Interested in joining a new Warwickshire observers Group?

[Flyingpig 12]

Hi Dave,

If the weather is clear I hope to be able to make it tomorrow night, I need to see if I can find a new power cable for my CPC1100 as its gone missing

I don't know if I lost it at the site when we were checking it out the other week.

I need to nip by the garden centre tomorrow and see Tim regarding the venue for our social meetings.

[Flyingpig 12]

Sorry - not me - have caught a horrible bug !!

Hope your better soon Viv, if your lucky it might have cleared up by tomorrow! - Lets just hope the cloud will have cleared up too!

It was good to see you last week, you'll have to give me a few pointers with my Canon 40D for astrophotography.

[Viv 218]

Cheers Phil - still not right, so keeping inside.

Looking good for no cloud though.

Ummm - can tell you lots, of what not to do ;-)

Have a nice evening x

[wearedave 10]

Andy, Scarlet, shame you cant make it. Hopefully be able to meet you next time.

I should be there about 8:30 - 9ish again. Have just modified a MS lifecam so looking forward to giving a try on Jupiter and Saturn.

[scogyrd 12]

Where are you going?

I wouldn't mind coming along to see how dark the skies are, and to meet some other astronomers.

[Flyingpig 12]

Hi all,

We are meeting up tonight at the Sulby Farm observing site since the forecast is for clear skies. I should be there at around 8.30 there is a link to a map of the location earlier in this thread for those who have not been yet. I have not had a chance to check out the other planned locations yet but I should have more time this week. If you can make it tonight to the Sulby farm location it will be great to see you.

Phil

[Flyingpig 12]

Saturday night (25th Feb) observing session was indeed good the 'seeing' was better than the previous Saturday and the skies appeared to be darker too, its possible there may have been a very thin layer of high level cloud on the first Saturday that was barely noticeable but yet affected the seeing and reflected some light pollution from the surrounding towns.

Following a rather wet cloudy day the skies cleared and Andy, Dave, Simon and

Myself made it out at relatively short notice. We were joined briefly by a few

young adults who live at the residence on site; I was aligning my scope at the

time so Simon kept them entertained with views of the Orion Nebula, Mars etc and they showed a keen interest.

I managed to get my Celestron CPC1100 up and running, the lost power cable

remained elusive so I visited Maplins earlier in the day and constructed a fresh

cable.

Mars was certainly a sight to behold, the polar cap was clearly visible and was well defined by the darker Boreosyrtis. Further south the equatorial dark patch areas of Mare Cimmerium and Syrtis Major were clear whilst the lighter southern regions Eridania and Hellas did not appear particularly bright at the present time.

Having experimented with filters last Saturday we again tried using a few colour

filters on Mars, I was this time limited to the use my 13mm Celestron Ultima LX

EP it being the only 2" EP in my collection to accommodate 1.25" filters; Green

#56 on this occasion worked well for me whilst Simon preferred the Orange.

I observed a few stray meteors over the course of the evening but nothing as

fabulous as the fireball on the previous occasion.

Globular clusters M1, M3 and M5 were observed, the Whirlpool Galaxy, Perseus

Cluster, Open Clusters the Beehive Cluster and M52 and the Arrow Cluster - this arrow shaped cluster northeast of M52 in Cassiopeia was an asterism listed in the Goto Database of the CPC1100; but for which I can find little documentation.

When Saturn rose to a reasonable altitude later in the very early hours of

Sunday and it too was a fabulous sight, Saturn tried hard to steel the show from excellent Mars and with the excellent quality seeing it was possible to discern banding around the planetary disc; whilst in the rings the cassini division (a gap between the A and B ring systems) was just about visible. It is nice to see a good elevation to the ring systems once again after suffering from the edge on view in recent years.

Dave tried to image Saturn using his Newtonian and a modded Microsoft webcam but he had problems with focusing so switched to use Andy's trusty Philips SPC880 - I'll be interested to see how the footage turns out.

All in all it was a fantastic nights observing for those of us who managed it, it's great to share the observing through a variety of different equipment and to share our knowledge with each other; thanks to all of you.

Sorry that there wasn't much notice of meeting up this time; at first the weather didn't look very promising but it began to clear over the early evening and it became obvious that it was going to be clear.

Phil

[Viv 218]

Sounds like a great evening Phil.

Hope to come along to next outing.

[Brumtaffy 10]

That's a great report Phil

Those of us who couldn't make it are damned jealous. A bientot!

[Dazz8se 11]

Im based in nuneaton and would be very interested in joining in .any luck with the north of nuneaton site ? Waiting on a powertank then i can leave the confines of my light polluted backyard

[Tim 3,573]

Sounds good Phil

Tim

[cyborg421 85]

Phil and Myself have set up a yahoo group CentralMidlandsStargazers.

The link is here.

CentralMidlandsStargazers : Central Midlands Stargazers

Membership needs to be approved by moderators but please feel free to apply and be kept up to date with all the latest news. A website is in the early stages of production and will be up when it is complete.

We may be possibly going out to Sibbertoft tonight.

Simon

Edited March 3, 2012 by cyborg421

[BagintonGazer 12]

I live in Baginton, would be interested but would need to beg for a lift as no transport :-( also, looking to set up a star party for OAS via FB. Would you be interested in joing us on theoght if we can set it up?

[Flyingpig 12]

I live in Baginton, would be interested but would need to beg for a lift as no transport

Should be able to help you there I will send you a PM

OAS? Is that Oxford AS? We certainly might be interested, please send me the details by PM

Phil

[Dazz8se 11]

Should be able to help you there I will send you a PM

OAS? Is that Oxford AS? We certainly might be interested, please send me the details by PM

Phil

Online Astronomy Society ..

ive sent you a pm about our starparty

[Flyingpig 12]

We are meeting tonight at our Sibbertoft dark site apologies for short notice of this on SGL, my post didn't send earlier, hopefully members got the email.

Phil

[IanLinux 10]

I notice also that there isn't a Birmingham/West Midlands Social Group connected with this excellent forum - apart from one based in Staffs under the West Midlands heading. As someone from South Birmingham looking to buy his first scope again after many years, I might have to apply join you fellas (if you'll have me) as the light pollution appears, on first investigation, to be a really major negative.

Edited March 11, 2012 by IanLinux

[Flyingpig 12]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your interest, you are very welcome to join us.

You can visit our website for more details - just click on Central Midlands Stargazers in my sig below or PM me.

I have also sent you a PM

Phil

[laser_jock99 6,470]

Any joy with the Southam site yet? I should be getting some astro gear moved into the Midlands soon.

[Viv 218]

Is anything on for this weekend ??

[Flyingpig 12]

It is looking like cloud until Sunday evening, but if things should change I will let you know - first place to check is the forum.

Website also is now up and is online - just a few less important pages to finish constructing and then adding cosmetic touches but you can find it at Central Midlands Stargazers (or just click my sig below to go there).

Of course if anyone wants to meet Sunday evening I'm happy!

Phil

[White230 10]

Nice little site. I hope to pop along at some point, it is quite far for me roughly 50 miles one way. But I'll make an exception for guaranteed good weather

[Flyingpig 12]

It seems like cloud is forecast for tonight, but Sunday night is looking quite good - does anyone want to meet up at Sibbertoft tomorrow night?

[Viv 218]

Sorry Phil - Sunday isn't a good one, with work / school following day.

[Viv 218]

Phil - sorry Sunday isn't good with work / school the following day. Think it could be a garden evening though ............