A clear night in BrisVegas - about time!!

[Doogs38]

It's been a few weeks since there was an evening this good. Skippy shows it will be a fairly good night for observational astronomy. Moon doesn't rise until after midnight ... the dob is set up and ready to go :-)

[codemonkey]

Nice!

I just packed all my gear away on the weekend after discovering wasps nesting in the scope and on the mount and too many weeks of disuse... of course tonight's cleared up. Gods, why must you mock me?!

[Kunama]

I think Lewis will be feeling this worse than the rest of us. After weeks of poor skies he changes life/hobby direction and the skies clear.

[Doogs38]

Oohhh my lordy, I'm outside now & the views are stunning as they always are on a night like tonight :-) Time to find comet Lovejoy.

[Doogs38]

Found it :-) The comet is stunning ... 2nd time I've had a chance to observe it in the last few weeks. It's now very easily seen with the naked eye too. Now on to other things now :D

[pmrid]

But the bugs - cripes. They're absolutely all over me. I can tolerate a lot but a family of those Christmas beetles in your hair is pushing the limits.
Peter

[Ryderscope]

Should be in the central west of NSW. Beautiful clear night (the first one in about three weeks). The imaging train is up and running and I'm watching it all come in on the computer.

Clear skies (again) :-)

[Doogs38]

Bummer Peter. I had a few mozzies that were readily dispatched to mozzie heaven but that's about all :D Overall, a great night if I ignore the crappy seeing between about 9 & 10. By 1030 it had settled & Jupiter looked terrific as did the Tarantula nebula, Tucanae 47, Orion etc.

[jenchris]

1am still at it.
Being retired is ace.

[rrussell1962]

What a lovely clear night I said to myself when I got home from work at 1 a.m. There will be plenty more. I was too tired to drag the telescope out, but pulled a chair into the garden and just looked up for half an hour with binoculars picking out constellations and open clusters - just like being a kid again before life got complicated.

[hotspur]

Looks good,last few nights have been good.Will have a look at Jupiter tonight.

What has happened to Lewis?? I have been away from forum due to work-and writing magazine articles (got another 5 page article out in Feb issue of 'Sporting shooter'-between the pay checks for these and the tattooed girls-I'll have a 7D2 soon!)

First time I've looked on IIS and have not seen at least 20 Lewis threads on the go at same time (or any scopes for sale).Is he ill or moved on from the hobby??

[Doogs38]

I love nights like tonight. What a fantastic transparent, steady atmosphere we had (in SEQLD) tonight. I only stopped observing because of the moon & work tomorrow. I saw more stars in the Tarantula Nebula than I've seen in a long time, and the E & F stars in the trapezium were solid, stable points of light ... I was attempting to catch a glimpse of the G and/or H(1) stars too but I think I was being far too ambitious :-)

During my quick meander through the heavens I stumbled upon M46 & was surprised to find a relatively bright ring-like nebulae on M46's limb. It was Planetary nebula NGC 2438 and looks a bit like M57 (Ring Nebula). I had no idea it was there (I wear my newbie badge proudly :D) but when found, it's ring structure is quite easily discernible. It also responded well to viewing through a UHC filter.

[jenchris]

Whilst 63k away, I was about to take a hammer to my gear to avoid the disappointment off another night with no views. And a herd of bull mastiffs bleating in my ear from next door.
Im going to pack my scope away for a couple of years and wait for el nino to return.

[blink138]

dont worry he is ALIVE and WELL and serving up the same BS!
He has just changed to CN instead to give the poor 'ol yanks the benefit of his buying and selling experience(?)
pat

[barx1963]

NGC 2438 is one of my all time favourite PNs!! Much better for us southern hemisphere types than M57 methinks.

Malcolm