New Forum Member

[DobDobDob]

Hello All,

Just a quick intro for a new member, I live at Prospect (near Blacktown) in NSW and am interested in all forms of astronomy. 8 years ago I was a member of a couple of amateur astronomy clubs, because I was doing a Uni course on Astrophysics.

After the course I moved to other interests and let everything go. Then comet McNaught rekindled my interests all over again and I ended up reading posts in this forum. I eventually went to Andrews Communications (just down the road from me) and purchased a nice set of binoculars and so far have had one decent night (last Sunday) where I could use them.

My plan is to relearn all the main star constellations and use the binoculars, then in several months I'll purchase a telescope. In the meantime I’ll join up another amateur astronomy club and use their telescopes until I figure out exactly which one I like.

My first task will be to resolve as many Messier objects as I can from my position and with binoculars, that should keep me out of trouble for awhile. I hope to be an active member of the forum and what I can tell from my first brief look is that there is a good vibe going on here.

I am a computer programmer, and an old bloke (50 odd), but young at heart, I hope to become a valued member of this forum. I am willing to participate in any science that is considered worthwhile, and used to have pretty good staying power, when it came to dark site observing.

Regards
Tailwag

[ving]

hey hey tailwag! :D
welcome aboard :)

messier hunting is a good way to start. looking forward to your contributions.

[okiscopey]

Welcome tailwag!

Comets used to be a sign of bad things, but this one's been very good for IIS.

I 'm also afflicted by the odd number after 50 , but I'm not saying what it is either!

P.S. I think officially you can only be welcomed by those with 9,150 or more posts, so don't tell anyone about this one.:D

[DobDobDob]

Thanks for the welcome, M42 has always been my favorite.

[DobDobDob]

Hi okiscopey (interesting name)... thank you for your welcome also. I see you are relatively close to me in location, I assume that we would probably look at a similar sky ;)

I also note you have 50 odd posts more than me, not quite veteran, far from newbie. I'm sure we will be great friends.

[acropolite]

Welcome to IIS Tailwag, I don't know where you get this old bloke bit, there are quite a few of us around here on the wrong side of 50. Good luck with the hunting. :D

[DobDobDob]

Hehehe okay, so the average age on this forum, based on 3 responses is 66% in favor of the over 50's :doh: I'm sure there are many younger and older members also.

I see you are from down there:eyepop: your sky would be really different to mine, plus I assume it's always freezing down there, so the seeing would be fantastic when there are no clouds of course.

I also note you have some fine equipment as well as a 'real' telescope, it sounds like you are the real McCoy :)

[ballaratdragons]

Hi tailwag!

I'm one of the ones under 50 (only by a few months though :lol: )

Prospect huh! I grew up in Seven Hills!!!
I hope you enjoy your stay here. You are certainly going about this the right way: Binocs, checking out other scopes at a club etc.

[iceman]

Welcome to IIS! I look forward to your many and valued contributions!

I think I qualify to be able to welcome you, even though i'm one of the young ones ;)

[bloodhound31]

Hi there Tailwag!

:welcome: from Canberra mate. I too used to live up your way, sunny Penrith.
Look forward to your say dude.

Cheers,

Baz:D

http://members.iinet.net.au/~armstead

[Ric]

Hi Tailwag and welcome to the group :hi:.
I don't know about tail wagging but this a great place for chin wagging :lol:

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

Hi Tailwag,
Welcome aboard.

If you are keen to do a binocular messier search here is a link to a fantastic free program designed just for that.

http://www.davidpaulgreen.com/tumol.html

It is called TUMOL, The Ultimate Messier Object Log.
It rates every object by binocular difficulty, prints out finder charts and displays a picture of the object.
Have fun.

[styleman333]

Hiya there tailwag , well i guess we can let another "old bloke" in.
You are most welcome as long as you and the other old blokes dont start discussing "the war" .

Welcome and enjoy
From the "young bloke"

[toetoe]

G'day and welcome to IIS tailwag, sounds like you know what your doing, starting out with binos to learn the night sky :thumbsup: there is so much up there to keep one going for hours just using binoculars so enjoy the viewing and don't rush in to buy a telescope until your sure of what you want. Enjoy your stay here and keep posting away, we are a big happy family here at IIS.;)

[DobDobDob]

Thank you to ballaratdragons, Iceman, bloodhound, Ric, jjjnettie (I will try TUMOL), styleman333 and toetoe for your warm welcome. It is my second time around but last time I did it as an adjunct to a course and this time I am doing it for sheer love.

In the 7 years off, I have totally forgotten everything I learned, so it's as if I am starting from scratch. The only thing that remains the same is my appreciation of the universe at large and my staying ability on a cold night.

I do have a few questions which seem dumb but I also realise that if I don't ask them I'll never know, or perhaps I will just over time assume certain things to be correct, even if based on educated guesses and not fact.

Because I haven't hooked back up with an amateur astronomy club yet and have started my binocular observations on my own, it is just me, my planisphere, my copy of Astronomy 2007 Australia and now (proudly) IIS.

