/10 and the seeing was 8-9/10. Fantastic!!!!!
While Scott and Brian indulged in the Dark sky the rest of us did the sky tour of the Milky Way, (a few Globs, Carina, Sthn Pliaedes, Lagoon, Trifid, etc)
It was a great night
But it was COLD!
And it was Hair Dryers at 40 paces!!!
Anything within reach of the power leads got Hair Dryered
1. The ice building up on the grass and finderscope (fog showing up in the flash)
2. Scott attacks his Iced scope with his deadly Haid Dryer
3. Scott and Eric attack anything in site with their Hair Dryers
4. Look out Daniel, Eric has found something of yours that frozen!!!
Good to hear Ken, sounds like a bloody cold night, is that frost on the scope.
Leon
Yes Leon, good old winter Ice! Later on the temp went back up a fraction and all the ice melted and just left everything wringing wet.
Most of us gave up trying to de-mist our Primaries and then the fog settled in by about 2am anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ric
Blimey that looks cold, but no doubt the seeing conditions made it all worth while.
Yep it was a great night, (except for the dew) but i really enjoyed it! Thanks Ken for taking the time and giving me a detailed crash course in registax and PS.
Once again, a good night had with good company!!
Yes, a great night! But WET!! I gave up with the scope when my el-cheapo eyepieces all fogged up - between the lenses! Get that out with a hairdryer, I challenge you. I debated putting them into the microwave oven!
But the 30x100 binoculars, with a bit of heat, kept me going a while longer - less surfaces to dew/fog up!
Also after blowing the circuit breaker it was hairdryers restricted to one at a time to reduce power load.
And I wouldn't say the fog "settled in" - it when "WHOMPH!" while I was looking at Jupiter high in the sky. Everyone said at the same time "What the...? Oh!"
Good company with old (a few months!) and new friends.
Saw M13 in Hercules for the first time. I suggest we keep 47Tuc and Omega Centauri!
And Ken had the heater on in the clubroom!! Lovely!
It took a bit of effort in the central heating at home to dry everything out - including me!
Yep it was a great night, (except for the dew) but i really enjoyed it! Thanks Ken for taking the time and giving me a detailed crash course in registax and PS.
Once again, a good night had with good company!!
Your welcome Daniel, now show us some of your images after stacking and processing
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
It took a bit of effort in the central heating at home to dry everything out - including me!
The things we do to look at tiny dots of light zillions of K's away with little bits of glass!!!
You'll notice I still had my mittens on - cannot open coat, change eyepieces etc in full cloves - so I was hairdrying my fingers as much as the eyepieces I was holding
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal
If it was that cold I think I would be hairdrying both my scope and my face
Location: Tucson, before that Wisconsin, before...
Posts: 231
SVAS night
Eric, Ken, thanks for the wonderful night. I must say, I was quite impressed with the rapidity and density of that fog. It was like someone hit us with fog mortars, it came in so unexpected. But we got some splendid views in before that. First time I'd really seen the Coal Sack. It was an almost religious experience.
Now, onto more important discussions:
Eric, as I pointed out, M13 is the premier glob for us northerners. It is clearly greedy for you folks to keep both 47tuc and Omega Centauri, AND both Magellanic Clouds. Come ON, guys, where is your sense of FAIRNESS, eh?
We Northern Hemisphere natives demand that you surrender one of each.
We are willing to negotiate. We can part with either M51, or M31. M31 doesn't fit in most telescope's FOV anyway.
Were it in my power to do so, I would also toss in Britney Spears for the sake of the deal. I thought I could escape tabloid news about her when I moved here...I clearly didn't move far enough. I suspect Charon isn't far enough...
When is the next SVAS night? Any planned for July new moon?
Ken, I beg to differ. I'm sure we can work out a cash price and we can give a certificate of ownership.
ps. However, Scott has to arrange to tow it north.
Hmmmm . . . yes I can arrange the certificates and receipts if the payments are forthcoming
Here's my photo contribution. Sorry it's late.
The gang looks good.
I also added a shot of the moon taken some time ago.
I'm not a photographer & I don't own 1 scrap of astro-photography gear. This moon shot was taken by manually holding my standard digital camera up to the eye piece. (WO 28mm UWAN)
It's certainly doesn't stack up to your shots Ken, but for a quick flick
- I Like It -
.
can be worth it sometimes
