Kulnura 23/09

[Rodstar]

Any one planning some observing next weekend (23/9)? I am keen, but I don't have a scope! Another trip to Kulnura would be very welcome for me as I missed out last night. I'll have the kids with me because Nina is at another conference.

[iceman]

I'll be there next weekend, weather permitting. I also missed out last night so I'll be there with bells on.

I'll bring Eliza and Jacob to play with your 3.

[RB]

Mike and Rod, we missed your company on Saturday night.
There will be no excuse for your absence this week, even if it's raining.....:lol:

[jakob]

I'm looking forward to join in.
Want to try out new Binoculars!
:D

[Rodstar]

So long as you bring the cigars, Andrew....:whistle:

[RB]

I felt silly sitting there smoking them all by myself last Saturday Rod.

:mad2:

You're on for this Saturday.

We can smoke out Mike's scope, testing for those bad tube currents, and revealing the boundry layer.
:P

[Rodstar]

I'd better bring some decent port, in that case, RB. See you there.

[David]

Hope to be there again this saturday night depending on transport

[cahullian]

I'll be along this weekend. It has been far too long since I have attended one. I just hope I can remember the way:lol:
I'll see if I can get my hands on some Hedgehogs.

Gazz

[iceman]

Excellent, i'll bring your chair (finally!)

[h0ughy]

Ok whats a "hedgehog"

[iceman]

It's edible Dave, that's all you need to know :)

[GTB_an_Owl]

subtle ways of getting people to turn up eh! Mike

you will have to get a leave pass now to find out Dave

unless someone pipes up and lets us people that have not sampled a hedgehog before, know what it is

does it go well with BEER?

[seeker372011]

Its probably a good thing you guys all live in the central coast and dont read MX the free news paper they give out at Central Station..the hedgehog reminded me of a story in the "what in the weird" section from earlier this week
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
no dont ask this is a family forum

[iceman]

Looking good folks!



Narayan, you coming up? What about you mr waveland scott? mr ving?

[wavelandscott]

Just arrived back home from a trip to New Zealand...not sure how much credit I have in my "happy wife" account...

I'll try to make it but having just been traveling with work all week is not helping...finger crossed...

[Rodstar]

Please try to make it Scott....as I am morphing into a truss dob man, I need a hit of truss-dob.:D

BTW, it would be good to catch up with you, too!:)

[cahullian]

Hedgehogs and beer go hand in hand. Just like carrots and peas (Forrest Gump) I wont get there until very late as the Newcastle Jets are playing at home that night.:thumbsup: What time are you all thinking of staying to? Because I won't make it until well past 11 pm.:stargaze:

Gazz

[GTB_an_Owl]

3:00am at least, would be a good bet if the weather is good i would think
it's pretty hard to get RB home early
well at least till he has finished his cigars
bring an extra box with you if you want to keep him there cause Rod said he would help him smoke them this week

[cahullian]

Great I will try and not ruin everyones night vision when I get there. The hedgehogs are on the to get list for today. I don't think I will be bringing my scope though. Don't know if I can trust the Newcastle public to leave it alone sitting in the car for 4 odd hours.:shrug: Jillian has her P-plates now and she is going to the game with me. If I can talk her into driving me I might bring the scope as she has a station wagon so there would be plenty of room to put the chair:D

Gazz

[iceman]

Sounds good gazz, i'll bring your chair along.

I think i'll be there till at least 12am-1am.

[wavelandscott]

I am up to a strong maybe...with some kind words on Saturday and if I make breakfast for the kids (and clean up afterwards) I think I can attend...

Won't be able to stay real late (maybe midnight or so) but I think I'll make it...maybe with a child or two...

Clear Skies!

[h0ughy]

sorry i have two pc installations to do tomorrow,one is private and can do in the afternoon, the other requires installation after hours. its a business. I so wanted to go this week. Bugger, I have had this PC sitting here for 3 weeks now all of a sudden they want it. Its not fair!!! I want to find out what a hedgehog is!!!! Scott was going to come with me, I had it all planned!!!!!

[GTB_an_Owl]

seeing as how no one has piped up allready about the hedgehogs Houghy
i guess its a case of - if you don't go - you don't know

C'mon - we will be there ALL nite (well most of it) and the hedgehogs won't be there till late anyway
didn't you warn the wife that this second puter installation might take SOME time?
and that she shouldn't wait up for you

[cahullian]

LoL Geoff. Be the boss guys and live with a bit of grief and lay the law down.Gee this new age lets compromise stuff is getting way beyond a joke. What is she really going to do? Divorcece you? Go home tomorrow with a big club saying things like ugg ugg. Have a garlic king prawns for lunch and fart all afternoon and I bet she will be glad to see the back of you. Come on guys it's time for men to be men and sheep to be nervous.

