Thanks Steve and you are right...Crystal up here at the moment..that's 3 in a row so I know the seeing isn't terrible at all and it does get clear skies..looking good so far..phew!
Just now sitting inside, in our loungeroom, lights out, fire going and looking out our big arched window, admiring the twinkling lights of Cooma in the distance...with stars in the sky and the SMC and LMC clearly visible above! what tha!?? From the loungeroom?!! ...amazing never had such a view, from inside, just sitting in a chair!!! ..this place just keeps my jaw on the bloody floor...
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 05-07-2021 at 07:20 PM.
Ok, so this is getting boring...it just keeps getting better 😆...been up here three nights now and I nearly didn't stay tonight because I'm missing Angie 😁❤....buuut hey, I stayed. Boy am I glad I did!!...After two good, mostly clear nights now, Eagleview has saved the best night till last 😁. Not a cloud in the sky and the transparency and contrast up here is bloody awesome! The Milky Way is impressive, again, it's the bloody contrast and transparency, incredible! Two stars visible in the Coal Sack, M22 is easy naked eye. I'm only using a 12" scope but M83 is the best I have seen since looking at it through a 24" at Wiruna and another in far North QLD! The contrast is just so good, the spiral structure is clear as day, the central bar and both the inner and outer arms and without averted vision! The twin lobes of the star Eta Carina are visible and with detail in them at high power and M13 in Hercules, at just 15 deg elevation, is a bright collection of fully resolved diamonds, right to the core, with its characteristic spider leg like, strings of stars, radiating out against a black sky, even down that low and in the north! Saturn is handling 750X better than two days ago, even at just 32deg elevation! Colour is obvious and can see several bands on the globe, the polar cap area and the crepe ring and even fleeting glimpses of the Ence division...hopefully the seeing improves even further as it gets higher in the sky later. If the conditions hold, it's gunna be a good night....inside grabbing a snack, in front of the fire at the moment 😎..it's cold outside ❄☃️
Woohoo, heck, Im like a kid in a candy store at the moment bwibble bibble beubble The seeing has improved even further! I can see the hexagon on Saturn's pole, definitely catching the Ence division and several other ring divisions, including the crep ring, multiple bands on the disc of Saturn, looks bloody awesone at 750X! Haven't seen Saturn this well since viewing it through the 9" Oddie refractor on Mt Stromlo many years ago but this time minus the blue/violet colour fringing . Then Jupiter, well it is only 30deg up at this stage but why not?..hit it with 750X....sheesh! Look at that Great Red spot, right in the middle of the planet in that equatorial band!.. with what looks like another smaller spot, or tight festoon?..,diagonally right next to it...? This is going to only get better, as these two planets rise higher in the sky... I can tell
Those pristine dark skies sure make a difference to both observing and imaging
I can feel the excitement in your comments
I’m down at my coastal getaway on the south coast imaging under Bortle 3 skies. It’s a similar feeling coming down here from Sydney ( pre lockdown obviously) where my backyard up there is under Bortle 8 skies and neighbour’s flood lights blasting my rig
Down here it’s black and no neighbours lights and my little NexDome is humming away
It must be nirvana where you are at Bortle 1 or 2
Enjoy the night and keep warm !!
Those pristine dark skies sure make a difference to both observing and imaging
I can feel the excitement in your comments
I’m down at my coastal getaway on the south coast imaging under Bortle 3 skies. It’s a similar feeling coming down here from Sydney ( pre lockdown obviously) where my backyard up there is under Bortle 8 skies and neighbour’s flood lights blasting my rig
Down here it’s black and no neighbours lights and my little NexDome is humming away
It must be nirvana where you are at Bortle 1 or 2
Enjoy the night and keep warm !!
Thanks Martin ...I've just now 2:30 am, jumped into bed after a thoroughly satisfying evening of observing and I am contented that I didn't buy a dud property After three consecutive nights of observations, both naked eye and through a 12" Dob, it would seem all the good astro site boxes have been ticked nicely and tonight was one of the best skies I have ever observed under in almost 40 years of observing and to have the luxury of being able to retreat into a toasty warm accommodation, where you can continue to observe from inside the loungeroom is bloody awesome too
Hope your night is still going and I look forward to seeing what you grabbed
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 14-07-2021 at 09:21 AM.
I hope others are getting the same enjoyment as I take from this thread. Nothing makes me more happy than witnessing someone I like and admire get where they want to be. And reading here gives me some much needed motivation to get back into things instead of just accepting laying in bed all day.
Thanks Mike.
Alex
I hope others are getting the same enjoyment as I take from this thread. Nothing makes me more happy than witnessing someone I like and admire get where they want to be. And reading here gives me some much needed motivation to get back into things instead of just accepting laying in bed all day.
