Kulnura 25th Feb

[iceman (Mike)]

What a great nice, such a huge turnout.. There must've been about 20 people there.. where were you Scott and Ving?

Great to see so many "first timers" there, Jakob, Glenn Dawes, astropolak + family, (Paul) NoIdea + Gina, Geoff (GTB) and of course the regulars..

hector, froggy, RB, Octane, iceman, Rod, ausastronomer, seeker, cahullian, Daniel (frontieroptics), hmm sure i've missed a few.

The clouds were a bit of a problem earlier on, but only towards the south/east. The north/west was good for the majority of the night. I left at 11:30pm after being up at 4:30am that morning imaging Jupiter. Sounds like it was good after I left - I thought it would be after it was clear when I got home, but I was too tired.

Another great night of great friends, good company.. lots of stories, banter and good will. I didn't do too much observing, but got a chance to give my 22pan it's first light. It's a nice EP, very comfortable to use, just not quite as sharp at the edges as I'd hoped. Eta Carinae was my favourite for the night, very closely followed by the Tarantula. The nice wide view in the 22pan was a great fit for those objects with so much happening around them.

Anywya look forward to another one, maybe April? SPSP next month and I don't think i'll get a leave pass before that.

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Sounds like I missed a good one...could not be helped, I'm off on a business trip today and not spending time with the family was a no go...

Very curious to hear the results of some of the eyepiece comparisons...

Glad everyone had fun and pizza!...and hope to see people at SPSP and another Kulnura visit in the not too distant future!

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Great night all.

For those that left early commiserations. I can appreciate there is no point hangiing around waiting for cloud to clear, particularly when you have a long drive home. Those that stuck it out were rewarded.

The cloud cleared a little after midnight and the seeing was superb. By this time there were only 5 of us left. Andrew (Rocket Boy), H (Octane) , Gaz (Cahulian), Daniel (Frontier Optics) and myself.

The 5 of us enjoyed some memorable high power views of Jupiter and Saturn. The GRS was clearly visible. About 2:30am the seeing got even better, I was able to hold a lovely rock steady image of Jupiter at 454X and the same power on Saturn with an equally clean sharp view. By that stage Daniel, had left us but the four diehards had some memorable views. We were also able to get a lovely clean split on Antares as it climbed higher in the sky. Some really lovely conditions with sub arc sec seeing. I left just before 3:30am as tiredness took over.

CS-John B

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Originally Posted by ausastronomer

The 5 of us enjoyed some memorable high power views of Jupiter and Saturn. The GRS was clearly visible. About 2:30am the seeing got even better, I was able to hold a lovely rock steady image of Jupiter at 454X and the same power on Saturn with an equally clean sharp view....We were also able to get a lovely clean split on Antares as it climbed higher in the sky. CS-John B

Wish I had stayed, John. You never can tell, that's the luck of this hobby, it can work either way. Man, I would have loved to see Jupiter at x450. You would have been continuously moving the scope to keep up with the big critter!

[RB (Andrew)]

Thanks to everyone for making the night a really great night.
I had the best time just catching up with everyone.
Anthony, Mike, John B, Rod, Gazz, (H - sorry to see he's leaving us) - The usual suspects.

I got to meet Daniel from Frontier optics, Glenn Dawes and some new comers to Kulnura.
Also had a quick chat to Naryan, good to see you again. Also chatted with Andrew.

If I've missed anyone, my appologies.

The evening cleared up as mentioned and H (Octane) was kind enough to let me use his equipment to do some imaging of Jupiter, and some DSO work.
We left as the moon was rising and H got some final shots of the Lunar disk around 5.30am I think.

I was very please with my "Hot Seat" - a 240v power supply inverter run by a truck battery. The box also doubles as a seat. I'll post some images of the box soon.

Once again a great time with great friends.

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

who was it that said " it's gunna clear, it's gunna clear" ?
so we all left toooo early eh!
got home here to terrigal and looked up at jupiter - and you can image the expletive
great to see so many turn up to great me on my first nite up there
was great while it lasted - better next time i hope

[Noidea]

Thank you to Anthony & Mike for Kulnura on Sat night. Gina & I got to experience the darkest skies since Lostock. We got to do some interesting viewing before the clouds rolled in.

Thank you to Glen, Andrew & Daniel for helping a couple of lost newbies locate some interesting items.

By the way Mike, I had a peak in your scope (Daniel said it was OK). I was told that you had some kind of filter and were pointing at ETA Carina. What sort of filter was that? It made a big difference.

Nice to meet some new faces. Will see you again in the future.

Paul

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Hi Paul (and Gina), I forgot your names or would have noted meeting you also. Good to see you there.....all these new faces....great to see. Hope to catch up with you at SPSP or next visit to Kulnura.

[RB (Andrew)]

Which reminds me I'll never look at Eta Carina the same way again thanks to the description Rod gave us that night......
Very impressive Rod.