Paul omitted an Iridium flair that most of us saw
After Paul and Adelain and Sonia left we adjurned for a coffee break then rearly got into the Deepsky stuff, going through the last two issues of AS&T with David Frews Deep Sky Delights, we started with Ngc 2818 a bipolar P/N in Antlia, this object takes magnification very well and is improved by the O111 filter even though it dulls the cluster it is inbedded in.
Next stop Ngc3132, the Eight Burst Nebula, the best way to observe this object is to look of axis,also improved by the O111, onwards to Ngc3109, this object is inbedded in an arrow shaped asterism in photographs but only one side of the asterism is noticable in the eyepiece,had a look for S/N but none visible
Wes was also observing these objects at the same time and we compared views to get the difference between 10"and 16" scopes, quite a good exersize.
Then it was over to Volans and Ngc 2442, even the youngest observer was able to see the meat hook shape of this galaxy and view its interacting partener ESO 59-G11.
We decided to give the Scorpius region a bit of a tour and starting with M22, onto M17,m54,M4 and other objects in the area,we then had a look at M13 which was low down on the NE horizen, before turning the scope onto Comet Schwashmann-Wachmann which showed a nice tail and iether possible double nuculus or a star very close in the background, High mag was not able to improve the resalution.
Chris will bring warm clothes and footware in future as he spent quite a bit of time running around in circles trying to get his feet warm
(temp about 15degs) at 01:30
A revisit of Cent A(Ngc5128) Omega Cent(Ngc5139) and Ngc4945 which where now much better placed for observing gave much better views and then Chris and Dad Mike called it a night at about 02:00.
I continued on till 02:30 then quit as the the moon was rising and making it difficult to do deep sky stuff.
A good night was had by all who attended.
See you all next weekend weather permitting.
