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3 hours in heaven
Last Friday night I observed from Rover Park Road which is 93km west of Casino and altitude 650m. The road runs along a north-south ridge which gives great horizons. There was mist in the valleys but the ridge was clear and light pollution from Tenterfield (35km by road SW) was less than from Brisbane in the NE. I started observing with my 10" Dobsonian at 9:45 pm when the moon had set and kept going until the primary mirror fogged up at 1am. A 12V hair dryer was used to keep the finder, secondary and eyepieces clear till then.
Yesterday I checked off some of the objects on an incomplete list I had with me, 18 open clusters, 31 globular clusters, 15 nebulae (plus more in the LMC), 10 planetary nebulae and countless galaxies in Leo and Virgo plus some elsewhere including M51. I also saw the very faint globular NGC 5053 which is lost in the light pollution at home.
It was heaven for an astronomer.
Last edited by glenc; 13-04-2008 at 08:27 AM.
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