Kulnura report from last night

[iceman (Mike)]

Had a great time at Kulnura last night, it was a brilliant night. The transparency was magic, one of the clearest nights i've seen up there. Unfortunately the seeing was shocking (thanks to the Jetstream).

Another plus, the weather was reasonably warm and not a drop of dew all night.

In attendance:
- Mike (iceman)
- Rod (rodstar)
- Narayan (seeker)
- Andrew (hector)
- Andrew (Rocket Boy)
- John (ausastronomer)
- Anthony (frogman)
- Nuri (Nuri)
- Louie (atalas)
- Gazz (cahullian)
- David (ving)

It was lots of fun, some gossiping, lots of observing, eyepiece testing and some great views through hector (20" dob).

Unfortunately hector's mirror was dirty (very!) so the views weren't as nice as they normally would be, but some great views of some faint (and bright) galaxies and planetaries were had.

Some of the targets I observed (both in my scope and hector):
- NGC104
- NGC2070, both with and without the DGM Optics NPB filter. Incredible views in both my scope and hector.
- NGC1566, a very nice galaxy with spiral arms visible
- NGC1365, an incredible barred spiral, one of my new favourite galaxies!
- Fornax cluster (with Rod's 22pan in my scope) - at least 5 galaxies visible in the FOV.
- NGC55, wow! My first view of this galaxy, so big and so bright!
- NGC253, what else to say, so much structure visible in hector.
- NGC276, 346, 376, some great planetaries and nebula. An amazing view with the NPB filter through hector.
- Mars, but the seeing was shocking. The best view was through hector when it was behind a tree, as it cut out the glare

John, Andrew and I did some testing of the 4 eyepieces in my scope, on various targets such as Venus, h5003 double in a sagittarius starfield, 47Tuc and others. All great eyepieces, the report will come in the next week or two.

Anyway it was a fantastic night, thanks everyone for your company and I hope that next month is just as nice but i'll be in Ballarat!

[Mick (Michael)]

Nice report Mike, some interesting objects viewed. We had cloud in the beginning of the night here but it cleared later on. Cometcatcher showed us a globular in Corona Australis NGC 6723 (Dounlop 573) not to shabby in a light polluted city sky.

[asimov (John)]

Lucky buggers! Wish I could make it to a viewing night like that.

Glad you all had a good night!

[RB (Andrew)]

It was a fantastic night, and the views through the various scopes where awesome.
I stayed back till the end with Louie and Gazz.
Louie was imaging but the wind picked up later on.
We had pizza and beer at 3am and I crawled into bed about 5am.



Great time, thanks everyone for your company.

[xstream (John)]

Looks like you guys had an excellent night.
We also went out to one of our local members propertys and had a great night Peter (toetoe) came out later on.

Scopes in use were a 6" Richfield Dob, 8" SCT, !8" Obsession and a 30" Truss Dob.

We probably spent a good couple hours comparing NGC 6992 ( Veil Neb ) through the various scopes. What a sight, one that is still etched in my memory this morning and will be for quite awhile.
The most amazing thing was the 6" Richfield was the only scope that could fit the whole Veil in it's field of view.
A great night of viewing.

[fringe_dweller]

Lucky devils! imagine seeing 55, 253, 1365 for the first time at a dark site thru a 20" thats a wild start
btw i propose a nickname for NGC 55 - its the one i have always used hehe - "old 55" or "ol' 55" as in the old aussie band with frankie J hhmmmm - i can hear the groans already "I was lookin for an echo..."
Kearn

[Striker (Tony)]

Great report Mike,

This is great to see so many members getting involved in star party's started from this very forum....well done

[ving (David)]

twas a night to behold... the music was loud the beer was flowing and the women were lo......

oh! last night!
great time Had I! thanks everyone

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Sounds like you guys had a great night !
We had a night at a new site 20km from town (still need to go further to escape the light dome!)
Unfortunatly the seeing was very average.
But we did get a look at the Grus Galaxies (a first for most present), 47Tuc, Lagoon, Trifid, Albiro, Alpha Cent. ...and the usual bright DSO's
The challenge objects were too challenging due to worsening transperancy as the night progressed.
However persistance paid off with the sky clearing somewhat at around 2am & some reasonable views of Mars being had.
Good news is one of our newest club members has just ordered a 12" GSO Dob , this will be the biggest scope in the club.
Lets hope for some clear nights

[mickoking]

Originally Posted by asimov

Lucky buggers! Wish I could make it to a viewing night like that.

Same here, bit lonely in the west. Glad you had a great sesh.