Cambroon 25/10/08

[astroron]

:hi:all the next Cambroon night will be Saturday the twenty fifth October.
This will be the first one after four months of traveling and Barambah Dark Sky Camp:D I hope to see you and all our regulars here :astron::stargaze:
Ron

[Gargoyle_Steve]

As you know Ron I won't be able to make it so apologies for my absence, but I might get in touch closer to the new moon and see if you're up for one of our mid week specials.
:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Lookin' good for me. It'll be great to catch up with everyone.

[lesbehrens]

hi everyone. i am thinking of coming up. it will be my first visit there. do i need to bring anything special?
cant wait to meet new astronomers.:astron:
see u there
les:P

[astroron]

:hi:Les, if you plan to stay the night you will need a sleeping bag and maybe a tent or you could bring a mattress and sleep on the lounge room floor or veranda.
Bring something to eat and drink, stuff toput on the BBQ or in the Microwave.
Warm clothes, including a beannie as it can get quite chillie.
A telescope or Bino's or whatever you plan to observe with or just yourself, as there will be quite a few scopes to have a look through:astron:
Let me know if you plan to stay the night as there is another person who comes from Kilcoy who you might be able to team up with to find you way here:)
Look forward to catching up with you:D
Give me a PM if you need anymore info;)
Ron

[davewaldo]

I was hoping there would be a Cambroon night on the 25th! I'm planning to be there with my new setup :thumbsup:

Looking forward to some dark skies and meeting everyone again!

Thanks Ron!

[RobF]

I'd love to come too Ron if you can fit in another first timer. Dave's spread the word on just how good your skies are!! ;)

Was going to ask for a bit more info on details for tent etc, but your answer to Les answer the first questions I can think of.

Rob

[Xeelee]

Will try and get there, but my exams appear around the 25th, so I might not be there.

[[1ponders]]

Aw c'mon Chris. Who needs exams when you can have dark skies. :lol: :poke:

Which exams? Physics, Chemistry, Maths .....well you'd better stay and do study for them, any others pffft...what ever. :P

[astroron]

Look forward to meeting you Rob:thumbsup:
See the Sticky at the top of this forum as to how to get here.
It is best to get here around 3:00pm so you can find it and set up in the daylight, plus meet and have a chat and see what other scopes and equipment everyone else has:D
Ron

[RobF]

Cool! Better go and check my leave pass has been stamped by She Who Must be Obeyed.......:whistle:

Thanks Ron

R

[AlexN]

WOO!! I'll be there with bells on mate :) Might see if I can absconder friday off work and come up friday arvo (if you dont mind that is...) Give myself time to setup and get everything going right :)

[davewaldo]

Look out Paul, sounds like Alex is going to steal your concrete pad! :P

[AlexN]

hah. Not that rude mate. Although, it is a nice pad

[astroron]

It's "First in Best Dressed":P even though Paul is just few minutes away I don't think he can get here on Friday;)
You are alright for Friday Alex:thumbsup:
Ron

[astroron]

Les, One more thing to bring is a chair, to rest your weary legs :D
Ron

[AlexN]

Thanks ron, I look forward to coming up!

Despite it being first in best dressed, I'll probably still not take Pauls pad... :) I wouldn't want to put his nose out of joint or anything... Especially considering I may require his assistance at some stage :)

[[1ponders]]

Go for your life Alex. I'll still be polar aligned before you :rofl:

[AlexN]

Dont be so sure my good friend... I've gotten pretty handy at the old drift alignment. :) :) I will have an extra night up my sleeve :)

[[1ponders]]

I'll check it when I get there ;) :lol:

[AlexN]

:) yeah it may not be spot on... but probably good enough :) :) :P A brief rundown of how to do it wit K3CCD tools might be good though :)

[[1ponders]]

Done. :thumbsup:

[drmorbius]

Alas, the silly season is upon us and I've been drafted into a Xmas party in Brisbane... :mad2: won't see any stars there... :(

[AlexN]

No good Randall.. no good at all..

And to think.. I was gonna bring a fine bottle of red.. :D

[lesbehrens]

ok. cool. i now know what to bring. i know jjjnettie. she live at kilcoy she told me about this place. cant wait to meet new astronomers. see u there.
les:P

[007Borg]

Did someone mention a bottle of RED ?? Count me in :thumbsup:

The stars always look better after some red :D welllll at least for the visual observers :P

[jjjnettie]

Ron, I was wondering if I could borrow your 8" on the night to do some imaging with the Gstar?
It would be interesting to see what the little camera can do when you give it some aperture to work with.

[astroron]

:hi:Jeanette, that should be no problem, it all depends if you have the proper attachment.:thumbsup:
Ron

[Tandum]

Ron, I wouldn't mind driving up and staying the night as well, but I don't know if I can get away. I still have guiding problems with this new mount but I think I have figured out how to circumvent them. It appears to be a software problem in the handset making it run away sometimes after centering a shot. It's like the buttons are sticking but they aren't.

