Celebrate our birthday

[[1ponders]]

Looks like all the Iceinspace get togethers this weekend might have to make them birthday parties.

If there's an Iceinspace viewing night near your area this weekend or next weekend, GET THERE and celebrate. Ones that I know of are:

2nd Sept:
Bridgenorth in Tassie (No Map. Contact Moonman for directions)

3rd Sept:
SE-Qld at Astrorons (print out the map or PM me to get there, http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=2607)
Central Coast Kulnura (Map http://www.iceinspace.com.au/downloads/kulnura_map.jpg)
New Zeald Waharau, contact Robby for details :P Ha put you in Mr organizer :lol:

10th Sept:
Mt Barker in SA. Contact Rumples Riot for a map.

Ok, so what are you guys in Victoria, Western Australia, NT, and Canberra up to. Geoff/Dave, Stuart, Ian, bird? Oh and seeing as QLD is such a big place, whats happening in FNQ , Mick (Mick)/FNQ_View (Mick) :thumbsup:

Remember we want incriminating photos. Mike, any chance of a photo board for these little events?

[Robby]

We have a dark sky weekend at a place called Waharau. It's organised by the Auckland Astronomy Society.
I know that Gary & myself will be there and perhaps Dave (binofied), so that might make 3 Iceinspacers?? Does that qualify for an Iceinspace get together?
Cheers

[h0ughy]

How about we all take a photo of the southern cross from each location say at 9.00 AEST and post that! of course with the IISers illuminated by red light?

[[1ponders]]

Definately Robby. See if you can drag John D out of his observatory for a couple of hours too. :P I'll ammend the top post.

Sounds like a good idea Dave. Let's see how creative people can get with it.

[Robby]

Can't see JD making it. It's a 7hr drive from his place! I'm flying up. It's actually cheaper, with the current price of petrol !!!
Cheers

[Robby]

Houghy, 9pm (11pm NZST) southern cross is getting pretty low over here, but I'll give it ago.
Cheers

[h0ughy]

Naa just take it at 9pm NZ time, I think that will be OK

[[1ponders]]

Maybe stick with 9pm your time Robby. It'll be in the same postion here at 9pm our time. You'll be starting your astronomy session 2 hours earlier than us anyway. That is of course if you're not inside watching the rugby. Yes I remember the astrophotographyfest :P

[iceman]

Sounds like a great idea! I hope everyone can pull it off.

And there'll definitely be a spot for the photos!

[[1ponders]]

Bit of a quiet turnout at Ron's place last night. Just five of us enjoying a bewdiful clear night with no dew :D Roll call: Yours truely, Astroron, Argonarvis and Nightshift. A friend of Rons Gordon, turned up later in the night. Unfortunately I didn't get the shot of Crux at 9:00 as it was right behind a tree and after getting my polar alignment "just right" I weren't moving :).

For myself and Nightshift it was a bit of a night for experimenting. Him trying out his ETX-90 in polar alignment. He loved the accuracy but hated the viewing position. Back to AltAz for him:D I spent the first part of the night improving the accuracy of my ArgoNarvis and just generally cruisin' the Cosmos. Astroron and Argonarvis seemed to be spending the evening hunting down obscure nebula and seeing how deeply they could see into faint nebula. I also managed to log all the DSO challenges for the month visually :thumbsup: Next is to do them photographically, maybe next Saturday night after moonset.

Towards the end of evening we were just hanging around waiting for Andromeda to rise. I'd swapped over from my Meade/Carlton over/under combo to my Orion/Celestron Side by Side combo, hoping to get a few images through the Orion. First light for it. Easy to balance, easy to move about, just got to tune the AN/Side by Side combo a bit, but over all happy with the performance.

Andromeda finally raised her head. Lovely through the binocs and the Orion. Unfortunately a few errant clouds started to move in about then so I only managed to snap of 1 image, but the autoguiding with the new rig needs to be tuned yet. I may post it later. bit of drift in it but some of the lanes came out quite clearly. Nightshift did a runner about then (wouldn't have him working for me at night if that's when he thinks the nights done :P :poke: :poke: We stuck it for about another half an hour or so but by the look of the clouds rolling in it was time to pack it in.

All in all a thouroughly enjoyable night. Nice and warm, no dew to speak of, beautiful clear skies though a bit jumpy, and great company. What more could you ask for.

I'll let the images speak for themselves.

[asimov]

Great stuff & interesting pics! :thumbsup: Sounds like you guys had fun..Can't wait to see some nice astro-images from the evening..:)

[h0ughy]

Nice to see you guys had such a horrible night :P we had a bit of rain. and for me I had to obey the bosses orders for the night. I think the guys didn't have a viewing night due to the rain at Kulnurra. Since you had such a terrible horizon :D do you see the skyglow of brisbane?

[astro_south]

Great report Paul - wished I could have been there (wished I could have been anywhere observing last night, but alas had to be home for the Father's day thing here this morning).

I was out at Leyburn on Friday night with Erwin and some other SAS members. After a thunderstorm and some rain the skies semi-cleared for some viewing. We spent the rest of the night dodging clouds that seemed to be forming straight above us and peering through fairly ordinary skies. Unfortunately Erwin and myself never bothered with the IIS team photo from Leyburn :( , but I think it is a good concept and I hope some people managed to pull it off.

I've attached an image of my setup before I covered it all up, with the thunderstorms off in the distance. Unfortunately I didn't time it good enough to capture the fork lightning that was continuously falling from the dark cloud in the background. Does this scene typify optimism and the madness of some amatuer astronomers? (in my defence I would like to point out I wasn't alone :D )

[[1ponders]]

That's a pretty fancy looking lightening rod you've got there Andrew. :scared: :cloudy:

Not too much of a problem with glow from BrisVegas, its there but not too bad. Bit of glow from maroochydore to the east, but Ron has hills all around to about 15deg alt so that takes care of a fair bit, and who looks that low very often anyway.

I'll have a play with the one I got and see if its worth posting John. Not too hopeful though. Maybe next time. Especially when I get this (go down to near the middle of the page. You'll see where :D ) http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3818

[iceman]

Excellent report and pics guys, it was rained out on the central coast.

Those big dobs look awesome!

[Starkler]

We planned a tentative meet up but the clouds didnt co-operate :(

[Nightshift]

As Paul said, it was a pleasent night, quite balmy for the end of winter. The seeing was average and quite a lot of sky glow. As for polar alignement, well, the scope runs a lot quieter, the accuracy is excellent, even one side of the meridian to the other but this having to work on your knees half upside down to look in the south half has hairs on it, especially when your kneeling on a green ants next, them guys just didnt see the funny side of it at all. Back to Alt Az for me, I dont image anyway so what the hay. Looking forward to the nexr "Rons" night. Cheers, Dennis.

P.S. I just love that 25"er as long as I dont have to set it up each night.

[astroron]

Thanks for coming guys :thumbsup: a good night was had by all who attended, sky glo was caused by some burn offs but I was still able to see mag15 stars and lots of faint galaxies and nebulae, plus the Supernova in Ngc1559,
Great pics Paul, I didn't even see you take one (very sneaky) Look forward to next month .astroron :cool: :astron: :stargaze: