Samos holiday observing - June/July 2015

[JamesF]

Sounds like you did pretty well, Stu.  Nice report

James

[Stu]

looks like your little girl was loving it stu. you have changed loads stu since i last seen you at sgl10. im refering to your pose on the look out tower

Tee hee Mike. Two weeks sunshine and too much nice food and I do do a good impression of a little tubby Greek man

[Mark at Beaufort]

Nice report Stu and some great holiday photos. I have never been to Greece or any of the islands so perhaps I should. I am still in the united states but return this weekend. Although I took a spotter scope I preferred the large binos when observing in Yosemite

[faulksy]

just come back myself stu from ibiza the north of the island, some lovely spots for stargazing, it was great with my 20x80 bins that i bought of mark. kids loved it,taught them how to snorkel as well . some great photos there and glad you had a great time

[Stu]

Nice report Stu and some great holiday photos. I have never been to Greece or any of the islands so perhaps I should. I am still in the united states but return this weekend. Although I took a spotter scope I preferred the large binos when observing in Yosemite

Thanks Mark. They are certainly worth a visit.

Glad you had good skies over there. Interesting re the spotter, what sized binos were you using?

[Mark at Beaufort]

Thanks Mark. They are certainly worth a visit.

Glad you had good skies over there. Interesting re the spotter, what sized binos were you using?

Stu I had the 15x70 binos. They gave great views of Scorpio and Sagittarius.

[Mark at Beaufort]

just come back myself stu from ibiza the north of the island, some lovely spots for stargazing, it was great with my 20x80 bins that i bought of mark. kids loved it,taught them how to snorkel as well . some great photos there and glad you had a great time

Mike I am glad the binos came in useful. Certainly they come in very handy for holidays.

[Stu]

Stu I had the 15x70 binos. They gave great views of Scorpio and Sagittarius.

Lovely stuff Mark. At low mag I guess a pair of larger Aperture binos is pretty good. Out of interest, why did you not use the spotter much? Not as bright as the binos?

[Stu]

Thought this was interesting, the comparison between my home location and Pythagoreio on Samos. M7 is at 3.7 degrees at home, 17.5 on Samos, quite a difference.

[YKSE]

Looks like you've had a great vacation down there,   Stu, some really nice stuffs you've got, I may need a trip like this to finish my Messier list.

BTW, nice travel kit you have there, when did you Swaro your zoom?

[Walshie79]

Lovely reports. Not been to Samos but have been to Rhodes and Crete, there's some great sights for observing round there. I remember seeing a lot of that haze in Rhodes (in August) but not Crete (in May); it seems to be a high summer thing.

The ability to see further south is a great bonus, even if nowadays we don't have it quite as good as the ancients (who could see Alpha Centauri and Crux from Greece). Even southern France is far enough to get all of Scorpius above the horizon. How did the 15x70s manage the plane journey? I'm going to Mexico next year and am wondering whether to take the 25x70s or get a pair of lighter bins, say 10x50s..

[Stu]

Lovely reports. Not been to Samos but have been to Rhodes and Crete, there's some great sights for observing round there. I remember seeing a lot of that haze in Rhodes (in August) but not Crete (in May); it seems to be a high summer thing.

The ability to see further south is a great bonus, even if nowadays we don't have it quite as good as the ancients (who could see Alpha Centauri and Crux from Greece). Even southern France is far enough to get all of Scorpius above the horizon. How did the 15x70s manage the plane journey? I'm going to Mexico next year and am wondering whether to take the 25x70s or get a pair of lighter bins, say 10x50s..

Thanks Walshie. Yes, I tend to agree that the haze is a heat related thing.

It was Mark who took his 15x70s and had no problems as I understand it. I guess 25x70 would be similar weight and so ok, but you would need a tripod too presumably? That could go in hold luggage.

I took my 76mm scope in hand luggage and had no problems all.

[Tzitzis]

Sounds like you and your family had a good time!

