Pony Club Sat 25th June/2nd July

[Rick Petrie]

Hi all.
Anyone out there up for this Sat. Could be good. Long range looks promising.
Been a long time between fixes.:)

[GTB_an_Owl]

me probably
more the 25th for me
think i might be in port for the 2nd july


geoff

[gmbfilter]

Somewhere hot and exotic ??? Geoff

Either date for me Rick

[GTB_an_Owl]

yes well i guess port macquarie can get hot and exotic Geoff

geoff

[Inmykombi]

Sounds good for the 25th to me, but my scope is playing up.
It cant find the GPS sattellites anymore :question:
Allignment without a GPS maybe difficult.
Maybe its time for a BINTEL service ( or a new scope :D )

We need a good night.

[Steffen]

Can anyone point me to the site location etc? Depending on how far it is from Bateau Bay I might pop by when I'm staying at my parents place up there next weekend.

Cheers
Steffen.

[GTB_an_Owl]

there is a "sticky" map up the top of the star party section Stephen

about a 40-45 min drive for me from Terrigal

be great if you could make it

geoff

[Inmykombi]

Sorry Allan, I didnt see your post till now at 9.23.
I have work tomorrow anyway, so its difficult to get there suring the week.

If you get a sky like I am seeing from my place, I can see the "EMU" and it should be good.

Enjoy.

Geoffro.

[Carlz]

Next weekend would be better for me as i wont be working. I can still make this Saturday, just cant stay as long as i have to work sunday :)

[Allan_L]

It was sooo GoooD !

Clubhouse looks complete.

The bad news is that our key doesn't fit any of the doors.
At least it still opens the gate :)

[GTB_an_Owl]

did you see inside Allan ?

geoff

[Allan_L]

no windows. (except two small frosted)

See my full (preliminary) report under separate thread in this forum

[Deeno]

I'm in for both nights.
Hope I can remember how to set up the scope......

[gmbfilter]

"up the scope"
What are you talking about?

[ausastronomer]

Neither can I, it's called old age :D

I hope to get out there for a short while this coming Saturday. I think Andrew Murrell is coming also. Rod is in France. I will ring Gary K in the next day or so and see if he can make it.

Cheers,
John B

[bahoogas]

I can make both days, for what it's worth.

[Deeno]

Could try and put the tube on upside down....I 'spose.....then lie on the ground to peer through the eye piece....:confused2:

[Zincberg]

I should be able to do either... or both nights.

[bones]

I know it's been a while since I've been to the PC. I think the last time I went there was still the old clubhouse.

Knowing my luck Mr Owl will want me to "renew my membership". (Newcomers don't worry there isn't one).

I'll try and get there for a while this weekend. Is access to AC power available yet from the new clubhouse?

Tony.

[Allan_L]

See my clubhouse status report Tony.
Hope to see you there Saturday (I am a probable starter - if in the area)

[Filby]

Cass and I are probable 'star'-ters for saturday.

[Rick Petrie]

Weather forecast is looking better all the time.:stargaze:
Could be a good one. Note to self...bring the freezer suit.:P

[sasup]

I don't get off work in Sydney till 4 so im out.

[GTB_an_Owl]

well - ladies and gentlemen (and others)

bring the freezer suits and dew heaters

oh! and remember - NO clubhouse access yet

geoff

[ausastronomer]

Despite the fact the weather is looking great, I might struggle to get there tonite. I haven't been back on the Coast for a month, nor seen my wife for a month. I think she has other plans for me :)

Cheers,
John B

[Zincberg]

Is anyone with a key going up a little early? I always find it a lot easier to set up with a little daylight.

[Rick Petrie]

Mr Owl and I will probably be there around 3.30 - 4.00.
Will open up and be back. Some business to attend to.;)

[Rick Petrie]

Bring her along John!!:) That's a good plan ....isn't it?:P

[Allan_L]

Only if he has a van ... (like mine ! ) ;)

Hope to be there early early early...just about to start packing.
4:00 is my target time.

What's the dew going to do ? Mr Wise Weatherman?

[Steffen]

I'll try to get there around sunset (5pm). See you there!

Cheers
Steffen.

[Arthur Alchin]

Unfortunately my rosters are not being kind to me lately (something that i am currently addressing) therefore another saturday night at the coalface.

Will be at the Twin servos in a couple of weeks at 0800hrs for the Bretti trip: even if it means taking 4 sickies, (I have requested the time off though).

Hope you guys have a great night, the sky looks great

[Amunous]

Is anyone going up the weekend of the 2nd?

[Allan_L]

YES Michael, the talk last night was that there were quite a few wishful starters for next week.
Weather dependant.

Notable exception Geoff (Mr Owl) who will be "in the Port".

[GTB_an_Owl]

is that better than being "in the pickle" Allan?

never mind

good to get out under the stars last night, even if we did get drenched with the dew

not a bad roll up for a week before new moon

an absolute pleasure to have Steffen and his son Alex as our guests last nite - hope you both enjoyed your selves and will pay us another visit in the future

the night seemed to go very slowly for some reason
anyway we finished around midnite and locked the gate at 12-30

geoff

[Arthur Alchin]

Another saturday at the coalface this coming weekend, i am really getting a little jack of this!
:mad2:

[bahoogas]

Just call in sick Arthur. Don't worry, I wont dob you in.

