Bretti Reserve - November 2013

[glend (Glen)]

Thanks to Allan_L and Geoff for coming up to Bretti. Both Friday and Saturday night were great and have to say Saturday night was the best seeing for most of the night (had some light cloud drift in around 1am).
Some great deep objects in Orion rose into view, and I was able to put my Neb filter to good use. Hopefully next time we can get some more people to come up to this great spot.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

the wind and heat got the better of me about 2pm to-day and i packed up and came home instead of staying

Note to self - Bretti season is April to August

geoff

[Allan_L (Allan)]

A nice little getaway!
Thanks for your company Glen (& Toby) and Geoff.
Clear dark skies! Gotta LOVE 'em!

[glend (Glen)]

Thanks for the company gents, and Geoff the 20+year old port was very nice - once the floating cork particles were removed! Sorry to hear the heat got to you Sunday afternoon, it was hot up there, mid-thirties on the first two days but Sunday was 37C when I got in the car to leave. Happily the atmo twitchiness on Friday and Saturday was gone by about two hours after dark, and the 12C nights were a welcome relief. I found my mirror carrier adrift from the bottom ring when I got home, allowing the carrier to hit the side of the bottom ring and tube, a legacy of shortening the focal length - but no damage done but it did make some strange noises on that road.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Glad that you guys got the best of the viewing.

PC was very scratchy, except for mostly northward views.

We did manage to get good looks at Andromeda and M33, as well as a few outlier items.

Pleiades did come into view from behind the clouds for a bit, and we managed some really crisp looks at 47TUC.

Alas, the clouds came in quite early, and we had to satisfy ourselves with chasing boltholes in the clouds, bookended with a lot of conversation.

We eventually left at midnight, just in time for light rain. Maybe next new moon....

[Allan_L (Allan)]

some happy snaps
(just learning how to use this camera so dont expect too much)

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

what camera is that Al ?

geoff

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by GTB_an_Owl

what camera is that Al ?

geoff

Pentax K100D Super DSLR

Too many complicated features I dont understand.
I think I had the ISO set too high. (3200)
And could not work out how to change the F stops.
(not manual like my old SLR)
Manual focus and Bulb
I used a manual cable release and guess power.
but I did work out how to manually raise the mirror to avoid mirror shake.
So at least happy I got something out the other end.

edit:
note to self:
next time make sure the toilet block is out of frame.

[Arthur Alchin (Arthur Alchin)]

As an addition, I did post an event for Chaffey Dam for the last week of Feb 2014 but it has fallen off as I think it was to early but anyhow the last week of feb leads to a new moon and I'm planning on Chaffey Dam for 6-7 days.

I will repost closer to Xmas so we can try and keep it floating till the event