I've just caught up with your absolutely wonderful property purchase and superb skies that come with it. Looking forward to seeing what you can achieve from there.
Best wishes, Chris
I've just caught up with your absolutely wonderful property purchase and superb skies that come with it. Looking forward to seeing what you can achieve from there.
Best wishes, Chris
Thanks a lot Chris It's a fabulous observing spot, magnificent by day and magnificent by night, the attached photos (Taken by my guest astroimager and mate, Alex Marziano) are simple single 25sec exposures processed in an attempt to capture, as accurately as possible, what it actually looks like to the naked eye up there. They are the distant lights of the small southern NSW town of Cooma, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains, 56km away, near the horizon there Already planning, negotiating and designing the new observatory, aim at this stage is to build the new observatory in the first half of next year
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 09-08-2021 at 11:03 PM.
Now come on Mike that must be at least an hour at 6400 ISO. Great sky to serve a great man.
Cant you buy that little town and turn out the lights.
Have you worked out the place where you will place your first observatory?
But next year ...come on...next month mate...are you letting work interfere?
Get a crew of Jehovah's witnesses in and they will have it done in a weekend.. tell them its a chapel and give them the plans come back Sunday night with pizza.
You are lucky getting nice weather...I am just so very happy for you and get excited everytime I see there is a new post here.
I have my electrics shed erected, two 370 watt panels on site, plus regulator, inverter, but only two of the four batteries...but most can be put in place so when the batteries arrive we can instal them..or send them back and get four the same if any different models have slipped in...plus my filters have arrived..I can see the box on the table at the end of my bed and almost frightened to look for fear they are not correct.
I hoped a new mount may arrive this week but we have gone into lock down as at 6 pm last night ...but doing all that I can to get the new set up working. Probably need a key start genny but with lock down thats at least a week plus away.
A ridiculously cool thing to achieve there Mike. Light years above, and beyond shallow clutter like sports cars, boats, posh mansions etc. You have arrived mate.
Re those town lights, surely an imposing guy like yourself at a community board meeting or council hearing could add some weight to the LP argument?!
Now come on Mike that must be at least an hour at 6400 ISO. Great sky to serve a great man.
Cant you buy that little town and turn out the lights.
Have you worked out the place where you will place your first observatory?
But next year ...come on...next month mate...are you letting work interfere?
Get a crew of Jehovah's witnesses in and they will have it done in a weekend.. tell them its a chapel and give them the plans come back Sunday night with pizza.
You are lucky getting nice weather...I am just so very happy for you and get excited everytime I see there is a new post here.
I have my electrics shed erected, two 370 watt panels on site, plus regulator, inverter, but only two of the four batteries...but most can be put in place so when the batteries arrive we can instal them..or send them back and get four the same if any different models have slipped in...plus my filters have arrived..I can see the box on the table at the end of my bed and almost frightened to look for fear they are not correct.
I hoped a new mount may arrive this week but we have gone into lock down as at 6 pm last night ...but doing all that I can to get the new set up working. Probably need a key start genny but with lock down thats at least a week plus away.
Again great to see your photo.
Alex
Quote:
Originally Posted by N1
A ridiculously cool thing to achieve there Mike. Light years above, and beyond shallow clutter like sports cars, boats, posh mansions etc. You have arrived mate.
Re those town lights, surely an imposing guy like yourself at a community board meeting or council hearing could add some weight to the LP argument?!
Thanks Alex and Mirko
Alex, for a guy who is not 100% these days, you bloody well keep on keeping on, exemplary my friend
Mirko, the lights of Cooma are of no consequence, they are but a cosmetic blip, the sort of artificial lighting that actually looks lovely and it compliments the skies above without affecting them...from our back deck at night they look lovely in the distance Otherwise there is zero local light pollution, only Canberra, 56km to the North causes a glow in the lower area of the northern half of the sky but it is not a problem really, as I rarely image or observe that low in the North anyway. Besides, the view of M57 the other night in Lyra, the smoke ring was not ghostly as it is normally described, it was positively iridescent white so the amount of sky glow, even down there, is quite modest 😎
Thanks a lot Chris It's a fabulous observing spot, magnificent by day and magnificent by night, the attached photos (Taken by my guest astroimager and mate, Alex Marziano) are simple single 25sec exposures processed in an attempt to capture, as accurately as possible, what it actually looks like to the naked eye up there. They are the distant lights of the small southern NSW town of Cooma, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains, 56km away, near the horizon there Already planning, negotiating and designing the new observatory, aim at this stage is to build the new observatory in the first half of next year
Mike
Thanks very much for posting the sample nightscape images Mike - they really do give a sense of how dark your sky is and I am very envious of your position! In late May and after sunset, I walked the 9 km back from the summit of Mt Kosciuszko to my car at Charlotte Pass, and had a beautiful clear dark sky all the way. I imagine your sky would be similar. I estimated the apparent temperature at the summit was approaching -20 C which I was dressed for, but having my outer mitts off for photography was painful! I'm sure that your new observatory will incorporate a warm room...
