Damn, looks like I have to bail on my first outing. Family get together declared at the last minute. The earliest I could get up there would be 9-9:30, but finding the place and setting up in the dark might be an issue. I'll see how keen I am after dinner!
c'mon Jason - you know you want to - the seeing won't get really good till about 12 o'clock anyway
(and you will have to learn the lesson that NOTHING else gets planned or occurs on new moon weekend)
If anyone sees a lost looking white van driving up and down looking for the pony club....just flag me down and point me to where the cuppa's are if I look lost....
in attendance
three Geoffs, one Rod, one Deeno and one John B
considering the weeks weather we have had, i think we were fortunate to get the nite in as we did
not bad most of the nite, but got cloudy at times after midnite.
dark clouds and a short shower saw us pack the scopes up, but after that cleared and Rod took the billie lids and the Mary Rosa home , we set to with the binoculars and went comet hunting on the northern horizon
we were tempted to get the dobs out for a better look at the big fuzzy ball, but persisted with the bino's till it disappeared behind cloud on the horizon
I had a contented night once the little-uns were nestled in their car-bedding.
Thanks everyone for some very pleasant company with which to share the Great Canopy. The stand-out objects to me last night were M42, NGC 1535 and NGC253. I also enjoyed seeing a zoo of galaxies in Fornax with the assistance of John's 31 Nagler. I just missed out on Mars (next time).
I am still gob-smacked by Geoff #4's willingness to help with doing some steel-cutting (of my scope ramps) to make them so much more safe to use. Thanks mate, I owe you big time! You're welcome to sail on the Mary Rose anytime!
John Bambury (Ausastronomer) very kindly took me through a TPAS run on the Argo Navis. Needless to say, it improved the navigation of the Mary Rose quite considerably. I will have to master that process, as it makes such a tremendous difference, particularly when one is trying to identify individual galaxies in a conjested field.
During the night I had an unexpected call from Xstream (John Gurkin) who was calling from Snake Valley. I had a natter with John and Anna, who reportedly had already downed a bottle of something pleasantly alcoholic, and were gearing up for one of Anna's ambitious list of targets devised during the day, when the idea of tracking down 100 targets seemed entirely manageable. I always love the Gurkin's company, hopefully I will see them again at SPSP16.
One of the curious features of the evening was the bizarre singing/calling/wailing heard over valley from who knows where. It sounded like the ghost of a cat cruelly strangled by a lunatic astronomer during a full moon. At times there was "musical" accompaniment. I am glad I was not observing alone, as it may have done my head in.
Thanks everyone for helping me put the Mary Rose into dry dock. She will need to spend some time drying out today when I get up the energy to put her away.
I crawled into bed at 2am. Kids up by 7am. I am feeling a tad raw this morning. I might grind my SECOND coffee for the morning in a minute.
Look forward to seeing you all next month on our next celestial journey.
A very pleasant evening under the stars. Enjoyed the nice wide horizons the Poney Club had to offer, not to mention the coffee making facilties of the club house. Already looking forward to next months outing.
Wow,
What a great night at the Mangrove Pony Club.
Great to meet all you guys and enjoy a coffee and some great "seeing ".
from 12 to 2 am the air was the most still I have seen it for a long time. Although a few clouds came and went every now and then, it was great.
Comet 17P / Holmes was seen to the North, and was a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be, and only just appeared above the Northern Horizon for a short while. But the size of it caught us by surprise. It was visible to the naked eye.
I Already have the next night pencilled into my Diary. On the 8th December.
I will have my new scope well and truely up and running by then.
stuck here at work now.
