Thanks for last night Ken.
At least the weather played fair a bit better than my last trip to Snake Valley. Good to meet some new folks and reconnect with some others.
Nice to meet Paul and Ken and have a look through a couple of SCTs.
Hope to see you all at the Camp in March.
Well I ummed and aah'd and at the last minute chucked all the gear in the car and took the run up to the SVAA club night last night and very glad I did as it was a good chance to put some names to faces.
Trouble was because I mucked around deciding if I'd go or not it was getting dark when I arrived so those faces were already getting a bit shadowy, but that's ok as it was still good to meet all you guys and gals that normally frequent the club.
Thanks to Ken and the club for their hospitality and also for the help with power for the laptop as I'd left my extension lead home in the hurry to go.
Fun and games when the generator ran out of juice half way through the evening though, I think it was Jen who volunteered some petrol from her car, not sure who the sucker was on the end of the hose used to syphon some out but I remember smelling this bucket full of petrol go past in the dark
So I think a good night was had by all until the cloud rolled in at around 2.00am so I decided to head off at that stage and that was when my car was voted the most Astro unfriendly of the night because when you open a door it lights up like the "Close Encounters" mother ship.
So if you like to be seen in the dark get yourself a new Ford Focus Titanium wait until dark and then open a door
There were Oooh's and Aaah's from the crowd and fingers being pointed I guess it was just as well that the clouds had rolled in as I would have been in real trouble and had the car banned from the site
Speaking of close encounters, they breed some pretty big skippy's up your way Ken, and I had a very close encounter on the way home in the wee small hours, almost too close I tell you.
Anyway thanks again to the SVAA and nice to meet all those there.
Thanks from me as well Ken. A top night even if the weather turned muddy in the wee hours, at least we got plenty of time in before it went away on us.
I got a pretty decent list of targets in with a decent amount of time on each.
The moon
Jupiter
Mars
Saturn
Venus
M42
47 tuc
Tarantula neb
Sculptor galaxy
And a handful of double stars to boot.
Pretty happy with that nights viewing although borrowing a nice wide field ep means now I want one of my own even more! It literally did not come out of the diagonal for hours at a time.
Great to meet the crowd and be able to just have a chat while lying back, looking up.
I too want to thank Ken for a good night. It was good to put some faces/voices to the names on here, but as Ken(niko13) I didnt get down there till after dark either. Also like to thank everyone for letting me have a look thru their equipment. I had some good views thru some nice equipment. The only problem with looking thru bigger scopes than your own is that now I want one too,(or three or four).
The mystic invisible Daniel has made himself scarce
Well I finally magically re-appeared and what a great night it was!!
I'm still delirious from lack of sleep but boy did we have a laugh. Especially making the timelapse video of the night here. http://youtu.be/c7pYWsU81MM
It was great to meet Mish, Ken (nico13), John and many others, as well as catching up with the usual gang.
Thanks for a top night Ken and can't wait to do it all again.
Pity some folk had to leave (and some sleep), as Daniels video shows, it cleared up again to a magic sky about 3am
Once daylight came we kept going, looking at Mars and Saturn (so much more detail in the daylight) and an easy splitting of Rigal Kentaurus.
Daylight stars and planet observations are fantastic. I encourage people to try it.
It was good to have some new visitors turn up. Especially considering the distances some of them came just for a club night!
Mish just laid back most of the night on a Tarp doing the Meteor and Satellite watch, and taking Milky Way widefields, Jen just trotted around making us laugh, Jake and Drew watched Two and a Half Men DVD's in the Clubroom most of the night
ByronPaul had both his scopes going, so while one was imaging we were ogling through the other.
Too many funny points, like me splitting my toe right open, Martin following me in the tripping game, observing terrific detail in a Dob with a completely filthy and corroded 12" mirror (see, no need to worry about cleaning those mirrors folks ), but fortunately Malcolm had a Clean version
The Generator running out of fuel halfway through the night, Martin unplugging a power cable to pack it away not knowing it was Daniels only source of power to his camera (half way through an image) etc etc
Daniel, top work on the video
See you all hopefully for next month's SVAA Club night February 24th
Thanks to the club members that came and the other Committee members Martin and Angus for the quick meeting we rushed through so we could get out there and look at the sky instead of paperwork
The way it should be
P.S. Thanks Paul for syphoning the extra petrol out of your car so everyone could keep going
Just don't breathe near any naked flames for at least 24 hours
Having had a bit more rest, Iwould like to make some additional comments.
I think we in Vic have slot to thank Ken and the crew at SVAA for. Here is a dark sky site within fairly easy reach of Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat (and luckily for me Colac!) that welcomes all comers to their club nights, has 2 of the best astronomer camps each year. You can join the association for $25 a year and get access to the observing field year round. It is all relaxed, easy going and fun, just turn up, plonked down your scope and enjoy the skies!
And thank you Malcolm for the loan of the 34mm ep, it allowed me to see how much wider true field could be had from my scope, the views of M42 and the sculptor galaxy were really much improved over my lowest power ep.
This is a question coming from a total novice, but in the still photo you posted there are light trails, I'm asuming left by people wondering around with their little lights on, but how come the people carring the lights aren't captured in the image leaving a big black splodge across the image. Looks to me like the lights are flying around on their own.
This is a question coming from a total novice, but in the still photo you posted there are light trails, I'm asuming left by people wondering around with their little lights on, but how come the people carring the lights aren't captured in the image leaving a big black splodge across the image. Looks to me like the lights are flying around on their own.
I think I can help with that one,
It's due to not enough reflected light on the people themselves, mostly in darker clothes and not standing still for long enough to be captured.
You do see them in some frames where they were standing still for long enough to be captured from the available light and when a light was shone on them.
By the way Daniel great timelapse there and Ken sorry to hear you knocked your toe open so badly, I did see a couple of people trip on those bricks
There are some stills in that timelapse I just have to see. Perhaps you can feed them to us slowly, Daniel, and keep us chuckling!
Glad to see all having the usual good time.
Thanks guys glad you liked it. Yeah, it was a total crack up doing that. We had a ball.
Eric, I originally did the timelapse at std 1/24 sec but slowed it right down to 1/12 sec but still seems a little quick. There sure are some creative frames in there so I will have a seek a few out.
Hey Ken, I sure hope your toe is o.k. That looked painful!
Hope Jen, Mish, Marty and everyone else got back ok.
Some did travel quite far to get there.
My bricks? If they ever were, I donated them to the Club, so please claim on the club insurance. I admit no liability
No-one seemed to be using the in-slab power cable - that would have taken the bricks out of the picture?
I really miss that slab It was exactly the dimensions I needed to operate on, and with power coming up under the scope - brilliant! I could observe for ages without getting off my wheelie chair.
My bricks? If they ever were, I donated them to the Club, so please claim on the club insurance. I admit no liability
It's quite funny actually.
After an awkward night a few weeks back of not be able to see the edge of the slabs with Logan (logiberra) here, (we both tripped on the slab, and fell off it too) I painted a white line around the edge of all the concrete sections (you can see the edge lines in Daniels pic HERE) but didn't think to paint the bricks (the ones off the slab at the corner). They are the ones I tripped on
The only bit I didn't mark!
on the end of the hose used to syphon some out but I remember smelling this bucket full of petrol go past in the dark
I guess it was just as well that the clouds had rolled in as I would have been in real trouble and had the car banned from the site 
I did see a couple of people trip on those bricks
It was exactly the dimensions I needed to operate on, and with power coming up under the scope - brilliant! I could observe for ages without getting off my wheelie chair.