Thanks very much for posting the sample nightscape images Mike - they really do give a sense of how dark your sky is and I am very envious of your position! In late May and after sunset, I walked the 9 km back from the summit of Mt Kosciuszko to my car at Charlotte Pass, and had a beautiful clear dark sky all the way. I imagine your sky would be similar. I estimated the apparent temperature at the summit was approaching -20 C which I was dressed for, but having my outer mitts off for photography was painful! I'm sure that your new observatory will incorporate a warm room...
Cheers, Chris
Yes it will, but -20C hope we don't get that here!
We are a fair bit further north and west of Kosciuszko and not quite as high (1450m v 2200m), so hope not!
Mike
Yet another excellent night up here! And last night and looking good again for tonight! I've had quite a few so far, which is looking good as some good positive site test data Bit of a stiff swirly breeze tonight though, so high power planetary viewing with an unprotected telescope is not the best but wind is prevailing from the West so tbe surrounding vegetation is controlling things ok. The seeing is still not too bad and transparency and contrast are again excellent and of course no dewing again! Did some deep sky observing with my son and everything was so bright and easy to see with details galore visible in every object we viewed, glorious!.... happy!
Been up here for 7 nights now over the New Moon and 5 have turned it on with clear skies, plus one partially clear night the other it rained but cleared up around 2am...hard to complain about that . Tonight is magical, once again dark and steady, great transparency and pretty good seeing (750X on Saturn and Jupiter is quite useable again!) Humidity is also once again very low and with the addition of a good weather station, installed today, I can see it is currently 67% at 1:15am and sitting at 0.5degC with a 0.0km/hr wind ie none, very clear air with no fog, just a veeery fine frost forming on the ground still no fog on the scope optics either without dew heaters! ...nice, very happy
Edit: for those interested, just finished another fantastic nights observing (packed up at 3:30am) under excellent skies, every viewing condition parameter was excellent, dark, no wind, low humidity all night (still only at 75% at 4:30am), great transparency and good to excellent seeing. Highlights were, checked out Jupiter and Saturn through the night between observing other things, as the views and seeing got better and better, culminating in the best most detailed and colourful views just before 3:30am. Spent a bit of time galaxy surfing around Fornax, Eridanus and Cetus at lots of the faintest little galaxies I could find with the Skywatcher data base, had fun checking out lots of Mag 12, 13, and 14 examples, all quite easy to see in such excellent conditions, even cracked Mag 15.1, NGC 135, a 330 Million light year distant galaxy in Cetus . Would have liked to have had a shot at something fainter but couldnt find anything in the Sky Watcher data bases Spotted the Andromeda galaxy and M33 in the north naked eye, as well as the Nova in Ophiuchus (~Mag 6.5)
Had an absolute ball!
Touch wood ..so far (winter), every viewing session (about 9 or 10 now) at Eagleview has been superb, with some just more superb than others, it's been quite thrilling really The sky is dark but the biggest surprise has been the lack of humidity (never any dew on anything, haven't needed dew heaters!) and the high transparency and sky contrast.
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 13-08-2021 at 08:46 AM.
Added a weather station over the weekend, it is wifi and monitors everything necessary but unfortunately isn't internet connectable ...I will likely upgrade once the observatory is built
... the biggest surprise has been the lack of humidity (never any dew on anything, haven't needed dew heaters!) and the high transparency and sky contrast.
