Cambroon 06/11/10

[astroron]

The next Cambroon night is this coming Saturday the 6th November:)
I am back on deck after my Operation and am looking forward to getting some observing in:astron::stargaze:
I hope we can get a good turn up as it has been a long time since we have all got together.
Please indicate on here or by PM if you are planning to attend:)
I hope the weather is kind to us and look forward to catching up with you all again.:):astron::astron:
Cheers

[Suzy]

I will be there with bells on :). I'm very much looking forward to my first visit to Ron's place and I hope to catch up with others as well. :)

RobF & Nettie, will you be there?

[RobF]

Hi Ron and Suzy

I've got to confess I've been frowning lots at the weather forecasts, but I really need an astrofix. I suspect there's going to be a fair bit of moisture about still Ron, but it looks like tomorrow and Sat should be fine to dry it out.

At this stage I'm still an "in"
Heck, I better get my act together and start getting an observing/imaging list together. Then again, the more time I spend on that generally the greater the chance of cloud or fog....:D
Will you be firing up the BBQ Ron?

[astroron]

:hi:Rob you where typing to me as I was to you:rofl::rofl:

[astroron]

:hi:Rob you where typing to me as I was to you:rofl::rofl:
Yes I will be fireing up the BBQ:thumbsup:

[RobF]

Yep. Just responding to your pm now Ron :)
Will be good to catch up. Glad to hear the knee is on the mend.

Robert

[drmorbius]

See you there, Ron

[Xeelee]

Sorry Ron, not a chance for me. Definitely be there next time! :thumbsup:

Chris

[drmorbius]

Turned out to be a great night, but late afternoon clouds were making a few people nervous.

Thinking the night sky might not work out for me, I thought I'd at least come away with something... http://vimeo.com/16570440

In the end it was a great, albeit damp, night with a beautiful dark sky.

Thanks Ron :thumbsup:

[astroron]

Pretty Cool Randall:cool::cool2: I am glad you enjoyed the night and thanks for coming:thumbsup:

[that_guy]

hehehe was there for 2 hours with jjj terry and shell... had an awesome time with the big dob.. thanks ron :thumbsup:

[drmorbius]

I forgot to pass on a big :thumbsup: to RobF for allowing me to look over his shoulder while imaging. Don't you hate it when people are watching every move you make and questioning everything that goes wrong? :D

And it was great to meet some new faces (hi Suzy) and to catch up with the imaging crew (hi jjj) when they dropped in for a visit.

A great night!

We'll be watching for you Xeelee... ;)

[[1ponders]]

Glad you you had a great night Ron And Randall. I'm sorry to miss you Rob and Suzy. Someone had to guard the scopes. :D We will catch up though, that's for sure.

[RobF]

I thought it was cheeky to expect too much from the weather, but heck was turned out to be a great night. Had to dodge the odd cloud, but hopefully will be able to salvage an M33 pic from the night.

Great to catch up and meet with everyone (or at least as much as an antisocial imager manages to while staring at the lappy for hours :ashamed:)

Had a great time with Randall, Suzy, Russell, Shawn and Michael and was a surprise when Terry, JJJ and others turned up to ambush us.

Thanks so much Ron for hosting :)

[RobF]

Understand totally Paul. Must have been good to get some peace and quiet for an hour or so too :whistle: :P

[[1ponders]]

:lol: some private cursing at non functioning equipment is more like it. All sorted by the time the team came back. :innocent: :D

[RobF]

Randall, was great to catch up, and also glad I didn't bore you to death watch my efforts to get the imaging rig going. Thanks so much again for finding some aspirin - no more working in the yard before a long night imaging here :)

I love the timelapse cloudscape BTW. Very smooth and professional. The first 2 astro efforts are great too. Looks like you're well on the way there. I'll have to pick you brains next time for clues on how to pull this off. What sort of battery/adaptor where you using? I recall seeing a largish external battery on the ground.

[RobF]

I would normally never dream of leaving the house without make up on, BUT there's little chance to getting more dark sky data on the M33 I was working on, so here's an incredibly quick stack and tweak without any cal'ing whatsoever with noise, hot pixels, warts and all. I had thought about doing some Ha from the city for this one, but with only 1 green and 2 blue frames will be hard to get very far even after it is calibrated me suspects...

Still, I at least I did get a souvenir of the night before clouds/fog took over completely early morning :)

It just blows my mind knowing how mind boggling far away those two faint splotches of light for M31 & 33 are - what a treat to glimse them from a dark sky during Pegasus season. Thanks again Ron!

[[1ponders]]

we take 'em as we gets 'em Rob. :D

the nights are too and far between to get a real rhythm going as well. Fingers crossed for a couple of nights before summer.

