A Crisp Club night at Snake Valley

[ballaratdragons]

Last night was our SVAA June Club night, and we had Scott (Tannehill) and Brian (Louwai) both new to Melbourne come up to join us for a great nights observing.

Thanks for coming along guys.

The Transparency was around 9/10 and the seeing was 8-9/10. Fantastic!!!!!

While Scott and Brian indulged in the Dark sky the rest of us did the sky tour of the Milky Way, (a few Globs, Carina, Sthn Pliaedes, Lagoon, Trifid, etc)

It was a great night :thumbsup:

But it was COLD! :eyepop:
And it was Hair Dryers at 40 paces!!! :lol:
Anything within reach of the power leads got Hair Dryered :rofl:

1. The ice building up on the grass and finderscope (fog showing up in the flash)
2. Scott attacks his Iced scope with his deadly Haid Dryer
3. Scott and Eric attack anything in site with their Hair Dryers
4. Look out Daniel, Eric has found something of yours that frozen!!! :lol:

[leon]

Good to hear Ken, sounds like a bloody cold night, is that frost on the scope.


Leon

[h0ughy]

Hey frost is another form of water isnt it?:P ;)

we have had our fair share of water lately, gladly share with you Ken:whistle: .

Crispy nights:D can be worth it sometimes:thumbsup:

[Ric]

Blimey that looks cold, but no doubt the seeing conditions made it all worth while.

Great to hear you all had a great night.

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Leon, good old winter Ice! Later on the temp went back up a fraction and all the ice melted and just left everything wringing wet.
Most of us gave up trying to de-mist our Primaries and then the fog settled in by about 2am anyway.



The cold air made the seeing magnificent :thumbsup:

[danielsun]

Yep it was a great night, (except for the dew) but i really enjoyed it! Thanks Ken for taking the time and giving me a detailed crash course in registax and PS.:thumbsup:
Once again, a good night had with good company!!

[erick]

Yes, a great night! But WET!! I gave up with the scope when my el-cheapo eyepieces all fogged up - between the lenses! Get that out with a hairdryer, I challenge you. I debated putting them into the microwave oven!

But the 30x100 binoculars, with a bit of heat, kept me going a while longer - less surfaces to dew/fog up!

Also after blowing the circuit breaker it was hairdryers restricted to one at a time to reduce power load.

And I wouldn't say the fog "settled in" - it when "WHOMPH!" while I was looking at Jupiter high in the sky. Everyone said at the same time "What the...? Oh!"

Good company with old (a few months!) and new friends.

Saw M13 in Hercules for the first time. I suggest we keep 47Tuc and Omega Centauri! :D

And Ken had the heater on in the clubroom!! Lovely!

It took a bit of effort in the central heating at home to dry everything out - including me!

Many thanks to all
Eric :)

[ballaratdragons]

Your welcome Daniel, now show us some of your images after stacking and processing ;)



:lol: The things we do to look at tiny dots of light zillions of K's away with little bits of glass!!!

But geez it's all worth it :thumbsup:

[Kal]

If it was that cold I think I would be hairdrying both my scope and my face :lol:

[erick]

You'll notice I still had my mittens on - cannot open coat, change eyepieces etc in full cloves - so I was hairdrying my fingers as much as the eyepieces I was holding ;)

[Tannehill]

Eric, Ken, thanks for the wonderful night. I must say, I was quite impressed with the rapidity and density of that fog. It was like someone hit us with fog mortars, it came in so unexpected. But we got some splendid views in before that. First time I'd really seen the Coal Sack. It was an almost religious experience.

Now, onto more important discussions:

Eric, as I pointed out, M13 is the premier glob for us northerners. It is clearly greedy for you folks to keep both 47tuc and Omega Centauri, AND both Magellanic Clouds. Come ON, guys, where is your sense of FAIRNESS, eh?

We Northern Hemisphere natives demand that you surrender one of each.

We are willing to negotiate. We can part with either M51, or M31. M31 doesn't fit in most telescope's FOV anyway.

Were it in my power to do so, I would also toss in Britney Spears for the sake of the deal. I thought I could escape tabloid news about her when I moved here...I clearly didn't move far enough. I suspect Charon isn't far enough...

When is the next SVAS night? Any planned for July new moon?

Scott

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Scott,

I'll answer your questions in order of importance. :lol:

Yes, we get together at SVAA every Month on a Friday near new Moon, so the next one is Friday 13th July :thumbsup:

No, you cannot have either 47Tuc, Omega Centauri, LMC, SMC, Coal Sack or any other of our Sthn Beauties :D

No, you can definately keep Britney Spears! :scared:

:rofl:

Thank you for coming along, hope to see you in July :)

[erick]

Ken, I beg to differ. I'm sure we can work out a cash price and we can give a certificate of ownership.









ps. However, Scott has to arrange to tow it north. :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

Hmmmm . . . yes I can arrange the certificates and receipts if the payments are forthcoming :thumbsup:

:lol:

[Louwai]

Here's my photo contribution. Sorry it's late.
The gang looks good.

I also added a shot of the moon taken some time ago.
I'm not a photographer & I don't own 1 scrap of astro-photography gear. This moon shot was taken by manually holding my standard digital camera up to the eye piece. (WO 28mm UWAN)
It's certainly doesn't stack up to your shots Ken, but for a quick flick
- I Like It -

Bryan

[Tannehill]

Nice, Bryan.

