Central Coast meetup, this weekend..

[iceman]

Hey guys.

Ultra-keen for an observing session this weekend - the obvious day is Saturday which is fine.

However, the weather ain't looking the best at this early stage, though Friday is predicted to be clear.

Just gauging some opinion on whether people could do Friday night, if the predictions for Saturday continue to say "rain" by say, Wednesday night..

I'm fine for Friday or Saturday, I just want clear dark skies.

John B, can you please call Andrew and Gary to see if they're available?

[Rodstar]

Mike, I can do either. Prefer Saturday, but I'd prefer clear skies even more.

[atalas]

Same here Mike I would like Saturday but a clear night is better!

Louie :cloudy:

[h0ughy]

saturday suits me better but we have no control on the weather do we :D

[cahullian]

Friday sounds good to me. looking forward to another dark sky : )

[ausastronomer]

Friday is not an option for me but Saturday is good. I know Andrew and Gary had planned things around the night being Saturday as well but I will check how they are placed for Friday.

CS-John B

[trufflehunter]

Friday isn't the best for me. I wouldn't be able to get there before 7pm at the earliest, and I'd be brain-dead from running a two day course in Photoshop and InDesign :(

[iceman]

I know guys, Friday isn't the best for me either, but it might be Friday with clear skies or Saturday with clouds and rain.

We'll keep an eye on the forecast.. i just wanna get out observing!

My platform is at customs but hasn't cleared yet, the form wasn't filled in completely so I need to fax some more details to them :( With any luck they'll release it in the next day or two and I still might get it by Friday.

[seeker372011]

is Sunday an option at all?

[iceman]

hmm good point, it is a long weekend, afterall..

What do you guys think? I can do Fri, Sat or Sun..

You coming up Narayan?

[iceman]

Not looking good for any day, at this stage :( :( :(

[h0ughy]

might as well go west and break the drought! :rofl:

If it is going to be too bad I will be saving my mileage for the queensland trip!

[atalas]

Hey yeah that sounds good ! Friday,Saturday and Sunday :cool: :party2: :cloudy:

Louie :D

[seeker372011]

if weather were Ok I could come up on Sunday..cant make Saturday unfortunately

Friday-would have to be late but I could park a bit far away so the headlights dont bother people


sounds like its not going to much good anyway
Narayan

[Rodstar]

The forecast that you have posted Mike seems pretty much the same whichever night we go for.

A mate of mine from Uni days works for the Bureau of Meteorology in Darwin. He told me a while back that long range forecasts are very unreliable, even with the best computer modelling in the world. Next 24 hours is not even really accurate, let alone 4 or 5 days away.

I suggest we wait and make a decision on Thursday night about whether to gather on Friday night when we have a better idea of the likely weather. If we decide no, we can then decide on Friday night whether to go Satrday night, and so on.

[iceman]

I think that's what we'll have to do.

If we do Friday night.. it will be late for most of us - ie: it will be dark, as we have to get home from work, pack the scope in the car, have some dinner etc. So you won't be the only one.

There's a big front coming through.. friday night might be clear ahead of it, and Sunday night might be clear behind it, but Saturday at this stage looks pretty bad.

The two weather sites I visit say that Friday or Sunday could be good.

But agree with Rod, let's just wait for tomorrow night, make a call about Friday. If no good, same for Saturday, and then same for Sunday.

I will get some observing in this weekend! :astron: :bashcomp:

[iceman]

Friday and Sunday are still marked as "clear".. Saturday definitely looks out.

Who's intending to go up Friday or Sunday? Show of hands guys!?

[atalas]

I vote Sunday If it's still on .

Louie :cool3:

[seeker372011]

I vote Sunday if the weather holds..Louie maybe this time we can convince Ving to come along to Kulnura

[atalas]

We can try Narayan ! come on Ving you can do anything If you try.

Louie :wink2:

[Brendan]

If friday was a goer?, i might be able to make it. Sunday would be out - going touring in the old car with the missus.

[trufflehunter]

Sunday for me if Saturday is a wash out

[frogman]

i have just been told that i have monday OFF
If you guys want to come on Sunday thats cool by me i may even stay up all night.....


let me know
Anthony

[atalas]

Hey guy's It's party time! :rockband:

Louie :D

[Rodstar]

Guys, I'll probably come Friday AND Sunday if they are both clear!

[h0ughy]

Bugger,

just watching the weather on prime at the moment they say rain well into monday. I am sure my wife must have paid off the weather gods!!!!!!

[iceman]

Weather report today is saying "high clouds increasing as the day goes on". So tonight may be no good.

