It has finally happened! A clear night without FOG!!!! And I took advantage of it.
Scope out & Cooldown started around sunset.
Darkness fell and the obvious shot for the night was Venus, Moon, Star and Joop but they didn't come out any good except the one below of the Moon and Venus! I dragged the whole family out to see it and they all went "Ooooh, Aaaah"
After drooling over that beautiful sight it was time to check out the sky I have dearly missed. Jake and Harry joined me in the search.
I started on a good study of Joop which was fairly clear despite the horizonal atmospheric distortions. Then a good place to begin the sky scan was at Jewel Box. Lovely! From there I worked my way out to Omega Cent and Eta Carina. Then a hop across to 47Tuc, down to Tarantula (just rising enough to see) and lot's of nebs in LMC. Back through the Milky Way and over to Lagoon and Triffid Nebulas.
Harry went to bed and Jake wanted to see more of 47Tuc and Omega Cent so we went on a Glob hunt. We had a good long look at each one which included 47Tuc, Omega Cent, M4, M55, M10, M12 etc. Even Jake commented on how each and every Glob was different in its own way. Some with tight bright centres, some large and faint. Others small but still beautiful.
I somehow managed to find M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy) as well. Jake liked that one!
We also looked at about 15 open clusters before Jake had to go to bed.
I continued on my own by returning to Tarantula which was higher now and then back to Lagoon and Triffid for sketching time. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a pic of them so I did a sketch of Triffid (below) exactly as I saw it, through the EP. I only managed to sketch Triffid as the wind came up very strong forcing me to end my evening.
It was fantastic being out there again observing the heavens and until the wind ruined it, it was a lovely night weather-wise. It has been over 3 months, it was a fairly short evening, but I loved every minute of it.
The whole viewing experience was through the 2" GS 30mm SuperView only!
Pic1: Moon and Venus.
Pic 2: Jake enjoying the view.
Pic 3: Sketch of Triffid through the EP as I saw it.
Last edited by ballaratdragons; 08-09-2005 at 12:34 AM.
Hi Ken. Good to hear you finally got a spot of viewing in! Clear here as well, so I'm going to take full advantage of it while I can..Tonights project is a mars movie with the kodak & the reflector. Top stuff on the pics & sketch.
Nice sketch of M20. You can't beat a "foot" or more of scope to show the individual character of globs and to bring out the fainter nebulosity in things like M20 and the Tarantula. You must have some nice dark skies - shame they have been covered for 3 months. How did you survive?
asimov was moody due to cluds and rain, now, bubbling like a kid in a toy shop and now moving east, ken was also busting at the seams, but now content.!
nice stuff!
I CAN NOT WAIT ANOTHER 49 SLEEPS TILL STAR CAMP
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
IS IT HERE YET?
Sounds like a good night Ken.... I know the frustration of fog, especially when it obscures pristine black skies too... I visit Dorrigo a bit.... very dark, but also very foggy quite often. Going again end of Sep, hopefully less fog then, fingers crossed
Very nice sketch Ken and I bet you could not get enough of those clear skies. Over here we are blessed with clear skies for most of the year. I did not realise this until I went up to Cairn's for a week (last week). Man it was clear in the day but cloudy almost every night
Report: 1st Viewing in over 3 months
