Well blow me down. You wouldn't have picked it in a pink fit. After so many month and months of absolutely lousy weather at night and a cyclone last week and and a cyclone this week off the coast, we finally got a decent night.
Decent, hell it was great!!!! Not perfect, but the transparency was absolutely stunning and even the seeing wasn't too shabby as the evening wore on. Shame I didn't take any gear out with me
I had to come home early and it looked pretty sus before I left to go out so I thought I'd just seagull it around and check everyone elses scopes out.
So, roll call:
Astroron (16" truss) , Xeelee and his dad (8" Meade SCT), Zubenel and his children (10" ? Dob), Adelain (4" Nexstar) and friend Sonia, and me with a case of eyepieces.
A quick run down before I hit the sack. I spent the first half of the night (after I helped Ron with his LPI) using his Dob and thoroughly enjoying myself (the main eyepieces used for the night were my 16mm T2 nag and an Omni 2X barlow when needed and Ron's 13 mm Nag. The Rosette was viewed through a 55 mm ??? with OIII filter). Can't wait til the 16" lightbridges come out
Ron and the other joined in later on.
All in all I/we hit all the high spots; Centaurus A, Omega Cent, Eta Carina ( the Homunculus was crystal clear, could easily see the lobes, in fact the whole of EC looked 3D), Saturn, M65,66,95,96,104,42,46, 47 tuc, ngc2808 Tarantula, IC2602, Spirograph planetary, Blue Planetary, Rosette Nebula, a dozen or so of Ron's favourite obscure galaxies and ngc2903 (one of my personal favs). I then borrowed Ron' green laser and gave a binocular and naked eye tour for Zubenels young daughter, Sonia, and Adelain. It was great fun listening to the excitement as each object was found. I think I might have created a couple of binocular converts tonight. Opps forgot to mention the Beehive Cluster (m44) before and M47. The list goes on. Man I hope it's fine next weekend. I'll be there all night.
So if you weren't able to make it tonight fellow SEQlders, I hope to see you there next Saturday night. I'll be there fully kitted out this time.
Oops; forgot to mention we all got to see both the ISS and Hubble just after dusk
Both travelled from the northwest to the northeast with max altitude around 70-80 deg facing north. I think Ron even managed to pick up the ISS in his 16" for a short while.
Oops oops. I forgot to mention that Ron showed us how to see colour (red) in M42. Once shown how it was pretty easy. If you can see colour in the Spirograph planetary then you should be able to see colour in M42. You just need to be shown the trick. The cost is reasonable. Price on application.
Thanks Ron
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April Fool
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Wes was also observing these objects at the same time and we compared views to get the difference between 10"and 16" scopes, quite a good exersize.
