Last night - Kulnura mini star party!

[iceman]

Hi guys.

Don't have time for an indepth report right now, but will keep writing until my wife bangs on the floor for me to come upstairs :)

Last night we had the first test run of the Kulnura site in preparation for the May 7 IceInSpace star party! It was a small but nice gathering of half a dozen people, including:

iceman (mike)
ausastronomer (john)
frogman (anthony)
atalas (louie)
trufflehunter (wayne)
rodstar (rod)

Louie, Anthony, John and Myself arrived at about 5:15pm and started setting up our scopes. The dob boys were done pretty quick, but Louie and his box full of bits and pieces took a lot longer to setup.. Wayne arrived at about 6:30 or 7pm (didn't take notice) and Rod arrived at 7:30pm.

Scopes in attendance were:
Mine and John's 10" dobs
Anthony's 12" dob
Wayne's 8" LX90
Rod's 10" LX200
Louie's 4" Tak FS102 on a vixen mount

The site was very nice.. about 25 degrees of the horizon was blocked in some directions, but that was ok because it blocked the sky glow from sydney. We got 3 out of the 4 things right last night..
1) dark skies - check.
2) good seeing - check.
3) clear skies - check.
4) No dew - FAILED! :)

It was really really wet last night, in fact our tubes started showing moisture on them at 6pm before it was even dark! By 8pm or so everything was dripping wet, the eyepieces were fogging up after 2 minutes of use, the secondary mirrors were fogged up and I thought I was going to have to call it a night, as I couldn't view anything anymore.. Louie has a hairdryer (for his lovely locks) but forgot to bring it! :poke:

Luckily Anthony found his own 240v hair dryer (for his lovely locks) and some long extension cords meant we could blast our eyepieces and secondary mirrors with hot air and we were able to get many more hours of observing in. Mental note, buy a 12v hair dryer today.

The seeing was great.. really great. It started out good and got better as the night went on. While Saturn was still up and visible, I hooked my laptop + ToUcam up to Louie's Tak 4" FS102 and took some avi of Saturn and Jupiter. Jupiter was still quite low, but the GRS was in transit and if we waited 2-3 hours for it to be overhead, the GRS would be gone and by then we'd be fully into DSO hunting and not wanting to ruin night vision on the laptop.

I took some normal + optimised colour mode videos of Jupiter, i'll process them later and give Gary the heads-up :P

The Tak only has a focal length of 800mm, and even with John's 2.5x powermate the scale was still quite small but hopefully the images will turn out nice.

I saw 8 of Saturns moons, unless one or 2 were background stars.. will have to check starry nights. and it looked like we could see a 5th moon of Jupiter, again unless it was a background star.

The E & F stars were easily resolved for me in the trap before Orion set.. the seeing was just really nice.

We decided not to do any real serious observing and I didn't take any notes of what we observed. It was a great night of eyepiece swapping, trying many different EP's including John's Pentax XW's (great!) and UO orthos (great!), Louie's Tak LE's (great!), Wayne's Nag 13mm T6 (great!) and my Meade 14mm UWA (great!).

A few of the guys were keen to do some double star viewing so they checked out a few in vela and carina, and split antares in Louie's tak later on too.

I started doing some galaxy observing including the M65 Leo triplet, the other Leo triplet including M94 and the virgo cluster around M84 (WOW!). In the Meade 14mm UWA there was at least 5+ galaxies in the field of view. Saw many others including M104, NGC5128, M83 and the Spindle Galaxy.
We then did some globulars and open clusters around Carina and Scorpius as it was rising above the trees.

Rod started knuckling down on some serious observing getting out his charts and notes, but for most of us it was just a more relaxed view of anything and everything, trying all the different scope + eyepiece combinations. Aperture really wins in a lot of cases and Anthony's 12" showed some fantastic views especially of Centaurus A.

Anthony was a mighty fine host, providing power, coffee, biscuits, the hairdyer and the site. Thanks very much to you and your boss for allowing us to use the paintball place. I'm really looking forward to the May 7 star party and it's going to be so very exciting with 15-25 (or more?) people there.. I can't wait.

Great night all, thanks!

[beren]

Good one Mike , sounded like a good night minus the dew , good company/good location and good array of equipment

[Rodstar]

:astron:

Yes folks, I have to echo Mike's thanks to Anthony (Frogman) and his boss for their hospitality. Nice site and nice dips Anthony! The company was great. There is always something new to learn, something nice to look at.

I was greatly relieved to have purchased a dew zapper and rubber bedroll (dew guard) during the week. They worked magnificantly, with not a single drop on the correcting plate all night. For those who are coming up in May, something to think about.

I'm not sure what to do about foggy eyepieces. I've asked Nina to try to sew something like a bum bag before next time which allows me to carry a few eyepieces around so that I can warm the eyepieces back up again while not in use, but it will have to be open at the top to allow for evaporation. I'll do a post when the prototype has been made and trialled!

I saw lots of things last night for the first time. I am planning a bit of a summary which I will post at a later date (when my wife has finished her essay), but suffice to say, I was chuffed with last night!

