South Coast Astronomy Group (SCAG) - 6th Aug 2011 - New Forest

[LDUNN1]

REPORT ON THE SCAG OBSERVING EVENING ON 6th AUGUST 2011 -

By Lawrence Dunn

The forecast was for it to clear late evening, but that

seemed rather optimistic as it started raining in

Southampton at 6.30pm while I unloaded our van after just

arriving home from a week on the Isle of Wight, & I even

heard the rumble of thunder. I don't know what it is about

SCAG meetings, but they always seem to involve me doing

quite a journey in the early evening before they start,

I've only attended 3 so far, first two I had just driven

back from Essex & this time I had just returned from the IoW!

Over the next couple of hours I was glued to the PC screen

flipping between the SCAG SGL page & various weather

& satellite image sites

At 7.10pm Russ posted that it was chucking down in

Eastleigh (& it had been very heavy rain in southampton

just before), & that he was giving it a miss (raging tooth ache also being a very understandable factor in this decision)

The SCAG network all duely reported back local weather

conditions almost minute by minute on the forum, which was

a great help building up a picture of the surrounding

conditions.

By 8pm a couple of us (Lawrence, Chris & Keiran) had

committed to giving it a go. Then followed an hour's rushed

packing & preparation of provisions & the drive to the

observing site - Turf Hill, in the New Forest.

Surprisingly, I was first on the scene - the drive over

giving me a good view of the distant horizons & it really

did look like a wasted journey. I sat on my own in a

darkening car park, fired up the laptop & mobile broadband

& posted at 9.15pm on the SCAG page that Russ's call not to

bother was a good one - it was wall to wall (horizon to

horizon) solid, thick cloud.

As I finished posting, Chris rolled up & we broke open the

coffee & the hobnobs, which Keiran must have smelt as he

turned up shortly after. I think the 3 of us were pretty

dispondant at this point as we chatted, hobnob & coffee in

hand.

Then around 10pm we noticed a clear patch of sky had

developed directly overhead. This clear patch grew rapidly

& the call to scrambled kit was put out! During which time

Steve arrived, swelling our ranks to an untypical lowly four!

Half way through setting up it started spitting

with rain again, despite the sky now being almost totally &

unbelievably free of cloud & us having no idea where the light rain was coming from - the cloud had just 'vanished' within

a very short time frame. Luckily, I had brought along

'shower' protection - a pop-up gazebo which covered mine &

Keiran's kit, which we had purposely positioned close

together - 'just in case'.

Within 10 minutes the drizzle had stopped & the sky was

wall to wall clear. The gazebo was lifted, moved along &

away from our kit & set to half mast to avoid blocking our

sky view.

Keiran & I had setup full imaging kit, with me trying out

my new (to me) AP 6" APO for only the second time.....&

still having various issues as I struggled to get good

balance using a dual saddle system with a Goliath scope on

one side & a David guiding scope the other, & probably too

much weight on an EQ6 for comfortable imaging, so I mainly

stuck with trying my AP 6" out visually. Keiran faired

better setting his system up & was imaging after a

couple of star alignment attempts. Chris & Steve had gone

for the sensible-considering-the-earlier-conditions light weight option of bins, & in Steve's case, tee-shirt & shorts, which even in August in the UK, was a tad optimistic!

.......& so started one epic night's viewing. I'm

inexperienced, having only started astro earlier this year,

so I defer to those with greater knowledge in such things:-

Steve declared it "easily the most transparent night we

have had for years"

Chris "I've never seen such a crystal clear sky, and to see

the Milky Way as it was last night was just un-believable"

Keiran "probably one of if not the best sky i have ever

seen"

......I'll just say it was "Awesome!"

During the night, there were calls of joy from Steve as he

spotted wonder after wonder in the night sky, giving up its

secrets under these fantastic viewing conditions. Steve

said that it was only the 2nd time he had seen NGC7000 with

small binos.

Steve was very patient guiding me onto Keembles cascade

through binos - I'd never heard of this before, let alone

seen, & it was a beautiful sight in his bins - a vertical

white line waterfall spilling into a small silvery pool.

Stunning.

The Milky Way was extremely visible right across the night

sky, & as imaging with my poorly setup 6" was out of the question, I broke out the standard camera tripod & 15mm fisheye lens for some

horizon to horizon stitched panos for my imaging fix - & as

much to prove to the rest of SCAG that it really did clear

that night as anything, & not just a pact to conjure up a cover story to save face by those foolish enough to venture out on what

appeared to be such a poor evening.

Back on the 6" I targetted M13, M92, M57 amoungst others & shared the views, but alot of the night I was just aimlessly scanning the Milky Way or on Jupiter. Jupiter was ace, we had a transiting Ganymeade appearing as a bump on Jupiters circumferance. I just wish I'd imaged it more & better now with such great conditions!

At about 2.45am, an under dressed Steve, wrapped in a

blanket he had found in his car (which did look like a very

fetching dress), called it a night, shortly followed by

Chris.

Keiran & myself however soldiered on until the dawn light

forced us to stop - & even then were were chasing the

darkness across the sky picking out targets far to the

West.

We packed up & left the site at 5am, & I was in bed by

5.30am for a few hours sleep before my young boys (3.5 & 6

yo's) came in to wake me with a cheery "its 7.54 Daddy", &

I was forced to abandon my sleep to see to their

needs.....but it was such an brilliant night, it was worth

only getting a few hours sleep for!

.....hope I don't have to wait two years for another such night.

[James]

What a great report and what a great night by the sounds of things. I'm glad to hear it turned out alright in the end

James

[Nexus 6]

Excellent read! Looks as if you guys had a night to remember

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really nice report. Just goes to show how perseverance pays off.

[Astro Imp]

That was a great report, I really enjoyed reading it and am pleased for you guys for taking a chance and being so well rewarded.