A few of us from brisbane and surrounding areas go up to another forum members (Astroron) place in Cambroon for new moon weekend... Its dark! REAL DARK..
He's currently away on holidays, but surely he'll be back by october/november so we'll get a chance to spy M31... If you ask real nice, Ron will probably let you have a look through his 16" truss dob... Views are impressive to say the very least
I'll be sure to let you know when he's back and the next dark sky night is organised.. Until then... I will have a glance or two in the weeeee hours during astrofest... Should be able to find it.... (although I've never been there and dont know what the horizon is like to the north...)
A few of us from brisbane and surrounding areas go up to another forum members (Astroron) place in Cambroon for new moon weekend... Its dark! REAL DARK..
He's currently away on holidays, but surely he'll be back by october/november so we'll get a chance to spy M31... If you ask real nice, Ron will probably let you have a look through his 16" truss dob... Views are impressive to say the very least
I'll be sure to let you know when he's back and the next dark sky night is organised.. Until then... I will have a glance or two in the weeeee hours during astrofest... Should be able to find it.... (although I've never been there and dont know what the horizon is like to the north...)
Thanks Alex that'd be great - I'm sorry I can't make it to astrofest tho
I was observing M31 the other night, naked eye, during full moon.
It clears the trees at my place about 2am.
It really is quite large, I think it's best viewed through a pair of binoculars.
I imaged it last year using the Gstar Ex camera and a 100 mm varifocal lens.
I apologise, the image quality is crap, I had no tracking.
One was taken using the lens at 100mm the other at 55mm.
It gives you an idea of how BIG this galaxy is.
Can't wait to try the 20d on it. The only fast lens I have is a 50 mm but it should do the job.
JJJ, with the 20D's resolution and the 50mm (I assume its the 1.8 mk2) you'd be able to capture a great image of it I think... due to the resolution of the 20D you can crop an image down pretty dramatically and still maintain good image scale and quality... If you want to have a play at astrofest you are more than welcome to spend a night with my 70-200 f/4 or the 300 f/2.8