A Great Night!

[Solanum]

The clouds started to clear this afternoon and then disappeared at dusk, so for the first time in about three weeks I took the scope out. I spent a bit of time showing the girls saturn, rigel kent, eta carina and omega centauri, they've seen it all before, but I think being out in the dark is still exciting for them (they are only 5), then went in for bedtime duties.

I went back out later on, started out with Jupiter and realised that the seeing was actually pretty good, despite being the first clear night in ages. Lots of detail and I could see one moon (Io) was near the limb, so decided to check that out again later. Ran through: NGC 6337, M16, M17, M25, M20, M8, M22, NGC 6522 & 6528, NGC 6520 & Barnard 86. Then decided to check out Jupiter again, but decided to have another go at Antares. It's been a challenge since I got the scope (18 months ago), and I've never split it yet in about 15+ times of trying. Last time there was a hint, but it could have been imaginary. Well, tonight, I did it! Antares, was flaring around a bit, but for about 50% of the time I could clearly see it's much fainter companion with a distinct gap between the two!!! Yes!! I spent about 10 minutes watching it just to convince myself it was real. Then I finished with Jupiter, and the detail was incrediable, I couldn't have counted the bands and the fine detail, plus of course Io was transiting and the shadow was absolutely pin sharp at 200x.

So I'm pumped now! I hope you Swan Hill and Broken Hill folks had the same seeing I did.

[bigstretch (Nathan)]

I had the feeling that it would have been a great night for me as well... if Sydney wasn't covered in thick rain clouds.

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Originally Posted by Solanum

So I'm pumped now! I hope you Swan Hill and Broken Hill folks had the same seeing I did.

Hi Everard Not to bad here without the clouds but even when its cloudless i,ll usually only go visually observing from the weekend after the full moon .

Dont get me wrong i love the observing but i admire the darkest skies, in between the full moon and the new i just read the posts here.

November you,ll catch me and a few other observers from the hill down in mildura for there get together at the gliding club.

Good thing about that is you can set up in the arvo pay $50 for a flight, after youve all set up then sneek back to the clubhouse and have a quick ale its all about fun....cheers Kev.

[madtuna (Steve)]

"I spent a bit of time showing the girls saturn, rigel kent, eta carina and omega centauri, they've seen it all before, but I think being out in the dark is still exciting for them (they are only 5), then went in for bedtime duties."

I have to say thanks for the memories and smiles. I remember doing the same with my girls. Now I'm getting to do it again with my grand daughter and look forward to doing it with my grandson who will arrive next month

The only thing that was more memorable than my first glimpse of the rings of Saturn was the look of amazement on my daughters faces when they first saw it.

[garyp]

Originally Posted by Solanum

I spent a bit of time showing the girls saturn, rigel kent, eta carina and omega centauri, they've seen it all before, but I think being out in the dark is still exciting for them (they are only 5), then went in for bedtime duties.

I have the same experiences. Tonight was my "great night". I had my scope out late this afternoon. When it got dark my 5 year old son asked to see the moon. We spent some time viewing the moon and planets, Mars Saturn and Jupiter. We also saw the ISS fly over. He thought it was really cool and so did I.

Great moments to remember.

[Jen]

Yay i got to do a bit of viewing here too
wooohohohoohohohoho

[glenc (Glen)]

Everard you did well to see the PNe NGC 6337 with a 10". NGC 6302 is also worth a look.

[Solanum]

Originally Posted by glenc

Everard you did well to see the PNe NGC 6337 with a 10". NGC 6302 is also worth a look.

Thanks, even in the town the skies here in Mildura are pretty good. This is what I had in my log: "Found the right spot easily (to the right of three stars in a row visible in the finder), there was just a very faint patch visible with averted vision with 20 mm eyepiece. Upped to the 6 mm and UHC filter, faint circle visible with direct vision, but ring shape very clear with averted vision and off centre star could be seen within it."


I always get a real sense of achievement with PNs, just a pity that seeing structure in most of them is so hard in a scope the size of mine. I looked at 6302 in June:
"Elongated in shape, brightest area appears behind centre of nebula, with more nebulosity in front."