With light breezes that were not to cool, clear skies and zero humidity throughout the night, the 4th Fraser Coast Stargazers open night was enjoyed by a total of 15 people through 8 telescopes. From 6.30pm to 2.15am we enjoyed such popular objects as;
M7
M8
M44
M42
B33
M1
Hyades
M45
M31
M32
M110
M33
M77
NGC 253
NGC 7293
M101
4P-Faye
Tuc 47 and the Mag. cloud features
Splitting a few doubles
Saturn and its more prominent moons
Plenty of other general stuff.
A few fast and seriously smoky meteors bridging large distances between the East and West horizons via Leo and Sculptor were probably Leonid meteors, but they were few and very far between up until 2.15am from this site. A few possible Orionids also entertained us occasionally.
All in all it was one of those great nights where we covered a great deal of sky at our lesuire, and with only 6 or so curious members of the public attending we spent more time swapping EP's, sharing views and equipment ideas and generally making the most of the rare stable atmosphere, worth being bleary eyed today for. New member Peter (Fishman) and his son Nicholas also contributed to the night by giving their new 12" lightbridge a solid workout, and they also proved to have some talent in finding deep sky objects- I will not bet another bottle of wine that he can not find a faint nebula that has been only roughly pointed out.
Refractor men Max and Daryll reminded us through Eta Carina that in some situations a refractor has advantages over Newtonian telescopes.
Next FCS open night is Saturday the 23rd of December and all are welcome.
CS to all
Steve
