Blue Mountians, Katoomba Airfield, Feb. 5

[AdamJL]

Hi all

great to meet those the were there last night. Sorry if I don't remember everyone's names

It was a great night for my first star party, and I'm hoping to do more in future. This time with a tracking mount so I can photograph those nebulae!

Speaking of which, Alex thanks a million for your help in pointing out things to shoot. I was just amazed at what the camera picked up

Cheers
Adam

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by AdamJL

Speaking of which, Alex thanks a million for your help in pointing out things to shoot. I was just amazed at what the camera picked up

Cheers
Adam

Only too happy to help out Adam, . Reckon you'd be able to post a couple of frames from last night? I too was most impressed at what your camera was able to pick up!

Just a shame about the bands of high cloud that kept rolling across the sky. Stopped me from being as productive as I hoped. Still, the moments of clarity in the sky were astounding! I managed to see the Rosette nebula for the first time! It is such a big, faint bugger.

I've added a pic from last night's session too. Dulwich Hill brought along his two kiddies too, armed with their own scope too.

As an added bonus, we even scored a great view of the International Space Station just on sunset, to see it disappear only when it entered Earth's shadow! So bright!

Many thanks again to Rod for allowing us onto his Airfield. Cheers, mate, .

Until next time,

Mental.

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi,

Thanks Alex, I had a great night also. I found my ED100 could manage a bit more than I thought, and I had a good time combing through my list of doubles in Leo. It was a most impressive array of scopes there, which does not show up in this photo.

Any of you IIS colleagues out there within reach, do consider joining the next get-together at this spot, it is a great little outing.

Cheers

[Deeno]

Would really like to come up one night. Getting there is no problem, it's such a long drive home when you've been up all night...

[hickny (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Deeno

Would really like to come up one night. Getting there is no problem, it's such a long drive home when you've been up all night...

Deeno,
Rod the operator of the site has said that we may stay overnight in the airfield office. During winter he lights a slow combustion heater for us so that when we get cold we can go inside and warm up a little before venturing out again.

The office is basic but a sleeping bag and pillow would make it more comfortable.

Last Saturday Mental4astro and myself left the airfield about 2:30 am. I was climbing into bed in the inner west of Sydney at 4 am..

Not sure how long it'd take to drive to the Central Coast though.

[AdamJL]

Hi all

Here are a few pics from the night. Sorry the images are too hot, and sorry for lack of names. I'm a real noob and don't know all of the names yet. Also, because the exposures were single 2 second jobs without tracking, image quality isn't too hot, which I will rectify when I get a tracking mount

Cheers

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Lovelly pics for 2 second unguided exposures. Thanks for posting them, .

The objects are:

1, Southern Cross region, with Sydney's glow reflecting of the low clouds.

2, Eta Carina nebula

3, Open cluster NGC 3532

4, M42 the Orion nebula, M43, and NGC 1977 the Running Man nebula

5, Globular cluster Omega Centauri

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Hi,

That first one especially is very pretty.

Cheers

[Sylvain (Jon)]

DAMN i missed out on a great night .... again.
I had to attend an important gathering the next day for a friend of mine departing Australia...and had to wake up at 8 in the morning :/
Good to see you guys had a wicked time and the pictures are really cool!
Like Geoff, I particularly like the first one!
Cheers and hopefully see you next time (my car will have been revised so i won't stress over that too )