SE-Qlders get together - The Aftermath

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Rather than ramble on in my usual laconic fashion I'll try to keep this short and sweet and let the others fill in the colour

Saturday Night roll call:
Adelain (Adrian), Astroron (Ron), Astro_south (Andrew), mhodson (Mark), Nicko (Nick), Nightshift (Dennis), [1ponders] (yours truely).

Scopes on hand: ETX90, Nexstar 4, Celestron 80 ED refractor, Celestron 102 achro refractor, LX200 10" Classic, 12.5" Truss dob, 16" truss dob.

Accessories: Enough Naglers to sink a ship Binoviewers

Setting: Astrorons place out the back of whoop whoop (Kenilworth 1 3/4 hours north-northwest of Bris Vegas)

Last night was one of the better night of the observing year. The afternoon started clear though with heavy rain cloud to the north, that was drifting to the East south-east. (sort of towards us) Dennis, Mark and I were the first to arrive around mid afternoon and promptly started to set up. We were keen to try a bit of daylight planet observing. With Dennis' little etx roughly aligned he tried to find Venus, while Mark used his 20 X 60? binocs. Mark spotted something very bright (thinking it was Venus at first) but moving very fast to the Northeast. The only thing we could put it down to was the ISS. Unfortunately it wasn't due then. Since then I've found in Starry Night that the satellite Meteor 1-7 at mag -0.52 (4:30 pm EST) flew through at that time. A very auspicious start to the night we felt. We quickly found Venus then proceeded to see how many planets we could see during daylight hours. Notch up Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter. It was a first for all of us. 4 planets during daylight hours with the sun still well above the horizon.

It wasn't long before Andrew, Adrian and Nick arrived and the final phases of setting up were complete. Just as twilight was starting, in rolled that cloud Drift aligning became quite a challenge, while the Dobs and gotoers chased gaps in the cloud. It wasn't looking good. By about 7:30 though the sky cleared, to what was starting to look like a good night. By the time it was fully clear, transparency was around 8-9 (bitingly sharp), unfortunately seeing was only very mediocre, 3-5 out of 10 (I'm being generous).

While I started the automated camera action, the big dobs were in their element and we were loving it. Andrew had his new 31mm Terminagler with his new Neb1 filter. The triffid looked like a grey scale photograph it was so clear and well defined, as were many other nebs during the night. The veil neb, later on, looked fantastic. With two big dobs running Ron and Andrew covered just about any popular object you could think of, globs, galaxies, planetaries (and planets Uranus and Neptune, six planets now for the night), nebula, comets (Temple and Macholz). These two are awesome to watch in action. Pick an object and quicker than you can walk over its in the eyepiece. But for some of us the real highlight for the nights viewing were the meteors and fireballs. There were dozens and dozens of meteors. None coming from any particular radiant. And there were easily 2 dozen eyepopping tail smoking, head flaring, gobsmacking small to medium fireballs. They were everywhere all night. Which amazes me that I didn't get a single one on image.

Adrian, Dennis and Mark decided to head off sometime round midnight(??), while Ron, Andrew, Nick and I pushed on til 4:30 ish. The wind started to pick up but the visibilty was still crystal clear (still poor seeing). Mars came up which brough our tally to 7, 8 including the one we were standing on. Not a bad talley for the night. Didn't get round to pluto. Next year Ron gave Andrew and I a bit of a tour of the galaxies he surveys for supernova in the wee hours of the morning. When you see how dark his sky is so close to Brisbane it's easy to understand how he can see such faint fuzzies.

By 4:30 we were done in. But not before I managed (just) to get my first view and image of M31. I've wanted that one for quite a while now and it just topped the night of right.


I'm sure I've missed heaps, and the others will hopefully fill you in on the details. May be even a few piccies .

Thanks for a fabulous night Ron. I can certainly recommend Rons place for a fantastic view. He even kept the dew off. My 50mm lens didn't fog up once during the night, though there was a bit of moisture on cold metal surfaces. How's that for a host
Cheers

[Dennis]

Great report Paul - in fact, so good, it almost feels like I was there with you guys!

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I've just done a bit more of a check and the ISS did infact go through in the area we were viewing. But it was running parallel to the horizon only 12 deg above the horizon runing from the SW to the NE and was after sunset. It was also only about mag 4 to 5. The object Mark saw was well before sunset and coming from the SW to the N but crossing overhead, and it was very bright.

What a great evening

[toetoe (Peter)]

Good reading Paul, sounds like all had a good night/morning viewing. Looks like
Pluto has to wait till next time..

