weather on our side????

[sologuitarist61]

Good to hear that you all had a good night and that the seeing was good. Many more of them - let's hope so anyway.

[LukeSuppalot]

... pointing out the Lagoon nebula (I think thats what you said it was?) and seeing it with the naked eye was unreal!

It certainly was Mike. M8, The Lagoon Nebula and the other that we could just make out (above and to the right of M8) was The Triffid nebula M20. The skies must have been pretty dark for us to be able to see M20 by eye as it's about Mag 6.3. Did you get around to working out how dark the meter said it was?

[scoobee]

Looking for a good seeing tonight last night was good enough after finding another dark site as my old site has been taken over by adult night games!!!!!

[Mike73]

Did you get around to working out how dark the meter said it was?

No not yet and to be honest I try and work it out and I'm still left scratching my head??

Last nights SQM reading was 21.45, on the link below they call it MSA. If anyone could explain a little better how to convert SQM (MSA) readings into a LM figure I'd appreciate it.

http://web.telia.com/~u41105032/visual/Schaefer.htm

[Mike73]

Looking for a good seeing tonight last night was good enough after finding another dark site as my old site has been taken over by adult night games!!!!!

They get everywhere don't they?!

Its clearing here this evening but I'm going to catch up on some sleep and sharpen my pencils for the next few days.

[scoobee]

Sure do, can you give me any tips on what to view with 4" scope tonight please mike

[Mike73]

Sure do, can you give me any tips on what to view with 4" scope tonight please mike

I use Astroplanner to plan my evening outings Matt, its free to download if you just want the basic Messier/Caldwell catalogues. It really is a very good way to keep you organised aswell, just takes a bit of time to get used to it but well worth a look.

Some objects that its given me thats visible in medium power binos for tonight at midnight are - M4/M8/M10/M11/M12/M13/M22/M27/M39/M57/M71/M80 and I'm sure you'll be able to see a lot more with your 4" scope Matt, you just gotta keep away from the dark sites where people are flashing there lights at you!

[scoobee]

Thanks for all the above it does help to gain advice from others just helps me on and others.

As for the flashing lights maybe a gentle request that they use an red light next time, even that sounds bad :shocked:

[Mike73]

Thanks for all the above it does help to gain advice from others just helps me on and others.

I learnt so much last night from Luke, learning off the Internet is great but having someone stood beside you pointing things out is so much better.

We'll have to have a little get together at Colliford some time soon.

[LukeSuppalot]

No not yet and to be honest I try and work it out and I'm still left scratching my head??

Last nights SQM reading was 21.45, on the link below they call it MSA. If anyone could explain a little better how to convert SQM (MSA) readings into a LM figure I'd appreciate it.

http://web.telia.com...al/Schaefer.htm

I found a formula on CN and according to this the sky last night a NELM of 6.78!!! I reckon that it's probably right too. :grin:

The formula is:- NELM = [(SQM - 8.89)/2] + 0.5

[Mike73]

Yep I just found that thread myself but there seems to be variations in how people work it out which shows in there results.

I think I'm going to go with Unihedron calculator results and call last night LM 6.3.

I think it best to use NELM and the SQM meter together as that will show a better idea of what seeing conditions are like.

We just need a big Sumerian each now!

[scoobee]

I learnt so much last night from Luke, learning off the Internet is great but having someone stood beside you pointing things out is so much better.

We'll have to have a little get together at Colliford some time soon.

Mike,sounds good about colliford, i know its been talked about on here but just getting it sorted is going to be a problem.

It would be easy if we can all decide on several saturday nights in a row and if the weather is on our side a dash to colliford could happen.

myself I would not camp a good nights viewing then home

any thoughts

[LukeSuppalot]

I think I'm going to go with Unihedron calculator results and call last night LM 6.3.

I think it best to use NELM and the SQM meter together as that will show a better idea of what seeing conditions are like.

That's more like it. Good bit of kit that SQM meter.

Mike,sounds good about colliford, i know its been talked about on here but just getting it sorted is going to be a problem.

It would be easy if we can all decide on several saturday nights in a row and if the weather is on our side a dash to colliford could happen.

myself I would not camp a good nights viewing then home

any thoughts

I'd be up for that scoobee. I'm less than 15 miles from there so I would probably drive home too. I could make most Saturdays except for the 11th Aug (already booked by my wife and daughter for the Perseids).

Luke

[scoobee]

Firstly, I have just come back from a very good session to repeat the above mentioned the milky way belt was so good.

Shame my goto was playing up, did not make the best of it.

As for colliford i shall be starting a new thread so to guage the interest so look out for it please.

[Flaxinator]

so far weather has been against me, my one possible night of viewing being saturday night, high cloud comes in as it gets dark enough to deploy scope. When the skies ARE clear, i'm in bed as i start work at 6am. Officially hate summer months, can only observe two days a week and can guarantee those nights are cloudy