[Suzy]

Thank you so much Ron for a very enjoyable night. My very first star party!
I ran out of the car, narrowly dogged a random piece of pipe where his pretend observatory is, :screwy: and straight into big hugs with Ron as it was our first meeting. I felt like a tube of toothpaiste :rolleyes:. Honestly, how could it get any better :shrug:- Ron's gorgeous deck which I sat on plenty right through the night to take in that gorgeous sky, his 16" scope and showing us around the sky, a green laser pointer which I've never seen being operated (and just between you and me, I wasn't trusting the operators either :question: ), a nice hot cup of Dilmah tea and apple pie inside, great company, and a planned surprise visit by JJJ, Terry, Tony and Shelley. I have been eagerly waiting to meet and hug JJJ & Ron for the last 12 months, seeing them both for the first time was very emotional for me. And meeting Shelley for the first time, I was soooo excited. Terry and Tony, I've met before and I was really looking forward to seeing them again too. I secretly think Tony likes me to chase him down for a hug him because I have to force myself onto him and say, "come here Tony", :lol: and I reckon between you and me (ahah) that he really really likes it :D. Thank you Terry for driving everyone over to Ron's. I tried to yell that out to you when you leaving but you didn't hear me.:shrug: I didn't know astro people gate crashed other peoples parties :help:. It's scary having gate crashers in the dark. Oh and did I forget to mention they crashed instyle by turning their headlights on to us :confused2: :lol: And Ron knew all along who they were but not letting on to me. I was a bit scared :scared2:, as I didn't know who these four people were that were walking up the path to us :face:. Ron's Nagler T-1 could have been a good defence weapon of choice.

I will never forget seeing the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time through my scope and Ron even gave my a beautiful laminated copy of a photo of it. I will treasure both the memory and the memento gift. And wow, I have never seen my scope drip with soooo much water :scared2:, but that was quickly fixed as Ron was straight onto it with a hair dryer ;).

Randall, I am so sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you, I see now, Rob's imaging area is where you disappeared to. :question:

I enjoyed seeing RobF's raw pic come thru of M33, my first time around an imager :D. I love Rob's work so much, I felt very proud to be there and see that image, sorry if it sounds corny, but I do feel that way Rob. :) And Rob is another one that I have waited so long to see, a really nice guy. Thank you Rob for your company. He even offered me some twisties, but telling him how nasty they were for you didn't seem to stop him from putting more in his mouth. I had 3, Rob ate the whole pkt, yes he did. :rolleyes: I couldn't believe it. Next he'll be telling me there full of air and not filling :rolleyes:. I wonder if that's how he got his energy to drive the two hour trip home that early in the morning. :question:

We hoped to catch the supernova viewing around 1.30, but alas the clouds moved in and took over, and the fog, wow, it was eeeeeerie. We left at around 2am and got home at 4am.

And I even got to hold and look thru a type1 Nagler. Blooming heck that was a heavy eyepiece. I'm sure if I put that on my dob i could use the tube as a see-saw :lol:.

What a happy night. Thank you Ron for being a fantastic host. You are a very dear and treasured friend.

Kind regards,
Suzy.

EDIT: P.S. Paul, I am so sorry I missed you. I have been just as eager to catch up with you as well. But I understand that you had to be on scope guard duty. Hopefully, we'll meet soon.

[astroron]

Wow Suzy:eyepop: what a Report No way can I top that:)
I am so glad I was able to put on a good night for you, loved every minute of it :) surprises and all :lol:
We must do it all again some time:thumbsup:
Thank you for gracing us with your presence
Next time I will let you handle the 16" all by your self:lol:
Your enjoyment of the occasion really showed through
cheers
Ron

[astroron]

The Cambroon night was a great success :) a bit short on numbers but the quality was fantastic:D
Randall was quietly doing his time laps imaging RobF was also imaging and instructing Randall and Suzy in the Art of extracting the dim photons from the Dark Sky:P
Shawn and Mike where quietly observing away in the dark and enjoyed the night:thumbsup:
Russell, Suzy's hubbie and I where checking out my 8" scope and doing some observing with the 16" while the women chatted away like Budgies in the dark:rofl:
It was a joy to behold Suzy's excitement when Jeanette,Terry,Shelly,and Tony turned up:) she was charging around hugging everyone in turn :eyepop:then chatting away at a thousand miles an hour,and she reckons I can talk:question::rofl::rofl::rofl:
The 16" really got a workout when the "Gate Crashers" turned up :lol:
the ooose and arrrs ringing out into the night was amazing as prime views of 47Tuc and Ngc 253 where observed:)
The Andromeda galaxy really put on a show:) Russ, had always wanted to see The Andromeda galaxy and it did not disappoint:D
Even though low down M 42 put on a good show and was enjoyed by all:)
I had hoped to be able to show them the the Supernova in Leo but the clouds and the late hour denied me the privilege :sadeyes:
When everyone had gone silence was amazing after such an exciting few hours:eyepop:
To meet all these people who I have wanted to meet for such a long time was a dream come true:thanx:
I hope we can do it again:thumbsup:
cheers

PS Suzy, I will try not to squeeze so hard next time :lol::lol::lol:

[that_guy]

bah... you think youve got me all sorted ehh??:lol::lol::lol::rofl::rofl::ro fl::rofl::rofl::help:

[astroron]

Suzy definitely has Tony :lol::lol::lol:

[RobF]

I should have mentioned suzy, those twisties were the new Weight Watchers low fat edition.......:whistle:

I needed to save that fat so I could wolf down one of your applie pies too. I really need to behave more - I should have stayed outside and kept chasing M33 :lol:

Was great to meet you and Russel and catch up.

Rob