Mike
Congrats on this marvelous acquisition Mike. No dew! Icing on the cake! Or is that no icing on the scope
Congrats on this marvelous acquisition Mike. No dew! Icing on the cake! Or is that no icing on the scope
ps I've checked - only 3hr 30min from my place
Eric
Cheers Eric, the lack of dewing was something I didn't expect. At my current observatory location, just north of Canberra and waaaaay down at 600m ASL , and with the shroud fitted around my truss poles, my secondary mirror (and occasionally the primary) often dews up after a while and I have to hit it with my 12V hairdryer through the night a few times (should fit a heater to it really)...but up here, so far at least (a dozen or so viewing sessions) and without the shroud fitted and no heaters, neither the primary or the secondary have dewed over, not once, not even a bit, through several all night viewing sessions...remarkable
So far each observing session has seen temperatures drop to between ZeroC and -6C but it's a very dry cold, I have managed to stay out in pretty basic, quite modest warm clothing, without issue, which makes going in and out of the house easier and fog hasn't affected a single observing session so far.
Weather records for Mount Ginini are more what I would be thinking, but drier.
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Well Steve your prediction seems to have played out, so far at least, it seems to be definitely drier up here! I hadn't expected this attribute, nice surprise, this would also explain the good transparency too I guess..?
Added a weather station over the weekend, it is wifi and monitors everything necessary but unfortunately isn't internet connectable ...I will likely upgrade once the observatory is built
Mike
You should get good coverage up there yeah? I imagine you would have line of sight of a few comm towers.
Being a Belconnen boy for 45 years you get to know those moisture thieving Brindabella's. Assumed you'd be tied into the same effect as to why Canberra gets no snow, but buckets on the Brindies. If you want to read about the upper weather effects around Canberra, read about why Canberra gets no snow, its very informative and a good read.
I missed my chance of Honeysuckle again, but a matter of family first recently.
Nice to see you are giving the site a good work out and I could think of far worse places to spend a lock down in!
Steve
Ps. If I ever get my 16" done I'm just rocking up and gate crashing one night! I'll bring a good scotch to share if you open the gate though...
PPs. The RFS shed should have a solution already in place for connections, might want to ask them what they did.
Being a Belconnen boy for 45 years you get to know those moisture thieving Brindabella's. Assumed you'd be tied into the same effect as to why Canberra gets no snow, but buckets on the Brindies. If you want to read about the upper weather effects around Canberra, read about why Canberra gets no snow, its very informative and a good read.
I missed my chance of Honeysuckle again, but a matter of family first recently.
Nice to see you are giving the site a good work out and I could think of far worse places to spend a lock down in!
Steve
Ps. If I ever get my 16" done I'm just rocking up and gate crashing one night! I'll bring a good scotch to share if you open the gate though...
PPs. The RFS shed should have a solution already in place for connections, might want to ask them what they did.
We have excellent WiFi internet, we have 30Mbps down and 12Mbps up, the infrastructure is on the RFS tower and shed, so internet is not a problem for the foreseeable future, even should there be multiple users one day
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 18-08-2021 at 11:05 AM.
Had to come up and check on some plumbing work we had done, so, travel permit in hand, fully vaccinated, stopped nowhere on the way, I'm alone and completely isolated....aaaaand...It's ANOTHER!! fabulous night up here..crystal clear, almost no wind, no dew and great seeing AGAIN! Saturn looks awesome again at 750X. I pegged out the site cut for the Observatory-site shed-viewing area this afternoon ☺...and saw a Wombat 😁
It's a fabulous observing spot, magnificent by day and magnificent by night, the attached photos (Taken by my guest astroimager and mate, Alex Marziano) are simple single 25sec exposures processed in an attempt to capture, as accurately as possible, what it actually looks like to the naked eye up there. They are the distant lights of the small southern NSW town of Cooma, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains, 56km away, near the horizon there 
Already planning, negotiating and designing the new observatory, aim at this stage is to build the new observatory in the first half of next year 
so the amount of sky glow, even down there, is quite modest 😎
. Would have liked to have had a shot at something fainter but couldnt find anything in the Sky Watcher data bases 
Spotted the Andromeda galaxy and M33 in the north naked eye, as well as the Nova in Ophiuchus (~Mag 6.5)
...I will likely upgrade once the observatory is built 
if this continues, it could kill me 
