Where are you stargazing tonight? What to take.

[E23 (Andras)]

Tonight is the big ABC sponsored Guinness World Record attempt at stargazing.

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs...arties/9677020

I'll be at Brigidines College St Ives with my niece and grandniece. I am taking my trusty 50 year old 7x50 binoculars. Wondering what the $6.50 telescopes they sell are like.

Andras

[RAJAH235]

Hi,
I shall be at the Kiama Light House/Blowhole site.

Taking my 7 x 50 binoculars, a 4" refractor, 2 tripods & my adjustable height chair.
&, of course, a thermos of tea & some biccies & chocolate.

I'll dress warm though, as it gets a tad chilly near the coast.

[Paullus (Paul)]

USQ Toowoomba, QLD

6" newt on EQ3
WO M72 refractor on EQ2

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Originally Posted by RAJAH235

Hi,
I shall be at the Kiama Light House/Blowhole site.

Taking my 7 x 50 binoculars, a 4" refractor, 2 tripods & my adjustable height chair.
&, of course, a thermos of tea & some biccies & chocolate.

I'll dress warm though, as it gets a tad chilly near the coast.

Ah ha, ..... an experienced campaigner . It's always windy at that spot.

The new UoWAS is running an event at the Science Centre and I'll be there. They have 60+ students signed up along with a few IAS members and some ring-ins - perhaps 100 overall. I would have just taken the dobs but the C11 is still in the car from the weekend so I've decided that nothing succeeds like excess .

[theodog (Jeff)]

George (see above) and I thought we might travel to the Coona High one.

Dressed like "Jeff of the Antarctic".
=================================== ==================
Post event,

Great night for viewing.
Well done ABC for organising,
Thankyou to Coonabarabran High School for hosting,
and thankyou for the many who travelled from near and very far to participate.
All the better to have met most of you.

[AndyG (Andy)]

I was gonna head over to the Tville Astro Society spot, but it appeared on the Eventbrite site as "sold out". In the end, a local Girl Guide hut was hosting a spot. Ended up having 60 odd folks show up. Bumped into a bunch of people I already knew from work (to the surprise of each of us).


To the seasoned, it was hopeless conditions (floodlights and dust), but as we were only looking at the Moon, it was all good. This was the very first time I ever used the telescope in the company of others (I'm new at this). The little Nexstar 6 was a real hit with the kids and grownups alike - Humble by IIS standards, but ran rings around the ABC supplied 30mm


My 7yr old girl used our new 80mm refractor (Thanks GrahamL!) for the first time too. She was still staring at the moon 2mins after the record bell finished...


Sorry about the dribble, but this is truely a great hobby to share with others, as I've just learnt.

[Atmos (Colin)]

I peeped outside my front door and was almost tempted to take a photo of the thick cloud. Some cloudy nights I can at least spot the moon direction but not tonight hehe

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Took my Skywatcher ED100 on an AZ4 to the girl guides in Yeronga, QLD. Turned out beautifully as my 7 year old could gaze at the moon for 10 minutes through the finderscope while I cuddled her up and enjoyed the view through the main scope. Lots of varieties of scopes, including an 8” Dob.

[RAJAH235]

A quick report of the Kiama Blow Hole night. 23rd May, 2018.
Weather was great with no cloud but the slight N/Easterly breeze kept things cool.

For some reason, I couldn't get my 4" to focus correctly, so I just opted for the binoculars.
The moon was crystal clear at first but a little wispy high cloud made using a high mag a tad iffy.
A fantastic night was had with over 200 people turning up.
All had a great time.

The event was video'd by the local ABC (AFAIK), so there'll be some record available......somewhere. (I don't know where.)

Might see if I can contact Dave Finlay, as he ran the event & kept everyone
up-to-date on the visible objects etc.
Thank you Dave.

It was a very good night.

Hope all you had one too.

Regs, Laurie..
W.A.A.C.ers.

[E23 (Andras)]

A perfect night for this at Brigidine College St Ives. About 200 people. The students' astronomy club has at least two 8" Dobs plus an assortment of other scopes, all pressed into use. Lots of useless $6.50 toys.

For my little group, I took my old 7x50 binoculars plus a couple of toys, 4x30 and 14x25 binocs. that people had given me as presents over the years. The best performer was my 9x50 finder scope with star diagonal which I have taken off my Orion 102mm ED refractor (which I didn't take, too heavy, too much trouble with EQ5 mount).

Very happy crowd of kids. Not sure if any of them got converted to astronomy. Trying to view planets with binoculars and cheap scopes puts first time recruits off fast.

Andras

[Kunama]

I was somewhere among the many thousand people covering the whole Fellows Oval at the Australian National University. I took my little FOA60 on MT055CXPro3 and set up next to a 20"F5 Dobsonian....

Showed a few people Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, 4755, 5139 & Antares....

[Paul Haese]

Our Society hosted an event with the Heights School at Modbury and we were part of the live crosses. It was cloudy all afternoon and early evening and then at the appointed time the cloud cleared for a clear run of 12 minutes or so. I acted as a witness for the World Record Attempt and fulfilled some duties in my role of President of the Astronomical Society of South Australia. It was a really successful event for us and one of the biggest we have held for a while on a single night.

The ABC personnel gave high praise to our organiser (our secretary) and have said they would give her a reference should she ever need one. I am proud of how our event turned out and very happy for our secretary, she put a lot of work into the event and she deserves the accolades.