Sunday is predicted to be clearing, and monday fine.. so who knows. I could even do Monday night..

I WILL OBSERVE THIS WEEKEND!! :bashcomp: I have to try out my platform! :)

Anyway i'm with what john B said in the email - i'm happy to wait until the afternoon of each day to see what the weather holds.

[iceman]

If it's clear at around 6:30pm tonight i'm going to give Rod a call and we might head up then. I'll post here if we do.
Otherwise, we try again tomorrow.. and then sunday.. and then monday :)

[frogman]

high and low cloud here not good atm.

Anthony

[cahullian]

Looks like I'm staying at home tonight : (
Always next time eh mate. I even done some homework on things to find he he :gamer: Will have to beat the kids at GT 4 lol

Irish

[frogman]

ok there are stars out and your welcome to come up but i have to work early in the morning

Let me know soon it will have to be through the site my phone is off....

Anthony

[iceman]

Not going up tonight. Will check tomorrow afternoon for tomorrow night.

[Rodstar]

I just got of the phone to a mate Shane who is a mad keen photographer. He is probably going to join us if we assemble tomorrow night or Sunday night. Shame about tonight. Still, gives me a chance to tidy the house!?

[cahullian]

If things look good on Sunday I will be there for sure.

Gazz

[tornado33]

Howdy all
Latest forecast.
Saturday
A little rain extending from west to east. Mild. Light to moderate north to northwest wind.

Sunday
Patchy rain clearing from southwest. Mild. Moderate to fresh north to northwest wind.

Monday
Rain periods. Mild. North to northeast wind.

Tuesday
Rain periods. Mild. Northwest to northeast wind.
Doesnt look good folks :( I will have to sit this one out.

[frogman]

not tonight either boys

[iceman]

Tonight (sunday) might be ok..
It's sunny atm.

I'll post back here if it's still fine by 3 or 4pm - I know Rod and I will definitely be heading up. Who else is coming tonight if it's clear?

[cahullian]

Ill be there if it;s a clear sky
Cah

[atalas]

Me of cause! hey Mike If you want to take a couple of snaps of the sun I'll bring up a solar filter. Have to get there a bit earlier to set up.

Louie :sunny:

[iceman]

I've already got a white light solar filter Louie, thanks anyway.. unless you've got H-a of course ;)

Clouds coming over more.. go away damn clouds!

[ausastronomer]

Latest Central Coast Update:- from about 20km north of Gosford.

Clear Sky to the south, cloudy in the north but clearing from the south. Looks like we may be ok.

Gary, Andrew and myself are going to talk on the phone about 3pm. If it looks ok we will head on out, my scope is still not ready so I will be sharing scopes if thats ok.

CS-John B

[Rodstar]

Not a cloud in the sky on the Central Coast at the moment (1.20pm). It is all systems go as far as I am concerned. I'll be there about 6.30pm. See you all there.

[iceman]

I'm with you guys, perfect right now.. I'll be up around 6:30pm as well. I assume we'll be in the bottom field?

Sorry in advance for my headlights.. but the moon will still be up so that's ok, right? :D

Looking forward to seeing everyone there, if this weather holds up.

[beren]

Lucky buggers......

FORECAST FOR THE PERTH METROPOLITAN AREA
Issued at 8:30am WST on Sunday the 12th of June 2005 for today and tonight

FORECAST:
Severe Weather Warning current.
Showery periods with the risk of a thunderstorm and hail. Strong, cold SW winds,
possible damaging squalls at times, easing later today


:poke: LOL "easing later today "

[ausastronomer]

I coudn't get Gary or Andrew on the phone. I have left a message. I am heading out to Kulnurra right now :)

CS-John B

[frogman]

where are you guys naryan and louie are here already

[iceman]

I'll be there at 6:30pm. Andrew is calling Gary, and will hopefully come up too.

[h0ughy]

Sprinkles and cloud heading your way fellas, Sorry but I won't be there tonight. the cloud is actually moving southeast from us now. i saw that beautiful clear window to the south earlier today but this afternoon it vanished at 4pm. I am looking forward to catching up with all of you in the near future!

[iceman]

It was a bit of a frustrating night, with clouds coming and going most of the night. After a clear, beautiful day all day, very frustrating!

I turned up at 6:30pm, and in attendance were:
Anthony (frogman)
John B (ausastronomer)
Gazza (cahullian) + daughter
Narayan (seeker) + son
Rod (rodstar) + his friend Shane
Louie (atalas)
Mike (iceman)

at 9:30pm, Andrew (hector) and his wife Mim, and Gary Kopff turned up with the 20".

