astro_south
30-05-2005, 06:33 PM
We did have a get together on Saturday night with 6 IceInSpacers from SEQ in attendence :-
Mark (mhodson)
Paul (1ponders)
Andrew (Comet Hiunter)
Dan (grandpanancy)
Grant (Iddon)
and myself
We also had some local friends of Mark's drop by for some looks at the hightlights!
Equipment in attendence - 8" LX200 SCT, 80mm Megrez ED Triplet refractor, 12.5” Truss Dob, and a Celestron 80mm ED. Also noteworthy were Mark’s 31mm T5 Nagler and Andrew’s 17mm T4 Nagler.
Mark took piccies and will provide those eventually with his take of proceedings. In the meantime here is the way I saw the night........
The weather was great all day with only a hint of the fluffy stuff on the western horizon as I pulled into the metropolis that is Glenore Grove. I was first to arrive and had my dob constructed and cooling before any other travellers had appeared.
The others started arriving in a steady flow and all but Andrew (who was working) were there well before twighlight. In the early twighlight (~17:16) we caught an Iridium flare that lasted about 3 seconds. It started off at –7 and peaked at –9 mag…. impressive but a bit short.
There were some streams of high level cloud coming across as the night started that indicated some upper level disturbances. With this dicey seeing and with the moon rising just before 10pm the night veered away from serious observing and took on an equipment testing and social flavour. Giovanna supplied the lovely sandwiches (you realise that these are becoming expected now Mark!) and I am sure the hungry were thankful for this – I know I was.
For those that don't know...Paul arrived as the owner of an 8" LX200. Grant arrived a scopeless relative newbie and left Glenore Grove as an 8" LX200 owner (grinning from ear to ear I might add!). Paul left as an ex LX200 owner :P . It was an interesting sideline to the night and I think everyone there sensed Grant’s excitement at his new toy. Paul was incredibly thorough in his explanation of not only the scope, but all the gadgets as well…. auto focus this…screw that in there…push these buttons for a coffee – you LX200 guys know how it is :P
The targets for the night were the staples – Eta Carina Nebula, Omega Centauri, Ara Glob, M65 & 66, Jewel Box, Trifid, Lagoon, M4, Bug Nebula, Eight Burst Nebula, Ghost of Jupiter, Ring Nebula (under moon light) and of course Luna itself.
It was first light for Mark’s 31mm Nagler and it didn’t disappoint! I’m saving my pennies as I type :D If you ever get to look through one make sure you move your head around to take in all the view. When you get to the field stop you feel like you could just push in a bit closer to see what is around the corner. Mark will probably provide a thorough review once his observatory is up and running and he combines the Nagler with his Royce optics.
I will leave the others to fill in the gaps and provide their comments
Mark (mhodson)
Paul (1ponders)
Andrew (Comet Hiunter)
Dan (grandpanancy)
Grant (Iddon)
and myself
We also had some local friends of Mark's drop by for some looks at the hightlights!
Equipment in attendence - 8" LX200 SCT, 80mm Megrez ED Triplet refractor, 12.5” Truss Dob, and a Celestron 80mm ED. Also noteworthy were Mark’s 31mm T5 Nagler and Andrew’s 17mm T4 Nagler.
Mark took piccies and will provide those eventually with his take of proceedings. In the meantime here is the way I saw the night........
The weather was great all day with only a hint of the fluffy stuff on the western horizon as I pulled into the metropolis that is Glenore Grove. I was first to arrive and had my dob constructed and cooling before any other travellers had appeared.
The others started arriving in a steady flow and all but Andrew (who was working) were there well before twighlight. In the early twighlight (~17:16) we caught an Iridium flare that lasted about 3 seconds. It started off at –7 and peaked at –9 mag…. impressive but a bit short.
There were some streams of high level cloud coming across as the night started that indicated some upper level disturbances. With this dicey seeing and with the moon rising just before 10pm the night veered away from serious observing and took on an equipment testing and social flavour. Giovanna supplied the lovely sandwiches (you realise that these are becoming expected now Mark!) and I am sure the hungry were thankful for this – I know I was.
For those that don't know...Paul arrived as the owner of an 8" LX200. Grant arrived a scopeless relative newbie and left Glenore Grove as an 8" LX200 owner (grinning from ear to ear I might add!). Paul left as an ex LX200 owner :P . It was an interesting sideline to the night and I think everyone there sensed Grant’s excitement at his new toy. Paul was incredibly thorough in his explanation of not only the scope, but all the gadgets as well…. auto focus this…screw that in there…push these buttons for a coffee – you LX200 guys know how it is :P
The targets for the night were the staples – Eta Carina Nebula, Omega Centauri, Ara Glob, M65 & 66, Jewel Box, Trifid, Lagoon, M4, Bug Nebula, Eight Burst Nebula, Ghost of Jupiter, Ring Nebula (under moon light) and of course Luna itself.
It was first light for Mark’s 31mm Nagler and it didn’t disappoint! I’m saving my pennies as I type :D If you ever get to look through one make sure you move your head around to take in all the view. When you get to the field stop you feel like you could just push in a bit closer to see what is around the corner. Mark will probably provide a thorough review once his observatory is up and running and he combines the Nagler with his Royce optics.
I will leave the others to fill in the gaps and provide their comments