Some pics from Snake Valley last night

[danielsun]

Thanks to Ken and the SVAA members for a great night and putting togerther a top feed.
It was good to catch up with and meet a few more IIS members and SVAA locals.
Apart from the clouds occasionally wizzing past and briefly interupting the magnificent Snake Valley night sky we still got to see lots of meteors. Probably on average at least 1 every 1 or 2 mins.
All in all a great night and here's a couple of picks.
Unfotunately no sky picks from me cause i forgot to bring my battery charger DOHHHH!!!!

Pic 1-Leon in action
Pic 2-Darren (Wombat in space) flat out doing some meteor observing.
Pic 3-dinner time
Pic 4-Looks like darren(wombat), Yanis, Leon (astrogeek) and Tony and angus(i think) all eyeing off the last burger and the two little dragons in there as well!
Pic 5- Ken Ballaratdragons and co.

[matt]

Looks like a nice night Daniel.

So who's who in those pics?

I'd say that's Ken from the Dragons watch and body art in the last pic

[danielsun]

Sorry Matt, i got logged out half way through posting.
I've just edited the post and added the pic details.
And yep your right!! Thats kens mug alright!!

[matt]

Thanks daniel

Glad a few of you made it up there

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Looks like you walked in on the local RSL meeting.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

It was a fantastic night!!!!

The sky really put on a show for everyone. The seeing was magnificent!

Oh, and the rain still didn't come!!!!!!!!!!!! A few spots at 3:15am put a hold on things for a few minutes and then back to clear skies.

We had a good crowd turn up, and a decent variety of scopes and knockies. And yep, the feed was great! AstroGeek got to show off his Lightbridge.

Thanks to all who came

Daniel and Leon took most of the pics during the night (on and off the viewing field) so I'm sure your bound to see more.

Below: One of the widefields I took at about 4am.
Saggittarius, unaided modded Toucam, 35 second exposure in 'Desire'. Untracked (hence the slight star-trails)

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Oh, and the seeing was so good you could easily see these objects Naked Eye in just Saggittaius alone:

Lagoon Neb, Trifid Neb, Eagle Neb, M7, M21, M22, M23 etc All naked eye!!!!!

Plus Tarantula, 47Tuc and heaps more!!! Now, that's a clear dark sky

Thanks to Daniels Laser pointer we were able to do the naked eye DSO tour though Saggittarius.

[matt]

Good stuff Ken

Aren't those laser pointers great?

I got my first look at one last weekend out at Frank's (spearo) place.

I was amazed how they seemed to strike the "dome"of the sky as if you were in a planetarium. I'd been sceptical how effective they could be but they are very cool

[leon]

Hi Guys,

Yea it was a great night, very cold but magnificant dark skies, it certainly is a good spot for observing.

Here are a few more pics from the night.

No.1 The observing field
No.2 Ken trying out his new observing chair (bloody larikin)
No.3 Darren putting up the Dob Tent
No.4 That's me (Leon) at work
No.5 Astrogeek, another (Leon) with his Light Bridge
No.6 Good crowd attendance.
No.7 The boss at the head of the table (Ken)

Cheers Leon

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Great pics Daniel and Leon

Here below is some of the objects we saw naked eye with the laser pointer during the Saggittarius Tour in the pic above. Nice dark sky!:

[RAJAH235]

I AM NOT JEALOUS.....I AM NOT JEALOUS.......Gotta keep telling myself that....Nice dark, clear skies again Ken...
Looks like you all had a great time.... L.
ps. Did anyone try to stop Ken from eating?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

ahhh, you noticed that I was eating in almost every pic taken!

I did stop eating for a while when I was on the viewing field. I stuck to only Mars Bars out there

[iceman (Mike)]

Great pics, looks like everyone had a nice time.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Yep, we did Mike.

And it wasn't cold

[ving (David)]

wasnt cold? MUCH!
brass monkey weather last night, i could tell by the ice on my car this morning