Regards to all,

Rodstar


:cheers:

[ausastronomer]

Mike,

I mentioned last night that I saw 6 Saturnian moons :)

Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion and Iapetus are all visible in "large" aperture amateur instruments (8).

Mimas and Hyperion are very small and extremely difficult to observe in "smaller" amateur telescopes.

I didn't observe Saturn over a long enough time period to watch them move across the field and confirm that they were in fact field stars.

I am still sticking with 6 and 2 field stars, but I have been wrong before :).

Apart from the 4 galilean moons the next most easily visible is Amalthea which is well beyond a 10" scope, or at least with my eyes it is :)

The (5th) Jovian Satellite happily moved across the orbital plane of the other 4 satellites as the night wore on, confirming that it was of non solar system origins.

A very enjoyable evening spent with a great group of guys and looking forward to the next event on 7th May, 2004. Thanks also to Anthony and his boss for providing a great site.

CS-John B

[Striker]

Well done boys.......great write up Mike and keep the star parties going.....

[frogman]

Thank you for your positive feedback boys....... Running a group of 25 players after having 4 hours of sleep tho is not good :D

My boss (Geoff) sounded chuffed about how well the night went, ill pass on your thanks.

I discovered my little girl was "NOT STRAIGHT" and needed a fair amount colllll thing-ing ... Thanks to John for his assistance in attempting to "straighten" my mirrors.

If anyone knows of a cheap PUSHTO......... how left out did i feel......M 98765 looks great, *BUZZ TICK WHIRR* yeah, wow....
....OOOO gtpmrl 810's hot too.....
WHAT THE ????????? I know in aroundabout what was going on but my god.... its like they all talk egyptian with a smattering of gaelic.
Absolutely loved it guys thank you.... HAHAHA and sorry for the " OOO Whats that?? and what about that one??" where are you looking at " Up there!! *pointing blankly into the dark*"

Tah Truffle for the grenaade. I'll try to get the money to you asap.

We didnt take any photos.

Anthony

[[1ponders]]

:lol: congrats guys. Glad to see someone in australia had clear skies for the night. Sounds like you guys had a whoop of a time. :cool2:

[ving]

Mmm... push-to! :D
wanny!

congrats on a good night guys. :)

[astroron]

Hi All just came in from observing for about 3 1/2 hours,observed some of the what I call the pretty pictures,such M42,Saturn, Jupiter, M78, Ngc 5128, Omega Cent, then on to some of my Supernova galaxes which are around 11. 5 to 13th mag.
Finished the night of observing the objects in Alan MacRoberts article in the May eddition of AS&T,was able to find the Quasar
3C 273 quite easely at around 12.6 mag was no problem for my 40cm Dob with 13mm nagler,
I observbed quite a number of other galaxies, and will make a proper observation report in the next few days. Regards Ron

[atalas]

Guy's top night !and much thanks to all that I met last night can't wait to do it again!:cool:
On a more serious note , turns out Ive ended up with a big water mark on the inside of my ojective on my Tak so if some one knows who can take care of this for me in Sydney I would much appreciate It .

Louie :prey:

[iceman]

ouch Louie that's not good! My primary and secondary were dewed up still most of Sunday morning before they finally dried out.. They dried fairly clean, doesn't look like I need to clean them.

My UWA was all dewed up too though, I should've taken it out of the bolt case to dry. It's dry now, but I need to clean the lens it's a bit dirty from fogging up so much.

As for your tak, maybe contact Bintel and see who they recommend.

No worries anthony, i'm glad you loved seeing new stuff.. that's the best part of this hobby sometimes, showing people stuff they haven't seen before. Even the excitement of you seeing the cassini division for the first time before it was even dark, that excitement level is great.

Please do, thanks. Is he ok with a big one on the 7th May? Will an earlier start (with BBQ) interfere with the paintball business?

[atalas]

Hi Mike ,nope Bintel don't do refractors of tried before '


Louie:sad:

[Orion]

Good to see that you guys had a great time, :) so how dark are the skies over there?
It looks like I will have to bring a hair dryer for the next viewing night does anyone know were I could find a 12v hair dryer?
It's a shame to hear what happend to your telescope Louie!

[iceman]

The skies are quite dark, I don't know that anyone did a limiting magnitude test, but the milky way + megallanic clouds are easily visible.

Apparently supercheap auto has some hairdyers, that's where i'll be going to get mine.

The next viewing night post has been updated, please post your interest:

http://www.iceinspace.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1499

[atalas]

Hi Ed

My guess would be 5.5mg skies and Yes Ed water mark on the inside of the lens looks bad I will have to try and find a pro to clean it I hope.

Cheers

[iceman]

How did it get in there? I wouldn't expect a Takahashi to leak water around the edges of the lens?

[atalas]

Condensation !Mike

Louie

[ving]

eek @ atlas! that sounds bad.

5.5 mg skies sounds good :)

[ausastronomer]

I would agree with Louie on his assesment of the skies. I estimated 5.5 to 6.0.