There was a few good hours of observing, when a big cloud bank came over for about 30 minutes. It cleared once Andrew got there, but again about 30 minutes later (just after Andrew started setting up Hector), it clouded over again. And it was fairly solid this time.

At 10:30 I started packing up and at 11pm I headed home.. I saw some clear sky on the way home, but at home it was cloudy again.. not sure if it cleared up for the rest of the guys still there.

Anyway was good to catch up with everyone again, and some good viewing took place despite the clouds.

I got to test out my EQ platform combined with my SkyCommander DSC's, and it worked perfectly.. ahhh push-to and tracking :) Very happy with the platform. Hope to do some imaging with it tonight.

Anyway a few pics:
1st one, left to right -> Anthony, Mike, John (spent 2 hours trying to collimate Anthony's scope! :)), Rod (far right)
2nd one, left to right -> Gazza (back to us), Narayan and his son, and Louie's Tak :)

Anyway was good to catch up, look forward to doing it again on July new moon.

[Robby]

Looks like you had a good & warm night. T-shirts and all frogman! Does it ever get cold up there?
Cheers

[h0ughy]

whats frogman do with his scope, wasn't it collimated last time george and louie worked on it?

I didn't go because you copped the cloud bank that rolled over us. better luck next time. bet it will be crystal clear in tuesday, wednesday nights. lol

[ausastronomer]

Houghy,

He puts it on a little trailer and tows it around his property with a little tractor thingy. There is a picture on one of the posts of him carting it around. The 8 million potholes probably don't help either.

I think the mirror is also pretty loose in the cell because the scopes collimation changed as I swung the scope around. It was a total pain. I, or someone else needs to spend some time on it in the daytime because the secondary positioning and the focuser are also out a little and this is easier to fix in a workshop in daylight than in a dark paddock at night :). The main thing that wasted all of my time on Anthony's scope is that the heads of the collimation screws on the primary are recessed into the mirror cell and you can't adjust them with your fingers. Consequently, every time I went from the eyepiece to a collimation screw it took me 10 minutes to find the slot in the screwhead for the oversized screwdriver in the dark (left the red torch in the car). To say I was getting the shi _ _ _ with it would be the understatement of the year. If I had asked someone to work the collimation screws while I stayed at the eyepiece I could,ve saved about 1.8 hours but they were all enjoying themselves observing so I left them be.

Funny thing is I spent 2 hours on Anthony's scope and still wasn't happy with it when I finished, then I spent 2 minutes collimating Gary's scope (8" dob), which wasn't centre spotted and had it perfect in under 2 minutes, mainly because the collimation screws are thumbscrews and don't need a screwdriver.

CS-John B

[cahullian]

Big Thank You to Anthony and John for another enjoyable night. Anthony for the site and the headbutt, John for collimating my scope (I centre spotted it today and also used a few milk bottle washers to smooth out the jerking base)After I center spotted the scope and had a peek through my collimator the scope was still a long way out, but a few mins with a screwdriver and a wee tweak hear and half a turn there it's looking spot on. All I need is a clear sky to try it on a star test. I really enjoyed the few hours of viewing we got in last night. I saw the Lagoon Nebula for the first time (thanks for showing me where it is Narayan) Found out that Louie's real name is Lewis and that he is Lebanese lol (sorry mate couldn't help myself, please don't send me a letter bomb as I have a million of those at least :rofl: Met Mike and he now knows that I really am Irish and he should allow me to post Irish jokes in the forum :poke: My daughter Jillian had a good time ,even with my coat and 2 blankets around her she still thought it was cold???I had my shorts on the whole time :D The group couldn't agree on the worst starwars film, Episode 2 Attack of the clones, Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith or Episode 6 Return of the Jedi (personally I think it's Episode 3) It was more a social gathering than a star party with a fair bit of looking up and more than a few swear words directed at the heavens. With plenty of munchies and good company the night wasn't a complete washout. I'm looking forward to the July new moon.

Gazza/Irish/Cah

[frogman]

il do a search on the web soon and get a ""how to " with the workings of the scope and pull it apart myself on my time off.....

Thank you for all your time and patients John and sorry for calling you Wayne as you left... sorry wayne too... :D

Yes the mirror is very loose in the tube i heard it rattling around on the short trip back to the van......

yes it does get ****** cold up here just not yet....


Anthony

[trufflehunter]

...but it *was* me, Anthony... :D

looking forward to next new moon!

[atalas]

hahaha :rofl:

Louie