Earth Hour

[sheeny (Al)]

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable Earth Hour.

The sky was pristine, no breeze, a comfortable 13°C. I can't say I noticed any noticeable improvement in the darkness of the sky at my place - there was still the Sydney glow in the east, but I did my bit.

We had all the lights and computers off for earth hour, I didn't even fire up the scope!"What???", I hear you say?....

Well, instead I opened the dome of the POD and kicked back in the observing chair with the 7x50s and surfed the Milky Way. Haven't done it in ages. It was glorious! I concentrated on observing the dark objects as much as possible, but, you know how it is, little bright favourites keep slipping in there!

Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's just a pity the weather has been so lousy lately that I had no conidence that it would be OK otherwise it would've been good to organise a session with friends...

What did you do for Earth Hour?

Al.

[omnivorr]

...sat and saw absolutely no difference nearby, but imagine there was a slight lowering of the city glow to my south (Brisbane) ..but it was all between clouds until the shower of rain came, so I packed-up the beanbag and noccies

otherwise 'perfect' here too.. was loving it!

[Darth Wader (Wade)]

An extremely clear night! The only problem was the Mosquitoes!

Well I did my bit and after I put my son to bed I turned off all the lights in the house and spent a good couple of hours behind the scope. I had the best viewing of Saturn yet! I don't think it had anything to do with Earth hour as I still had the "glow" from Sydney in the Eastern sky (plus my damn neighbour's perpetual porch light... grrr)! Anyway the M42 nebula was great tonight, but I still couldn't split the double star in Alpha Centauri (I really should try when it's closer to the azimuth next time). I also spotted something interesing very near Epsilon Centauri which looked like, for lack of a better term, a big white cloud in space... any ideas as to what this may have been? Can't find a reference to it on the planisphere and as I'm new to stargazing I don't even have a clue as to what it could have been.

Planning an early start tomorrow morning to catch Jupiter again and hopefully see my first Mars!

Cheers
Wade

[h0ughy (David)]

hopefully it was a good night everywhere - as it was here

[ngcles]

HI Omnivorr & All,

Originally Posted by omnivorr

...sat and saw absolutely no difference nearby, but imagine there was a slight lowering of the city glow to my south (Brisbane) ..but it was all between clouds until the shower of rain came, so I packed-up the beanbag and noccies

otherwise 'perfect' here too.. was loving it!

There was no detectable difference sky-darkness wise from Bargo either. As usual for the last 12-odd months, the SQM-L gave a reading about 21 mags per sq acr-sec at about 8pm and there was a slow, smooth progression toward 21.45 mags per sq acr-sec at 2.40am. All per normal and tested avery 30-odd mins.

So the transparency/sky darkness was as-per usual.

But man alive -- the seeing at Bargo was sensational (for Sydney anyway) -- the best I've seen in couple of years from Sydney. Tiny-teensy dot type stars -- wonderful aesthetics. 7th mag stars with diffraction rings at high-power. One ring stable, 2nd ring floaty. Yum, Yum, Yum ...

Saturn about 11pm was rock-steady at x317, very good at x371 and still stable for about 1/2 of the time at x464 in the x18" with a 4.5 Nagler. Saw most of Titan's shadow transit and noticed (with Titan so close to the disc of Saturn and within its light-glow) for the first time ever I think, Titan was clearly orange-tan coloured. Several observers noted it in the 18" & 20" 'scopes. I also occasionally saw Titan as a *disc* from time to time!! The shadow of Titan was bleedingly obvious at x139 on the ball of the planet. 5 other satellites were seen but I didn't go through the exercise of identifying them.

The Homunculus (NGC 3372) at x464 tonight was the most detailed I've *ever* seen it.

There was also one other strange little event I'm at a loss to explain (no, not Nibiru, or a UAS) I'll get to that when I post observtions later. It's not earth shattering, just plain strange and I can't explain yet.

As a package, the night was fully sick! (or is it sik??) (Perhaps I'm Sick) (Sik??)

More to come later!


Best,

Les D

[pgc hunter]

^^ Fully sick report Man, I'd kill for just one night like that here.

[Jazza11 (Jeremy)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable Earth Hour.

The sky was pristine, no breeze, a comfortable 13°C. I can't say I noticed any noticeable improvement in the darkness of the sky at my place - there was still the Sydney glow in the east, but I did my bit.

We had all the lights and computers off for earth hour, I didn't even fire up the scope!"What???", I hear you say?....

Well, instead I opened the dome of the POD and kicked back in the observing chair with the 7x50s and surfed the Milky Way. Haven't done it in ages. It was glorious! I concentrated on observing the dark objects as much as possible, but, you know how it is, little bright favourites keep slipping in there!

Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's just a pity the weather has been so lousy lately that I had no conidence that it would be OK otherwise it would've been good to organise a session with friends...

What did you do for Earth Hour?

Al.

Lucky i had rain and clouds till 1am

[mozzie (Peter)]

al in bed at 8.30 so i did my bit no lights on woke up at midnight to perfect skies
mozzie

[Robh (Rob)]

Did some viewing at Linden in the Blue Mountains. Was expecting a reduction in the skyglow eastward towards Penrith and beyond after 8:30 pm. We didn't notice any significant reduction in the eastern skyglow nor any increase at the end of Earth Hour at 9:30pm.
Otherwise viewing improved as the night went on. We found Saturn spectacular as well. Had nice views of the Sombrero and the Leo Triplet. The under-rated NGC 4945 in Centaurus really stood out. One of the finest of the Southern galaxies. If you never seen it, make a point. A great sight was the Ghost of Jupiter (NGC 3242); bright at magnitude 7 and easy to see greenish disk.
Also had pesky mossies early in the evening and then dew later on. But all in all, great company and, at last, a good viewing night.

[pgc hunter]

^^ I just happened to observe NGC 4945 last night. TBH, this object always underwhelms me, but without doubt that's becasue of light pollution. I suspect it would be fantastic from a dark location.

[BerrieK]

Originally Posted by sheeny

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable Earth Hour.


What did you do for Earth Hour?

Al.

Hubby at work. Kids (x2) and I turned off all electricals (other than fridge) and lay on the grass outside looking up and having a chat and swatting mozzies.

Lovely....peaceful.