Weather is looking good! I'll be there in a jiffy! ... well maybe not a jiffy, as I'm only leaving now and, I live a little bit more then a jiffy away... but I'll be there!
P.S. I really hope to see those 12" binos! (hint hint nudge nudge) ...
I wonder if its to late for me to drive up.. Concerned about driving on my own (only a p plater).. And I have yet to see if my 10" dob will fit in the car, but could be my last chance to try it under dark skies before I sell it.. It would take me at least an hour from here. Hmm I think i left it to late possibly, next month perhaps.
Sorry guys that I had to bail out so suddenly at about 8.30pm.
Noah was vomitting, and Jack had started to run a temperature....sometimes the duties of fatherhood come first....and frankly it was only going to get more ugly from there.
It was nice to say hi to everyone who had arrived by the time I left....to all the newbies, hope you have a great night. Looked like John Bambury had everyone on the right track with collimation as I was going.
The drive home was a bummer....along with increasingly sick children, the sky was darkening, and I could see that I was going to be missing out on a fabulous night's observing....ah well, there is always next month.
Hope you guys have a great night's observing. See you next time, hopefully with my new scope!!!
Glad you made it home safely...clearly your kids were not feeling well...sick kids make for long days/nights for parents.
It was good to see everyone and I really enjoyed the Denkmeir binoviewers on the refractor...while Nebulas are a bit tough (except for the big ones), the views are fabulous, comfortable and I could "see" (or at least think I could see) more detail...even Saturn at 100X was a sight very "3D like"...I bet the moon will be spectacular in it...Oh well, I better get my kids in bed too...they are brushing there teeth (if they haven't fallen asleep standing at the sink)...
John, I hope your boy had a nice time with my boys...at least they ran around a lot and made a bit of noise if that counts for fun...
Hi Rod, hope your kids are better. I know about fatherhood timetables....
This Newbie had a great time. Thanks to all those who helped out and let me see through their awesome scopes. I learnt some tricks too about fogging eyepieces....
It was a fantastic night, great to catch up with the usual group and meet all the new guys.
Glad all had a good time, with some awesome viewing thru all the various scopes on offer including the 18" Obsession and the 12" Bino-Scope.
I had my 12" LX200 and had some lovely views thru it including Eta Carinae and M42.
Thanks to Joe (Astropolak) for helping me collimate and John. B (ausastronomer) for testing the optics and giving me some pointers.
Great to see Mike (Iceman's) awesome new setup, hope the images turn out well Mike, can't wait.
Great to see Scott and the kids, looks like they had a great time, and Geoff (GTB Owl) for your company.
Sorry to hear about your little ones Rod, hope they recover very soon.
We'll have to catch up next time mate.
Thanks Anthony (froggy) for hosting the night once again.
Thanks john for your collimation class.
Fantastic having the scope under dark skies again. Was suffering from aperture envy with John setting up his 18" Obsession next door. Was fun having a peek through it then finding the same object on my own scope. Amazing the amount of detail and structure a large aperture DOB pulls out of DSOs.
Thank you all for a great night.
My SCT was overwhelmed by the big Obsession next to it, thank you again John for having the patience to teach us about the skies.
I must say I was very impressed by the quality of the big Dob's optics which seems to excel on all objects, I was pleased to note that the views of Saturn looked at least similar to my 10" SCT, there wasn't much of a contest on other objects that I compared.
I see no one mentioning the amazing binoviewer that Paul and Mark brought in. Truly amazing viewing - I only wish I could get enough time on it to enjoy it more. I would love to be able to buy ready made scope like this.
Scott has shown me an alternative solution - a Denk binoviewer. I found it very easy to adjust for my eyes for easy detailed observing, we did not test it on a large aperture scope but it looks promising, I did not notice the "3D" effect as I saw on Mark's 12" Bino..
Thanks Mark for explaining the process of mirror making - most of us do not appreciate what goes into making a quality mirror. I must confess that I thought the whole process takes much less time, now I know why good mirrors cost more money.
Thanks for your kind thoughts everyone....the kids are still "under the weather" today, but at least no puking since last night.
I would have stayed around, but Noah had already puked, and then, after helping Mike take a shot of his new rig, I came back to find Jack shivering and with a raging fever. He was a little hysterical, not in the frame of mind to patiently wait hours for daddy to have a photon fix. The irony was the kids had been talking about coming all week....they were just as disappointed, but in the end the only place for them was tucked up in bed, and I didn't want them passing anything on to the other kids.
The night was not a total write-off for me...my favourite TV show West Wing was on, so at least I had something interesting to look at.
I had very much been looking forward to checking out Joe's new LX200R, next time, buddy, and thanks for the coffee!
I would have loved to try the binoviewers and the binocular telescope, and also finally to trial RB's 12inch LX200. Perhaps next time.