[Steffen]

We had a wonderful time and would like to thank you all for a great - if short - night in good company! We'll combine future Central Coast trips with a visit to the Pony Club whenever possible.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Deeno]

Great to be out under the stars.....it’s been a while.

Good to see the Pony Club turning on a reasonable night despite the primary dewing up shortly after midnight.

Always seems to be fresh faces (well...voices...it is dark after all) every time I manage to make it to the PC these days which is encouraging plus, not forgetting the regular 'old stalwarts'.

Had a pretty good run with the new 12". Easily hunting down 12th magnitude galaxies as the Argo Navis cruised through Hydra and Libra. Good fun!

Highlight for me was M83 (I think) through Ricks 14"er. What a view!

[bahoogas]

Cool photo Deeno. I was wondering why you kept walking to the back of the field!

Did you have any problems with dew on the camera?

[Deeno]

Thanks James

Had a home made dew heater on, still had some dew on the lens.

Spent most of Sunday morning with astro stuff spread all over the yard drying out inthe sun.........gee it was wet.

[Carlz]

Is anyone still keen for this saturday night (weather pending)?

[Filby]

Nice photo Deeno. I got a kick out of it. Thanks for posting it!

Im guessing:
Corvus is down the middle,
Spica is the bright blue trail at 2oclock
Saturn is the top trail on the right.

Can you share any technical details?
Type of camera?
Exposure length and ISO?
Number of frames?

Cheers

[Allan_L]

Hi carly,
The TALK last week was that there were a few interested in coming back this saturday (weather permitting)

also, there are a number of new members that I have invited to attend, so unless it is a total wash out, I expect to be there myself.
And I am a keymaster.
I will aim for pre sunset, which means circa 4:30.
e advised, we still have no access to the Clubhouse last I heard.
And Mr Owl will be in Port Macquarie, so even if he has got a key since last week, it wont do us any good.

[Deeno]

Sorry should have included details

Nikon D200. 226 30sec exposures, iso640 at 18mm
Fed into startrails.de (freeware) and tweaked in ACDsee.

The camera is set up to take the shots on its own but, for some reason would stop, hence the gaps in the trails. Might try a slightly longer pause between frames next time.

[Deeno]

Heck yea!

Keen as......

[GTB_an_Owl]

hope you all have a good nite on saturday

don't forget to charge your batteries and take your dew heaters/straps

geoff

[Allan_L]

This sounds like an ominous warning Geoff.
Do you think we are due more dew than last week?
Perhaps an observing tent may be in order.

[GTB_an_Owl]

at a guess NO

7timer says dew on the mountain - non on the coast

geoff

[Zincberg]

Definately there for this saturday if weather is good. not looking great right now... but its bound to get better right? ....... right?

[Zincberg]

ok, not looking too bad for tonight (although 7timer seems to be playing up) what time people heading up?

[dsacurtis]

Hi,

I'm certainly keen weather permitting as it would be my first time at the club. :thumbsup:

Best,

Dave

[Rick Petrie]

I should be there around 4.00pm. Yep, weather is looking like it might play fair for tonight. :)
OK who else is going? Greg,Jakob,GMB,etc, etc.

[Allan_L]

Hi Dave,
It looks promising from the Central Coast.

I will be there before Sunset today, hopefully.

And Joanne bought a PineApple Charlotte for anyone who wants to join me tonight.
(and to avoid any ......, well lets just say she intends to slice it here Geoffro) :)
(never mind, if you are quick maybe you can get seconds :) )

[Rick Petrie]

Seconds, well....it just doesn't CUT it Al.:lol:

[Allan_L]

What a great time was had by a small band.
Weather turned out good.
seeing was extra good - very still - best in a while.
Dew was present but heaters kept it at bay (while batteries lasted)
But in the end, everything got wet, as usual.
Todays a good drying dry.

Notable occurrences:

a very bright fly over from the ISS; and
a bright fiery meteor that left a smoky trail that hung in the sky for twenty minutes or more. WOW! Did you catch that on your time lapse Deeno? ... or was it :ship2:


Notable absences:

Carly, what happened?
Dave, did you have trouble finding us?
Inmykombi, Geoff, Ric ate your piece of pineapple charlotte (mmm!)
Eric, are you arrived in the Premier State yet?

Thanks everyone a another great night of viewing and socialising.

Next new moon - Bretti. :cold:

[Shano592]

Yeah, it was a great night. The best viewing that I have seen from there, that is for sure.

We were all worried when some cloud threatened, but it wimped off to the east, to try it's luck in Sydney.

I gave up at 11pm, and I still got in 5 hours' worth of vision.

My dew controller battery only used up 25% (that was the yellow jump starter from Supercheap) with the 2 straps running on it. The main battery for the telescope didn't even drop 10% over that time.

