Tak Attack IV ..... Coolah, NSW 2018

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Kunama

The Tak fraternity was rather conspicuous by their absence, so I very much appreciated Colin making the journey north so that we could field at least 5 of Takahashi's finest.

Then ya can't call it Tak Attack

Glad you all had fun. The dust storm in Canberra made sure we didn't get to have fun in your absence. the dust is still lingering today.

[Atmos (Colin)]

After three nights in Coolah I spent Sunday night at Heathcote and was greeted with, instead of nice black dark skies, these muddy skies to which I was no longer accustomed. Granted, Heathcote takes me a whole 75 minutes to reach and not the better part of 12 hours

Tuesday night I’ll setup in my Melbourne backyard where I’ll be unable to see either of the Magellanic Clouds as naked eye objects and forget what the dark skies of Coolah even look like.

May have spent 24 hours in the car over two days but the views through the Black Widow were worth it.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

Yes, thanks so much Allan for making the drive worth while. I dislike driving long distances, so for me, the reward must measure up. Your hospitality and skies surely did.
Looking forward to the SDM gathering next year.

(and thanks for having the biggest orb weaver I have ever seen!)

John

[Allan]

I really enjoyed my five days at Coolah this month and want to thank everyone for coming along and making a great time of it. I'm glad the sky was clear and dark, with the last night being particularly good and typical of what the place has to offer. Made the long drive, especially for Colin, Matt and John worth while.

It was good to show everyone through the 32", and I'll have some memories myself to keep from that night. I did have a look at a Hubble image of the Homunculus, and thought what we were seeing in the eyepiece wasn't far short of the photo.

Thanks again everyone for the door raising help, the wine gifts, and great company. Until next time, Ciao.

[Rick Petrie]

A huge thank you to Allan and Jordan for your hospitality and having us all as your guests for the weekend. It was so good to have such serenity after such an extremely difficult year and I really appreciated your welcome. You have a marvellous telescope there, The Black Widow, and she delivered some axtraordinary sights in the dark skies of Coolah. Great memories,great company and nice to meet all the Tak guys and thanks to them for allowing us the pleasure of looking through their scopes also. Cheers Allan and thanks again.

[Allan]

Colin and Glen, do you have a link to the images you took? I would be interested to see what you did.

[Atmos (Colin)]

M78
M8

And I’m still working on the Running Chicken

[Allan]

Thanks Colin, just found yours. They are fantastic.

Glen, what did you think of the Coolah sky for imaging? Unfortunately you left a day early as Saturday night was superb.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by Allan

Thanks Colin, just found yours. They are fantastic.

Glen, what did you think of the Coolah sky for imaging? Unfortunately you left a day early as Saturday night was superb.

It was good Allan, no sky darkness complaints here. I was aiming at imaging objects in the northern section of the sky, which i can't access from home because of trees, so i neglected the obvious bright wonders in the south.

Imaging does take a fair amount of sky time and Seeing affects, and pesky clouds can affect the results. I did get some RGBL exposures for the Christmas Tree Cluster/Cone Nebula area on Thursday night when it got high enough. I am still working on processing.

https://www.astrobin.com/full/337815/0/


On Friday i was trying for the Markarian Chain in Virgo and started on that but the wind came up a bit and cloud moved in and stopped progress before it got high enough to build enough exposures for a good image.

But I was looking through other scopes visually on both nights while waiting for my target to get to altitude; and visually things were wonderful.

Looking at Colin's Lagoon, which must have been taken on Saturday night, i can see how the conditions improved for that last night.

[Allan]

That’s a great image Glen. Visually it’s such a nice target to look at as well. Someone mentioned you were doing the Antennae Galaxies. They’re one of my favourites in the big scope.

[glend (Glen)]

Originally Posted by Allan

That’s a great image Glen. Visually it’s such a nice target to look at as well. Someone mentioned you were doing the Antennae Galaxies. They’re one of my favourites in the big scope.

Thanks Allan, yes i did shoot the Antenna galaxies onThursday night while waiting for the Cone to rise. I have not processed those exposures yet. Soon.

[jakob]

Allan,
Many Thanks for the fantastic days under dark skies. I really enjoyed your hospitality and the company of all your friends.
Its been my best observing for a long time topped off with the view through you "Black Widow".

Here a couple of snaps with my Point and Shoot Camera.