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astroron
14-04-2010, 02:11 PM
I did an all nighter last night, The weather was the best in a long time, after the air was cleared by a heavy shower in the afternoon.

I started at about 19:00 and went through to 05:15 this morning.

I spent the first few hours attempting Astro Photography, with not much success, mainly because I don't have a guide camera setup:(

I gave the picture taking away and did some good old fashioned observing:)
using the 20cm SCT, it is a different ball game to using the 40cm dob,
for a start I don"t have the ARGO NAVIS on the Celestron so it was back to Star Hopping and Setting Circles to finding things:rolleyes:

Objects observed where in no particular order, Omega Cent, Cent A, Comet 81P Wild, Saturn,Ngc 6231, the Double Globular Clusters NGC 6522 and NGC 6528 in Sagittarius, and a general tour of the Milky Way beauty spots.

Also observed where the Ring and Dumbell Planetary Nebulae, then onto some galaxies such as the Grus Triplet/quartet, this group is so much different in a 20cm to the 40cm, I was surprised how faint and small they seemed:shrug:, My memory is influenced by the views in the 40cm:(

I attempted to observe Comet 10 P Tuttle but was unable see it:( I will give it a try in the 40cm soon:)
Last object to observe was Jupiter which rose as the sky brightened and was at it's best just before I called it a Night/day at 05:15.

Closed up and off to bed at about 06:00

The dew was very heavy and the temp went down to 9deg C but I was "Snug as a bug in a rug" in the observatory, must use the 20cm more often in the future:astron::stargaze:

erick
14-04-2010, 02:14 PM
Lucky, lucky man :thumbsup: Good to hear. I wish, I wish for this coming weekend - can I make an evening free...... :sadeyes:

Paddy
14-04-2010, 04:04 PM
sounds a great night Ron. What fun. a good reminder also of why you havea fat telescope.

jjjnettie
14-04-2010, 04:12 PM
Sounds like you had a fine time Ron.

leon
14-04-2010, 04:54 PM
God on yah Ron, I'm sure you enjoyed every moment of it.

Leon

astroron
14-04-2010, 05:02 PM
Thanks jj, but not much fun with the Astro Photoghraphy:sadeyes:

astroron
14-04-2010, 05:05 PM
Erick, I have my fingers crossed for good weather for you:thumbsup:

astroron
14-04-2010, 05:07 PM
Yes Paddy SIZE does matter, especially mated to an ARGO NAVIS:D

astroron
14-04-2010, 05:15 PM
Leon, it takes me back to when I did many hundreds of hours of Supernova searching with the 20cm in that little observatory,before I got the 40cm and observing in the open:thumbsup: