cosmic dave Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Just finished unpacking and tidying away, what a good night but cold, scope dewed up lol and I could see a bit of false colour in eyepiece but with a few tweeks it should be ok. We saw 4 planets and some DSO,s thanks mark paul and john I had a very enjoyable evening and look forward to doing it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 (edited) Well another sucsessful observing session for the East Lincs Astronomy Club. In attendance tonight was myself (Mark/oldfruit), Paul (tbird), Dave (cosmic dave) and John (demiser). Sorry you could not join us Ron. Myself and Paul arrived first and could see by the conditions that it was going to be a good night. Also we were hoping that the fact that there was no Moon would allow the dark site to show its true potential and we were not dissapointed. Even as it was getting dark we were suprised at the amount of stars that were visible. Orion was outstanding and seemed full of stars and we could even make out the Beehive cluster (M44) before it was fully dark. When it was fully dark the Milky way was clearly seen spanning through the constelations of Cassiopia and Perseus all the way down through Orion and Canis Major. Due to the great conditions we spent a fair amount of time observing dso`s. First up was M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy). Looking through Pauls 12 inch dob the core of the galaxy was visible and with averted vision and a little immagination the faint outer halo revealed hints of its spiral structure, also easily visible was its companion NGC 5195 though this showed no structure and we could not see any material that seemingly connects the two. The Owl Nebula (M97) was next up. Again through Pauls 12 inch dob it appeared quite large though i was unable to make out "the eyes". Still an impressive sight none the less. The Leo triplet was up next. Through Pauls scope again we could see clearly M65 and M66 and both showed bright cores with faint and elongated outer halos, then we moved the scope a little to see NGC 3628 though this only appeared as a very faint elongated smudge. I turned my scope the the Leo triplet at low power and managed to get all 3 in the field of view. Mars was observed with all scopes tonight and due to being higher in the sky delivered some very pleasing views with a lot of surface detail visible and we could easily make out the pole cap, (well most of us could ). The Sunflower galaxy was found by myself (quite by accident ) and showed a brighter core with a faint and again elongated outer halo. Paul found M3 globular cluster and what a fantastic sight it was. A huge ball of thousands of stars. With his scope we were able to resolve stars almost to the core and it almost rivaled any view i have ever had of M13. Saturn made a late appearance and all scopes were trained on the ringed planet and despite it being very low in the sky, it still delivered some very pleasing views and we could make out what we think was the rings shadow on the disc in moments of better seeing. To sum up, the site at Gibraltar Point is a great dark site and shows very little light pollution in a couple of directions which only extends a few degrees above the horizon. The sky was really dark tonight and there were times that we would stop observing and just spend a few minutes looking around at what i can only describe as a beautiful star filled sky. The company is always good and thanks to Paul, Dave and John. Edited March 19, 2012 by oldfruit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Great write up Mark, sounds like you had a great night, and ELAC are going from strength to strength, well done guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic dave Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Great write up Mark, sounds like you had a great night, and ELAC are going from strength to strength, well done guys. Here Here Mick, you do do a good report Mark , but I still could not see that ice cap on the plus side I did pick up on the line on saturns disc so not to blind !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic dave Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 Thanks for the links Paul, it was Europa on the limb last night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz Type-R Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Fantastic write up and well done guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 It was a good night's observing but we were having a bit of a battle with dew. Finderscopes suffered first then my secondary dewed up and then Dave's main lens dewed up. We still had an impressive list of objects we saw, and there seemed to be a lot of shooting stars. I think M3 was the best DSO I saw, it was quite spectacular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Excellent night there, shame about the dew, but you got a lot of good objects. Congrats to ELAC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Good write up Mark, thanks. I will send a condensed version to the Nature Reserve office for them to put up in the shop. Sounds like I missed a good night, were you able to go South of the centre and park? I enjoyed Mar's and got 3 new Messier's myself before the dew got to bad!! Look forward to seeing you at Paul's next week. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmic dave Posted March 19, 2012 Author Share Posted March 19, 2012 South side of the building has got flood lights, we parked on the car park and used the vans as a shield from the visitor centre lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 (edited) Dave, did you go all the way down to a small hexagonal brick building with large windows, called the searchlight hut? You can see it on Google Earth. Edited March 19, 2012 by Ron Clarke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 The gate was closed at the end of the south car park, but I spoke to a guy at the centre and he said he had a boat and the car park flood light dazzled him coming up the creek. Where we set up at the top end of the North car park was good with the vehicles sheilding us against the lights from the centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 As long as the sky was 'dark', that's the main thing !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 It was nice and dark Ron, we could see a lot of faint stars. I think the vans sheilding us did the job rather well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 That's good, sounds as if the group should buy a communal hairdryer/dew dryer!! ha ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 Just one of the pics i took last night, a single 30 second exposure and i think it gives you an idea of just how dark it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 great photo. mind if I email it Gib Point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted March 19, 2012 Share Posted March 19, 2012 great photo. mind if I email it Gib Point? Not at all Ron, anything to further building our relationship with the guys at Gibraltar Point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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