Gazz

[Rodstar]

Gazz,

Just make sure you've finished all your farting before you join us at Kulnura....

:lol:

[cahullian]

no way mate I'm keeping the best till last. Especially if my daughter is driving me as I will also have a few beers under my belt.

Gazz

[GTB_an_Owl]

now lets see if i get this in the right order

cigars - wine - hedgehogs - beer - farting

forget the scopes - just bring the table and chairs and we can sit round and bag the blokes that don't turn up

[Rodstar]

We're such a classy mob...:reindeer:

[cahullian]

As they say variety is the spice of life. I could bring my pommie mate to add a bit of hoorah, but we might have to kill him and bury him in the middle of the field with his bum sticking up so Anthony will have a place to park his bike.:eyepop:

Gazz

[tornado33]

I cant make it this time, will see if I can come down with the next contingent of Newcastle folks.
Scott

[wavelandscott]

I'll be there with Campbell in tow...we will be leaving shortly...hope it is clear!

[cahullian]

Good news and bad news...first the bad,no hedgehogs, I tried everywhere after work finished yesterday and today but no go.
Good news,got some Neenish tarts(not loose women from the land of Neen) and some caramel slices.

See you all later.

Gazz

[wavelandscott]

It was good to see all you guys...too bad it was a cloudy...

Made it home safe and sound (and in time to score a few points with my wife)...I expect to be allowed to come out to play again!

Cam had a good time with your kids Rodstar...hope all of the chocolate they consumed creates no ill effect!

[iceman]

Shame about the cloud, I hope my leaving helped it to clear up! :)

[Rodstar]

Thanks for the great company everyone (and chocolate courtesy of Campbell, and pizza and beer courtesy of Rocket Boy).

It was great to meet Helmut, Jacob's friend, who came observing for the first time in "a long time" (read decades). Shame about the clouds, Helmut, but I am sure you will agree that the company made up for it. Also good to meet David, for whom it was the second Saturday night in a row. It may be getting close to an addiction, David. :P

Scott was gracious enough to let me have a play with his Discovery Truss Dob (thanks Scott), we took in some nice nebulae in Sagittarius before the Milky Way became the Milky Fog (M8, M16, M17, M20). It was good Scott to spend some time learning about your scope and EP selection. That scope gives some very nice views, and is certainly a very convenient size.

H, I hope things cleared sufficiently for you to do some imaging. I noticed on the drive home that the cloud cover seemed to have suddenly cleared...not sure if it was my paranoia, or whether it actually did clear.

As always, great to share a laugh with Mike and RB, and Geoff's optimism is always enjoyed ("C'mon fellas, I know that it is hailing, but any moment now we are going to have pristine skies! "[I may have slightly misquoted Geoff, there]).

Jack, Noah and Eva had a great time with Campbell. At one point I overheard Jack and Campbell chatting. Bearing in mind they are both 8 years old, they were chatting about their interests. Jack said to Campbell, "Yeah, I am more interested in chemistry than astronomy." I am pretty happy they were talking about the sciences, and Jack has plenty of time to realize he is really interested in astro-chemistry. :rolleyes:

The kids showed some interest in observing through the ED80 I had set up, as well as testing the effects of shining a red-light torch down the telescope, both ways. No Noah, it does not lead to instant blindness, but I am glad you are wary of such dangers!

Unfortunately I left before Cahullian's arrival. I did manage to catch a few minutes chatting with Froggy, who seemed in good spirits for someone, like me, without a decent scope at the moment.

Look forward to seeing all of you next month. Only two months until Hubble arrives!!!!:D

[h0ughy]

I am glad you guys had a good night.:P

I left the astro gear in the back of the car thinking I could sneak down after the last computer installation, which BTW was done in record time for me. I had everything done in under an hour..but as luck would have it we had a BBQ tea , that I cooked at 8pm. The skies were terrific and I knew Kulnura would have been great, if not awesome. Sorry you had cloud down there! :sadeyes: Well after dinner was done and the kids bathed I thought I could sneak out, and say I had a PC to fix. Then it happened, my back twinged. Not fair. SO I took a brufen and hopped it would kick in. then the next thing happened, a mob of 15 Boys came through, drunk, disorderly and destroying all they could in a swathe of destruction and reckless abandon. They dragged a very full wizbin out of a yard and placed it in the middle of a lane, where is was hit by a driver of a commodore, who then left the scene of the accident.. Glass, broken bottles garbage was strewn over the whole two lanes, impact sounded like a car hitting a power pole. It took police over 1h 50 minutes to turn up, terrible!!!!