Guys, I think our group should officially declare itself, hereafter, as

The Brass Monkeys Astronomical Society


Scott

[ballaratdragons]

:rofl:

Look at the frost on everything!!! :lol:

[Sentinel]

I was just checking out where you guys observe on Google Earth. Your observing site just misses the High Res photo for the Ballarat region.

Scott, how long did it take to arrive from Melbourne?

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Paul,

Yep, only about 5% of our town is in the high res area. This Google Earth pic shows how far we are away from Ballarat.

I'm waiting for them to Hi-Res our town, I want to see my place :lol:

[ving]

bring on summer!!!!
i hate this cold!

sounds like a tops night guy :)

[Tannehill]

Sorry, don't know true driving time...I stopped a bunch of times en route, dropped the family off at Ballarat that night, had dinner, etc etc before driving out to SV from Ballarat...

I'm guessing travel time from the CBD is probably, like, 1.25-1.5 hours, since we left mid-day...

Eric is a much better judge....Eric?

Expect it really matters when you leave and from where....Melbourne traffic is fairly dense at commuter hour. I'd bet from the far side of Mel during commuter rush, it'd be a 3 hour trip up to SV.....

Scott

[erick]

Ken will correct me if I'm too far out.

From the junction of the Western Hwy and the Ring Road - about 50-55 min to Ballarat, about 7-10 min through Ballarat, then about 20 min to Snake Valley.

Getting from Central Melbourne or elsewhere N, NE, E, SE, S Melbourne, very dependent on traffic conditions. From my home SE in light traffic I can get to Western Hwy/Ring Road in 35-40 minutes.

[ballaratdragons]

Sounds about right Eric. It takes me approx 1.5 hours to get to central Melbourne from Snake Valley, and 2 hours to the north eastern outer suburbs of Melb.

[Sentinel]

Do you stay overnight or drive back? 1.5 hours drive is a commitment, especially if there is a return drive.

My own personal rule goes...1 minute travel to 1 minute observing. There must be an equal or greater observing time than travel time.

Of course more observing than travel time is preferred, but to drive to Snake Valley would mean 3 hours travel and 3 hours observing in my book. That is some commitment, especially mid week. And there is set-up time.

The sky and seeing must be worth making the trip also. This is made easier if a local presence is there to indicate whether there is any chance of weather interfering with the observing.

Can you get out of the city to a semi-rural place? Like 30 minutes to 45 minutes? Do you have somewhere like that to go to?

[Tannehill]

Good points, for sure. It's always a challenge living in the middle of a big city. Mel is no different. Finding a fairly dark yet secure and safe site (no giant ditches to fall in!) with the comfortable amenities (power, toilet, etc) that is close is always a challenge.

Ken and Eric will have more accurate facts re all this, but I can give you my first timer impression of Snake Valley.

Snake Valley is just 20 min from Ballarat. Straight roads from Ballarat, easy drive. The observing site is the town sports oval. While you can't back your car right up to the spot where you will set up your scope, it's a short carry.

The field is short grass. If you have an extension cord, you can run power out to your scope.

There is a building with a toilet, and a heated (or heatable) room with a microwave and power for simple snack prep. And two couches, and more space to lay out a cot if one wanted (and had a collapsible cot) to nap or sleep. Very uncrowded for sure. Low key. Instantly comfortable place and crowd, to be sure.

But, yes, an easy 1.5 hour plus drive each way, more if leaving Mel at the wrong time of day.

Then there is the MPAS site in Mt. Martha. More dedicated site, with very nice clubroom. Again, very comfortable. Concrete pads with power, and if you time it right you can back your car up to the pad and leave it there except on busy and/or public nights. Closer, only about 45 min from the SE Mel suburbs. But, less dark. The zenith to the south and west are fine, easily mag 6.0, but north is all Frankston and Mel sky glow which I would say precludes me from pointing a scope there.

If you live in MEL and want truly dark sky, you'll have to drive at least 1.5 hours anywhere I think....

Scott

[Sentinel]

In Auckland we have Kumeu Observatory, it's exactly 30 minutes from home , however it is close to the edge of Auckland.

It is conveinient but not strickly dark sky, the lightdome is up as high as 30 degrees in the SE. Safe etc but no toilet.

We can get very good skies at the Maramarua Forest, an hours drive south. It's a rural road. No facilities. However none of us have been there for 3 years. We tend to trade off the skies for a bit less travel time and security etc.

[ballaratdragons]

You will find as years roll by that dark sites will get further and further away from cities. Think about the Northern Hemisphere folk. They can't really get away from light pollution anywhere.

[erick]

Paul, since I got started in this hobby late last year I've really wanted dark skies. When you share a home with more than 3 million other people who seem to like to have some light at night, there is no choice than to travel distances if you want to see faint fuzzies.

I'm toward one side of Melbourne. I can travel 40 min from my place to an observing spot which is useful, but forget about the Melbourne side - too much glow. So I travel the 1.5 hour plus to dark skies. But, you are right, you need enough observing time to make it worthwhile. I have traveled the distance and spent a few hours looking at cloud-covered skies, before setting off home again. That's part of the game!

Eric :)

[Sentinel]

A few of those type of nights and the enthusiasm for observing certainly wanes, especially if there is a big drive.