Also another big thankyou to Paul for teaching me a few tricks ,mainly how to drift align
It was a great night, and although I got very little observing or imaging done, it was great to catch up with everyone and to learn a lot about my setup.
No I didn't leave my specs behind.
I had a horrid feeling that I left my jeans on the roof of my car.
But that means I'll HAVE to come along to the next new moon night.
I went back to Ron's place Thursday night again for a quiet night of observing, I can tell you his field looked decidely empty with just 2 of us there instead of 35-ish people and 20 scopes! I thought I'd tack this on here as I don't think it needs a thread of it's own.
I didn't arrive until the sun was already behind the hill, so it was a quick set up for both of us as daylight faded away. The moon looked great in the NW sky as darkness grew, a quick peek through the scopes showed some great detail with the earthshine so strong we could not only see Aristarchus clearly but many lunar features were easy to locate.
While standing there chatting Ron looked up and we caught a very bright though unknown satellite heading east over our heads (Ron said he'd checked, none of the "usual suspects" were passing over that night), this one easily compared to many ISS or HST passes in brightness.
Anyway we went inside to let the scopes cool and to get our warmer gear on and have some dinner, emerging later to a spectacularly dark and clear sky. There were none of the hovering clouds that lingered on Saturday night, though the lower stars were twinkling a little earlier on.
Anyway Ron and I had a great nights viewing which was partially spent chasing down some northern galaxies that I can't usually see from my home due to trees, a couple of prime examples being the Whale (and it's faint and very near-by neighbour who shares the same field of view, but whose identity escapes me presently) and the Antennae galaxies.
I also observed the Sombrero later on and found it to be unusually bright and clear. I also checked out one of my new best friends, M46, for a while, the planetary neb within was clear and succinct, and best views were obtained through the 13mm in my Hyperion range. Good thing you've got one of those now hey Randall?
I also finally pegged the name of an open cluster (NGC2516 apparently, thanks to the Identify function in my Argo Navis) that I've often enjoyed observing. It lays in the western end of that great piece of sky that runs from Crux across through Carina and into Vela, etc. NGC2516 lays in the lower western end of Carina, a little over a degree west and slightly south of 2nd magnitude Avior for those who know it,and at mag 3.? is easily visible naked eye from many sites.
I can recommend this cluster to beginners and more experienced observers alike, it has a pleasant range of stars of varying brightness and colour, and some intriguing small runs of quite small faint stars, one particular group of 4 forming a slightly bent line of decreasing magnitude with the first 2 stars making one of the closest pairs I have seen.
(The image below is taken from this page, all rights reserved by them, etc: http://www.freewebs.com/starsurf/con...ons/carina.htm)
Anyway ... there was plenty of observing of lots of old favourites too - the Tarantula & Carina nebs, Omega Centauri, Saturn & Jupiter, etc, plus a small smattering of Planetaries and other less-visited (by me anyway) open clusters. All in all a well rounded night with some lagging Eta Aquarid meteors to keep us on our toes, but the eventual arrival of the fog a bit before 1am slowed our observing. We oulled up chairs in the dark and just chatted then until about 2, finally deciding the 6° temps and fog were signs that it was time to pack it in.
One final note - I had to get up at 6:05 and go outside in the cold and fog to "water a tree", luckily I had my new freezer boots beside the bed so at least my feet were warm even if the rest of me was chilled as I did the deed.
Great night Ron, looking forward to the next one!
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 11-05-2008 at 01:04 AM.
sounds like you had a great night! I remember the night I got up to Rons' on friday the 2nd.. Much as you said, the field is a bit sparse with only 2 scopes. Quiet also...
To quote the movie 'The Castle' "Hows the serenity!?"
