[Quark (Trevor)]

Broken Hill Robinson College Astro Group Observing Report.
Last night 27th Feb we had our first observing night for semester 1.
We observed at a remote site about 7 km out of town on the Menindee road and about 1 km in on a dirt track to a clearing nestled behind the brow of a hill. This is a nice spot that is shielded from any traffic on the Menindee road. Fellow IIS’er Kevnool set up his most excellent 16” Dob and I took my 12” Lightbridge. A reporter from our local ABC radio attended and interviewed members of the group through the night as they observed various objects. Along for the first time were a couple of old dears, I think in their eighties. Kev and I ran a tour, each of us on different targets. It is just so satisfying when someone, regardless of their age, look through your scope for the first time at a showpiece object and lets out an almost involuntary whoop of delight for what they see.
The night started with some high cloud but as it cleared; even though the temperature was still around 30 C the stars were incredible steady almost to the horizon. The Tarantula looked stunning and even these dear old ladies could see the structure of it, it blew them away that a little patch of fuzz could resolve into such an intricate and detailed structure. As they observed I explained to them just what this object was, how large and how far away, they loved it and Emma from the ABC recorded their comments and exclamations of delight at the eyepiece.
Over the night our group observed Lulin, Saturn, M42, M46, M45, esb 365 they couldn’t believe how red this was, The Tarantula, The Key Hole with and without an OIII filter, The Jewel Box, Tuc 47, Omega Cent, Cent A, The Eight Burst Neb, The Ghost of Jupiter and more.
They headed of about 11pm but Kev and I continued through to 1.30am. The seeing was stunning, I have had the pleasure of observing through some very nice scopes at the SPSP with the ASNSW scope, a 17” in think, Andrew Murells famous Hector and Peter Bobroffs, I think 20”. However the view through Kevs 16” with a 7mm Orthoscopic, on this night, was the best view I have ever seen of The Homunculus. The detail and contrast with the adjacent dust lane was incredible and the fine dark veins in the Homunculus were just so well resolved that it looked like an image from a high end CCD, it was astonishing.
I slipped in my 31mm Nagler and looked at the galaxies in the field around M86. Everyone with a copy of The Herald Bobroff Astro Atlas would be familiar with this region as there is an inset photo of this field on the cover showing 9 galaxies in the field. The 31mm Nagler in my 12” Dob is a larger field than that image and easily picks up those 9 plus a few more. Slipped in a Meade series 4000 14mm UW, love this eyepiece and do most of my observing with it. Scanned around the M86 region having a more detailed look at the assortment of galaxies in the area.
We took the time to sit down and crack a can and just look up and admire the sky, then slowly packed up and headed back into Broken Hill after a most satisfying observing night.
Regards
Trevor