Kulnura Observing - 17th Feb

[Deeno]

After enjoying the dark skies of Lostock, the skies of home are somewhat disapointing, and there seems to be no talk of a observing night at Kulnura!

[GTB_an_Owl]

don't panic Deeno

there WILL be one - i am sure

[iceman]

Yeh i'll be there on the 17th Feb. I can't make it on the 10th.

[Rodstar]

I am up for it, too.

I imagine we may have a few extras this month, newbies to the forum courtesy of Comet Mcnaught.

I'll pack some port.:D

[cahullian]

I'm out hedgehog hunting already " )

[GTB_an_Owl]

YEP
i'm looking forward to it

[ving]

17th, hmm.... :confuse3:

[iceman]

I changed the title of the thread to reflect the fact that we'll be there on the 17th :)

C'mon Ving, come up!

It'll be only 2 days before I come down your way for the MAS meet. :)

[Deeno]

Excellent!

That gives me a couple of weeks to put it back together and work out how to collimate it

[ving]

gah! you know i want to... have to see.
looking forward ta seeing yo at the MAS mmet :) been a while huh.

[silwat]

Hello all

Unfortunately for me I missed out Lostock and I'm now desperatley awaiting the next dark sky camp. Does this trip to Kulnura have the same intentions as Lostock? Would it be a good chance for someone, as new to the sport as I am, to come along and learn a little something? or do I have the wrong Idea?

[iceman]

It does have the same intentions - that is, good friends observing under (relatively) dark skies only 30-60 minutes away from home! :)

It's definitely a good place for newbies to come and look through some other scopes, get advice and help with their own scopes, look through some larger aperture scopes, and have a great time with friendly people.

Hope to see you there!

But, just to clarify, it's not a star party where you stay overnight/camp/have dinner etc.. that is, you should plan to arrive before sunset and leave before sunrise :)

There is power available, and sometimes there's an urn etc.

[ving]

30-60 mins? I wish!
try 3-3.5hrs!

its a very relaxed atomsphere and the numbers vary but are small. its just as much a social thing as it is an astronomy thing and you will find teh people there to be very helpful :)
:thumbsup:

[silwat]

Fantastic! Looks like I'll have to come then:D

Is there a thread with details about this event that I have overlooked? (I hate asking all these questions if you've already answered them elsewhere)

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly guys:thumbsup:

[iceman]

This is the thread with the details :P There's a new one created each month.

This sticky thread (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=14925) has the map of how to get there.

[ausastronomer]

Deeno,

Can you get there a couple of hours before dark, say about 6:30pm? If so, I would be happy to bring some tools and show you how to collimate and set the scope up from scratch. Including, centering the spider in the tube, aligning the focuser, positioning the secondary and adjusting it's rotation in relation to the focuser and then adjusting the tilt of both the primary and the secondary mirrors. Then when it's dark, I can explain to you how to check your collimation properly on a defocused star.

If anyone else is interested and wants to turn up at 6:30pm, I would be happy to run a small group informal workshop on collimating a newtonian. Any takers ?

I will also be bringing the 18" Obsession with me to soak up some eye candy later in the night.

CS-John B

[[1ponders]]

Event added to Calendar.

[RB]

John I'd love to.
I might even bring the girls with their LB.

[Deeno]

Thanks John
That would be so cool!!
Had a go with instructions printed up from of this site somewhere. Spent what seemed an age fooling around with it(What have I done!!!!) but, I reckon it ended up pretty close. Lovely view of Jupiter this morning.

[wavelandscott]

I'll put it in my diary...although I may be stuck at home still unpacking boxes...If we make good progress this weekend and next I might be able to get a pass from the warden...

Hope to see you all there!

[sejanus]

hey john, I'd love to be shown how to collimate a newt - I have one now but have NFI how to collimate it. that'd be awesome.

To everyone else - I'll be there, a great choice of date for me as it's one of the very few saturdays when I'm not shooting.

I'm going to bring my camera gear and really give it a crack as well assuming we don't get clouds.

[sejanus]

30-60mins? Try 2hrs :screwy::doh:

[silwat]

Count me in for that collimating workshop!:D Sounds like a great idea!:clap:

[Dindsy]

Likewise for the collimating session.

