Another Saturday night on the Sunshine Coast

[[1ponders]]

Thought I'd head up to Mapleton again last night for a bit of a session with Adrian from the observatory. We didn't use the Observatory telescope at all but played around with our own scopes.

I thought I'd try to get the hang of my wedge but boy was that a big mistake. (I wanted to try out a new DSLR Focus program, which I'll do a review of once I get my wedge teething problems sorted out). Spent nearly half the night trying to drift align only to find that the azimuth bracket was bending out of line because the mounting nut was too tight. Not Happy Jan! managed to straighten it out NP but by this time I was getting a bit narky over it. I think there need to be a shim between the nut and the mount to allow it to swivel easier. And not tighten it so much. So I took off the wedge and went back to Alt/Az

What a lovely clear moonless night. My wife came up with me and spent most of the night on a blanket with my binoculars. She had a great time. There's a new name for the Pleides now, "The Eiffle Tower" according to her. :) Sya was blown away with how bright Sirius is, said she managed to spot the Trapezium in the binocs (maybe her eyes are better than mine) and generally scanned the sky with lots of wows.

Adrians little Nexstar was giving him a few goto problems but he managed to pull in The Tarantul, Eta Carina, Omega Centauri, M42, Saturn, Jupiter, ngc2808 (glob clust on the border of Volans and Carina), split Acrux and a couple of others, and generally had a good time experimenting with lenses and barlows.

I concentrated on galaxies and globs. Oh and Saturn and Jupiter of course. I started with M104 (Sombrero), then Centaurus A, "WOW" :cool2: , Omega Centauri, 47 Tuc, ngc2808 (check it out just east of alpha volans about 9 pm, lovely cluster). Then over to Leo for M65, 66, 95 and 96, and then back to Sombrero. Tried jupiter out again with a couple of filters but decided it was time to pack it in. The wind had come up by this time and it would have blown the freckles of my mate bluey.

Apart from an initial disappointment or two, which I'll definately work out, It was a beautiful night. Sitting under the stars, just a bit brisk, good friends and the odd half strength warmer uppera.

I hope everyone else enjoyed their Saturday night as well as I did.

Clear Skies

[Argonavis]

I was at Cambroon, and the night was superb. Some cloud, with the moon becoming visible at 1am after risinf 00:37. The dust lane in ngc5128 really stood out. One of the things that impressed me most was the dark nebulae visible in my 11x80 from the coal sack down through musca on to carina. S&T have dubbed the Musca dark neb as the Dark Doodad, but I am sure someone can come up with a more appropraite and romantic name. These dark nebulae appear to be all part of the one giant molecular cloud, based on the way they stream into each other.

We had some discussion on the demise of SCAS. I don't know why someone doesn't revive it. Associations (according to one legal view) only need $1m in public liability if they hold real property, although the Act (or is it the Regs) specify "property". So if you don't own anything you can remain incorporated without insurance, if that is the problem. The other problem is lack of interest, but that goes up and down anyway. It just need a few (maybe 2) committed individuals, really.

[[1ponders]]

I'd have to agree about Centaurus A Argo, it was the highlight of the night catching that. I've not really had a good look at it before and for some reason last night it was really clear. Blown away.

Ditto to the SCAS. I don't know anyone here that was in it. Even more surprising to me is that they (whoever they are) haven't become involved in the Mapleton Observatory. Seems like a perfect opportunity to get up and active again.

[gaa_ian]

Hi Paul
Sounds like you Sat night was a good one !
Cent A is one of those DSO that just begs for more appeture , It's a Fav. of mine too.
If you want to get a club going on the SSC it is not that hard with Insurance if you go through the Group scheme that has been set up by members of the Sutherland Astronomical socity.
It makes it quite affordable.

[Argonavis]

Of great interest was a dark spot that seemed to be at the leading edge and part of of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. It really stood out when the atmosphere settled down. At first it looked like a shadow transit, but all 4 galilean satellites were strung out well away from the disk of the planet.

[[1ponders]]

I missed that unfortunately. Come nine thirty it was starting to howl up here, and If I remember correctly Jupiter 2 was predicting that the spot would start to become visible around 10ish (around that time anyway). Looking at Jupiter at that time was like looking through to the bottom of a boiling kettle. Bed seemed a better idea.

[gaa_ian]

Hi Argonavis
what scope & EP's were you observing Jupiter with ?
Is that monster scope in the photo yours ?

[Argonavis]

I found the seeing up at Cambroon exceptional. I could see the clouds towards the south (where Andrew and Jeanette were).

Thanks for the enquiry. We were using a 16inch (with a Meade mirror) and a 9mm eyepeice. For a Meade mirror, it is exceptional. The 16 inch was not mine. I was using an 11x80 to get intimate with the sky again. We all need to return to our roots.

The piccy of me is with a 20inch - which wasnt mine. I have one on order that is just a wee bit bigger.

[astro_south]

Argo

We had some serious cloud low down to the south of us, so we were probably between you and the heavy cloud. We did notice some lightning early on in the night to the south. Unfortunately we also had some cloud in the east - south east that was catching and amplifying some of the light dome from Bris / Sunshine Coast.

Who were you observing with at Cambroon?

[Argonavis]

Following popular requests, I have attached an image of some of the dark nebulae south of the Coal Sack which extends past IC2944 almost to eta carina. You can see from the attached some streams of dark nebulae which appear spectacular in binoculars in a dark sky. Some day I might get to put labels on them, but I can't be bothered to do the research right now into the Lynds, Bernes and Sandvqest catalogues of dark nebs to identify them.

The dark doodad is hidden behind the ngc4833 label

[Argonavis]

and the dark doodad is a prominent dark lane in Musca, if I recall it is marked on Uranimetria 2000.

[RAJAH235]

Yeah, Check with BRETT!