Last Nights Session

I had a the most superb dark clear sky from here last night. I set up the 16" and from 18.10 spent a relaxing hour comet hunting through the southern sky in Sculptor, Cetus and Eridanus in the area around the Ecliptic. Picked up the nice spiral galaxy NGC596 in Cetus which was my trophy of the chase. Seen a lovely bright Irdium flare in the western sky just at the onslaught of darkenss.

Had a 2nd session only this time with the camera and naked eye at 02.00 while talking with John over the phone. We could see M37, M36, M38, M35, CR89, M31, M44, M33 with the naked eye. The sky was just beautiful. I took a few snapshots....

Orions Belt setting...



Saturn + M44...



The wide open cluster Melotte 111 in Coma Berenices..



I went to bed and set my alarm for 05.30 when i got up and had a hot brew under the stars while i got dark adapted. What an amazing pre dawn sky!!!! There was a bitter frost that turned the cover on the 16" crisp and white. I aligned the telrad on Rigel and spent until 07.00 comet hunting in the NE,E morning sky through the milkyway. Swept up M56, M57, M71 and many open clusters and binary systems. The star fields were absoutely stunning!! My fingers hurt with the cold. I looked over the garden fence and saw an incredible blazing golden coloured UFO in the east...it was mighty Venus himself with a band of red sunlit sky below him. With another brew i enjoyed the brightening sky and the early call of the birds then headed in feeling very satisfied. Great session!

Wow :shock:
That was some session , I looking at Orion there, do you have a large hill obstructing your view or is it just the tree line.I am just asking because I am in the middle of a valley and I know its a pain in the arse.

Great report Martin! Yea when i came out of work at 3am the sky was amazing

Thanks Brian and Conor. Yea it is a large hill which obstructs my SW horizon cry cry.

Hey Conor..it sure was a brillant night. Pity you were working, we could of had a big session. You have to see Venus before dawn..its amazing!!!!

Yip. saw it yesterday morning on our way up to the CSP at around 7.30am
Its like a light from a plane, its so bright.!!!

I went to bed and set my alarm for 05.30 when i got up and had a hot brew under the stars while i got dark adapted. What an amazing pre dawn sky!!!! There was a bitter frost that turned the cover on the 16" crisp and white. I aligned the telrad on Rigel and spent until 07.00 comet hunting in the NE,E morning sky through the milkyway. Swept up M56, M57, M71 and many open clusters and binary systems. The star fields were absoutely stunning!!

Me too! I set my alarm for 5am, and was greeted by a superb clear sky
I was really out to do some serious stuff on the variable star front, but afterwards, I had a look at jupiter, saturn and globular cluster M3 - sparkiling and a really underestimated glob.

After that, just looked arond with the naked eye whilst listening to the birds chirping early! A beautiful morning indeed! Was looking at the very early summer milkyway for a nova, as usual no luck again...

Keith..