Firstly, where in the cosmos is Ophiuchus and more importantly how do you pronounce this phonetically? I assume it is near the ecliptic because I have read that it is an un-official Zodiac.

Next question, last night, despite a very large bright moon, I swung the 20 x 80 triple lens bino's near crux and saw an interesting star formation, I would say it was in Centaurus and may have been the SMC, but I can't be sure. At first I thought it was a globular cluster, but from the photos I have seen and from past observations via telescope, globular clusters seem smaller and more dense.

The object I saw was larger and not as densely packed with stars, but in comparison with the surrounding area was packed sufficiently enough for it to grab my attention. I spent more than 30 minutes on this and because I am still struggling with RA and Dec and because it is just Binoculars, it's hard to judge where you really are.

A mm on the planisphere is like 1 or 2 degrees and because the moon was so bright, a lot of the weaker stars were not visible at all. So I am not sure what it was, but will research it more and eventually classify it for sure. I really am a beginner :help:

Then I waited till about 1.00pm and looked at Jupiter which was in Leo, I guess this might be old hat for a lot of you but for me it was like discovering the Holy Grail, the clarity with which I saw it was stunning. It had a flatten shape (presumably because of the angle and shadows) similar to a football, sitting on a mound ready to be kicked. Not overly flat but the outline was crisp, I sure am glad I went and purchased my tripod, you just haven't got a hope of holding these bino's in your hands.

Then whilst studying Jupiter as I looked at it, I noticed what at first I thought was a faint star. I tracked Jupiter for over an hour and noticed that the star, which was across to my right by about an 'inch' as viewed through my eyepieces, was exactly the same distance during the entire hour + which seemed strange to me. I looked harder and focused totally on the companion object and then saw that it was not 'twinkling', in fact I then noticed that the left hand side (the side closest to the planet), was illuminated and the far side was in shadow. At that point I knew I was looking at a moon of Jupiter. I don't know which moon it was and I haven't had enough time to read and master the tables that can tell you which moon it was.

At that time my excitement was off the scale and I just wanted to yell, but resisted because the neighbors dogs would surely have joined in with a chorus of yelping.

Perhaps someone with far more experience can name the satellite for me?

So, despite me stumbling around and not knowing really what I am doing, and the conditions weren't super, I still had the time of my astrological life and it was free entry and front row seats :D

Okay, I'm off to download that TUMOL program which is a blatant steal from TUCOWS which has been around 20 years that I know of

Thanks for reading this, I suspect you have all gone through your own first 'daze' of amateur astronomy and not known what you were looking at but you knew were looking at something significant. Now I finally understand why people say - 'Clear Skies', without them Zip!

[DobDobDob]

Thanks for your warm welcome, I intend to be active in this forum, but I have much to learn first.

[DobDobDob]

The only war I know of is when the Ermo boys (Ermington) took on the West Ryde boys about 35 years ago, it ended in a draw from what I recall :thumbsup:

[neB]

Mr Wag, I think you've got a big jump on the rest of us.

But the more you know, the more there is to learn.

Welcome (again),
neB

[DobDobDob]

Penrith isn't far from me, as you know and 25 minutes drive the other way is Mt. Linden where I used to go, it is a dark site and the home turf of WSSAG. I'm going to look those boys up again soon and start going again.

Your home made observatory looks amazing, you are way too talented to be talking to me :sadeyes:

[DobDobDob]

You guys are all really great for making me feel welcome, thanks to every one of you. Over time I will get to know each of you from your writing and wit, aren't these smilies great :) :D :P :lol:

[xelasnave]

Welcome Tailwag hope you get some clear nights. Good luck
alex

[erick]

Hi tailwag

To compliment your planisphere, try this site for some basic sky information:-

http://www.skyviewcafe.com/skyview.php

What you will find are animations of the moon locations for Jupiter and Saturn - the "Moons" tag (you just may need to flip the "North on top" and maybe "East on left" - I can never remember - until it is the way we observe from Australia)

What I like about this site is the ease with which you can wind time forward to your expected viewing time - or use it to find best viewing time/day for a chosen object- eg. just set it to 11pm, say, and step a day at a time and watch when your target object is suitably located and, if necessary, in a Moon-less sky. :)

[DobDobDob]

Thanks neB, kind of you to take the time to pen a few words, I love computers, I love talking (writing) and I love astronomy, so that makes this forum paradise for me ;)

[DobDobDob]

Thanks Eric, I have bookmarked the URL and will get to this and give you my feedback over the next couple of days/nights. I love your one liner about the Zenith hurting your neck, I can totally relate to what you are saying. Cheers.

[DobDobDob]

Thanks Alex, where the heck is Tabulam? :eyepop:

[toetoe]

We all do tailwag, your not alone on that one.;)

[Outbackmanyep]

G'Day Tailwag!
And welcome.....im originally from Kingswood/Penrith area but now live in Walcha in Northern tablelands.....I used to be a member of WSAAG until i left in 2002....how long ago were you a member??
I was around right before they opened the Nepean Observatory, i think which was in 1995 or 96....i was still in highschool then.....John Jarman was president then and Peter Nakitch was secretary.....maybe i know you already!?

Cheers!

