Att: Snake Valley Campers - Name Your Targets

[JohnG (John)]

Originally Posted by niko

learning the dark arts of drift aligning from John G

LOL Niko

Will teach you how to use AlignMaster, a lot quicker.

Cheers

[Jen]

Originally Posted by niko

Targets for this camp include (in roughly chronological order):

1. packing the truck without forgetting anything (well, too much of importance anyway)
2. getting away from Melbourne at a reasonable hour on Friday
3. begging someone to help me align my scope (this job normally falls to danielsun so will available to some other lucky bugger this time!)
4. learning the dark arts of drift aligning from John G
5. getting alignmaster and EQMod working

6. some widefields/startrails - maybe Jen will be my startrail buddy...?
7. some subs of something my ED80 will capture nicely (that isn't M42!) - maybe lagoon

8. coming up with a decent excuse to take Monday off

9. laughing

Nice plan Niko/startrail buddy oh im sure you can think of some excuse to take monday off tell them cause Jen said thats going to be the best clear night

Originally Posted by cventer

Based on recent weather we are all likely to get a real good look at "The Cloud Nebula"

Shhhhhhhhhhhh.............. no cloud nebula viewing at Snake Valley is allowed

[Paddy (Patrick)]

A freshly discovered supernova in Grus - go Stu! - http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=82996

revisiting another BOSS supernova in Pavo.

A list of interesting galaxies from Robert's post (madbadglaxyman)

Oh, and the Magellanic Clouds will be up.....

[Rob_K]

Had an email from JohnG re comets, and I suppose the info might be useful to other imagers/observers -

Not much in the comet line on display now unfortunately. The brightest would be C/2010 G2 (Hill) at around mag 11. It's a middle-of-the-nighter, but it will be fairly low in the north, maximum altitude about 24 deg at 1:45am from Snake Valley next weekend. See here for some images - on the first link, the most recent is at bottom. The second link is from the master comet imager Michael Jaeger:
http://www.astronomie.be/alfons.diep...0-G2-Hill.html
http://www.cometpieces.at/images/pho...47sec6x300.jpg

Gehrels is still around at about mag 12 but I reckon it's a bit underwhelming! 49P/Arend-Rigaux will be rising in the east after 2am - it's a tiny comet around mag 13. Images here (scroll down for most recent):
http://www.astronomie.be/alfons.diep...nd-Rigaux.html

73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann is a toughie, around mag 13+ in the west after evening twilight at 18 deg altitude and setting. It's also deep in the Milky Way. But there have been very few observations or images taken of it this apparition because it has stayed low and has not been visible at all from the NHem.

Comet ephemerides available here:
http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau...ets/index.html

That's about it, barring a new discovery!

Cheers -

[erick (Eric)]

Thanks Rob, I'll plug Hill into the Argo.

[erick (Eric)]

OK, I've cleared out the User catalog of the Argo and uploaded 92 face-on spiral galaxies. I expect I'll go crazy trying to see them. Follow the sound of gentle cursing of my pathetic eyes if you want to find me in the dark!

[Jen]

well im guessing there isnt any planetry imagers going to SV i havnt had a shout out yet for some lessons and a 5x powermate just yet Dam all you deep sky imagers thats stuff is just way too hard LOL

[byronpaul (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Rob_K

That's for my scope anyway. Now for other people's scopes I've got a huge list of targets.........

Cheers -

Rob,

feel free to take the controls of my scopes ..... again.

I'm always amazed at what my LX90 can do when somebody else that knows what they're doing drives it

Also got a novices imaging set-up that I'm trying to learn. Sounds like I might be looking over Niko's shoulders whilst JohnG's giving him some pointers.

Originally Posted by Niko

some widefields/startrails - maybe Jen will be my startrail buddy...?

Niko and Jen - I'll be up for that. Been planning to do some star trails for a while, but haven't had time when the weathers been good enough

[Jen]

Originally Posted by byronpaul

Niko and Jen - I'll be up for that. Been planning to do some star trails for a while, but haven't had time when the weathers been good enough

great stuff Paul might get some practice at doing some cloud trails too

[Jen]

Ok it looks like we might have to see who can get the best cloud pic on Friday night