It was a great night..
The clouds were hanging around all day, but the stiff southerly was blowing them fast and so the predictions for a clear night were still possible.. by 4pm there were patches of clear sky, and every time I went out and looked, it was clearer.
So I didn't get up there as early as I had planned, but arrived at about 7pm. I took my Dad (papa iceman) up as well, as my parents were visiting from Bellingen for the weekend.
There were clouds, but they were only covering 50% of the sky. The moon half of the sky was clear, so while the moon was up it allowed us to get some nice views of the west and southwest sky. The clouds moved fast though, and it got clearer as the time ticked by.
A few calls to John B, Andrew and Gary K were made to convince them to come up, but after very busy days they were reluctant to make the trip. You guys were missed, but i'm sure we'll hook up again very soon.
It was great to finally meet Ed, and the other NAS boys, George and h0ughy. Ed's 18", driven with servocat and controlled by ArgoNavis, was a thing of beauty. A really really nice piece of work and joy to look through.
h0ughy's 12" was full of gadgets and is one big looking scope, it really looks so much bigger than Rod's small 10" version
I took my 10" up as usual, and the bedroll dew shield was working well, however the need certainly wasn't as great as the last time we were there.. it was quite a dry night, albeit very cold later. Dew didn't really start forming until 11pm or so, and none of my eyepieces nor secondary fogged up. So the battery pack and hairdryer stayed packed up.
My DSC's got a workout, they're still my favourite tool. I aligned on sirius and regulus at the start of the night, and didn't need a realignment for the rest of the night, no matter what part of the sky I was viewing in. Every object was found in the FOV of my 14mm Meade UWA. Many many thanks to h0ughy for the loan (?)
of the 9v battery as mine was flat.
My Dad and I installed the motorised focuser during the day on Saturday (many thanks to Laurie for making the motor/controller). I didn't use it on this night because I didn't have a suitable O-ring to attach. I used Eliza's hair band which worked, but because of the elasticity of it, it took a couple of seconds before it had stretched enough to take up slack and turn the knob. I've since found a suitable O-ring and hope to make much use of it from now on. I'll post pictures of it tomorrow, hopefully.
Louie it was a pleasure to see you again, you are a true gentleman, so helpful and kind. It's not a short drive from Bankstown but I'm always glad you make the effort to observe with us. Thanks for the loan of the 5mm celestron ultima, i'll hopefully get to test it out a bit more in the next week or two, though I think the focal length will be too short, for what i'm after.
Anthony is the hostess with the mostess.
Thanks again Anthony (and your boss!) for your hospitality. As Rod said, it would be very hard to top this observing site. 30 minute drive from home, for dark skies, flat ground and convenience of toilets, 240v power, coffee/tea etc. Thanks very much!
Thanks to h0ughy for the photos above.. even though we hated you for that darn bright flash at the time, it is nice to have the moment recorded. I think you need more than a 2-second self-timer to get yourself in the shot though
Thanks for the loan of the Orion Steadypix adapter. I'll hopefully get to try it out in the next few weeks and will hook you up with some $$ for it.
Rod, always a pleasure sir.
George and Louie, thanks for some tips re my mirror. It seems I have a bit of astigmatism in my mirror. They suggest it could be the clips are too tight. I'm sure I barely let the clips touch the mirror when I reinstalled it after cleaning it last time, but i'll pull it out this week and check. George is the man to talk to if you want to talk about mirrors
My highlights for the night:
- Almost all DSO's in Ed's scope
- Omega Centauri in Ed's scope. He had a 12mm EP in (24 with a 2x barlow) and it literally gave you an eyeful of stars, blew you away. I suggested to throw my 14mm Meade UWA in, and it gave the BEST view of Omega Centauri I have ever seen. The wider field, pinpoint stars to the edge, literally thousands of stars filling up the eyepiece. Best view of the night for me. A real WOW factor.
- Eta Carinae region in h0ughy's 12", as well as in my 10" with Rod's OIII filter in my Meade 14mm.
- Eta Carinae region with Louie's 27 Pan in my scope. Beautiful.
- Antennae galaxy pair (NGC4038/4039) in Ed's 18"
- Jupiter in Anthony's 12" after Louie helped him collimate. The GRS was right in the middle, and the disturbance in the SEB following it was crystal clear.
- I used my SkyCommander to take a tour of every object brighter than mag 9.5 in Sagittarius and Scorpius. Some great sights. M17 was one of my favourites, as well as M22 and of course M8 and M20 were beautiful as usual.
Thanks again to everyone for a great night. Like Rod, i'm keen to do it every new moon or last quarter.
Here's h0ughy's pic again, this time with some names attached.
