Mt Waverley (Melbourne SE) get together Thu Feb 22

[janoskiss]

Anyone from Mt Waverley or neighbouring suburbs interested in catching up, I propose Thursday 22nd Feb, 7:30-11pm for an informal get together. Moon, Saturn and some of the brighter DSOs should be enough to keep us busy, weather permitting.

There is a great site for observing near the centre of Mt Waverley, apart from light pollution of course. Locals should know it well already - if you don't you should get your bum off the couch more often. :P

PM me for exact location. If there is any interest at all I will be there with a scope + binos.

[[1ponders]]

I'll add the event to the calendar Steve.

Just out of curiosity any particular reason for the 22nd and not the 17th? New moon on the 18th.

[janoskiss]

Paul, if I'm observing on the 17th it will be at the Briars site with Dave and the MPAS. Considering the light pollution we have here in Mt Waverley, a little bit of lunar observing right after sunset will be a good thing. And also, I wanted to make it a weeknight - imo more appropriate than the w/e for a local gathering.

[[1ponders]]

:thumbsup:

[janoskiss]

Several people have expressed interest so unless the weather turns nasty this will be going ahead.

I was asked about vehicle access and gate closures and the only advice I can give is read the signs as you enter and leave your car somewhere where it won't get locked in overnight. There should be plenty of parking space around close to the observing field.

[EzyStyles]

it will be good to catch up with you steve as well as meeting others. where abouts is this secret site in Mt Waverley? I can't say at this stage if i am 100% free but will let you know.

[bojan]

I believe it is Valley Reserve, is it Steve? :-)
I would like to be there of course, if weather permits.
B

[janoskiss]

PMs away guys.

That makes eight of us so far. :) Might be worth making use of the facilities and having a bit of a cookup on the BBQ before sunset. :confuse3:

[jase]

Would like to meet a few ISS people in person, but can't make it this round. I'm off to europe for business this Sat and gone for a month or so. Hopefully next time.

[janoskiss]

I lost count now how many people have expressed interest in this meetup so far, via PM and email - at least 10, maybe more. Please use PM rather than email if possible (account is very spam infested but I will keep an eye on it).

At this early stage weather is looking good. :prey:

For anyone looking to purchase their first scope in the near future, this would be a great opportunity to have a first-hand look at and through some telescopes before buying. Ditto eyepieces. I'll try to bring as much of my gear as I can. ;)

[janoskiss]

One more thing: A few people seem to have gotten the impression that observing will be at a "dark sky" site in Mt Waverley. To dispel any unrealistic expectations let me clarify that there is no dark sky sites anywhere near Mt Waverley. The city is just too close for that. Proper dark skies are at least an hour's drive away. But we will be making the most of the polluted skies we have close to home. :)

[erick]

Thanks Steve, I still plan on being there - not sure how early but before sunset. Working on trying to get a few others as well - newbies like me. Weather forecast suggests partly cloudy - hence :prey:

[erick]

Mt Waverley is Go! tonight? We won't let a thunderstorm or two deter us?? :D

[bojan]

I will be there.

[janoskiss]

Yes. Mt Waverley meeting tonight will go ahead regardless of weather. I will be there from 7:30. BYO dead animal/mineral/vegetable for BBQ - or scavange ;) - I'll bring plenty of food.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone. :)

[bojan]

Steve, it was a very pleasant evening to spend with you guys :-) Roo on a barbie was fantastic!! :-) And so is your eyepiece collection :-)
I am looking forward to more such gatherings in the future ....
Bojan

[janoskiss]

Had a great night. It was nice to meet some of the locals. Looking forward to meeting more of you in the future. Bojan's high-tech Dob was amazing. And Erick's giant binos were fun. :)

And welcome to Maureen and Sean! Bring your scope next time. I'm sure it is a good one just needs to be set up properly.

I'll post a few piccies later.

btw. Bojan, you look at least 10 years younger in person than in your avatar photo. :lol:

[erick]

And we looked at lots of great stuff in the sky!!
In great company!! What more could one ask, apart from an RDO today! But no such luck.

More later :)

[bojan]

That is good :-) I do not need to change my avatar for the next 10 years :-)

[kitty]

Thank you janoskiss, bojan, Erick for a very informative and friendly night. As a "newbie" the only thing I have really seen with my scope is the moon. As beautiful as it is to watch I really wanted to see more. I was excited to see Saturn for the first time last night, the Jewel Box and lots of other exciting stuff. I was pretty amazed with the scopes and binoculars the guys had. I would suggest to all you "newbies" to try to go to a get together and have a watch and talk to some IISers who will gladly give you advice and a look through their scopes. thanks guys. kitty

[EzyStyles]

missed this as im in QLD right now. Hopefully will be another meet sometime soon. thanks for organising it Steve anyway.

[janoskiss]

Hi Kitty, I'm really glad you could make it. It's always a lot of fun seeing someone get their first look at Saturn through a telescope. :) And btw :welcome: to IIS!

Eric, hope you're enjoying the steaming QLD summer. Catch you next time around.

here are some photos at last...

[andys]

Gah! Missed this as had first parents evening and wife's art class. Hope we do it again.