Sounds like fun. Good weekend for me too. I have a leave pass.

Is it actually at the Paintball place?? Don't know if they'll let me in. I'm not sure if it's the same one I dislocated my shoulder at a couple of years ago :scared: :)

cheers

[iceman]

Yep, it's at the paintball place.

[Diamond Rose]

This newbie would love to come along, weather permitting.

~ Bruce

[iceman]

C'mon clear skies!

[sejanus]

hey mike are you bringing the 12"?

[Rodstar]

In case anyone else is thinking about bringing their kiddies, I'll be bringing 3 little Berries as SWMBO is speaking in Melbourne over the weekend. I'm sure they would love some company so that Daddy can enjoy some time under the stars.....

[ausastronomer]

Rod,

I plan to bring Jake along if he is not too tired, come Saturday night.

CS-John B

[iceman]

I'll be there with the EQ6 and 12"!

[cahullian]

Not looking good for me this weekend. :shrug: I have a late finish at work and a 5 hour Hapkido seminar in Sydney the next morning. I can't last 5 hours of non stop training on no sleep:sadeyes: and it is to help us grade up later in the month.:fight:

Gazz

[Rodstar]

That is a real shame, Gazz....but by the sounds, for a good cause. Make sure you come next month...you are our unofficial security officer!

[GTB_an_Owl]

don't believe a word he says Gazz.
:innocent:

he's just sorry your not gunna be there to bring the hedgehogs
:lol: :lol: :lol:

[wavelandscott]

I am hopefull (still) that I can make it, I'll most likely have Campbell at least maybe Thomas too...not sure if I'll have a scope with me or not as our house is still pretty much full of boxes...

[Rodstar]

John and Scott, sounds like the kiddies will have enough company to keep each other occupied.

What about you, Rocket Boy? I am sure my boys would love to catch up with your girls??

[wavelandscott]

Yes, girls for the young boys to play with...I'm not sure this comment is helpful...lets just say that I think the "kids" would have a nice time if everyone can make it...

[Rodstar]

Scott, RB's girls and my boys spent a fun night comet hunting at Lostock....they all got on really well. In fact, one of RB's girls said one of the nicest things I have ever heard anyone say about my son Jack. She said something to the effect of, "Rod, your son Jack has beautiful manners. He is a really nice boy". Makes a dad very proud indeed.

[ving]

I'll be celebrating chinese new year with the family folks... it really did look like i was coming till i found i had the dates wrong :(

[cahullian]

I didn't know you were Chinese ving. But I guess your just a party animal and anything for a booze up eh?

Gazz

[ving]

not much of a boozer gary :)
no i am obviously not chinese but my brother ans step brother both married asian (vietnamese and chinese respectively) women and so we celebrate it with them... being family and all :) its pretty cool celebrating 2 new years each year :)
anyhow, no or little booze for me, just good food, good company, dragon dancers and fireworks :)

[silwat]

hi all

i was just wondering if we should still come along even if the weathers not looking great. If its cloudy/raining will others still be going?

cheers

[ausastronomer]

Hi,

If the weather looks marginal I will not be going.

I don't believe in sitting around "hoping" the clouds will clear.

CS-John B

[iceman]

It's up to you, silwat.

At times we've sat around chatting, other times I've stayed home.

Probably just check the forum before you leave if the weather is marginal and see if people are pulling out.

[ving]

maybe someone whos going can give him a phome# to call just before to see if its on :)
that would be organised :P

[RB]

I'm looking forward to it, I'm pretty sure I'll bring the girls too.
Also hoping to bring the 12" LX200, so you can take it for a spin Rod.

:thumbsup:

[Rodstar]

Sounds great, RB! I miss that LX200 wirring sound at night.

[iceman]

Weather is looking good!

[sejanus]

I'm on track to be there, fractured finger and all!

i haven't used my 8" under any decent conditions yet :(

[Deeno]

its looking good!

Forecast for Saturday
Fine. Mostly sunny day. Humid. Light to moderate northeast winds, freshening near the coast in the afternoon.
Precis: Fine. Mostly sunny.