so it was up to us locals to 1 warn the traffic of the danger, 2 clean it up. so by the time this was done it was after 11pm, too late for me to come. i was not a happy boy. but worse was still yet to happen. the group of boys came back after 12am and then started to hurl bottles and rocks on the roof of the wizz bins owner. This part was frightening as there were over 50 drunken abusive and violent people. Where were the police?? Well they came back after 5 frantic phone calls not only from me but everyone involved. Too late to witness what they did you the next door neighbours, but got to them before they did more damage. Broken signs, car panels and headlamps, wizbins and one had the hide to say he couldn't be arrested, his dads a copper:scared: . so by 2am, Orion is sitting looking very pretty, and I was a spent force, I cursed everyone because I so wanted to image last night:( . But I hope that someone got some happy snappies:)

[GTB_an_Owl]

CLOUD ?
WHAT CLOUD ?
thanks for leaving fellas - you guessed it!

after convincing the GODS that "H" didn't really mean to buy the new sleek black 80mm rocket launcher, the heavens opened up again and we were treated to a magnificent still sky until we packed up around 4-30AM

As usual the company, humor and banter were excellent
No wonder i love these get to-gethers

THANKS GUYS

geoff

[RB]

It cleared, as predicted, although it was late and difficult for everyone to wait that long. The naked eye views were beautiful, all agreed that it was darker than last week. As usual the company was top notch, Gazz showed up too, great to see you again Gazz.
Geoff and Gazz kept us in stiches all night long.
David was showing me beautiful views through the 4" Celestron GOTO, fantastic.
Octane was having a ball with his new 80mm APO. Unfortunately the wind was a touch strong making imaging unsuitable.
We stuck a 22mm Naggler in the 80mm and were treated to some lovely wide fields.

All in all another great night.

Thanks everyone for your company and to Anthony for his hospitality.

:)

[ausastronomer]

Glad to hear you guys had an enjoyable night. Unfortunately, I had to attend to domestic matters to accrue brownie points for future pending astronomical excursions :D

CS-John B

[RB]

Sorry to hear about your ordeal David, hope all is well now and hopefully catch up next time.

[h0ughy]

Thanks, I will be there next month, as long as someone tells mewhat a hedgehog is?:D

All quite tonight:thumbsup: unusually clear too:shrug: despite the heat and fires

[cahullian]

Yep a good night had by all. Thanks for the hospitallity once again Froggy.
The beer and Pizza were a hit. Thanks Andrew. So was the banter with Geoff. David, Andrew and H.
Only thing missing was a chair...Turned up without one thinking you know who would be still there. lol
Apart from damp knees and a sore back everything was brilliant.
The skies cleared up later on and even the naked eye view was fantastic. I managed to see 5 in the trap with my 9mm but was too lazy to try it with my Orion shorty plus to see if I could draw out the sixth.

Looking forward to next months meeting.

[iceman]

lol sorry i missed you Gazz, I was gonna leave the chair with RB but forgot!

I'll bring it next month!

[cahullian]

No worries Mike
I'll see you there.

Gazz

[frogman]

Hey guys..... who left a nagler ep cover/cap on the field ???

[GTB_an_Owl]

Mmmmmmm, did i leave the NAGLER with it froggie? :whistle:

good to see you back on line
who you with?

[frogman]

ummm shamless plug for them
wildit.net.au

[frogman]

but no ...sorry no nag. in the cap

[wavelandscott]

You are a champion :thumbsup:

I am missing a TV cover...not from the Nagler but from my 24 mm PAN...

I was pretty unhappy with myself when I got home and was putting everything away...If you don't mind holding it I'll pick it up the next time I am up that way...it will probably be next month as I've got to head overseas for 10 days or so next week...

Cheers!

[RB]

I don't supose you found my Argo Navis lucky charm anywhere froggy?

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Guys,
Are people heading for Kulnura tonight? Any bushfires in the area?
Thanks
Glenn

[iceman]

I don't think anyone's heading up tonight, Glenn.. a southerly change is expected which is sure to bring clouds by the time darkness comes.

No bushfires that I know of.

It would be great if you could come next week - there's a thread "Kulnura 21/10" discussing it.

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi Mike,
I'll try and get up next week.
BTW where can I find that map again on how to get there (I can't find my copy).
REgards
Glenn

[iceman]

HI Glenn.

Grab it from here (250k jpeg):

Kulnura Map (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/downloads/kulnura_map.jpg)

[Glenn Dawes]

Thanks Mike.
I serves me right for cleaning up my office - now I can't find anything!
Glenn