great nights observing

monoxide · #1 30-10-2006, 06:32 AM

well id call it more a marathon really,
observing on and off from 8pm - 5am. nice dark skies here once the moon disappeared.
Seeing was poor/average

After hunting down pretty much everything that took my fancy i sat back in my observing chair with a scotch admiring how dark the sky was (sometimes im lucky enough to get admirably dark skies here especially being close to the beach and away from the city), i guess i looked toward orion just at the right moment to see an orionid, very short fast and bright.

I then looked back over toward the LMC thinking wow, you cant really make it out here a lot of the time so on dark nights half of my observing is done by naked eye. anyway i was looking toward the LMC and saw a satellite zooming along so i sat back in the chair and kept watching, just as it was passing the LMC it built up and flared quite a bit...

i wont have an estimate of its magnitude but it slowly built up then it went from a gradual increase to a really sudden bright flare, it was very bright for about 2 seconds then dimmed back down fairly quickly to what it was and continued all the way past orion before i lost it. i was stoked especially since it was my first iridium flare, but to go just that one better.. Just as i was about to look away, another orionid! it just really capped the night off.

After i finished my drink i had another look at 47 Tucanae before slewing around to get a nice view of saturn to finish the night off. easily the best night of observing ive had so far and really think ill have for a while.

Tj

iceman (Mike) · #2 30-10-2006, 06:35 AM

Excellent report, TJ! Nights like that stick in your mind for weeks.

rmcpb (Rob) · #3 30-10-2006, 08:42 AM

Good luck to ya mate. Planned a great night looking at the moon last night and guess what..... clouds. Think I will travel to Adelaide for the dark skies and whiskey

monoxide · #4 30-10-2006, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmcpb

Good luck to ya mate. Planned a great night looking at the moon last night and guess what..... clouds. Think I will travel to Adelaide for the dark skies and whiskey

haha, well my backyard is big enough for another dob or 5.
i actually had a few kids here early in the night having their first look through a scope, i would have spent a good hour or so on the moon alone, it was just incredibly crisp and clear even with the seeing not so good. it was good fun, i setup my old 80mm refractor for them to have a play around with while i scanned the heavens.

rmcpb (Rob) · #5 31-10-2006, 08:51 AM

I really enjoy when the neighbourhood kids descend on me for a while. They really like the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter then they quickly lose interest BUT one or two may have their imagination spikied enough to do something about it later.

monoxide · #6 31-10-2006, 06:58 PM

ahh too true, they both told me they were going to ask father christmas for a telescope.