[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

What a great nite to re-visit the Pony Club

Clear sky’s, very good (but not excellent) viewing conditions all nite (and I mean all nite)
It got cold enough for us to don the freezer suits about 11pm and manage the conditions better than a couple of others not so prepared.

New visitor Geoff, from Yarramalong, was enticed to stay a little longer than he intended I think, and we hope to see a bit more of him in the future.

Sorry I never got to meet the visitors from Sydney (Dave was it ?) , but the cup cakes were very nice – thank you very much.

Most spent the nite going from scope to scope , sharing the views – even my little 8”er got a turn in the end.

I managed to tame the argo and get it to behave all nite – and Nephew, (if your reading this), I have concluded that as far as the eyepieces are concerned – USE em or Lose em.

The use of quality eyepieces, even in the likes of my little dob – makes all the difference between a good observing session and an excellent one.

Now to the Pony Club facilities –

Yes the grass was long because the maintenance obviously didn’t need to be done during the quarantine period for the horse flu – so we didn’t get to use the main field.
But – the edges of the sand dressage area proved quite adequate for our needs this time round.
Joe set up more to the west in the middle of the beach, and was probably better protected from the street light down the road.

Mike set up close to the club house so he could get to the power, and only for the fact his batteries ran out, I think we would have had him there well after midnight for a change.

Some sneaky bugger solved the problem of the lights on the brick wall over the road by making use of a large bit of black cloth he just happened to have in the car.

It was good to have (the power supply) somewhere to make coffee during the nite (meant I had a few stubbies left over at the end of the nite). I took an old jug up but the Pony Club Urn was a better option.

Not that we would have use for them, but there is a microwave, pie warmer, fridge and freezers in the clubhouse.

I will be thanking the Pony Club people that made the use of the facilities possible, and I think, asking them if we can do the same in the future.

RB and I kept Jakob there as long as we could and eventually realised that dawn was breaking and that we had better lock up and go home at 4-30am.

Hope you guy’s had as good a nite as I did

geoff