Stockport Star party for SA

[Astroman]

The ASSA are holding a star party tonight up at the stockport observatories, I will be there. I will have my name tag on, don't be shy come say hi :)

Look for Andrew Wall :) You may have to be dark adapted though, I tend to stay where there is the least amount of light.

[asimov]

:) That name certainly brings back nice memories. at the age of 15, I kind of helped out the original owner (Ian Bedford) to built that observatory. I have pictures I was only looking at the other night, of me & Ian standing on top of the dome. This happened a long time before he sold the land & the observatory to ASSA. He still has the 30" he built you know.

[Astroman]

I only Met Ian about 6 months ago for the first time, we spoke about my dome and ways to improve it, this was while my scope was being checked out,to see if I had done things right :)

Yes he still has the 30", although he has moved to a new location now 20km further north of Stockport from memory. The 20" is now in the big dome with an 18" in the smaller one, also a 15" dob under a shed.

Last night was CLOUDY as hell, if you could find a clearing you bet your bottom dollar about 20 scopes pointed to that spot at the same time. I had a chance to look through a C11 lastnight, what I saw was very nice, although the atmosphere was crap. Spent more time talking about the mechanics of the scope. Some scopes up there were a Meade LXD-55 SN10, another 10" with a beefier mount which looked like a white CG5. The C11-xlt, an 8" dob, numerous F4 8" scopes a little 4" newt on a goto mount. aswell as the other permanant scopes. I got to spend some time on the 15", although the EP was rubbish, the views were still good, I was moving it around the cross and centaurus aswell as scorpius, which had many public visitors ooooing and ahhhhhhing.

Came home and was in bed by 10:30pm :( Got me out of the house at least.

[asimov]

Yeah, I figured the weather was going to be total crap at Stockport. But like you said, got you out of the house. :thumbsup:

Ian & I lost contact years ago (due to me getting out of astronomy when I discovered fast cars & women etc lol) But sinse I've taken it back up, I've been trying to track him down. As far as I can tell, Riverton is where he's at now. If you run into him before I do, tell him John from Port Lincoln says Hi! That'll shock the hell out of him! :D

[jackenau]

As Andrew has already mentioned the viewing was pretty hit and miss due to the cloudy night. Left it to the last minute to attend myself, expecting it to be a little clearer north of Adelaide.

Now, having never viewed through a scope other than my 4" or 6" reflector with poor optics, or my 12" dob I was somewhat left a little lacking in expectation of the scopes on display.

As was Andrew it was the first time I had looked through a C11, (This guy obviously new his scope, the sky and was extremely good with his knowlege of the sky and astrophotography.

He had lots of pictures on hand (on his laptop), all taken from his scope (I think), and which he was willing to share with the crowd on the night once prompted, whilst still trying to find objects of viewing for the crowd that continuosly gathered around his scope. The scope was very impressive to look through and unfortunately with little else to compare it with, would have to be the best and only goto scope I have had the good fortune to look through.

The guys without goto amazed me at the quick response to the ever changing cloud formations in quickly seeking out new objects to view.

Most people with scopes appeared to be frustrated on the night in not being able to find (due to the amount of cloud) suitable viewing targets.

Easiest to see on the night (APART FROM THE MOON) was omega centauri, closely followed by Tuc47, followed by numeous other clusters which few people when questioned, seemed to know the names of.

For me, on the night the viewing of Neptune "even though it was a tiny blue spot", the clearest view of 47tuc and what appeared to be the ring nebula (although I stand corrected here, it was red, blue, circular, small and I still have to look it up) were the best.

Until now I have never really noticed too much colour in anything I have been viewing, but the above object to me on the night really did show colour and it was interesting that the person after me viewing the object commented about the colour (without hearing me comment). Perhaps it was due to the darkened sky?

The big scope unfortunately was only pointed at the moon (due mainly to the amount of cloud cover). The 15" scope as Andrew pointed out was constantly trying to find suitable viewing objects apart from the moon and was always in constant demand. I had a brief look at omega centauri, which to me were equal to the views I get through my 12" dob if not slightly better.

All in all, having never attended a sky party or club meeting or similar it was an interesting night. For people new to the hobby there were an array of scopes on view, however I did not notice any dobs under 15", nor did I notice the 6" tak that was reportedly there (maybe because I just got caught up in the moment). However, I did find that most everyone (with scopes)were more than willing to share their experiences with the public and offer recomendations as to suitable suggestions to suit individuals viewing requirements.

The night, supplemented by a sausage sizzle, lots of coffee, slides and a movie show, 100 plus people (attending apart from the members) and the poor viewing conditions was in my opinion a worthwhile experience and one in which I would attend again.

Ken M

[Jonathan]

Only just noticed this thread :doh: . Good report Ken, sounds like it was a good night apart from the clouds. I'll have to go out to Stockport one day, I've never been there.

[GrampianStars]

I have fond memories of Stockport
Joe G was the pres then back 20 odd years now
the 20'' on a massive fork mount was in the tower on a masive pier that went down through the floor, climbing up the stairs,
HAND guiding, the beast with eyes glued to my own eyepieces,
(long before computer drive)
I was invited over to Ian Bedfords private obs on only a few times

watching many sunrises on Sunday mornings
Sky glow from Adelaide was creeping up from the south even then
must be pretty bad now.
It definately set my mind dreaming of my own obs back then at a DARK site

will be good to catch up at Vic Desert in Nov 06'

[asimov]

I gave Ian Bedford a quick ring the other day & we ended up chatting at least an hour. It was really good to speak to my mentor after so long! If anyones interested, I will post a couple of original pictures of his observatory as it was being built back in....what year was that again? 76'-78' ? The pictures I have, are really of the finished dome externally.

[Astroman]

If you go into the 20" scope dome you can see images of the observatories being built, next time I will have a closer look :P