[astro_south (Andrew)]

I thought you were going to keep it short Paul ! Great report of the night mate. Can't think of anything major you left out, so I will just add some further comments of my own.

The viewing of M20 that Paul mentions was with a 19mm Panoptic (~100x) with a Lumicon UHC. I was quite surprised at the view myself. The dark lanes were so vivid and the nebula was quite bright - probably further evidence of the transparency.

The view of the Veil Neb was great. The 31mm Nag allowed for the bright portion labelled NCG6992/95 to entirely fit in the filed of view, and application of my newly aquired NEB1 filter brought out the intertwining ribbon effect in this part of the nebula.

I also used the terminag and NEB1 on the eta Carina nebula and it certainly allowed for more nebulosity to be visible and take on a 3D nature, however at the cost of a green cast to all stars. I agreed with Mark that the unfiltered view was just as stunning - with the true star colours.

I was impressed with Nicko's little hutch/table-tent setup, and if I ever get into things that go buzz-whirrr-click then this is a nice way to do it. It even had its own LED lighting. Maybe Nicko can provide some details in the 'show us your equip' thread.

I was amazed at the glowing tails/debris of at least a dozen meteors that I saw. The only thing missing from the night was some reasonable seeing - but I guess you can't have everything

Just like to say a big thanks to Ron for hosting the evening, and for the great company from all those who attended - it was a really enjoyable night.

I have attached some images from the early evening. The 1st one shows the group with (L to R)Ron, Nick, Paul, Dennis & Mark) Adrian turned up after I but the camera away The white dob is my 12.5", the other dob (woodgrain and shroud) is Ron's 16"

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

See I knew someone would add some colour. Nice shots Andrew You'll have to lend me your eyepieces and filters one day so I can work out which ones are which. I'd get them back to you eventually

[toetoe (Peter)]

Great stuff Andrew, thanks for sharing the pics.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Sounds like a great night Andrew & Paul
I have finally managed some "skytime" tonight, after all this rain & cloud.
Looking forward to what we might see of the "Deep Impact" event tomorrow night !
We are doing a viewing up here for the school holiday program.

[Adelain]

I nearly went home when I saw the cloud from the Obi obi (see pic) but I'm glad I didn't cause it turned into a great night, clear sky, nice crowd, good view's through huge scopes (I want one) . Shame I had to go home.(workin sunday's got knob's) Thank's again Ron.

[astroron (Ron)]

Thanks for coming guys enjoyed your company some good observing was done, later in the night scooped up four comets ,two being fainter than mag 12 one 2005 A1 LINEAR with a given mag of 14.1 but was much brighter at about 12.5 and the other 37p FORBES 12.1.
Andrew and I where comparing views between his 12.5" and my 16" with various eyepieces and with observing galaxies in Grus and quite a few planetaries around the Milky Way centre, and with quite a few galaxies in my supernova search listobserved, the last two obects to be observed before calling it a night were M31 and M33, a good nights observing was had by all. astroron

[h0ughy (David)]

Paul that was a great summary . It sounds like you guys had a great time.

[h0ughy (David)]

ok guys so who is who in the images above?

[astro_south (Andrew)]

Houghy - the paragraphy just above the pics in my post tells you who's who in the first pic

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by astro_south

Houghy - the paragraphy just above the pics in my post tells you who's who in the first pic

The least you can do is stick an arrow through their head to show who is what. I cant put a name to a face, I'm not that clever

[astro_south (Andrew)]

ask and you shall recieve..........

[iceman (Mike)]

Excellent writeup! And great shots! You guys did some serious observing, and good dedication to go till 4:30am!

Hope we can have just as good a night this weekend at Kulnura! Especially if the sky is clear and hector is on hand!

Can't wait to see your shots, Paul!

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by astro_south

ask and you shall recieve..........

Thanks Andrew. Now I can see who is who when I am up there next month!

[Orion]

It seems that you guys had a terrific night. Thanks for filling us in Paul with a very good write up, it just makes me wish I was there.
What a lovely place you have there Ron. You must clock up some hours in your observatory with the 16" searching for supernovas.

Hope it all goes well for us in Kulnura this weekend.

[Dave47tuc (David)]

Great report Paul

Thanks for the photos Andrew

Its great when Observers get togeather and share their knowledge and passion for the night sky.

[mch62 (Mark)]

Originally Posted by mhodson

Paul they were 11x80 Celestron Binoculars and i stick by the UFO claim

had just seen War of the Worlds