[kitty]

After the much needed guidance from the IIS gathering at Mt Waverley, I am pleased to say I found Saturn with my Scope the next evening, from my backyard. I was quite pleased with myself! :lol: kitty

[bojan]

I will always remember my first peek at Saturn.... it was though 1.8" telescope (44x).. This special feeling was almost... spiritual ? (!!)
Wel. it kept me sticking with this hobby till today :-)

[cattikins]

Was very disappointed I didn't make it :( Late meeting kept me at work ridiculously late.
Hope to make it next time tho, sounds like i missed out!

Cat

[bojan]

How about gathering again on, say, March 10th? Moon will be in last quarter, and the next day will be Sunday, so no need to go home earlier to get some sleep before work next day?

[ballaratdragons]

Come on up to Snake Valley Camp on the 16th - 19th March :thumbsup:

Then you can have 4 nights of it!


Steve, looks like you guys had a blast! Onya Steve. :thumbsup:

[erick]

Sat, March 10? Yes, that's possible with me.

[bojan]

Yes, March, of course :P

[erick]

....and I should have better collimated 30x100s then. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and I had a gusty wind blowing, but I worked on the collimation yesterday. Yes they were out vertically, enough to be the cause of the struggle my brain has had to feel comfortable with the view. Probably a tweak would have done it, but by the time I'd fiddled, I'd wound the two set screws right out and right in to see how it all works :P. I found the active adjustment of the prisms is only around one turn of the set screws. Anyway, now I know and I think I have them right. But I think it collimates at different places, depending on the distance to the object? I started at about 300m, then moved to about 800m. So what about a infinite distance? It would be hard to do at night - unless some can point me to a bright horizontal straight line in the sky? :D

[bojan]

Erick,
recently I went through the collimation procedure with my 7x50 binos (I bought a pair on a flee matket for $15).
First, I drafted two circles on a piece of paper, the distance between circles being the exact distance between eyepieces centres.
Then, I pointed the binos towards Sun, and have projected images on that paper. (with circles).
By rotating two excenter rings around each objective lens it is possible to move individual objective lenses (visible as moving of the projections relative to one another) to the certain extent. The idea is to have both projected images to be coincident with drawn circles on the paper. Sometimes, the extent of that movement is not enough, if the prisms are knocked off too far from the position.. then obviously this must be sorted out first.
After possibly 1/2 hours of fiddling, now I have a perfectly collimated binos :-)
They have to be collimated like this (at infinite distance), so for the closer objects you would see them as being closer (binocular vision software in our brain takes care of this)

[Dave47tuc]

Guy's if your interested we are having a Telescope day at the Briars Mt Martha.
See this post, http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=15329&page=3

Be great if you could come down.:thumbsup:

[erick]

Thanks Bojan, for that approach - I had read about it. I don't think I'll point the 30x at the sun - might be a bit too much heat in the eyepieces?

However, I had detailed instructions from the supplier to follow - it's just they didn't mention that the screws had been set in place after the last collimation with silastic. It took a bit of digging and scratching, under a tough rubber covering that was vigorously trying to snap back into place, to find out what type of set screw it was - turned out to be flathead, thank goodness - a bit of silastic left there was not a problem (compared to a allen key grubscrew). I think it's the 30x that was the greatest challenge - small movements in screw gave large movements in image, let alone trying to monitor both images with my head some 10 cm behind the eyepieces with the wind whistling around the binos on my dodgy mount. Next time, I'll gently clamp them to a fence or other immovable object.

Thank goodness horizontal collimation was fine - I'd hate to have to have started adjusting the back two setscrews as well :eek:

And, I've added the required screwdriver to my kit I take when I go out viewing, so I can tweak it after setup, if needed.

[erick]

Dave, I've been tempted to come down and do a David and Goliath by setting up my binoculars beside those huge refractors and reflectors!

I see Bojan has suggested the same date. I also wanted to go to SVAA the following weekend, for an evening only.

Let's see what interest there is for the locals in the SE suburbs in gathering locally at Mt Waverley.

By the way, Dave, I've been wondering how dark your skies get at the Briars - surely you've huge glow to the north and west - maybe less so south and east?

[bojan]

Erick, you can reduce the objective diameter with cardboard masks down to, say 30mm, this will not interfere with collimation.

[Dave47tuc]

Hi Erick,
Well we don't have a great sky North or North West, but it's not to bad.
Looking South is fine of course. Steve maybe better in giving an insight to the sky there. Anyway anytime you may want to come down as for anyone in Melbourne can do so. Just give me a pm if you are.

Cheers.

[janoskiss]

The Briars is a much better place to observe from than here. And the MPAS has an 18" scope. :D

Bojan, when I can spare a long late night for observing (usually only on weekends) I tend to drive to a darker site. On the 10th the MPAS meeting would be the place to be for astronomy. :)

[bojan]

Steve, I agree :-)
When I proposed 10th I was not aware of this meeting...
So, see you all there if weather (and work) permits :-)

[[1ponders]]

If you guys want to sift all the details out of the previous posts send them to me and I'll add them to the Event Calendar.