New Zealand Dispatches

[moondog]

I went to the Nelson AS 'Telescope Night' on 4 September.. This was held in a local school on the outskirts of Nelson in a dark sky site. It's as well that it was held in the school hall as it was raining cats and dogs outside. This of course did not deter the astro community, who will turn up no matter what! The Nelson AS had recently moved their observatory adjacent the school site a few months previously. I didn't go into the observatory this time, but will once the weather is better (it's the equivalent of March in the UK 'down under'.) There were about 25 people and some 16 scopes on show - plus my little ZS66.

The evening started off with one of the members giving a brief introduction to the various telescope types - mainly for the benefit of the members of the public who were present.

The surprise to me was the number of reflectors on Dobsonian mounts - must have been 60% of the scopes on show. There were only a few refractors, all on Alt-Az mounts and the same number of small SCT's and Mak's all on Alt-Az mounts, only one of which was driven. Not a single EQ mount, driven or otherwise - apart from a new member who had brought a brand new C8 on a Celestron CG5-GT (coffe grinder) EQ driven mount over from Ireland. He has just emigrated, and, since he is a newbie, he wants help with setting up and using his equipment. We had a quick discussion and, in exchange for helping him, I get to borrow the equipment!

Two of the Dobsonian reflectors were plus 12ins (300mm) big guns. Both were fitted with encoder motors and had computerised 'Push To' equipment. One of these scopes had been built by the owner and he'd done a great job. There were a also a number of children, some of whom had brought their scopes and it was good to see the younger generation taking an interest in astronomy.

No-one in the AS has done any imaging and I agreed to give an introductory talk on the subject at a later AS meeting. By then I hope to have produced some pics in the NZ using the borrowed driven mount and the ZS66 / C8 instead of just the Canon 350D on a photo tripod.

I can't wait for the next few clear nights.

8)

MD

[Tim]

Great report MD, how ARE the skies over there? You are missing nothing but clouds over here

TJ

[centroid]

An interesting report John.

You seem to have integrated very nicely into the local AS, and I'm sure your knowledge of imaging, will be a great asset to them.

I reckon you've got to be a 'prime candidate' for winning the Nelson AS 'Picture of the Week'.

Dave

[Jeff RV]

Nice report, Beautiful clear skies, And i take it the DSO's etc are the right way up when viewed through the scope then sort of?

Jeff.

[moondog]

TJ - We've been here nearly 3 weeks and there were a lot of clear skies the first week or so. Jet lag meant that I couldn't make the most of them unfortunately. I guess there have been about 8 clear nights since we arrived - better than I got in the UK in over 3 months! The skies here are much more transparent and have less LP as well.

Dave- Since I'd be the only one with an imaging set up I might have a slight chance - but I wouldn't bet on it !

Jeff - The DSO's are still the wrong way up unfortunatey, since I brought an erecting diagonal for both terrestial and astro use !

8)

MD