[RobF]

Please please please let the weather behave next weekend......

:bowdown:

[Tandum]

Keep an eye on the forecast page (http://astroforecast.org:8080/cgi-bin/byaddress.cgi?zipinput=cambroon+aus tralia&submit=Submit+Query) Rob. If it's accurate during the upcoming week, it should be good for next week-end :)

[astroron]

If you can make it that is OK.:thumbsup:
Ron

[davewaldo]

Hi Jeanette, I might be able to assist with adapters for Ron's C8. I have SCT adapters to go from SCT to 2" or 1.25.

I'll have them there in my EP box regardless. Let me know if you need them!

:) :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Thanks Ron.:thumbsup: The Gstar just slots into a 1.25" focuser, I don't think I need an adaptor. But I guess there's only one way to find out hey.

[astroron]

;):thumbsup:
Ron

[lesbehrens]

a last minute family commitment has come up so unfortunately i wont be able to Make it there this time. I'll see u there next month.
les

[Davros]

I think I might be able to finally come up. Lord knows i desperately need some sky time. Will be the first chance i've had since Astrofest.

[RobF]

Cool! Thanks for that Robin - damn civilised....
So far so good.... :thumbsup:

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Since I can't make it might I suggest an observing / imaging object for those who will be there and staying late?

One of my favourite "smaller" objects, though one I haven't seen for months since it disappeared into the early evening twilight, is rising a little before midnight these days again - it's M46, a reasonably pleasant open cluster with a surprise - there's aplanetary nebula sitting inside the main "group" of the cluster! Nearby M47 is another cluster also worth viewing.

Hope someone has a gander at this fortuitous double-target!
:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Is this the same Planetary Nebula that you "discovered"?;)
I'll see what the Gstar can do with it.

[Tandum]

Sorry, I can't make this one, next time.
Also sorry for any bad weather, I've just picked up a 12" DOB, so it's my fault. :P

[jjjnettie]

They are predicting thundery showers for this afternoon but I reckon it will clear up nicely afterwards and we'll have a good night tonight.
See you there.

[Zubenel]

Hello all And( Ron!!!)>>>> Sorry I can't be there. I have been watching the storms pass and the sky clear tonight while I have been thinking of you under your ( Ron's ) patch of black. Sounds like i haven't missed much since Astrofest. I will look forward to next month and catch up with you all. Skies in Tanzania ( read Cassiopeia) were amazing.:eyepop:
Cheers Zub

[Davros]

Dammit for some reason i thought it was tomorrow night, hope you all got some good sky :sadeyes::sadeyes::sadeyes::sadeyes ::sadeyes::sadeyes:

[AlexN]

For all those interested, I was there for Friday/saturday night.. Both nights were great... Friday night was ended by the seeing degrading at about 1:30 ~ 2am, Saturday night was ended by transparency 0/10 at about 1:30 also..

It was good to catch up with everyone who was present, and 1 million thanks to Paul ( [1ponders] ) who fixed my guiding issues :D The smile is still huge! :)

Thanks for having us again Ron, See you next month! :)

[RobF]

Looks like nasty hail wasn't too far away from Cambroon last night... (Ron mentioned some nasty red and black on BOM).

On the way home stopped off at the lookout W of Maley - always a nice view. On the way up, leaves shredded all over the road - burned out grass areas previously completely black beside road (not very visible here) covered in bright green shredded leaves.

Me thinks we were fortunate to miss the hail...! :):whistle:
Thanks all (Ron especially) for a great time.

[[1ponders]]

Didn't miss my place though Rob. I got home to 3" of pea sized hail under the downpipe filters. Apparently the rain was coming sideways as it poured in through our louvers, even through they were shut. We got 17 mm in about 15 min of intense action.

[jjjnettie]

There was a LOT of debris on the road home on Sunday.
A lot of shredded trees too.
Very glad it missed us.
Hope you didn't get too much water damage at your place Paul.

I'm about to update my comets and asteroids to find out exactly which one I imaged Saturday night.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Yes indeed Jeanette, that's the one!
Looking forward to seeing your Gstar results.

[jjjnettie]

Sorry Steve, but the fog rolled in just at the wrong time.
I might have better luck tonight.

BTW, I sold the Annie Jump Cannon!!
I had a message waiting for me when I came back from Cambroon.
The fellow is paying it off, he dropped off the first payment last night.

[jjjnettie]

I ran Starry Night Pro with updated asteroids and there was nothing near Orion at the time the .avi was taken.
It must be obscure enough not to be listed.
So, what's the next step?

[[1ponders]]

Can you send me the original saved as a tiff or fits file Jeanette. I'll try to run it through CCDSoft and Sky 6 and see what I come up with. I'll also need your chip and pixel dimensions so I can come up with an arcsec/pixel scale.

[jjjnettie]

I'll send that through tonight, I'm late for work.