Blue Mountains- June

[mental4astro]

OK, lets roll the dice again, :cloudy:.

Blue mountains for the new moon wknd, saturday June 20,
Blackheath area.

Any takers, :evil:?

[Wavytone]

Mmm... wait till the 13th when the weather forecasts are reasonable. If its looking likely I may bring family and stay the weekend in Blackheath or Centennial Glen.

[GeoffW1]

Hi Alex,

Yes, interested, will mark that in the calendar, and contact you later.

Cheers

[lacad01]

I could be interested as well :prey:

[Wavytone]

I'd add the 3rd quarter Saturday 13th June is also possible for me, Kings Tableland if the weather is a bit iffy, Blackheath if it looks perfect.

[Chippy]

Yep, I'm keen as well. I'll take what I can get "weather-wise" at the moment, so if the 13th looks good then I'd be in that. This weather has to break soon! :sadeyes:

At least the dollar is rising :whistle:

BTW, anyone been to the SASI Waterfall or Bargo sites? I'd also like to check them out at some stage.

[Wavytone]

I've been to a SAS night at Bargo many years ago, it was at the end of a disused airstrip or long dirt road (not sure which it was). At that time it was very dusty, which got into all my optics (I spent days cleaning them) and I never went again because of it.

If going that far may as well go the extra distance to Mt Gibraltar (Bowral) where there is a nice site in the forest. High, sheltered, no dust. According to the BoM data the southern highlands is the cloudiest spot in Australia.

[mental4astro]

I will only be able to come on the 20'th.

Boy I'm busting to give my new toy a real good thrashing.

[norm]

Hi Chippy,

I've been to Waterfall a couple of times as a member of SASI. However, not sure if you can get to the oval if your not. There is a swing gate that is generally under lock and key and SASI, I think has an arrangement with council on its after hrs use.

Bargo is another site used by SASI members, but I'm not sure if its restricted to just them. I haven't been, but would be interested. I need to renew by membership with the club. I haven't been to the club for over a yr.

I'm hoping LesD will see this thread and comment. I'd be interested in Bargo, if anything to see how Les does his business - from his reports and articles its comprehensive to say the least :)

I'm interested in Blackheath, but Bargo is slighly closer (abt 20-25km)for me. Even PC is closer than Blackheath.:lol:

[Wavytone]

That's why I prefer Kings Tableland, unless its a truly spectacular night or there's a dang good reason to go to Hargraves. 45 minutes closer to home.

Unless I'm staying the weekend in Centennial Glen :)

[Chippy]

Yeah Kings Tableland seems pretty convenient for me too.

Norm, yes you do need to speak with one of the SASI key holders regarding access to the Waterfall oval (not sure about Bargo - probably same) but their regular observing nights are listed on the their website - so I was just going to go along to one of those. The gate will be open then! I'd be keen to catch up with Les sometime too.

Getting further off track here, but for even closer to home there's also nights at North Turramurra Golf Course run by the Northern Sydney Astronomy group. I haven't been, and obviously its not a "dark" site, but handy.

But KT or Blackhealth sounds good.

[Wavytone]

Weather forecast for the 13th is favorable.

[mental4astro]

Hi all,

For me it's Hargraves for the 20'th, weather permitting, :prey:. With this new toy, I would rather the darker skies here to give this beastie a good hiding, :evil:.

I would really, really like to come and play this Saturday, just can't.

That's me. Any takers for Hargraves?

[Wavytone]

Both 13th and 20th possible for me, weather permitting.

On 20th I'll probably have dinner first with family so might be turning up about 7:30 or 8pm.

[Chippy]

The moon will be a bit of a killer this Saturday, but I may still go if conditions are really good. Will decide on the day either way, but I'm more likely to leave it till 20th. But I do have lots of new gear, and itching to give some of it a good thrashing too. I've just been observing joop from my balcony. There were some periods of good seeing where I got up to 350x. Mostly around 240x was best. Saw the GRS which was nice :)

[lacad01]

I'd be interested for the 20th. Working that day but hopefully could still be able to get away :astron:
Poor old dob has been collecting more dust than light lately :)

[Wavytone]

Typical Cloudville... It's Saturday, with a few dark hours - so guess what, it's cloudy... as usual.

[Wavytone]

As I've long suspected...

"Schiaparelli... discovered a correlation between precipitation, cloud cover and lunar phases on the synodic month... clear days were more frequent one week after new moon, and less frequent one week after full moon" (ie 3rd quarter to New Moon).

And confirmed by others in the 1960's...

http://books.google.com/books?id=vpVg1hGlVDUC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=correlation+of+cloud+%26+lunar+p hase&source=bl&ots=bapnzXcWY9&sig=gOzvjnBVWW60FHM4V9YHcUlsgWY&hl=en&ei=YWs0Sp2bH8WMkAWY99iUCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

Now if only we could find a way to tow the moon away. Park it in front of the sun to shade the earth, should do nicely for a little global cooling.

[Wavytone]

Think we can safely write off this week too.
Making other plans.

[Chippy]

Looks that way. Let's hope next weekend is fine!!

[mental4astro]

I'll wait until tomorrow to decide. Has been clearer up in the Mountains than Sydney. Web-cam shows it less cloudy than here, now though.

I'll wait and see.

[GeoffW1]

Hi

Me too I fear.

Cheers

[Wavytone]

Heading for Kings Tableland, assuming I'm on my own, anyone else ? Should be there conservatively by 7:30 until 10:30.

[Chippy]

Would love to, but have another commitment. Hope you have a great session - looks like it should be good!!

[mental4astro]

Hey Wavy,

I hope you have a good time. Loved to have been there, best I can do is a short sesseion from home.

Cheers,

Mental

[Wavytone]

Hmm set up at 7:30 and it started out pretty nice but a few bits of high cloud floating around and by 9:30 becoming intrusive, then cleared a while longer. Couple of local girls turned up.

No dew on the optics, almost dead calm and the seeing was extremely steady. I love sandstone sites...

[Chippy]

I had a look for an hour or two when I got home as well. Seeing was excellent tonight ...well compared to recent standards around here anyway. Joop was very pretty at 350x and saw Io (I suspect) on the limb and shadow transit. Clear as a bell! Lets hope there are more nights like this on the way :)

[Wavytone]

Dang it's turning it on again, looks darned good tonight. I can see I'll have to set up in the local park for a few hours after dinner.

[mental4astro]

Hickny and myself cannot make the Mountains this saturday, but we will be at Randwick Girls High. See 'Randwick SP this Sat.' for details.

Mental.

[Chippy]

Yeah I had another look last night again. Didn't seem to be as good as Tuesday night, but I was using a different scope - so hard to make a direct comparo. Hopefully Sat night will turn it on!!