1st Clear night - with a Bonus Fireball

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Tonight was the first night our new Snake Valley Astronomical Association has had clear skies.

After months of cloud and fog we had 10/10 Trans and 9/10 seeing!!!!

We were doing a sky tour of Globs and Nebs and then 2 of us turned to the west just in time to see a HUGE bright yellow Fireball shoot across the sky and dissappear behind the trees!!!!!! What a BONUS!!!

One of the members facing East yelled out "hey, all the trees just lit up!".

That's how bright it was! It lit up trees all round the viewing area!

Later on I showed them the Sombrero Galaxy thru the Clubs 8" Dob. Because I am used to seeing it thru my 12" Dob, it was a real let down to me that it didn't look all that great, and yet they were all gob-smacked and came out with comments like "WOW!, you can see the dark line thru it!"

At least they were happy

We had a great night. It was fantastic to see the sky again. I was starting to wonder if it was still up there.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Hmmm, I must have been a lucky puppy earlier tonight.

I have just looked outside and our sky has turned to Crud again.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

It was as clear as smoked glass here too earlier, but quickly turned, only got a small sequence of Jupiter in before calling it a night. Seeing was only 4/10 here though transperency 8/10

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

At least I now know why I had such excellent Trans and seeing last night!!!

After logging out last night I checked the Jetstream map. I was in the middle of some sort of Vortex or something for a few hours. The Jetstream was racing across southern Queensland at 170 MPH, down around 30 - 50 MPH across NSW, 5 - 10 mph around in a big circle in Victoria and ZERO mph here. Bit like being in the eye of the storm. A slow one.

Pretty Cool!

I'll leave you to work out the KPH from the MPH speeds above

[h0ughy (David)]

glad you had great conditions Ken, coastal cloud and showers for us for the past few days

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Last night was fantastic here too - we travelled to a property just outside of Albury - about 20 minutes away.
I think our group must have seen the same fireball!!!

Nebs, Globs and Jupiter - all spectacular!!!

What a blast.

Cheers Petra

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Petra,

Must be a very persisitant Fireball, considering we saw ours on Friday night!

Must be hanging laps around the Earth

Yeah, the seeing has been spectacular in sudden bursts, then back to crud again! Well, it is up here in the mountains. I hope all your group got to see the Fireball.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

LOL Ken
It must have decided to linger just that little bit longer!! Ours was green -Saturday night - must have decided to dress up for the evening.

Had the eyeball in the EP at the time, when everyone did the "whoa" thing, and I missed it . I know - better luck next time.

Cheers Petra

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Petra,

Must be a very persisitant Fireball, considering we saw ours on Friday night!

Must be hanging laps around the Earth

Yeah, the seeing has been spectacular in sudden bursts, then back to crud again! Well, it is up here in the mountains. I hope all your group got to see the Fireball.

[beren]

Envious ken , top site for stargazing {minus the fog/clouds} and a fireball to boot...congrats on the inaugural Snake Valley Astronomical Association meet

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Onya Ken ... we had a good obs night here too!
apart from a little patchy thin high cloud, I was out observing till 2:30am this morning, even added a few new Messier objects to my list, plus a few great meteors (late eta aquarids I think) ther also seemed to be a lot of meteors with a radiant somewhere in Scorpius ?
It is Soooo good to see the end of the wet season up here

[circumpolar (Matt)]

Originally Posted by spacezebra

I think our group must have seen the same fireball!!!

I saw a good one the same night at about 7pm looking SE passing through CRUX. Looked like it can from the area around CORVUS. Very bright and slow & leaving a trail.