Central Coast meetup, this weekend..

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Tonight (sunday) might be ok..
It's sunny atm.

Who else is coming tonight if it's clear?

Latest Central Coast Update:- from about 20km north of Gosford.

Clear Sky to the south, cloudy in the north but clearing from the south. Looks like we may be ok.

Gary, Andrew and myself are going to talk on the phone about 3pm. If it looks ok we will head on out, my scope is still not ready so I will be sharing scopes if thats ok.

CS-John B

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Not a cloud in the sky on the Central Coast at the moment (1.20pm). It is all systems go as far as I am concerned. I'll be there about 6.30pm. See you all there.

[iceman (Mike)]

I'm with you guys, perfect right now.. I'll be up around 6:30pm as well. I assume we'll be in the bottom field?

Sorry in advance for my headlights.. but the moon will still be up so that's ok, right?

Looking forward to seeing everyone there, if this weather holds up.

[beren]

Lucky buggers......

FORECAST FOR THE PERTH METROPOLITAN AREA
Issued at 8:30am WST on Sunday the 12th of June 2005 for today and tonight

FORECAST:
Severe Weather Warning current.
Showery periods with the risk of a thunderstorm and hail. Strong, cold SW winds,
possible damaging squalls at times, easing later today


LOL "easing later today "

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

I coudn't get Gary or Andrew on the phone. I have left a message. I am heading out to Kulnurra right now

CS-John B

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

where are you guys naryan and louie are here already

[iceman (Mike)]

I'll be there at 6:30pm. Andrew is calling Gary, and will hopefully come up too.

[h0ughy (David)]

Sprinkles and cloud heading your way fellas, Sorry but I won't be there tonight. the cloud is actually moving southeast from us now. i saw that beautiful clear window to the south earlier today but this afternoon it vanished at 4pm. I am looking forward to catching up with all of you in the near future!

[iceman (Mike)]

It was a bit of a frustrating night, with clouds coming and going most of the night. After a clear, beautiful day all day, very frustrating!

I turned up at 6:30pm, and in attendance were:
Anthony (frogman)
John B (ausastronomer)
Gazza (cahullian) + daughter
Narayan (seeker) + son
Rod (rodstar) + his friend Shane
Louie (atalas)
Mike (iceman)

at 9:30pm, Andrew (hector) and his wife Mim, and Gary Kopff turned up with the 20".

There was a few good hours of observing, when a big cloud bank came over for about 30 minutes. It cleared once Andrew got there, but again about 30 minutes later (just after Andrew started setting up Hector), it clouded over again. And it was fairly solid this time.

At 10:30 I started packing up and at 11pm I headed home.. I saw some clear sky on the way home, but at home it was cloudy again.. not sure if it cleared up for the rest of the guys still there.

Anyway was good to catch up with everyone again, and some good viewing took place despite the clouds.

I got to test out my EQ platform combined with my SkyCommander DSC's, and it worked perfectly.. ahhh push-to and tracking Very happy with the platform. Hope to do some imaging with it tonight.

Anyway a few pics:
1st one, left to right -> Anthony, Mike, John (spent 2 hours trying to collimate Anthony's scope! ), Rod (far right)
2nd one, left to right -> Gazza (back to us), Narayan and his son, and Louie's Tak

Anyway was good to catch up, look forward to doing it again on July new moon.

[Robby]

Looks like you had a good & warm night. T-shirts and all frogman! Does it ever get cold up there?
Cheers

[h0ughy (David)]

whats frogman do with his scope, wasn't it collimated last time george and louie worked on it?

I didn't go because you copped the cloud bank that rolled over us. better luck next time. bet it will be crystal clear in tuesday, wednesday nights. lol

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

whats frogman do with his scope, wasn't it collimated last time george and louie worked on it?

Houghy,

He puts it on a little trailer and tows it around his property with a little tractor thingy. There is a picture on one of the posts of him carting it around. The 8 million potholes probably don't help either.

I think the mirror is also pretty loose in the cell because the scopes collimation changed as I swung the scope around. It was a total pain. I, or someone else needs to spend some time on it in the daytime because the secondary positioning and the focuser are also out a little and this is easier to fix in a workshop in daylight than in a dark paddock at night . The main thing that wasted all of my time on Anthony's scope is that the heads of the collimation screws on the primary are recessed into the mirror cell and you can't adjust them with your fingers. Consequently, every time I went from the eyepiece to a collimation screw it took me 10 minutes to find the slot in the screwhead for the oversized screwdriver in the dark (left the red torch in the car). To say I was getting the shi _ _ _ with it would be the understatement of the year. If I had asked someone to work the collimation screws while I stayed at the eyepiece I could,ve saved about 1.8 hours but they were all enjoying themselves observing so I left them be.

Funny thing is I spent 2 hours on Anthony's scope and still wasn't happy with it when I finished, then I spent 2 minutes collimating Gary's scope (8" dob), which wasn't centre spotted and had it perfect in under 2 minutes, mainly because the collimation screws are thumbscrews and don't need a screwdriver.

CS-John B

[cahullian]

Big Thank You to Anthony and John for another enjoyable night. Anthony for the site and the headbutt, John for collimating my scope (I centre spotted it today and also used a few milk bottle washers to smooth out the jerking base)After I center spotted the scope and had a peek through my collimator the scope was still a long way out, but a few mins with a screwdriver and a wee tweak hear and half a turn there it's looking spot on. All I need is a clear sky to try it on a star test. I really enjoyed the few hours of viewing we got in last night. I saw the Lagoon Nebula for the first time (thanks for showing me where it is Narayan) Found out that Louie's real name is Lewis and that he is Lebanese lol (sorry mate couldn't help myself, please don't send me a letter bomb as I have a million of those at least Met Mike and he now knows that I really am Irish and he should allow me to post Irish jokes in the forum My daughter Jillian had a good time ,even with my coat and 2 blankets around her she still thought it was cold???I had my shorts on the whole time The group couldn't agree on the worst starwars film, Episode 2 Attack of the clones, Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith or Episode 6 Return of the Jedi (personally I think it's Episode 3) It was more a social gathering than a star party with a fair bit of looking up and more than a few swear words directed at the heavens. With plenty of munchies and good company the night wasn't a complete washout. I'm looking forward to the July new moon.

Gazza/Irish/Cah

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

il do a search on the web soon and get a ""how to " with the workings of the scope and pull it apart myself on my time off.....

Thank you for all your time and patients John and sorry for calling you Wayne as you left... sorry wayne too...

Yes the mirror is very loose in the tube i heard it rattling around on the short trip back to the van......

yes it does get ****** cold up here just not yet....


Anthony

[trufflehunter (Wayne Robinson)]

...but it *was* me, Anthony...

looking forward to next new moon!

[atalas]

Originally Posted by trufflehunter

...but it *was* me, Anthony...

looking forward to next new moon!

hahaha

Louie