Myself and another IIS member did a camping trip to Lake Moogerah, south of Brisbane, on the weekend and I must say, absolutely fabulous.
The sky was very dark, with just a small glow from Brisbane to the north.
We had clear skies until about 11pm when a few clouds came across, but it cleared in about half an hour.
I was able to easily make out four galaxies in the Sculptor collection, but sculptor galaxy itself was a mighty fine sight. We also found Uranus and Neptune which neither of us had been able to locate in suburban skies before. Uranus had a nice blue tinge.
We even managed to find the ring nebula without too much difficulty. That sucker is very small...
But the highlight of the night.... Andromeda Galaxy and its sisters, M110 and M32, very nice.. So it was a night of many firsts and hopefully the first of many more out there.
Of course the locals saw us setting up and couldn't resist coming over once it got dark. Two young blokes wandered over first, beers in hands asking a few questions, but went utterly silent when we let them have a look through the eyepiece. We only had to show them Jupiter and they were speechless. They left in absolute awe after having seen Jupiter, Omega Centauri and Lagoon nebula.. The 30 minutes later another local and his girl wandered over. They came with a nice bright white torch, but quickly turned it off when I barked at them.
They had heard from the previous locals how fantastic it was, so had to come see for themselves. Getting into a conversation with beer drinkng big guy with girlfriend went like this. Hi, so is this something you guys do for a hobby or a job. So whats the diffence between a solar system and a galaxy..
Of course we were only too happy to help answer their questions and help them on their way. Always fun
But overall, a fantastic night and I can recommend Lake Moogerah as a great venue for dark skies.
Rod
