Like a few others have enjoyed on the east coast of Australia over the recent week or so and after a rough El Nina influenced past couple of months that has delivering lots of cloud and rain, fiiinally (bar one massive rain and hail downpour) sky conditions have once again been excellent up at Eagleview...yaay! Most of the last couple of weeks has delivered fully or partially clear nights as the Moon has waned ...and predictions suggest it will continue for a few more days yet
This turn in the weather has been great for viewing Comet Leonard and although I haven't imaged it, I have had great fun viewing it naked eye each evening (easy to spot each night with direct vision) and with binoculars. Tonight there was not a breath of wind and the sky was very dark and transparent, with SQM (now using a calibrated unit! ) readings of between 21.88 and 21.93. So, using my 10X50 Binos, I was able to trace Leonards striated tail, past the distinct knot feature visible at about 6deg from the nucleus and out to about 10-12deg or so long, beautiful
By about 10.45pm with the sky fully dark, the summer Milky Way running from Crux and Centaurus through to Orion and Taurus, was very bright and in fact rather similar in prominence and brightness to the winter Milky Way as it appears from my Wallaroo observing site, North of and much closer to Canberra! The LMC and SMC were very bright as they both cross the meridian high this time of year and the LMC was huge with that almost spiral like structure quite prominent. I was able to spot Sigma Octans easily naked eye and the number of stars visible in Orion made it almost unrecognisable. Damn!...wish I had a 24" SDM
I shared the evening with a friendly wombat too, who munched continuously nearby
Nice to be back out under clear skies...bring on New Year
Right, that's it, I put in my bid for Mt. Selwyn. Selling time shares - Matt, you in?
If you mean Selwyn Snow resort, yes, you could buy that I guess and it is 100m higher than Eagleview. Or there is a Mt Selwyn in VIC too, out in the middle of nowhere in the Alpine National Park, it is only 30m lower than Eagleview..but not sure there is any free-hold land there though
We aren't averse to building a tall tower with gyro stabilisation
No, seriously...
Oh I believe you!
During our long 4 year property search journey, that eventually lead us to Eagleview, my wife mentioned numerous times that if it were just up to her, she would preferred a view of the sea, ie meaning she would prefer to live on the coast
Ok so, on that note, we ended up about 80km from the coast and nearly 1.5km above it, didn't we?...sorry darling .
Our vantage point high in the Tinderry range means our southern outlook from Eagleview affords us clear unobstructed views out to well over 80km, down the southern Tinderry ranges and Strike-a-light Nature reserve below us and across the vast Monaro plain to Cooma (56km) and beyond, indeed the lights of the small town of Nimmitabel, some 84km away, would be visible if a low rise hill, called Summer Hill, wasn't just our side of the town. Looking to our east however, towards the NSW south coast, is a different story, where unfortunately this outlook is obstructed by intervening mountains and hills, namely a handful of peaks, in the 1200m-1400m range, 15-20km away in the Tallagandra National park to our east, without whom, Angie could have had her sea views, stretching from Batemans Bay down through to Moruya!!...all be they about 80km away
So, I got to thinking what if I was to raise up the observatory, would the view to the east improve..? and using a cool bit of software called PeakVisor, that allows you to simulate your horizon at any point or elevation on the earths surface and in any direction, it turns out that if I was to raise the observatory, ala Joshua Bunn style (ie up on a tower), approx 350m higher (putting the observatory at a lofty 1800m AMSL)...well..ta daaa!! we could see over those peaks in Tallagandra and Angie would be able to see the sea!
I did put it to her and said we probably wouldn't have to tell council, it wouldn't be tooo expensive and no one would notice such a structure ...but she wasn't convinced....
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 12-01-2022 at 08:05 PM.
Forgive me for posting but I captured this lovely westerly view, on the way down from Eagleview on the weekend, passing down through about the 1100m mark, after a beautiful clear night, so thought I'd share
Love it up there, every day brings a new vista, sky colour to see or something to do (actually...plenty of work too )
Forgive me for posting but I captured this lovely westerly view, on the way down from Eagleview on the weekend, passing down through about the 1100m mark, after a beautiful clear night, so thought I'd share
Love it up there, every day brings a new vista, sky colour to see or something to do (actually...plenty of work too )
Got three mostly or completely clear nights in a row up at Eagleview over the Mother's Day weekend . Had the first deep sky observing night for the year too and the first from the new elevated observatory site (~1450m). I utilised the currently vacant flat concrete pad, that will soon house the 18" Dob shed, as our viewing platform. We had friends staying with us for Sat night and apart from the seeing, conditions were otherwise near perfect, light breeze only, totally clear, good transparency and low humidity, the not very good seeing wasn't a big issue as no planets were up and unsteady skies generally don't prevent good views of most deep sky objects. Never the less, the dark contrasty skies enabled our first time greenhorn observers (including young children) to make out all the classic structure in every object viewed, including galaxies, it all just stands out under true dark skies, much more pleasurable giving a sky tour where the inexperienced eyes can actually see all the things you are talking about Being perched up high on a mountain, with commanding 360deg views feels almost biblical too and really completes the scene, lucky greenhorns I say ...one of them actually stayed out, in the cold (got down to zero C) after the kids were put to bed and we observed until just after midnight, he loved it!!
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 09-05-2022 at 11:01 AM.
That's the best part of this hobby, be it visual or AP.. sharing it with newcomers and watching their eyes widen and light up.
Great stuff, Mike.
Totally agree Adam, having worked at a public observatory for a decade, under city skies, showing visitors dim crappy, or essentially non existent, views of galaxies and most nebulae, it was always so disheartening having to explain how much better things look under a dark sky....
Time to get out of dodge.
...and predictions suggest it will continue for a few more days yet 
) readings of between 21.88 and 21.93. So, using my 10X50 Binos, I was able to trace Leonards striated tail, past the distinct knot feature visible at about 6deg from the nucleus and out to about 10-12deg or so long, beautiful 
The LMC and SMC were very bright as they both cross the meridian high this time of year and the LMC was huge with that almost spiral like structure quite prominent. I was able to spot Sigma Octans easily naked eye and the number of stars visible in Orion made it almost unrecognisable. Damn!...wish I had a 24" SDM 
.
...but she wasn't convinced....
) 
. Had the first deep sky observing night for the year too and the first from the new elevated observatory site (~1450m). I utilised the currently vacant flat concrete pad, that will soon house the 