Isolated showers, and a chance of thunderstorms about the Upper Hunter. Warm day. Light to moderate southeast to northeast winds, freshening near the coast in the afternoon.

Gosford: Mostly fine. Max: 27

What time is everyone planning to rock up? I'm playing cricket today, so I'll be lucky to be there by 7pm.

[Satchmo]

Is there anybody who will be there early we could contact via Mobile??.
Paul Shopis is thinking of bringing his 12" bino from Sydney but we are looking for definite good skies at least to head up there.

Mark


Looks like there will be a patch of good weather around Gosford.

This is the latest forecast for the Hunter region from BOM Sat 430 AM:

Forecast for Saturday
Isolated showers, and a chance of thunderstorms about the Upper Hunter. Warm day. Light to moderate southeast to northeast winds, freshening near the coast in the afternoon.

Newcastle: Chance shower. Max: 29
Gosford: Mostly fine. Max: 27
Maitland and Cessnock: Chance shower Max: 31
Scone: Chance shower. Max: 33
Singleton: Chance shower. Max: 33

[RB]

What time is the latest you guys need a report?
Let me know and I will post here what the weather's looking like up here.

[iceman]

Hope to see you and Paul there, Mark. Weather looks good!

[ving]

it does look good. I sould be able to get some great fireworks pics :)
not telecscope for me tho :(

have fun guys... i am begining to forget what yas look like :(
cya monday mike :)

[RB]

1.30PM: A little cloud about but it should clear.

It's been very dewy each night lately so be prepared.

:thumbsup:

[Satchmo]

Thanks RB

I think Paul would be making a decision about 6pm as he can't stay late.

Cheers

Mark

[RB]

I'll give another report later.

Hope you guys can make it.

:thumbsup:

[sejanus]

hows it look andrew?

i got called in to work today so have driven about 3hrs already today :(

it's crystal clear coud wise down my way at moment but I'm 2hrs away from kulnurra.

[okiscopey]

Thinking about going, but dependent on weather forecast!

Clear here at Bondi ... beach at 2/3 capacity.

Will check up to about 4:30 pm.

Fingers crossed for CS.

[okiscopey]

Well, maybe 5pm.

Just wrote this to get to 100th post.

Looking forward to getting my free Freddo Frog!

[Dindsy]

Looks like weather is going to be good.

Is collimating 101 still on for 6:30?

Otherwise what is a good time to arrive?

cheers

[frogman]

NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY .....
come on people !

[wavelandscott]

I will definitely be there...along with Cam and Tom...

I am not sure what time we will get left from home but I reckon we will make it around 7:00 or so...

[RB]

You heard the man.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Cheers froggy !

[silwat]

Weather is looking good!:thumbsup: I'll be there in a jiffy! ... well maybe not a jiffy, as I'm only leaving now and, I live a little bit more then a jiffy away... but I'll be there!:D

P.S. I really hope to see those 12" binos! (hint hint nudge nudge):whistle: ...:P

[Diamond Rose]

Not sure I can make it. Darn it! If I came, it wouldn't be till late. I hope you folks have a great and clear night.

~ Bruce

[netwolf]

I wonder if its to late for me to drive up.. Concerned about driving on my own (only a p plater).. And I have yet to see if my 10" dob will fit in the car, but could be my last chance to try it under dark skies before I sell it.. It would take me at least an hour from here. Hmm I think i left it to late possibly, next month perhaps.

Regards

[Rodstar]

Sorry guys that I had to bail out so suddenly at about 8.30pm.

Noah was vomitting, and Jack had started to run a temperature....sometimes the duties of fatherhood come first....and frankly it was only going to get more ugly from there.

It was nice to say hi to everyone who had arrived by the time I left....to all the newbies, hope you have a great night. Looked like John Bambury had everyone on the right track with collimation as I was going.

The drive home was a bummer....along with increasingly sick children, the sky was darkening, and I could see that I was going to be missing out on a fabulous night's observing....ah well, there is always next month.

Hope you guys have a great night's observing. See you next time, hopefully with my new scope!!!

