Well I am out here and its bloody HOT!!!......Its the price you pay to be in BigSky country this time of year though I guess.
I have had to resort to some bush cryogenics to keep the heat out off the scope during the day..........even Trusty Astro dog is loving the shade.
it cools down rapidly at night though and the seeing is pretty good.
Spent last night fitting the StarSense to the CPC1100.....not straight forward lol, who would guess.....
Anyway, sorted most problems out......other than it cant find planets above the horizon....it only brings up ones below the horizon, yet if you manually point at the and press identify, it knows what they are ??
Ask it to point to Sirus, and it does it happily.
It sure is worth it for the night sky though.......It is nothing short of amazing out here.........its way out in the darkest dark zone in that Google earth overlay, yet after you get your night vision, the stars are that bright its almost like moonlight.
After having had enough of working on the starsense at about 2.30am I just sat back and watched the dozens of meteors.......... great stuff
It sure is worth it for the night sky though... after you get your night vision, the stars are that bright its almost like moonlight.
After having had enough of working on the starsense at about 2.30am I just sat back and watched the dozens of meteors...
I was out last night as well, Magnificent night viewing in the Wimmera. That is until the wind came up around 1-30am. Started to shake the newt about & stir up some dust. I called it a night, I'll try again tonight.
Well I was not far enough out for my liking lol...... our closest farm near Tullamore......
Yes I too grew up in the country.....I really miss the night skies, and although we have a few properties in the family, I miss just walking outside whenever I please......had to move to the smoke to run my business.
These days its a minimum 6 hour drive.......but well worth it.
Chris, I totally agree with you – there is something freaky around the Blue Mountains. I took myself to Burralow Creek - up behind Kurrajong and only accessible by 4WD. It a little valley, completely isolated and surrounded by hills with thick bush. Only one pretty rough road in – and out.
I was the only person there and I have to say, it was a lovely spot – in daylight.
Once night fell it was a different story! I spent most of the night looking behind me instead of through the eyepiece. I didn’t feel that I was alone and then I heard something crashing through the bush.
It sounded like something taking big, big footsteps and when I heard what sounded like tree branches being broken off, I abandoned the scope and retreated into the tent - like that was actually going to protect me!
After that, I didn’t sleep a wink!!!
I camped out by myself in the Simpson Desert two years back (talk about dark skies!) and I didn’t worry one bit.
I was stuck totally alone for five days in a national park in outback Queensland last year, about 50kms from the nearest town – well, just me and some feral cats and a pig or two – and that was fine too.
But I have NEVER felt freaked out by anything like I was at Burralow Creek.
The next morning, after a sleepless night, I reckoned the crashing was probably just a skippy bouncing around in the bush and I had then heard a tree branch coming down, maybe bringing a couple of others with it...
Wasn’t it? Yeah, sure it was...
Anyway, I won’t be heading back to Burralow in a hurry!
The way I see it, there's irrational fear and rational fear...at night, the irrational is usually because of what we can't see my fear of some of the wildlife here could be seen as irrational, but self preservation for me is a very strong driver if something more deadly than a mozzie is lurking around I'd like to know the risks...
Now could someone explain to me why night goggles are banned? They'd be really useful in times like these...or maybe lack of them prevents irrational becoming rational
I have suffered the indignation of being hounded by "marsupial monsters" from a bush camp site. In my case it meant packing tents and gear while a near hysterical troupe of wife and daughters hid in a locked car. The trauma drove me to take the wrong track out and as it narrowed some two hours later I stopped and checked my direction "by the stars!" South East instead of North West. By sunrise I had brought all home to safety. I will NEVER admit that if I had been alone I would have suffered the same panic attack!
Snakes, foxes, Roo shooters, Rustling in the bushes........boy your starting to scare me, i'll end up making my viewing site the main street in town outside the Police station!
So a little bush kangaroo bounding through the bush, ruined your nights viewing. Skippy must be laughing his head off.
my fear of some of the wildlife here could be seen as irrational, but self preservation for me is a very strong driver 
