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SGL 10 Chatter :)

NickK

By NickK
in SGL 10

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Uranium235

Uranium235

Posted
Posted

Nice image Tich, the background noise might be some dodgy air/mist moving through. I had to chuck most of what I took on Thursday night with the DSLR as they were a bit red with background noise (was a bit misty).

Same here, I often just set it off guiding - then walk away, coming back occasionally to check things. Not that much went wrong, just some network issues (found to be a dodgy network cable) and me leaving a b-mask on for 40 min without realising it (Hmmmm my stars look a bit spikey..... doh!).

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tich

tich

Posted
Posted

Nice image Tich, the background noise might be some dodgy air/mist moving through. I had to chuck most of what I took on Thursday night with the DSLR as they were a bit red with background noise (was a bit misty).

Same here, I often just set it off guiding - then walk away, coming back occasionally to check things. Not that much went wrong, just some network issues (found to be a dodgy network cable) and me leaving a b-mask on for 40 min without realising it (Hmmmm my stars look a bit spikey..... doh!).

 LOL I haven't managed to leave the B mask on yet but I'm sure there will be a first time, Sunday was pretty clear for most of the time with it getting a bit hazy at one point for about an hour then it got better again. I did throw out quite a few subs of the triplet but only around 4 or 5 of the needle galaxy & that looked pretty clean even after some initial stretches so either the sky was better or it was colder so the camera was producing less noise who knows. Just a shame the flats never worked so that something else I need to work on but other than that I'm pretty pleased.

Anyway this isn't getting my stuff packed away so best get cracking!!

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MickD

MickD

Posted
Posted

Had a great time, 4 nights observing, great view of the eclipse, meeting up with old friends & new.

Organisation & campsite outstanding as usual.

Not trying to image and actually looking through my scope was a nice change.

Thanks to all who arranged it & see you next year.

Mick & Jill

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AllanJ

AllanJ

Posted
Posted

A couple of images now that I have had a chance to process them:

First, the Moon (when you scroll down a bit)

post-1897-0-63121900-1427208751_thumb.jp

For this comet image I have been getting to grips with the comet tracking option in PHD2. A composite of three 20 minute subs.

post-1897-0-89423600-1427208730_thumb.jp

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AstroTux

AstroTux

Posted
Posted

Got back to Shindig in one hit, arriving about 00:20 this morning. Just twelve hours from Lucksall - is this a record :evil::grin: !! And the first rain/snow we'd seen in six days was encountered as we crossed Rannoch Moor - as well as a large number of deer in the dark :shocked: .

Many thanks to all those who took part in the organisation of SGLX and especially to Daz as the stand-in Grant. Well done all.

SGLX will go down as a one-off. How many star-parties have you been to in the UK when it never rained in five days and we had observing sessions every night? And they even laid on a solar eclipse for us!! The only down-side being that despite it being there, the burger van was closed every night :evil: :evil: . It's been good to catch up with you all again, and even to have drunk a tiny bit too much whisky with some of you ( you know who you are :evil:  ).

Just a couple of piccies:

post-17616-0-13796500-1427214093_thumb.j

Allan was so concerned about not driving on grass he thought he'd try driving on some other substance.......

post-17616-0-40713200-1427214165_thumb.j

Haydn trying to be fashionably early for the hog roast.

post-17616-0-00938300-1427214217_thumb.j

I'm not sure this is a dance move Micheal Flately would recognise.

All the best folks, and looking forward to next year ( maybe ),

Alan

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Helen

Helen

Posted
Posted

Has anyone got a picture of Linda's fabulous cake???  I'm really disappointed that my phone has lost the ones I took  :sad:   The world really needs to see the awesomeness of it  :grin:  (tasted good too!)

Helen

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AndyUK

AndyUK

Posted
Posted

Hi Helen - I got one... And yes, It was an incredible piece of baking (and it tasted very nice too, and I'm not normally a cake person :))

P1010129_zps3l5gxzjf.jpg

And whilst I'm uploading, I got this panoramic up at Madley...

P1010107_zpstjo6ahah.jpg

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
Posted

Here's my summary  :

Having completed the school event to observe the eclipse (or what we could see of it in cloudy Stockport) I rushed home at lunchtime and packed the car. Getting my 16” dob, 120mm ED frac and PST mod as well as eyepieces, all my camping gear, food etc was  a real challenge given that I drive a Daewoo Lanos (a car not that much bigger than a Ford Fiesta!). The removal of the passenger seat is a foregone conclusion.

I got down to Lucksall for about 5pm and my neighbour for the weekend, Stu (who morphed from Bigmakstutov to Bigsumorian over the weekend) kindly helped me put up my tent and even offered a brew on arrival – top man. Other SGLers arrived to help just in time for there to be nothing to do – thanks guys – you know who you are!

Amazingly, the skies looked like they were going to be clear for at least part of the night and this was the case over the whole weekend (and in fact before and after I was there). We got at least four to five hours real observing on the Friday when the skies were quite transparent at times. Also on the Saturday night for at least two to three hours, but with a little more milkiness to the sky. During the daytime on the Saturday, conditions were great for solar observing.

Here’s what I can recall seeing over the weekend over both nights and I am delighted with the tally, as the usual tally from several recent star parties has been a big fat zero- in fact the last two I don’t think I even saw our own star let alone any others!

Jupiter – wonderful transit of the GRS on the first night and an Io moon and shadow transit on the second night.

Venus – nice, slightly gibbous phase seen well through the 120ED and Lunt Wedge.

NGC 884 / 869 Double Cluster – always wonderful from dark sites and visible naked eye here

Comet Lovejoy – still glowing away near Cassiopeia

M37 – always the pick of the bunch for me in Auriga. Derek (DRT) and Stu (Bigsumorian) “kindly” let me borrow their 17mm Ethoses over the night and yes, OK. They are ‘not bad’.

