Saturday night's sojourn to a dark site was saddly fruitless. The cloud cover that had been expected to clear over the early evening didn't,
. Still, the five of us photon junkies that made the 200km round trip just for pizza still had a good time!
I did manage a two hour session last night from home with my mate 'hickny' & 'craigS'. Exhaustion and high cloud rolling in killed the session, so no sketching done. Still, we managed to pin a few targets of the November Challenge.
47Tuc is always a treat. Light pollution though didn't allow me to pin the three fainter GC's that lie within its boundaries.
The Tarantula was next. First without filters it is just a small smear. Then, with an OIII filter, WOW! The spider more resembled a grotesque satanic rams head, with dark hollowed eyes and huge wide arching horns and tendrils occupying the field of view. Another interesting thing was without the filter, the cluster of super giant blue stars at the centre of the spider are clearly visible. With the filter, they just about disappear. Cool! There are some inexpensive nebula filters made by GSO, and are worthwhile considering for visual use. The OIII filter I use is one of theirs. Makes all the difference to me under Sydney skies.
I then had a 'why the heck not' go for the barred galaxy NGC 1365. Took a bit of getting, but to my surprise I spied out an oval smudge. It was a brief encounter as high cloud soon consumed it. I was encouraged, though, as it means it is certainly obtainable from Sydney still, and a sketch candidate from home.
Though not part of this month's Challenge, Jupiter had a nice surprise for us, with a shadow transit being visible. Its trek across the disc was noticed over the two hour session we had! Nice treat.
This leaves the Moon as my last November target. The thread "Sketch the Moon Night" has the current target features if you fancy a go with a pencil an paper. Michael has also posted a great link on 'how to' sketch the Moon in the 'Sketching Tips' thread.
Clear skies,
Mental.