Thanks Mike.
Alex
On ya mate I was all alone last night up here and just had to share the thrill of realising and experiencing a dream, thanks for receiving it in such good faith and humour
From what you have been describing I'm thinking you could get a hint of colour out of Orion from a 16" dob. So, that would make the site pretty damn cool for the drive time from Canberra. Its like getting the beach house with beach at the front and estuary access from the backyard!
Grats and good luck with all the highs and lows of upgrading, designing, planning, building and repairs to come. Keep the updates flowing.
From what you have been describing I'm thinking you could get a hint of colour out of Orion from a 16" dob. So, that would make the site pretty damn cool for the drive time from Canberra. Its like getting the beach house with beach at the front and estuary access from the backyard!
Grats and good luck with all the highs and lows of upgrading, designing, planning, building and repairs to come. Keep the updates flowing.
Steve
Ha! Thanks Steve ...indeed, plenty ahead for yours truly. For now at least, Im just enjoying the emotions of coming to terms with exactly what I have...heck, all those drives home over the last 20 years, from Wiruna and the SPSP, tired but very satisfied after 3 days of great conditions under truly dark skies and observing with 300 other like minded people, thinking about and imagining every property that I passed along the way was mine .....are bloody well now real but EVEN better, beyond even those wildest of dreams..incredible
Wow, congrats Mike, great to see yet another IIS person join the dark skies club like me. It really is very special eh? Although I rarely have time and energy to image lately, with my work and real farming priorities taking over, I still get plenty of opportunities to stop outside at night and marvel at our dark skies! Esp at this clear, crisp time of year. We are only at 140m high, but are blessed with similar dark skies, though Shepparton is getting bigger every year and their light dome gradually being more visible 30ks away. Maybe we will all start up a dark skies network one day!
I can see your enthusiasm and pleasure, great to see.
Wow, congrats Mike, great to see yet another IIS person join the dark skies club like me. It really is very special eh? Although I rarely have time and energy to image lately, with my work and real farming priorities taking over, I still get plenty of opportunities to stop outside at night and marvel at our dark skies! Esp at this clear, crisp time of year. We are only at 140m high, but are blessed with similar dark skies, though Shepparton is getting bigger every year and their light dome gradually being more visible 30ks away. Maybe we will all start up a dark skies network one day!
I can see your enthusiasm and pleasure, great to see.
Cheers Simon
Yeah true dark skies, especially in your own backyard!.. is a luxury for sure and those of us lucky enough to enjoy such a situation, should cherish it as a privilege
Luckily for me, my new location is not a real "farm" as such, it is just the perfect private getaway, that can never be built out or have any substantial lighting ever put in place close by, we acquired enough land to essentially guarantee our light free view, as it were
Monday night, standing on the front deck, looking straight up, the super bright Milky Way, with a myriad of dark dust lanes, was silhouetted against the dark background sky full of stars and it truly looked like it soared overhead, like an Eagle, at a slight angle, framed nicely by a big snow gum and the curved roof of our house, the view was awe inspiring, felt like I was on another planet, somewhere else in the galaxy......wish I had taken my tripod
I'm so truly happy for you and your family Mike.
Enjoy, you're very lucky to have found such a place.
Can't wait for the Astro pics to start flowing.
RB
Cheers Andrew
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
So something you know you never have to ask Mike is "Are you high?"
Yeeeah maaan
Actually, bit more height trivia.. and given the Australian continent in general is somewhat vertically challenged ...my future observatory will even be 50m higher than Sierra Remote Observatories in the US, the very sought after telescope hosting facility in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California...might be a good future angle to attract customers
Imagine a couple'a big roll off roof sheds or a series of individual observatories HERE
Mike
Last edited by strongmanmike; 08-07-2021 at 02:55 PM.
I would love to move back to the country (Im originally from Mildura - very clear skies up there!) but the other half wont have a bar of it, so I have either get divorced or just live with Bortle 6
I would love to move back to the country (Im originally from Mildura - very clear skies up there!) but the other half wont have a bar of it, so I have either get divorced or just live with Bortle 6
Yes, I know I am very lucky, my wife is pretty understanding of all this astronomy palaver and while, if she had her way, we would have acquired something across from the beach, somewhere on the south coast of NSW...meah, we ended up on top of a mountain instead, much better, huh?
Yes, I know I am very lucky, my wife is pretty understanding of all this astronomy palaver and while, if she had her way, we would have acquired something across from the beach, somewhere on the south coast of NSW...meah, we ended up on top of a mountain instead, much better, huh?
Mike
My wife got her way to come down here on the South Coast near the beach , but I got my Dome under Bortle 3 or so
Both happy campers
I enjoy the beach as well , still surfing at 61 , don’t like sub zero temperatures