Was a great night, quite a few regulars and just as many first timers.
Conditions were great, seeing was better than average, sky was beautiful and clear and dark, just a little too much dew after 1am. The camera lens kept fogging up during exposure
I pretty much had a solitary night up the northern end of the field, coming to terms with my new setup and it's first light outside of home. I drift aligned early on with the scope on, then took the scope off and put my camera on the mount and did some widefield of Eta region, LMC and Orion.
As Saturn passed the north I put the scope back on and took a few avi's of Saturn, but the seeing wasn't that great to keep persisting with it.
So off came the scope again and back with the camera and lens, for some more of Eta region and then the 75-300mm stock lens @ 300mm for some omega centauri before I packed up at 1:30am. The last shot was 4 minutes (unguided) and zoomed in on the camera, I could see no trailing at all. It might be different at full res on the computer, but I was happy with how they looked on the LCD
Will hopefully post a few results in the next few days.
Was great to catch up with some old friends again, and meet some new ones including Okiscopey (Mike) and silwat (Michael). Silwat's 8" skywatcher was a beauty, after I helped him collimate it - it gave fantastic views of the jewelbox, Orion, Eta Carina and then (with my Pentax 7mm XW) Saturn.
sorry you missed such a good nites viewing and company
thanks to the newcomers for adding to the mix
hope you can all come along again next month
i got to try out my new mirror and lazy susan base, which was great
now all i have to do is get some friction on the base to stop it free wheeling (from one extreme to the other) - thinking about a small motorisation for it this week - never ends does it!
oh! - thanks John B for the collimation demo and bringing along the big dob.
hope you have a great time in Texas - don't forget to practice up on your bragging so you can keep pace with them Texicans.
Well what can I say, my first gathering and it was fantastic!!
A big thankyou to all of those who helped Christina and I fit in during the night. Thankyou very much Iceman for collimating my scope, never did I think the sky could look quite so good through it! And then trialling your Pentax 7mm XW on saturn...
Everybody was very helpful in suggesting ways in which I can (and will) upgrade my dob. From Stubby holders to dew heaters to $400 eyepieces, the list is substantial I assure you... I think my bank ballance just joined Jenny Craig.
I had a lot of fun hunting down the jewel box, tarantula and other targets during the night
It was an absolute treat looking through the 18" obsession, thankyou John for taking me on a tour of the heavens, i want one!!...I now have a reason to work overtime! And the views through the 12" binos were breathtaking!
All in all we had a brilliant night, the people were fantastic and I can't wait to see you all next time!
As a newbie, it was great to meet some IIS people in person and put faces to names (or voices, in the case of those who arrived after dark). No doubt about it, the couple of dozen who attended were the most friendly and relaxed bunch I'd ever hope to meet under any circumstances.
The attached photos show the general idea for anyone who hasn't been to the Kulnura site or to this sort of get-together. There are no captions in case I get names and scope details wrong!
I was expecting a darker sky, but the site isn't far from the Central Coast and Sydney, and residual astro twilight and humidity in the air (apparently) adds to it. Despite this, it's a thousand time better than Sydney, and anyone who had spent their whole their life in a city would have to describe it as 'fantastic'. The seeing was pretty good too - I could use the 9mm in my ETX125 (x211) to better effect on Saturn than ever before.
You learn so much from those who've had lots of practical experience. I had to write down some of it as notes to back up my faulty memory. The first note reads: "bring a second pen in case the first one runs out".
It seems the observing field had been restricted in size from previous occasions (it's a paint-ball range during the day), resulting in the trees looming a bit larger. However, I don't think anyone found this to be a problem. The biggest drawback was non-astronomical - the area's ferocious ants took big chunks out of our ankles. Note number two: add Aerogard to kit.
'Stunning' is the word that can only be used to describe the view through the 18-inch Obsession, the 12-inch binocular telescope, the LX200R, the binoviewers on the ED80, and others. The three-dimensionality of Omega Centauri in the 12-in 'bino tel' just had to be seen to be believed. There was no doubt about it - the stars on our side of the globular definitely looked closer than those in the middle! Psychological I know, but still a remarkable effect.
No pictures of the bino-tel unfortunately, as it was set up after dark. Also, didn't manage a look through Sir Iceman's scope ... saw it in the back of his car when he arrived, then I took too long with the other devices. Next time I saw it, it was back in the car ready for the trip home!
The spectacular views through the big scopes wasn't the reason I packed up my now rather small-looking ETX125 early at 1am - it was absolutely dripping with dew, making further observations problematic.
All in all, a great night with friendly and knowledgeable people under a spectacular, slow-motion planetarium show. Many, many thanks to all who gave their time and experience to the newcomers.
And ... oh yes, my last note reads: "buy a dew heater and 12V hair dryer!"
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