I knew it. I wasnt there....so there was a Pineapple Charlotte there in my absense.
Glad to hear it was a great night.
Nice photos Deeno and Andrew.
I visited the Grand kids last night which was great fun too. I stayed in Sydney overnight and missed all the fun up the Mountain.
Cath up at Bretti I guess.
I had a great night, but I'm glad i spent most of saturday making dew heaters. Andrew scared me off in the end with the zombie warnings. It ended up being just me and Deeno and I wasn't sure that the two of us would be able to fight them off on our own.
Thanks Allan for the pineapple charlotte. It was the best tasting charlotte I've EVER had! (no, i've never had one before). Thanks Rick for letting me look/play with your scope again. My highlight was seeing the super-sharp humunculus through it. Cool photos again Deeno and thanks for lending me your 24mm pan. I almost didn't give it back!
Andrew, that pic is awesome. I honestly didn't think you'd be able to stitch it together. Well done.
Thanks all for a great night, amazing clarity... left at just after midnight as the Zombie mist rolled in.
Got a reasonable piccie as well.. well actually, 24 reasonable piccies that i have spent a fair bit of the day stitching together.
I only wish i had of thought of doing this earlier in the night, I could have lowered my ISO and got a little less noise.
The end result is nice though, its a full North to south using my Nikon D7000 at stupid ISO (i think thats the official terminology) @ 30sec shots.
That works so well!
Check out that sky glow.
Has some real potential to capture something really special.
Thanks all for a great night, .......The end result is nice though, its a full North to south using my Nikon D7000 at stupid ISO (i think thats the official terminology) @ 30sec shots.
Very nice image!
Can you elaborate on "stupid" ISO?
Did you use noise reduction?
I'm interested because I'm conidering upgrading from D80 to D7000.
Yeah Saturday night was great, I finally had the CPC out again after a noticable absence from the PonY Club, not to mention I hadn't used it since early April - still had it on day light saving time when I turned it on and wondering why it wasn't finding anything after aligning. Apart from the dew and that bit of cloud that drifted by around 8:30pm conditions were great but cold. The dew got a bit heavy there for a while. Unfortunately my battery pack ran low just after 9:00pm trying to stay the dew away but I got at least three hours out of it before it conked it.
Thanks Rick for the helping me to tweek the collimation on the CPC11 - views look a lot sharper now.
I didn't see the meteor that Rick saw, but saw a different one to the north that exploded into 4 fireballs that streaked across to the west before disappearing behind the trees. Biggest one I've seen like that.
Thanks Allan for the piece of pineapple charlotte (yummy in my tummy !!!).
Deeno, I hope the light at the bottom of the shot wasn't from when I left. I'm sure my headlights were facing towards the west (right of shot) so it wouldn't have lit up dob alley. The trails look great.
Andrew well done with the stich shot - southern cross looks tops perched up in the top right hand corner.
Thanks to all for a great night. Till another time...
Getting closer. Full time packing now. I'll be up next week with "Turbo Starcatcher" on the back seat. Am not trusting any of my scopes to the removals company!
Hey im really bummed i missed out on going i was really keen to go, but my confidence in driving in the dark alone to the PC is non existant so it got the better of me. Hopefully the next PC meet will be on my weekend off work, and i may be bringing a friend along
Sorry I missed it. It sounded wonderful. My late planning tripped me up on this occasion. Please do let me know the next date and I'll put in the diary. Some of the pictures and comments look fantastic.
Best,
Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allan_L
What a great time was had by a small band.
Weather turned out good.
seeing was extra good - very still - best in a while.
Dew was present but heaters kept it at bay (while batteries lasted)
But in the end, everything got wet, as usual.
Todays a good drying dry.
Notable occurrences:
a very bright fly over from the ISS; and
a bright fiery meteor that left a smoky trail that hung in the sky for twenty minutes or more. WOW! Did you catch that on your time lapse Deeno? ... or was it
Notable absences:
Carly, what happened?
Dave, did you have trouble finding us?
Inmykombi, Geoff, Ric ate your piece of pineapple charlotte (mmm!)
Eric, are you arrived in the Premier State yet?
Thanks everyone a another great night of viewing and socialising.
i was really keen to go, but my confidence in driving in the dark alone to the PC is non existant so it got the better of me. Hopefully the next PC meet will be on my weekend off work, and i may be bringing a friend along 
