SDAS Observing on Saturday 20th September

I completely forgot that the wife is out on Saturday night :blush: , so I'll have to pass.

Have a great time and hope to see you at the next one.

michael_murphy wrote:

Seanie - I think you have my mobile but if you don't PM me.

Thanks Mike, I do have it.

michael_murphy wrote:

Hi Keith,

I think you should get some night vision goggles and drive up to the site with the headlight's off!

Seanie - I think you have my mobile but if you don't PM me.

Michael.

I was trying to make my mind up about a mallincam or a BIPH image intensifying eyepiece/Goggles. Looks like the BIPH would be dual use. Just fit a head strap to it.

www.telescopereviews.com/item.php?item_id=1834

Kidding of course. Not in the market for one of these unless I won the lottery. :laugh:

Five people turned up last night to blow the dust off our scopes and try to remember what all those bright dots in the night sky are!

Thanks to all who turned out.

Here's a link to a photo of the evening

Michael.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/murphy2006/2875789918

Hope you all had a good time, kicking myself for not being there.

You were missed Paul. We all agreed that we could feel your pain. At one point we heard an otherwordly howling in the night which I am sure was you out your back garden berating the heavens, "Why God, Why?? Why did she have to book this night of all nights to go out and leave me babysitting!! Any other night in the last 9 months I wouldn't have minded, Why this night, the first 100% Clear All nighter in 270 days....Why, Why, Why!!!!!!!: angry:



Course your howling reminded me of American Werewolf in London and then I looked around at my surroundings, {Shudders} Eh, bit like the moors this isn't it......S*** whats that!!! OH Thank God, its just a sheep.....

Then I thought, werewolves eat sheep......and I now smell like a sheep after having to get out of my car and push one out of the middle of the road on my way in, and then later I really smelled like a sheep after kneeling in some Sheep Sh*t.

Could only happen to me!!

On the upside, I got some nice views of M57 and both portions of the Veil, needed my OIII for those. Found Uranus for the first time, then lost it and never found it again. Nice to see the double cluster again, great views of the moon at 415x with my 3.5mm Hyperion and right at the very end, my first M42 of the Season. Trap and a little bit of Nebulousity. Would have looked like last winter only it was down in the muck but had cleared the muck too late just as we were leaving.

Could have filled the night with much more targets only A. I never had a chance to put together an observing list, B. The moon was up, C. My DSC would lose accuracy very quickly because of the soft ground and I didn't fancy doing a new 2 star alignment before each target.

Will try and be more prepared next time with a prepared list, Flat piece of wood to stand scope on, Plastic ground sheet, so I don't kneel in sh*t...........:laugh:

Right towards the end, I went over to Michael and Dave and asked them to give me some notice when they were going to start packing up as I figured that I would need a headstart. I head back over to my scope and 5 minutes later I look back over only to see them with all their gear packed up!!
What did I ask ye!! Michael said he wanted to pack his gear away before me so he could come over and see how I packed my car because he simply thought it could not be done given the bulk of the items he saw before him.

I showed him!!:laugh:

[img=http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1457/loadedcarnj8.th.jpg] [img=http://img261.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif]

BTW Dave, did you find that diagonal cap in the car??