Thanks to Allan and Mrs L for the charlotte. It tasted excellent, and was sliced just right ...

[Rick Petrie]

Excellent night of visual delights but was thwarted by becoming a tad dewish towards the end. It took ages to dry out all the bits at home today.
Small crowd this week and some absences, but all who attended I think had a good night.
Good to see Mr Bones back with the scope fired up. Thanks Al for that treat of pineapple charlotte. Awesome.
Hope you got those pesky encoders sorted Deeno. Any trails?
Thanks to all for assorted views and for great company. Cheers till next one.
Rickapoodyandafandoogally. :thumbsup:

[Deeno]

Pretty good night even considering the dew. Saturn looked damn good at 300x with the 12"er. Was wondering whether or not it was worthwhile hanging onto the 5mm radian. Glad I still have it.

The Pineapple Charlotte was a highlight, thanks Al

Think an encoder drowned on the Argo, was a bit iffy during the night and finally threw in the towel and stopped working altogether. Might be a good idea to keep a spare in the kit for those away trips. Still found some nice galaxies and planetries during a tour in Lupus.

Here are a couple versions of the star trail effort. The darker ones have had the frames with white light taken out. The alleged shooting star (I didn't see it) isn't evident.

225-260 30sec exposures F5.6, iso640 at 18mm

Cheers
Deeno

[Rick Petrie]

Love that second shot Deeno of the 'tunnel to the SCP' with all of our white light accidents removed.:P
Shame that meteor trail is not evident. I think it was too far to the east of your setup. Good result.:thumbsup:

[Zincberg]

Thanks all for a great night, amazing clarity... left at just after midnight as the Zombie mist rolled in.
Got a reasonable piccie as well.. well actually, 24 reasonable piccies that i have spent a fair bit of the day stitching together.
I only wish i had of thought of doing this earlier in the night, I could have lowered my ISO and got a little less noise.
The end result is nice though, its a full North to south using my Nikon D7000 at stupid ISO (i think thats the official terminology) @ 30sec shots.

[Inmykombi]

I knew it. I wasnt there....so there was a Pineapple Charlotte there in my absense.

Glad to hear it was a great night.
Nice photos Deeno and Andrew.

I visited the Grand kids last night which was great fun too. I stayed in Sydney overnight and missed all the fun up the Mountain.
Cath up at Bretti I guess.

Cheers from Geoffro.

[bahoogas]

I had a great night, but I'm glad i spent most of saturday making dew heaters. Andrew scared me off in the end with the zombie warnings. It ended up being just me and Deeno and I wasn't sure that the two of us would be able to fight them off on our own.

Thanks Allan for the pineapple charlotte. It was the best tasting charlotte I've EVER had! (no, i've never had one before). Thanks Rick for letting me look/play with your scope again. My highlight was seeing the super-sharp humunculus through it. Cool photos again Deeno and thanks for lending me your 24mm pan. I almost didn't give it back!

Andrew, that pic is awesome. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to stitch it together. Well done.

Anyway, hope to see you all again next time.

[Deeno]

That works so well!
Check out that sky glow.
Has some real potential to capture something really special.

[jakob]

Very nice image!

Can you elaborate on "stupid" ISO?
Did you use noise reduction?
I'm interested because I'm conidering upgrading from D80 to D7000.

Thanks J.

[bones]

Yeah Saturday night was great, I finally had the CPC out again after a noticable absence from the PonY Club, not to mention I hadn't used it since early April - still had it on day light saving time when I turned it on and wondering why it wasn't finding anything after aligning. Apart from the dew and that bit of cloud that drifted by around 8:30pm conditions were great but cold. The dew got a bit heavy there for a while. Unfortunately my battery pack ran low just after 9:00pm trying to stay the dew away but I got at least three hours out of it before it conked it.

Thanks Rick for the helping me to tweek the collimation on the CPC11 - views look a lot sharper now.

I didn't see the meteor that Rick saw, but saw a different one to the north that exploded into 4 fireballs that streaked across to the west before disappearing behind the trees. Biggest one I've seen like that.


Thanks Allan for the piece of pineapple charlotte (yummy in my tummy !!!).

Deeno, I hope the light at the bottom of the shot wasn't from when I left. I'm sure my headlights were facing towards the west (right of shot) so it wouldn't have lit up dob alley. The trails look great.

Andrew well done with the stich shot - southern cross looks tops perched up in the top right hand corner.

Thanks to all for a great night. Till another time...

Tony

[erick]

Getting closer. Full time packing now. I'll be up next week with "Turbo Starcatcher" on the back seat. Am not trusting any of my scopes to the removals company!

Next new moon, I hope.

[Carlz]

Hey im really bummed i missed out on going :( i was really keen to go, but my confidence in driving in the dark alone to the PC is non existant so it got the better of me. Hopefully the next PC meet will be on my weekend off work, and i may be bringing a friend along :)

[dsacurtis]

Hi Alan,

Sorry I missed it. It sounded wonderful. My late planning tripped me up on this occasion. Please do let me know the next date and I'll put in the diary. Some of the pictures and comments look fantastic.

Best,

Dave