M38 – one of the others in Auriga

M35 and companion NGC 2158 – really spectacular pair.

NGC 2392. The Eskimo Nebula – better unfiltered and gorgeous as ever. In the same constellation NGC 2371-2 was another planetary nebula showing a bi-lobed/waisted appearance and much brighter than at home. A little like M76.

Close by I panned down to the Rosette nebula and cluster NGC 2237/8 and NGC2244 which showed reasonably well with the Oiii despite less than ideal conditions on the Sunday.

Cr 69 – the cluster around Meissa in Orion.

M42 and 43 – of course!

Pleiades cluster – M45 in Taurus.

M1, the Crab Nebula was a small thumbprint on my eyepiece.

M81 and M82 were truly stunning as a pair in the same field. Move a little to one side and NGC3077 came into view – also surprisingly bright. Also in UMa I located the Owl Nebula M97 easily with the Oiii and observed at least one of the darker ‘eyes’. This object even unfiltered was brighter than the nearby galaxy M108. M106 stood out well against the darker skies than I have at home as did M101 (some structure noted) and M51/NGC 5195 (lots of structure noted).

Further ‘down’ I noted M94 and M63, galaxies in CVe along with the reasonably faint NGC4618 and one of my favourites of the weekend NGC4490 and NGC4485, the Cocoon Galaxy and companion. The curved shape of the Cocoon was really quite noticeable.

Over in Leo the triplet (M65, M66 and NGC 3628) was very easily seen ‘smiling’ over us. All three galaxies in the same field of the big dob is a great sight. NGCs 3681, 3681 and 3686 in a tight line was also a fabulous thing to see for the first time.

I bottled it with Virgo as I always got lost and conditions on the second night were not so good. However, I picked up NGC4672, NGC4754 and NGC4694 along with M60 before just panning around and taking in the masses of galaxies within the whole area. To have 10 galaxies in the field at any one time is reward enough, the names can come later.

I moved up to Coma and wanted to see one galaxy in particular, the Needle Galaxy NGC4565. This was my favourite object of the whole weekend. With averted vision the arms of this side on beast extended like huge spikes in the field either side of the central bulge. Quite awe inspiring. Nearby other galaxies seen were NGCs 4559, 4494 and 4448 along with M64, the Blackeye Galaxy which revealed the reason for the name. After locating the delicate globular, M53, I tried once again to locate the NGC globular 5053. Could not see anything remotely like what I expected though.

Late on the Saturday night, Hercules looked spectacular as the keystone rose about the hillside to the east. M13 was superb as always and revealed the propeller readily. M92 was also lovely and is much underrated. In my opinion though, even these excellent objects were eclipsed (see what I did there?) by M3. Truly spectacular in every way.

I have almost certainly forgotten a few objects observed over the nights at Lucksall but it matters not. What a great set of objects and brilliant to observe again and meet with friends, old and new.

Thanks to all the organisers.

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John

John

Posted
Posted

Thats a great haul Shane :smiley:

I had a number of great views through the scope at SGLX but I think my highlights were the eclipse (of course !) and observing Markarian's Chain of galaxies in Virgo, which I'd not done before. I managed to squeeze 10/11 galaxies in the same field of view at the "top" end of the chain and then got another eyepiece full of fuzzies as I panned down the chain. Amazing sight :smiley:

Another "first" for me was being able to clearly see galaxies M51 and M101 in my 9x50 finder scope. The latter one can be a challenge to see in the main scope at home !

The session on Friday night between around 10:00 pm and midnight was the best I feel but we had some good viewing on all 3 nights that I was there.

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Stu

Stu

Posted
Posted

Great stuff Shane. A fine haul certainly. Would have been great to have you and Calvin around on Sunday too, conditions similar to Friday all night, perhaps better by 5am!

Thanks for your company as always, and suggestions of good targets. The Needle Galaxy was a new one for me, and really great to see.

I'll do a write up of my observing sessions when I get a chance.

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wookie1965

wookie1965

Posted
Posted

With the peak star party cancelled this year im looking around for another star party to go to getting a new(second hand) car first then i will be able to go near enough anywhere hope i can go to Lucksall soon, looking forward to meeting new people and catching up with old friends.

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tich

tich

Posted
Posted

I got home by mid afternoon & felt pretty washed out after the unpacking, I've just made up a video of some shots & a few timelapses of the event :evil: It was great seeing you all again & seeing new faces. Thanks to all who organised it & to the staff at Lucksall for putting up with us :p I apologise that the Burgers were off this year & I think this is the first star party where I've came back with more booze then I took.
Looking forward to coming next year so hope to see you all there.

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Daniel-K

Daniel-K

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I'll probably do a small write up over the weekend after I finish my night shifts. NGC 4244 a huge side on Galaxy which I was glad many people saw was a treat on the Sunday night and picking out Very bright HA regions in M101 with steve. Given I have had my scope since December this was the first half decent night I've had with and very pleased with the optics after a few worries after looking trough stews awesome zoom in had to use it in my scope just to make sure it wasn't my mirrors that where underperformaning. Turns out it was just a extremely good eyepiece. Thanks for that stu.

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wookie1965

wookie1965

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Posted

I got home by mid afternoon & felt pretty washed out after the unpacking, I've just made up a video of some shots & a few timelapses of the event :evil: It was great seeing you all again & seeing new faces. Thanks to all who organised it & to the staff at Lucksall for putting up with us :p I apologise that the Burgers were off this year & I think this is the first star party where I've came back with more booze then I took.

Looking forward to coming next year so hope to see you all there.

Fabulous video and the Leo triplet looks amazing.

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