[xstream]

Hi and welcome Tailwag.
If you want to know what moon you were looking at while viewing Joop D/load this program Jupiter2 (http://www.astrosurf.com/rondi/programmes/index.htm)and you'll always be able to know.

[DobDobDob]

Thanks xstream, I have bookmarked that URL and will get to it shortly, at the moment I am swamped with new resources and programs to work through. I am really keen to find out the name of that moon, so I'll bump that software up the list and do it first.

[DobDobDob]

I remember Peter and I especially remember Brett White (I think his last name was white), he was accrediated with a supernova I believe, and there was Ted who was a mad CCD man and all round nice bloke, plus Dave an occultations man, plus a heap of others. They were all good blokes. I have my picture on this forum now, if you look at it you might recognise me, but hey it was always dark out at Linden.

[DobDobDob]

Okay, I've got the Sky View Cafe working on my laptop, and it is an awesome program from my first impressions of it, thanks for the tip. I am not all that comfortable with the West being on the right hand side, but I understand what the author said about why they did it that way.

[DobDobDob]

Thanks again xstream, I have that program now also, and still need to fine tune it's use, however I am reasonably certain that it was Io, and I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when I saw it and now that I have some reasonable evidence of the name.

[okiscopey]

Stuff I gleaned from the 'net:

"Ophiuchus is pronounced off ee oo' kus, or OFF-ee-YOO-kuss ... it means Serpent Bearer." I hope I never have to say it in public, like THAT planet.

"Ophiuchus is an equatorial constellation. It also crosses the ecliptic, the line which defines the zodiac constellations."

"What happens in astrology is that the sun travels through the traditional 12 signs of the zodiac over the course of the year. Whatever sign the sun is in when you're born is the sign you "are". However, over the past 2,600 years (since the charts were drawn up), the precession of the earth has shifted the ecliptic westwards and now the sun visits the newly-included constellation of Ophiuchus during November/December."

"If you were born between November 30th and December 17th, you're actually "an Ophiuchus". You are unlikley to find a horoscope that takes this into account."

Stuff I vaguely recall from books read 30 years ago:

Jupiter's flattening: Jupiter's rotation is very rapid for its size (just under 10 hours?) which does produce noticeable geometrical flattening or oblateness. I think also there is a dimming at the edges of the disk due to the increased thickness of the Jovian atmosphere as seen by the observer.

No doubt the IIS Jupiter experts will fill in the details!

P.S. Just trying to keep up with your posting rate ... looks like I'm fighting a losing battle.

[GrahamL]

welcome :)


the jewelbox (ngc 4755) will do that ;) and is probably what you where
looking at .. very pretty object thats hard to look away from.
enjoy your stay .
http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n4755.html

[erick]

Lie on your back and look at the sky, hold a printout of a skymap up, or a print of the Sky View Cafe page (easily done to fill an A4 sheet), and all will become clear. :)

[DobDobDob]

Bingo!!! and the winner is....nightstalker. Absolutely as I saw it, I only wish I would have sketeched it so that I could have a physical comparison. Thanks heaps ;)

[DobDobDob]

I found this URL very interesting:
http://members.aol.com/nlpjp/procon.htm

As for keeping up with me, forget it, I have over 30 years experience and spend on average 16 hours per day seven days a week on computers, one young wag once said that I could type underwater :screwy:

I must say however, that it is my firm intention to get off the computers a bit and go outside and observe weather permitting. So my daily computer hours will hopefully decline.

[DobDobDob]

Yep, just waiting for a clear sky, my wife tells me it is going to be cloudy till the end of this week. Please don't ask me how she knows this, but if you like a bet, bet on her, she gets it right more than she gets it wrong :P

[okiscopey]

Hmmm! I've just ordered a liquid nitrogen cooled keyboard, so there. :rofl:

Anyway, looks like there's a glitch in the system - your last three posts (12:21pm, 12:27pm and 12:30 pm) all say "Posts:22"! :P

[erick]

Okiscopey, the system shows total number of posts to date for that member. Every post from them on the forum that you look at will have the same number there (until they post one more, that it ;) )

[okiscopey]

erick, I learn something new each day, especially on IIS! :thumbsup:

[DobDobDob]

Now that's not a bad idea, I have the shed air conditioned and a fan running to cool the puters down a bit, I must admit I never thought of LN, hmmmnn you better not fill my head with stuff until you get to know me better, I have been known to try [almost] anything :lol:

[okiscopey]

:thumbsup::D

Definitely my last post in this thread.

See you around one day in another!

Over, and out.

[Sonia]

Hellooooooooooooo out there!

[Outbackmanyep]

Hey!
I would have been there when you were there, I used to go there on Friday nights as well to help with public viewing nights, i remember using the 24" scope there by hand, its all computerised now.....
I remember Brett discovering the supernova, he was a bit of a celebrity at the time! hehe, And I still talk to Ted occasionally, and he hasnt changed he's still a very nice bloke!! But i have not seen or heard of Peter since about 2000/01....
Im sure we'll bump into each other again one day!

Cheers!
Chris W

[DobDobDob]

My picture is attached to this reply, does it ring a bell?