[sejanus]

hope the little ones are ok rod

sorry i couldn't turn up tonight, the wife pinched the wagon at the last moment and my gear is a bit of a tight fit in my toy/hoon car.

[wavelandscott]

Rod,

Glad you made it home safely...clearly your kids were not feeling well...sick kids make for long days/nights for parents.

It was good to see everyone and I really enjoyed the Denkmeir binoviewers on the refractor...while Nebulas are a bit tough (except for the big ones), the views are fabulous, comfortable and I could "see" (or at least think I could see) more detail...even Saturn at 100X was a sight very "3D like"...I bet the moon will be spectacular in it...Oh well, I better get my kids in bed too...they are brushing there teeth (if they haven't fallen asleep standing at the sink)...

John, I hope your boy had a nice time with my boys...at least they ran around a lot and made a bit of noise if that counts for fun...

[Dindsy]

Hi Rod, hope your kids are better. I know about fatherhood timetables....

This Newbie had a great time. Thanks to all those who helped out and let me see through their awesome scopes. I learnt some tricks too about fogging eyepieces....

cheers

[Diamond Rose]

I would just like to echo Dindsy's comments. Thanks to all who shared the night sky with this newbie and gave me advice :thumbsup: Fantastic!

~ Bruce

[RB]

It was a fantastic night, great to catch up with the usual group and meet all the new guys.
Glad all had a good time, with some awesome viewing thru all the various scopes on offer including the 18" Obsession and the 12" Bino-Scope.

I had my 12" LX200 and had some lovely views thru it including Eta Carinae and M42.
Thanks to Joe (Astropolak) for helping me collimate and John. B (ausastronomer) for testing the optics and giving me some pointers.

Great to see Mike (Iceman's) awesome new setup, hope the images turn out well Mike, can't wait.

Great to see Scott and the kids, looks like they had a great time, and Geoff (GTB Owl) for your company.

Sorry to hear about your little ones Rod, hope they recover very soon.
We'll have to catch up next time mate.

Thanks Anthony (froggy) for hosting the night once again.

:thumbsup:

[Deeno]

A Great Night!

Thanks john for your collimation class.
Fantastic having the scope under dark skies again. Was suffering from aperture envy with John setting up his 18" Obsession next door. Was fun having a peek through it then finding the same object on my own scope. Amazing the amount of detail and structure a large aperture DOB pulls out of DSOs.

[astropolak]

Thank you all for a great night.
My SCT was overwhelmed by the big Obsession next to it, thank you again John for having the patience to teach us about the skies.
I must say I was very impressed by the quality of the big Dob's optics which seems to excel on all objects, I was pleased to note that the views of Saturn looked at least similar to my 10" SCT, there wasn't much of a contest on other objects that I compared.
I see no one mentioning the amazing binoviewer that Paul and Mark brought in. Truly amazing viewing - I only wish I could get enough time on it to enjoy it more. I would love to be able to buy ready made scope like this.
Scott has shown me an alternative solution - a Denk binoviewer. I found it very easy to adjust for my eyes for easy detailed observing, we did not test it on a large aperture scope but it looks promising, I did not notice the "3D" effect as I saw on Mark's 12" Bino..
Thanks Mark for explaining the process of mirror making - most of us do not appreciate what goes into making a quality mirror. I must confess that I thought the whole process takes much less time, now I know why good mirrors cost more money.

Joe

[Rodstar]

Thanks for your kind thoughts everyone....the kids are still "under the weather" today, but at least no puking since last night.

I would have stayed around, but Noah had already puked, and then, after helping Mike take a shot of his new rig, I came back to find Jack shivering and with a raging fever. He was a little hysterical, not in the frame of mind to patiently wait hours for daddy to have a photon fix. The irony was the kids had been talking about coming all week....they were just as disappointed, but in the end the only place for them was tucked up in bed, and I didn't want them passing anything on to the other kids.

The night was not a total write-off for me...my favourite TV show West Wing was on, so at least I had something interesting to look at.

I had very much been looking forward to checking out Joe's new LX200R, next time, buddy, and thanks for the coffee!

I would have loved to try the binoviewers and the binocular telescope, and also finally to trial RB's 12inch LX200. Perhaps next time.

Best regards to all.