Louie,

Have you tried Mark Suchting at Deep Sky Optics ?

http://deepsky.cia.com.au/optics/

Telephone: 9456-2215

Give him a call he may be able to do it. Failing that I would ring Don Whiteman at BINTEL and ask him who you could send/take the scope to. I know Don doesn't do refractors but I am pretty sure he would know who does. Its worth getting the right person to do it as the objective will need to be recollimated, as you would already know. Does it have a user adjustable objective cell ?

CS-John B

[Exfso]

Atalas, to the best of my knowledge there is no one in Aust that can fix this up. The man to see is Art Ciampi of Texas Nautical Repair. artc@takahashiamerica.com
He will most certainly be able to point you in the right direction. This is a problem that scares me as well with the TOA130. I reckon I might invest in a dew zapper of some sort.
Just as a query, is the water mark between the 2 lenses of the objective doublet or on the inside of the inside lens. I think yours is air spaced as well, and I would reckon it is on the inside of the front lens of the doublet. I have an airspaced triplet, would that be a nightmare to fix.:eyepop:

Peter

[atalas]

Ving yes 5.5mag skies look good too! John g'day !I dint know Mark does lensers , Iwill ring him and see what he says.
Peter thanks for the advicel,just read your PM I'll check those things out as well ,and Texas Nautical I like what Ive read about them ! I should send them an email you never know!
Well, water mark or know water mark I got some imaging done last night I will post them up tonight ,if I can work out how to doit.

Louie :P

[atalas]

Wise move Peter DEWZAPPER !!!!!! peter dont buy the Orion one,there power hungry ask the guys about them !

Louie:cheers:

[trufflehunter]

Louie, really sorry to hear about that. Is it actually a mark or a remnant of condensation between the elements that hasn't yet dried off? I'm sure it's easily fixed... it's just a matter of finding someone to do it, or plucking up the courage to do it yourself.

I feel really bad because it's kinda my fault! You had the good grace to lend me your dew zapper. Not only that but I drained your battery as well. Did it recharge ok?

Boy, was that dew a problem! Even after the one hour drive back to Newcastle, with the air and heat on, I still had to dry everything off. All the eyepieces were still fogged up and when I took the dust cap off the scope the corrector was covered in water droplets. I forgot to check the finder, and the next day when I took its cap off it's objective was still dripping!

My dew shield didn't really help at all, it was so bad! I can see I'll have to get a zapper system and another battery!

Highlights (moving clockwise from where I was stationed!):
1. Eta Carinae through Rod's LX200 with his OIII filter
2. The Tarantula and the Sagittarius globs through Anthony's 12.5 (size DOES matter!). And his mad sense of humour!
3. Mikes new Meade UWA 14 and his laser pointer!!! Don't ever get rid of that ep, Mike! Now it's no longer in production, it's sure to become a 'classic'
4. The fantastic views of Jupiter through John's 10 and his UO and Pentax ep's Wow! I've never seen Jupiter look so good.
5. Splitting Antares through Louie's refractor, and discovering I could do it with mine! Nothing beats the star images in a top notch refractor. And his Tak LE's which I'd never experienced before. Beautiful ep's. I hope all is well with your scope, Louie.
6. The great company of like-minded individuals and the fantastic location
7. NOT the dew, but

A special, special thanks again to Anthony and Geoff for allowing a bunch of mad amateur astronomers to trapes all over their property. Can't wait for May!

[frogman]

Sorry to hear about your scope Louie but ill try to order a dewless night for the big one......


Good thing or bad ???

Dewzappers would they do anygood on a dob ?

[atalas]

Hi Frogman ! Yes mate thay would .

Louie :)

[iceman]

You can get a dew shield for the dob, just make one out of a big bed roll like Rod, and secure it to the end of your OTA. It might help keep it off the secondary for a little while longer.

[trufflehunter]

definitely a GOOD thing, Froggie!

[RAJAH235]

Hi all, In relation to your dew prob. Louie, has anyone tried ' DAW Optical Services' in Homebush West? I posted this a while ago somewhere in relation to Silvie's binos. problem, but have had no feedback from her. I don't know if the Co. is still there but it's worth a try. I haven't found a web site.
10a Henley St., ph. 97643476
HTH. :D L.

[Howzat]

DAW Optical (http://www.daw.com.au/)



Whitworths Marine (http://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=40000&search123=dryer&intAbsolutePage=1)

[RAJAH235]

Thanks for that Phil. Everyone's going to bookmark those real quick, I expect. They must have been off the air when I was looking. :D L.

[frogman]

http://www.astro-optical.com.au/mirror.php


Try these guys Louie they are i Skyd-idiney or Melbourne they do optic repairs, recoatings and repairs.

Anthony

Just called them Louie and they do fix watermarked lenses/mirrors.

[Orion]

(Hair dryer)... Thanks for the link Phil.

[iceman]

About that hairdyer link, it has a car cigarette lighter plug.. how do you work it when you car isn't parked within the length of the 1.37m cable?

[frogman]

cut the ends off and replace them with gator clips

[iceman]

I've started a new thread in the equipment forum about hairdyers so we don't go offtopic in this thread.