NT - Clear Blue Skies

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Yee Har ... clear blue skies Horizion to Horizon here in Gove
Time to take the IIS Observing challenge for the club tonight.
Armed with a new observing list compliments of Sheeny (Thanks Mate)
Report to follow tomorrow (hopefully good)

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Well ... Last night was fantastic
Transparency 9/10 Seeing 8/10
Started out with the 2 day old waxing moon & despite it low altitude the detail was amazing, looking at craters side on & seeing the sunlit crater rims either side gave a fly-through experience.
The only thing I was missing was a chart showing the named features of the 2 day old moon, my charts start at 3 days old.
Venus, a lovely big bright cresent & Mars were worth a look too.
Started on the IIS challenge with the Saturn Nebula, when I went star hopping with the 40mm 2" UO, I was amazed to find the nebula "Blinking" on and off as I was looking at it
Then I remembered reading about the "Blinking" nebula, not sure if it is one & the same?
I imagine the effect is due to the difference in the sensitivity between the rod & cone cells in our eyes.
Next to M30, which is a nice GC without a condensed core.
On to M41, which to my eye had a "?" asterism in the middle of it.
A few more club members had arrived by this stage so we went looking at Andromeda & companions, M42, 47tuc and more.
The difference in the Crab Nebula (M1) later in the evening compared to the previous night in town was quite striking, showing a condensed appearance, compared to the barely visible smudge seen from town.
After having a few cool ciders it was time crash out in the crusier for the night ...... but wait, that's not all, the next morning at 4am .......
Stay tuned for the next installment

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

OK ... to finish the story.
Seeing was still good at 4am when I woke.
Uncovered the scope (very little dew anyhow) & headed for Saturn.
Stunning ! I could see all 6 of the visable moons, Cassini division, shadow on the rings & the Pale brown/yellow cloud belts.
Eta Carina was to good to pass up, the humonclus nebula around Eta, displayed a stunning black lattice structure, over the orange glow of the nebula.
I noticed a few Oroinid meteors as well, hopefully the orionids will put on a good early show before the brightening moon washes them out.
All in all a fantastic night, the best in months
I hope someone else out there had as good a night as we did !

[astroron (Ron)]

We had as I reported in my post a good night, glad you had a good one too ,lets hope for more in the next year.
I hope you can make it to one of our nights on yor trips to Brisbane. Great report .all the best Ron

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Sounds absolutely excellent Ian. I'm jealous.

We have a fantastic clear sky tonight but the wind is howling and the wind chill factor is down to about 1 degree.

I will brave it later for meteor watching but I don't know how long I will last. I was out there 10 mins ago and it's terrible!

Keep up the great reports!

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Thanks Ken & Ron
It's nights like these that keep us all coming back for more.