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Nearly killed by a horse...

estwing

By estwing
in Observing - Reports

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estwing

estwing

Posted
Posted

packed the van at 10am and set off to Faulksy's viewing spot in Snowdonia...a change from Elan as we were unsure about road conditions after all this rain and confronted by a land slide wouldn't of been nice!. Set up as the sun was setting, cloud and a strong wind isn't unusual for this time of year but hey hoy if you don't go you'll never know. Pockets of clear were teasing us followed by very dark cloud..eeek! Temp was around 3* above and finally the cloud broke at 8ish and straight to M31 which again wasn't showing much of dust lanes more hazy core, not seen this decent yet! .Ep used 21 ethos, M33 was there including slight spiral structure, still a better target for binocular fans I think...M1 was revealing a tiny bit a filament but nothing to write home about. A quick drink ,chilli and a wave goodbye to M57..i've missed the boat on the Veil this year so no point in trying now as Orion was rising!..10pm and the wind had dropped and the temp was a steady 2* with no sign of any dew...Mike said how clear the sky was rolling in from the west and bang!..there was hardly any twinkling in the sky apart from the odd Geminid streaking across. So on with the UHC,armed with the 21 I slewed round to M42...words almost fail me when I point the moonshane equipped with a killer Nichol mirror at this target...Steve will know what I mean after the "mugging" the 21E gave his 31 Nag at SWSP...Folks I'm telling you now it was fantastic,not SWSP quality, but damn fine on the eye, the amount of spidery...cotton wool like detail was all there to enjoy...need power...the 13E went in and TBH came out pretty quickly. Lovely as it was the 8mm ethos was calling!..what an eyepiece this is turning out to be,talk about putting you in the middle of the action! Unbelievable, staggering and worth waiting since April to get my dark sky fix. In my ep case its the 13 ethos that's the lonely glass the 8mm is that good.Conditions were improving all through the night so I had to bag the nag!..ages I spent staring at the to and fro..rocking the scope and swapping from eye to eye, with glasses without, checking charts back to the finder and so it went on. Around 11:30 I saw B33 with the faintest of detection. My its tough,tougher than I thought it would be even with the uhc its mega difficult, a proper filter for this target will be next on my shopping list.I felt physically drained by the amount of concentration I'd spent on bagging this. It was now 1225am and dew was starting to settle on stuff, a coffee later and the sky was turning murky...good job I'd just shut the stable door 30 mins ago!!. We set off around 1:30 happy even tho the drive home was long.As I approached Nantwich a slight wobble on the steering wheel woke me up!. Heading down the A500 towards Stoke the front tyre gave way...I had a blow out at 60mph...not funny,not at all funny. I kept control and lucky no-one else was on the road.I finally got to Cheadle at 4amn to find a very welcoming bed.....exhausted by a horse. Clear skies everyone,Calv.

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faulksy

faulksy

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lovely, lovely report calv, nightmare about the tyre mate, you would of thought it would of happened when we went off road if any thing, glad your safe and glad you finally got the HH in the same spot i seen it. mag 21 skys are ace. roll on jan the 11th. shame steve wasnt there though

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Beulah

Beulah

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Nice one, sounds like the sky quality there is the same as my neck of the woods ;) ;)

Glad you missed the weather - all hell is breaking loose here now!!

Pretty much describes my observing experience in and around the area (10 sessions so far, best reading 21.6 mpsas).

Sorry to read about the blowout - happened to me in the middle of nowhere commuting back from work. Lesson...if you venture out to the wilds, be prepared with the right survival kit and get the best recovery service you can afford!

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scarp15

scarp15

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Good work and not short of drama, really good that you got some stimulating time at the eyepiece in between weather systems. Pretty scary incident with the tyre, just as well it wasn't icy conditions. Speaking of which its started to snow here.

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SimonfromSussex

SimonfromSussex

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Super report Calvin. Glad to hear you survived the tyre episode unhurt!

I've found the horsehead elusive some nights and really clear and obvious on others, really depends on conditions in my experience.

The h beta does make a huge difference though.

Nicely done bagging it without!

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