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mapstar

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Everything posted by mapstar

  1. No good on the spring one if attendees only read this thread though 🙄. And yes we know everything 🤣
  2. Just an update if Derek doesn't remember Only 4 pitches left for this Star party
  3. Left site at 10.45 this morning dropping Ian off at dumfries on the way. Quick stop off at Cafe sixty six now with just 100miles left to travel Coffee and chocolate cake 😋. Should see me home. Last night was pretty much the same as the other clear nights Thanks to all for another enjoyable star camp. Amazing how quickly a week passes. Already looking forward to the Autumn bash.
  4. Looking good for tonight Scope cooling down. Me and Kenny will be sharing the views later
  5. Many have departed today and just 4 left on site for what looks to be a cracking night from midnight according to the BBC. Kenny caught a slight bit of aurora last night so should get those posted later. 4 clear night with the 5th to add tonight has been superb. A few shots were taken of the site yesterday so hopefully they will get posted.
  6. "After only being used twice in 3 years" was the rest of the sentence. Switch failures after several hundred operations are to be expected 😜
  7. Just to add to the list of shame, a retired chief marine engineer using cheap cables for mount connections oh dear 🙄
  8. It's been a while Stu and not a detailed report but had a lot on for the last couple of years and hopefully get another on soon.
  9. It is my 10th year at the Galloway star party and it has started with 2 clear nights. I'm here for the week as usual and some of the regulars are here already. We're waiting for a few more to turn up. After pitching monday I set the scope up and all was going well until I plugged the dew heater battery in and nothing not even the meters came on 😡. A faulty switch was the cause and it was quickly bypassed. By this time it was 9pm and very dark so finally viewing could commence. Gemini was placed well so I hopped up from pollux following the familiar trail of stars to look at NGC 2371. This planetary is split into 3 sections looking like a star wars tie fighter in the 22". No colour but a pleasant view. Next up a hop down to NGC 2392 the Eskimo neb. Still blue to my eyes, the central star and outer structure easily visible. Heading further down the constellation I slid in the UHC filter and paid a visit to the Medusa nebula or Abell 21. Large and taking up 1/2 the field of view in the 13mm E it is probably twice the size of the crab nebula. Sharper and more defined on one side in my notes but didn't note which! Probably my eagerness to view other targets. I moved on and M51's galactic bridge was easy to see as were the spiral arms although there wasn't much in the way of fine detail. Transparency was pretty average although the seeing was good which would've been nice had their been any planets about. A quick spin of the scope and the Orion nebula was in the eyepiece. The usual easy 4 stars of the trapezium then the E and slightly more difficult F star. After 10mins of viewing I finally pulled out the G star. The H star(s) eluded me. Further out in the mouth of the nebula another faint star kept showing. Overall a nice view agreed by a couple of imagers (Pete and John) who had wandered over for a look. So for a bit of a tester I fitted the H beta filter and checked if the horsey was about. Sure enough there it was tied to the usual 2 mane stars. Even Peters 70+ year old eye's took in the nebulous notch. After extinguishing the flame I moved on from Orion. It was good to be out under the dark galloway skies again. Often through the night I found myself stood staring for 10 mins just using the mk1 eyeball as I picked out another target. M13 and M92 looked as good as ever and the Leo triplet did. After a few more well known objects I opened the star chart to hunt down some fainter stuff. None of which I noted down as my book was in the van and I didn't want to upset everyone with a Blackpool illuminations display!!! (Sorted before Tuesdays viewing) The temperature dropped to a chilly -5°C and the views suddenly began to get dimmer? after my battery problems I'd forgot to put the secondary heater on and it was like an ice pop hung out there! Dew heater on cuppa and 15mins later the 5.25" secondary had cleared enough to view again. I finally turned in at 5am a healthy frost covering everything. Onto Tuesday which I'll post later.
  10. Weekend looks good especially Sunday night but the 🌙 is making an impact
  11. Looking good at present. It's going to be another cold one. Last night was -5°C at 3am.
  12. Clear all night so turned in at 5am . The nights viewing didn't start well. Had a battle with the new van cargo area lights, 3 hours they didn't go off so after a fruitless hunt for the fuse ended up pulling all 4 of them out and disconnecting. Lost 2 hours viewing. 😪 Plugged in my power tank for the dewheaters and nothing 🤬. First I thought I must've left the meters on and drained it at home. After a lot of faffing about I found it was the two way rocker switch (charge/dew output) that had failed. Managed a quick soldering job and the visual observing could commence. Lost another hour 😪 Others were not as lucky and didn't do any imaging due to being unable to connect to their mounts. Report maybe later 🤔
  13. Just packing all my gear but probably set off about 11am and arrive mid afternoon. Hope everyone who is travelling up has a safe journey and I'll see you soon for an update.
  14. Have you managed to get the weight increase to bring your scope this year Derek?
  15. Generally Lesley shows in on the website as fully booked so it is exclusive to the star party. To get an appraisal on the actual availability just ring the site or post on here and I'm sure Derek will update with availability
  16. This years star party gate crashers (Dudley and Eunice) look like they are attending early ( must've got the dates off kenny 😁) so all is set for the clear skies.
  17. I'll do fine derren don't worry about me just make sure you bring Annette 🤣
  18. Hopefully arriving on the Monday Derek also for the week
  19. As always Nick a fantastic tour of the winter skies. Must catch hagrids dragon as I can't think as I've ever viewed it. Thanks for posting
  20. Lovely read Neil. I've struggled in the last two years with motivation myself and hopefully life Is turning a corner that I can again return to regular observing. I always remember my first views of ngc2371 in my 8" newt. It was a difficult find initially and very small. Think I'd overlooked it several times. Later with a memory of where it was , a better chart and the bigger scope it appeared easily and was a very pleasing view. Obviously much brighter with more detail. Whilst in Gemini next time have a look at the medusa nebula. Much bigger than you'd expect 😉
  21. A nice swirl around the messier objects and an enjoyable read. As you say the wind around this new moon has been terrible and the December new moon was clouded out. My scope has sat in storage since it's last outing in November. Hopefully the new moon will be better at the end of the month when I make my usual pilgrimage to the dark skies of the Galloway star party.
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