[iceman]

Was a great night, quite a few regulars and just as many first timers.

Conditions were great, seeing was better than average, sky was beautiful and clear and dark, just a little too much dew after 1am. The camera lens kept fogging up during exposure :)

I pretty much had a solitary night up the northern end of the field, coming to terms with my new setup and it's first light outside of home. I drift aligned early on with the scope on, then took the scope off and put my camera on the mount and did some widefield of Eta region, LMC and Orion.

As Saturn passed the north I put the scope back on and took a few avi's of Saturn, but the seeing wasn't that great to keep persisting with it.

So off came the scope again and back with the camera and lens, for some more of Eta region and then the 75-300mm stock lens @ 300mm for some omega centauri before I packed up at 1:30am. The last shot was 4 minutes (unguided) and zoomed in on the camera, I could see no trailing at all. It might be different at full res on the computer, but I was happy with how they looked on the LCD :)

Will hopefully post a few results in the next few days.

Was great to catch up with some old friends again, and meet some new ones including Okiscopey (Mike) and silwat (Michael). Silwat's 8" skywatcher was a beauty, after I helped him collimate it - it gave fantastic views of the jewelbox, Orion, Eta Carina and then (with my Pentax 7mm XW) Saturn.

Looking forward to next month.

[GTB_an_Owl]

glad to hear the billy lids are on the mend Rod

sorry you missed such a good nites viewing and company

thanks to the newcomers for adding to the mix

hope you can all come along again next month

i got to try out my new mirror and lazy susan base, which was great

now all i have to do is get some friction on the base to stop it free wheeling (from one extreme to the other) - thinking about a small motorisation for it this week :lol: :lol: - never ends does it!

oh! - thanks John B for the collimation demo and bringing along the big dob.
hope you have a great time in Texas - don't forget to practice up on your bragging so you can keep pace with them Texicans.

geoff

[silwat]

Well what can I say, my first gathering and it was fantastic!!

A big thankyou to all of those who helped Christina and I fit in during the night. Thankyou very much Iceman for collimating my scope, never did I think the sky could look quite so good through it! And then trialling your Pentax 7mm XW on saturn...:eyepop:

Everybody was very helpful in suggesting ways in which I can (and will) upgrade my dob. From Stubby holders to dew heaters to $400 eyepieces, the list is substantial I assure you... I think my bank ballance just joined Jenny Craig.

I had a lot of fun hunting down the jewel box, tarantula and other targets during the night :thumbsup:

It was an absolute treat looking through the 18" obsession, thankyou John for taking me on a tour of the heavens, i want one!!...I now have a reason to work overtime! And the views through the 12" binos were breathtaking!

All in all we had a brilliant night, the people were fantastic and I can't wait to see you all next time!:D

cheers
Michael

[okiscopey]

As a newbie, it was great to meet some IIS people in person and put faces to names (or voices, in the case of those who arrived after dark). No doubt about it, the couple of dozen who attended were the most friendly and relaxed bunch I'd ever hope to meet under any circumstances.

The attached photos show the general idea for anyone who hasn't been to the Kulnura site or to this sort of get-together. There are no captions in case I get names and scope details wrong!

I was expecting a darker sky, but the site isn't far from the Central Coast and Sydney, and residual astro twilight and humidity in the air (apparently) adds to it. Despite this, it's a thousand time better than Sydney, and anyone who had spent their whole their life in a city would have to describe it as 'fantastic'. The seeing was pretty good too - I could use the 9mm in my ETX125 (x211) to better effect on Saturn than ever before.

You learn so much from those who've had lots of practical experience. I had to write down some of it as notes to back up my faulty memory. The first note reads: "bring a second pen in case the first one runs out".

It seems the observing field had been restricted in size from previous occasions (it's a paint-ball range during the day), resulting in the trees looming a bit larger. However, I don't think anyone found this to be a problem. The biggest drawback was non-astronomical - the area's ferocious ants took big chunks out of our ankles. Note number two: add Aerogard to kit.

