excellent seeing tonight!

madtuna (Steve) · #1 02-09-2008, 10:06 PM

2nd night in a row of gorgeous skies which is a huge change from what we've suffered through for months.

Sombrero was gorgeous from my suburban backyard until is sunk below the horizon, could even see the tattoos on the little mexican dude wearing it.

First time in I don't know how long that I could safely whack a 4mm in and have a sticky beak at Joop!

Not using the Argo, just the G11 hand paddle and slowly touring the sky and seeing nebs, globs and god knows what that I haven't seen from here before..

I hope every one is out and enjoying it as I am!

Wavytone · #2 02-09-2008, 10:12 PM

Yep it looks excellent here, despite being inner city. Green with envy - I have to wait for my new toys to arrive.

Jen · #3 02-09-2008, 10:47 PM

yep beautiful skies here but im just in and out doing a bit of star hopping without my scope being a week night i wont get to bed at a decent hour if i take my scope out LOL
hope it stays like this for the weekend

matt · #4 02-09-2008, 11:20 PM

Clouded out here

madtuna (Steve) · #5 02-09-2008, 11:23 PM

well..I've just packed up..completely clouded out since I posted that.
Earlier not a cloud in the sky...next time I'll keep my mouth shut

rupert32001 · #6 03-09-2008, 10:27 AM

Was I going strange last night (tuesday night)? As I was going home I looked up at a really clear sky and saw the moon as a crescent at the bottom and not at the sides!!
I'm not an expert of any sort, just an interested amateur but I cannot remember seeing this before...

iceman (Mike) · #7 03-09-2008, 10:36 AM

Hi Rupert.

That's because the moon was directly above the Sun, so the Sun only illuminated the bottom part of the moon.

When the moon is further north or south of the Sun, that's when you'll get side illumination.

RB (Andrew) · #8 03-09-2008, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rupert32001

Was I going strange last night (tuesday night)? As I was going home I looked up at a really clear sky and saw the moon as a crescent at the bottom and not at the sides!!
I'm not an expert of any sort, just an interested amateur but I cannot remember seeing this before...

Welcome to IIS Rupert.

What you saw last night happens every month when the moon is very young.
It sets just after sunset so the bottom is lit from the sun and we see it as a thin crescent.
As the moon gets older is gets 'further' from the setting sun so the angle changes and hence the look of the crescent.

AstralTraveller (David) · #9 03-09-2008, 04:18 PM

Yep Monday night was great. Unfortunately the chances of seeing nebulosity 1km from the centre of Wollongong are pretty remote. I decided to get the scope out anyway so I could try my new 20mm Nagler (very nice star images) and see whether the 25cm newt would work on the Sphinx mount (sort of OK - don't reckon it will hand much wind though).

Of course neighbours who haven't ventured past their back door in decades came out and put their flood lights on

. Also discovered that the new neighbours across the road like to leave their front porch light on when they are out. That means that the only spot in the yard sheltered from the lights that are _always_ on has now been ruined

. I have this plan that involves poles bolted to the fence, ropes and lots of heavy black plastic

.

Last night I was too knackered from Moday to set up again. That was despite my new Carl Zeiss Jena 10mm orthoscopic arriving yesterday. Oops, shouldn't have said that - now Steve will blame me for the cloud

.

rupert32001 · #10 03-09-2008, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

Hi Rupert.

That's because the moon was directly above the Sun, so the Sun only illuminated the bottom part of the moon.

When the moon is further north or south of the Sun, that's when you'll get side illumination.

Great, that explains it. I had just come homr from the pub and thought I was maybe imagining things!!

madtuna (Steve) · #11 03-09-2008, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

.

Last night I was too knackered from Moday to set up again. That was despite my new Carl Zeiss Jena 10mm orthoscopic arriving yesterday. Oops, shouldn't have said that - now Steve will blame me for the cloud

.

I wasn't sure if it was TeleVue rain, Pentax rain or Carl Zeiss rain but I knew it was a bit more substantial than GSO rain...thanks for clearing that up

AstralTraveller (David) · #12 04-09-2008, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madtuna

I wasn't sure if it was TeleVue rain, Pentax rain or Carl Zeiss rain but I knew it was a bit more substantial than GSO rain...thanks for clearing that up

Real astronomers don't even go inside for GSO rain! But watch out, I've a shopping list that would cloud out the second coming.