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Astro-Cafe - Supernova - Venus - Mars - Saturn


James4

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It was third Friday of the month and that is Astro-Cafe night at Davis Bay by the ocean.

After tea, coffee and hot chocolate, I was eager to get the scope setup.

I left a half dozen members in the coffee shop while I drove round to the South end of the Seawall and began setting up the Scope.

I had the Celestron C9.25 and the Alt/Az T-Mount. Without motors and power it was quite quick to set up. I pushed the scope to Venus and found a really nice view. The 9.25 has a long focal length 2305 mm which makes 180x with a 13mm eyepiece. Immediately a couple of passersby enquired what I was looking at. I invited them to have a look. They turned out to be Jack and Doreen and they were really interested to here my ramblings about Venus being thought to be our sister planet with lush vegetation and Venusian cities etc ... until Russian probe after Russian probe forgot to phone home - because they were crushed by the lovely Venusian atmosphere ...

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Venus is a billiant crescent but a little devoid in features - hence I felt compelled to continue my ramblings on Venus into the realm of Gallileo and him realising that the phases he observed through his new fangled telescope could only mean that the Earth was not the centre of the Solar System. Amazingly Jack and Doreen continued to enjoy the view through the scope.

I moved onto Mars before they left as I wanted them to see The Red Planet. I used less power this time to avoid Mars moving across the FOV too quickly. We could not see any surface detail at 72x but Mars looked pretty amazing with its particular colour with dark sky around it and some field stars framing it nicely.

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Around 10 pm the rest of the Astro-Cafe crew arrived. Debra setup her 10" Astro-Tech Newtonian (Dob). Ed arrived then too and wanted to have a look for the recent Supernova in M95. Yikes I thought, my GoTo is at home and this is only my 3rd time out with the Alt/Az T-Mount.

We broke out our star maps and found M95 in a small flock (yes flock) of galaxies. How are we going to pick M95 out of this group. I went pointed roughly to 53 Leonis - since it was visible naked eye and then I just drifted up and left until I wandered into a galaxy field. I was using a 32mm 2" and despite the street lights, and traffic lights the moonless sky showed the galaxies well.

After mistaking M96 for M95 I then noticed the small triangle of stars near M95 and thought that's the one!

Ed and Debra concurred on the 10" Newtonian - we then proceede to debate which star was the Supernova - could we even still see it. Turns out Yes. I could see it above the cloud of M95 and when I checked in the 10" I saw it below the cloud which was a good cross check since the SCT and Newtonian present different views.

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At first it needed averted vision to see the star away from the galaxy core - but after a while it could be seen almost directly.

Later we went to Saturn and it was a really nice view. I gradually saw one, then two, then three, and finally four moons - my first Saturnian view with the SCT. Just then a super bright flashing LED light came along the road. We all looked up to see what kind of vehicle this was. Turns out it was Bruno on his way home from work on this bike, with his little dog safely in a box like min-housing on the back of his bike. He saw our scope and doubled back to have a look. I showed him saturn and four moons - woohoo! Another great moment in Astronomy!

At 12.10 pm my 5am rise began to catch up with me and I began to dismantle the rig.

A good first 'almost summer' Astro-Cafe.

5 Comments


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Hi there sounds like a great night ,and be in with a group makes it electric,I have th

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Sorry hit the wrong button ,they a great scope they do show the planets of well and deep space is great as well stick a CDC behind it and your away

Great read I felt I was in the moment , with you

Cheers pat

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Thanks Pat, my pics seem to have disappeared - will see if I can get them back ...

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Isn't it wonderful when you're surrounded by others who share your interest and are eager to learn. I have such experiences with my students all the time but would love to have a more "adult audience" like you.

Shine on!

Isabelle

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