Really glad about it! Hope you come again. We have many other beautiful islands... It is sad that we the Greeks can't afford to go right now .

Anyway thanks for leading me to your report! Nicely done!

[alan potts]

Must have missed this with being away myself, great report as usual you have 5 degrees on me there and that can make a difference on those low Messiers, M6 and 7etc. Samos don't seem to have changed much as that habour light was there when I  went back in the 90's, I like this island may be nice to go back.

Alan.

[Paz]

That sounds like a good holiday and your report is very good - lots of useful reference info for people like me to pick up about what you can see and with what bits of kit.

[Racey]

Stunning read @Stu used this and the Devon & Dorset escapades as the basis of an observing list for our trip to La Palma next week... Thanks for taking the time to write this 

[Stu]

On 20/03/2017 at 16:04, Racey said:

Stunning read @Stu used this and the Devon & Dorset escapades as the basis of an observing list for our trip to La Palma next week... Thanks for taking the time to write this 

How did the trip go Simon? Any luck with observing some of the more southerly objects?

[Racey]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

How did the trip go Simon? Any luck with observing some of the more southerly objects?

Stu,

It was firstly the most beautiful, unspoiled island. We stayed on the warmer, drier and clearer West coast. The charm of the simple, "non touristy" side of the island was bewitching. 

The villa we rented was 750m up a hillside with fabulous views. During the day time we observed Sparrow Hawks nesting and mating. As well as the most astonishing white light solar views through the 70mm Carbon Tube. 2 of the most spectacular sunspot areas evolved magnificently during the week. 

And after all that we quenched our thirst at a little micro brewery at the base of the hill run by two lovely Belgians, that retired from the brewing industry, and realised  The island was short on quality beer.   They had set up a small brewery providing Belgian style dark and light beers and a lovely Tapas restaurant.  Their most expensive bottle was €1:10 !!!

In the evenings the skies were astonishingly clear and dark.  We stayed up late most nights, but also set the alarm early in the morning to be able to see  targets like Saturn  and the clusters and nebulae in that region. 

We've never seen anything like it.   The little travel scope we took performed beautifully as did the little  8x32 EL Swarovskis we took.  Clusters we have struggled to see in binoculars here in the UK were visible to the naked eye. 

 We took a trip to the top of the volcano and were  blown away by the 10.4 meter telescope  at the top of the mountain. They even gave us a full demonstration of it  rotating within the dome.  We are looking forward to going back. 

 On that subject, we have already booked a much larger four bedroomed villa higher on the hill above where we stayed  for next year. 

 If you are partial to dark skies, good company, Belgian beer, and a cheap two week break in a luxury villa, why don't we meet to discuss… 

[Racey]

[Cjg]

That sounds a perfect spot for a holiday @Racey. Did you book this independently or use a travel company?  Probably next year now but planning to get South to have a good look at the objects in Sagittarius. 

Thank you,

Chris

[Racey]

3 minutes ago, Cjg said:

That sounds a perfect spot for a holiday @Racey. Did you book this independently or use a travel company?  Probably next year now but planning to get South to have a good look at the objects in Sagittarius. 

Thank you,

Chris

Chris 

We picked up two cheap flights from Gatwick on EasyJet. I booked a hire car directly with Avis and we found the villa via  http://www.lascasascanarias.com/en/index.php

The villa rental company were so helpful. Communicated in English and only took a deposit. Keys were in the door when we arrived and they only came to collect the remaining dues in cash a couple of days after we arrived. 

We were so impressed we booked a bigger place we spotted on the same hillside for longer next year while we were out there. 

PM me if you want any more details 

Simon

[Stu]

Looks an amazing spot Simon! Certainly well worth considering for future. Getting somewhere with altitude and a southerly latitude is a real bonus.

Need to see how the finances look before thinking about anything else though!

[Cjg]

Thank you Simon, that's a great help.

Chris