While many from this forum were enjoying IISAC my family and I were camped at the Arkaroola sanctuary in the Northern Flinders Ranges, SA. To take advantage of the dark skies I had the opportunity to look through one of the two 14" SCT's on site and the views were nothing short of breathtaking
- Started out with the usual suspects around Scorpius: Open cluster M6 (Butterfly Cluster), globulars M4 and M80
- Tarantula Nebula (NGC2070) in the LMC was beautifully resolved
- 47 Tuc fairly smacked me in the pupil
- Swan Nebula (M17) was a first time viewing for me
- A peek at the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) also a first
- Finished off with some great viewing of Jupiter
Overall was a great night's viewing in a beautiful part of the country and the chap who operated the setup was very keen & helpful. The other nights we were there, the ED80 & EQ6 were working overtime (visual only, I wasn't properly setup for any imaging).