One for Alex
...
Had a great visual observing/camping/eating/drinking, long weekend up at Eagleview, with plenty of clear sky time Fri, Sat and Sun nights
.
First, Friday Night, this was an all-nighter of visual observing with my mate Attila, using the 18" F4.1 GOTO dob, under superb dark conditions, once the, just under first quarter Moon, set and the moderate breeze subsided to low humidity and decent seeing, the views were spectacular and no dewing of the exposed mirrors! Transparency and contrast were brilliant, everything was just so high fidelity and contrasty in the eyepiece, with vivid colours in so many stars, including obvious warm tones in quite a few of the brighter globular clusters. We could easily make out the Eagles head in M16, without an OIII filter and M17 and M20 both blew our mind, with loud oohs and aaahs exclaimed by both seasoned observers. Both objects looked like B&W Ha CCD images but with a hint of colour - both subtle green and warm rose was noted, ..the Swan particularly had that solid, meaty look to the nebulosity, with incredible detail and its characteristic crisscross striations seen in images, almost like it had been painted with a spatula, the best we have both see both objects (after 40 years of visual astronomy). Using the trusty old Will Tirion star atlas as a guide, we spent some time randomly pointing at various planetary nebulae high in the southern sky, including the incredible NGC 3918 The Southern Blue PN in Centaurus. Lots of fabulous views were had through the night, an 18" is quite a formidable visual tool under such good conditions but the highlight of the night was we also nabbed the two little Mag 16 galaxies next to M83 too, first time for both of us..and needless to say, M83 itself turned it on too, with all the double arm barred spiral structure and many of the HII/OB association knots you see in images, on display, even without averted vision..incredible.
Although the Milky Way blazzed overhead on both Sat and Sun nights, after the Moon set, they were pretty much just camping, eating and drinking nights, with lots of pointing out stuff overhead, fielding lots of astronomy questions. The head brewer and owner of Bentspoke Brewery, Richard Watkins along with three of the regulars at the brew pub, came up for two nights of camping...arhem..along with seven cases of assorted, award winning craft beers, whisky, Gin and lots of Billy coffee
We did stews, Bolognese, curries and bread on the fire, all authentic, cooked from scratch (including the bread) and absolutely delicious...what a long weekend...bloody cold
but also bloody great fun all round....I got to sleep inside in my warm bed each night though, while they swagged and tented it.
Mike