|
We missed your company RB!
As Mike and others have said, the conditions were quite bizarre. We saw 15+ satellites, was looking very promising early on with clear skies and still air, but as it got darker, it became apparent that the sky background was much lighter than we have ever experienced before.
It wasn't skyglow in the usual sense....it was not particularly coming from the direction of Sydney or Newcastle, it was everywhere. Glenn Dawes' laser pointer hinted at the problem, the laser beam picked up an enormous amount of moisture in the air, (although not a huge amount of dew fell on the equipment).
The north was just plain dull, like someone had smudged the stars. It had the appearance of dull storm clouds, but there were no clouds!
I am wondering if a coven of wives got together to conspire against us....we certainly all got home much earlier than usual!
I would be interested to hear how John B and the others found the conditions at Ilford.
Thanks to Cahulian and Geoff for the generous supply of hedgehogs and beer. Also to David for kindly sharing his mint slice chocolate bickies! Was nice to have the company of both Campbell and Tom Mitchell, who were very patient and well mannered (like their daddy!). Also good to see Froggy, who stayed for a good while last night.
Thanks Mike for letting me set the observing agenda. Before the conditions deteriorated too badly we saw some interesting targets in Sculptor, Tucana, Cetus and Aquarius. Perhaps the most interesting sight was a group of 3+ galaxies in the one FOV in Cetus. Two of them were NGC 584 and 596, not sure of the ID of the third. NGC 157 is another nice compact galaxy in Cetus worth a visit; I would like to see it again another time with 20" to see how much detail I can elicit.
I had a chance to try a new EP out....I picked up a 12mm UO HD ortho from Frontier Optics for a mid-high power EP in the short term until the budget will stretch to the premium end. Although the FOV was rather narrow, the views were tack sharp to the edge, and image brightness and contrast excellent given the conditions. If it performs as well in my new scope, I think I might just pick up the 6mm and 9mm EP's as well!
Look forward to seeing you all next month.
|