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Lightbucket's Garden Meet

MikeP

By MikeP
in Star Parties & Astro Events

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MikeP

MikeP

Posted
Posted

Lightbucket was kind enough to offer the use of his garden to a group of us who have been looking for a dark site. Starjumper and I were able to visit last night but sadly Astro_baby and TheThing were unable to join us.

The garden is in a semi-rural location in Sussex and has good views in all directions, as long as you can move around a bit to dodge the house and the odd tree. There is some LP but mainly towards Gatwick and London. It is a lovely place to live.

When I arrived at 5:30 it was already starting to get dark and lots of stars were visible. Starjumper was collimating his scope with Lightbucket's assistance, so I set up and tweaked the collimation of my FlexTube. By then, the Milky Way was visible so we knew we were in a for a good night.

Lightbucket was collecting more subs for his NGC7331 image but in between he showed great skill at finding Messiers with his 16" Lightbridge. How he found M33 and M74 is a mystery to me because they were so faint. As well as M33 and M74, objects observed included M31, M110, M13, M15, M45, M57, some lovely starfields and some very pretty doubles - there were several more Messiers (one of which I could not see because I wasn't tall enough to reach the eyepiece) - I'm sure Starjumper and Lightbucket will add the missing ones later.

My lesson from the night is to put the RDF back on the dob - I struggled with a right angled finder because there were too many stars visible but nevertheless my familiarity with the sky continues to improve while I've temporarily suspended use of my goto mount.

I had a great time, hopefully the others did too. Just meeting and chatting to fellow astronomers is always a pleasure and always a learning experience. Last night had the bonus of being a good night for observing too. Thanks to Lightbucket, Mrs Lightbucket and all the little Lightpails for putting up with strange men wandering around in their garden.

Mike

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Starjumper

Starjumper

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A big thank you to Lightbucket and Mrs lightbucket and Mike P for what was my best ever night starwatching, I managed too see M13,M15,M31,M32,M33,M57,M74,M76,M110 NGC7331 and several clusters , Double Cluster and double stars.

In the eyes of a newbie it was truly awesome, I also really appreciated being able to talk to other people and get some good advice as well as tips and help, I even managed to collimate my scope, who knows whats next I might be able get my mount polar aligned lol.

A big thanks to Sam and Mike....

John

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TheThing

TheThing

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Gutted to have missed it. Sounds like you had a good time though. I'm soooo looking forward to the next meet. (When, when?!?)

My 6pm appointment had to wait until 6.30 as the meter ate my money and didn't give me a ticket. Then it took hours and the journey home (from Clapham) was a nightmare!

Finally got in at about 9.30pm! Thought about you guys out in the cold, and cursed my rotten luck!

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Sam

Sam

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It was certainly a great night. It was great to meet John and to see Mike again. Hugh, we'll probably plan another one in a couple of weeks or so that hopefully you and Mel can make as well (and anyone else who's around) :)

Sam

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Sam

Sam

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There's plenty of room in my garden - Bedford is a long way to drive though! It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't that little village with the Ferris wheel by the river between here and Bedford :) :)

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