'Stunning' is the word that can only be used to describe the view through the 18-inch Obsession, the 12-inch binocular telescope, the LX200R, the binoviewers on the ED80, and others. The three-dimensionality of Omega Centauri in the 12-in 'bino tel' just had to be seen to be believed. There was no doubt about it - the stars on our side of the globular definitely looked closer than those in the middle! Psychological I know, but still a remarkable effect.

No pictures of the bino-tel unfortunately, as it was set up after dark. Also, didn't manage a look through Sir Iceman's scope ... saw it in the back of his car when he arrived, then I took too long with the other devices. Next time I saw it, it was back in the car ready for the trip home!

The spectacular views through the big scopes wasn't the reason I packed up my now rather small-looking ETX125 early at 1am - it was absolutely dripping with dew, making further observations problematic.

All in all, a great night with friendly and knowledgeable people under a spectacular, slow-motion planetarium show. Many, many thanks to all who gave their time and experience to the newcomers.

And ... oh yes, my last note reads: "buy a dew heater and 12V hair dryer!"

[wavelandscott]

Thanks for the pictures...my kids enjoyed looking at them a bunch!

[Digby]

First off, I want to say thanks to everyone for making my first time vist a
one to remember.I only hope enough people got the chance to look thru the
12" Binoscope. I am sure there will be other times to come.
As I packed up to leave around 3am, I noticed that a deck chair had been left
behind, next to my scope.I have brought it back to Sydney with me.So if your the owner,let me know.
Once again,thanks everyone.

Paul

[okiscopey]

Hi Paul, that's probably mine - I brought it over from my spot so we could be more comfortable at the bino scope for some of the views. It's white fabric with some vertical stripes and a dark frame.

No problemo, you can keep it if you wish (sorry it's not a proper observing chair!) - but if that's against your religion :D, PM me.

[okiscopey]

Also Paul, just another thank you for the chance to look through the Binoscope. As it was set up after twilight, I wasn't quite sure at the time exactly who it belonged to, and didn't like to ask!

[Digby]

Hi Mike,
I 'll hold on to it till we cross paths again.How do you find the 20x90 bino's?

Paul

[okiscopey]

Well, er, I've only used them three or four times on McNaught where they performed admirably. Terrestrial views are outstanding, but I can't really comment on more critical astro usage. I think I may be a bit demanding about optical performance (I was trained as a sci/tech photographer, so that might account for it!) and I've noticed the performance on point sources isn't as good as I was expecting .. but hey, for $299, who's complaining? If you're interested I can bring them along to a forthcoming local meeting (ASNSW; Kulnura?) for you to check out. I don't have any parallelogram or other decent mounting for them yet, so that restricts my use of them for the moment.

They do come in a semi-rigid case with a strange, fiddly internal velcro compartment that's somewhat impractical. Also, the objective caps take two minutes each to force-fit, but always end up coming off by themselves in the case. Perhaps though, you don't need to know this!

What I can say for sure is that the 11x70's (for $129!) have completely blown me away. They're similar in performance to the bigger ones (brilliant for land-viewing, so-so with point light sources), but they're remarkably easy to hand-hold despite the x11. Maybe it's because they're lightwight and have good balance. I take them everywhere with me now. The views of the MW star fields at Kulnura were stunning!

[White Rabbit]

Damn, sorry I missed it. The my partner is half Chinese so I had to go out to dinner with the family up in Gosford, so close yet so far. I did end up getting the scope out after dinner though. Nice clear night though, I spend most of it wishing I had a BB gun to take the local street lights out ssssshhhh :whistle:. I'll be at the next one for sure.

till then
Na noo na noo.

[okiscopey]

Good news, needed some ETX support up there!

Saturn looked pretty good through the 9mm Vixen LV - wondered if the 125 would actually stand a 6 or 7mm.

I don't suppose you're going to rush out and buy one so we can check it out?:whistle:

By the way, don't bother bringing drinking water - it'll be supplied by your telescope! :lol:

[ving]

you'll be pleased to know that you werent the only one celebrating chinese new year :)

[cahullian]

Glad to hear you all had a great time. I'm sorry I missed it but if things aren't too hectic next new moon I look forward to seeing a few new faces as the old one are very ugly and boring. Thank goodness it's a night time hobby. He he

All the best Gazz