Recent Observing

Hi all

I have been having an up and down observing run these last 3 nights. Sat night was an outstanding crisp clear night and the wanning moon revealed a semi dark sky as dusk arrived so i had a very good comet search in the SW sky. Sunday night looked to be in good shape too but when i uncovered the 16" for another evening search i found out that the frost on the previous night had frozen over the primary mirror destroying any ideas i had of using it so i compromised and did some hunting with the 8" until the moon rose. I guided the scope to the south ready to track down comet C/2005 E2 Mc Naught but this time the corrector froze over so it was very frustrating indeed. Last night was very cloudy with a few short lived clear gaps but i spent most of my time waiting for clouds to break. I got a little bored so i decided to take a few images of myself and 16" lol...





As of 2 nights ago i have started a photographic Nova search programme using my Fuji S5600 camera. Every night i have taken a 15 sec exposure of selected regions of sky within the Milkyway. I then process the images and cross check every star with Sky Atlas 2000. I can get down to mag 7.5 and perhaps deeper on excellent nights. Although the chances of a bright Nova discovery are slim, this is really just an excuse for me to get to the know the sky at a deeper level. I have noticed a marked improvment in my star positon knowledge already and have caught a selection of variable stars that i never even knew exsisted before so this introductory period has been successful already. I recently caught RZ Cass at maximum which was a nice suprise. So i hope to get plenty of clear nights over the Christmas period for further comet and nova hunting!

The aurora activity is still pretty good so keep an eye on the north tonight. Also comet 73P SW may reach 2nd mag in April - May next year so 2006 looks to be an exciting year for observing.

Good luck and clear skies!

Martin, I like the above photo. I think you should call it "Astronomy: The Waiting Game" :lol:

LOL thanks Neill

It sure is a suitable title!

Martin, Thats one beast you got there!!!!

Keith..

LOL yea it is a big scope but perfect for stalking comets

Thanks for the comments keith!

Clear skies and good hunting to you