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Wolves and Black Country observing group...


wulfrunian

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What's the best way of getting to Barr Beacon from west Bromwich? I'd love to come. Will have my 2 year old tho do need to know its safe x

You'd need to get a bus from Walsall or from Pheasey / Great Barr and ask the bus driver to let you off on Beacon Road, near Bridle Lane. We will be up on the monument car park between the tree plantation and the war memorial (currently under renovation.) There are usually lots of us, anything from 10 to 60 people show up usually. :-) Dress warm, bring a flask and something to sit on. :-)

Hope to see you there!

Morgan

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Doesn't look like I'll be there :-( just got in from taking binos and 2 year old over the local golf course and she is done in, and has a nasty cough :-( hopefully ill catch some meteors from my front door. Hope you all have an awesome night xxx

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Thanks Pat and Paul for last night. Really was a good evening for astronomy and the 10" skyliner was lovely to look through thanks for sharing the views :D Impressed that the milkyway was so easy to make out. With the moon out the way the site is transformed and as Paul pointed out the double cluster and Andromeda were naked eye objects!

Bit of a nightmare with the autoguiding giving up and the GOTO going from perfect to trying to find objects on the wrong side of the sky!!!!!!! Oh well these things tend to happen from time to time. Very cold night and the cars were iced up before we left but well worth the trip.

Despite the guiding and GOTO not wanting to play got a few 30sec exposures out of Orion. So at least my first pictures of this wonderful nebulosity this season.

Just to show you what I got from a (in terms of imaging) disappointing session heres the 5 minutes worth of data I collected while we were there. Consider also there are none of the usual calibration images to improve it either - hopefully demonstrates how good the site is, potentially for imaging too.

post-15439-0-27635700-1353233030_thumb.j

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Yes a great night again Guys, Thanks to Barry and Pat for bringing the scopes and bino's along - that imaging rig is very nice - I know the cg5 was a little strange last night - it may have been the cold mate and Pats 10" dob really comes into its own from the site - mind you the dew is pretty bad - Pats bino's soon dewed up.

Those images are really nice Barry, that one you showed me and Pat last night - just a 30 second exposure - I wasn't expecting to see a great deal - really surprised me, the colour and the depth of detail - truelly amazing - that was one of the highlights from last night - the other was when we were walking from your set up Barry, to Pats as we went away from your location and across the path just past the large wooden boxes I looked up the slope to where Pat had set up his Bino's and dob - there they were, silhouetted against a starry Orion - really nice mate.

Just looking around the sky last night, very nice and as you said the double cluster and M31 were naked eye - surprised me a little as we were so close to Wolves, didn't think you would be able to see them - but the sky - very nice.

Also, looking for meteors last night was bit of a let down - not many at all.

Thanks again guys and looking forward to the next outing. Cheers Paul.

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I must get up there some time soon - it's been an age.

I would've come up Saturday but I was at the Meteorwatch on Barr Beacon with some friends from Walsall Astro Society.

Despite the clear skies I didn't see one meteor in about 3 hours! :sad:

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I caught one bright one that Paul and Pat missed as they were at the dob, it was very fleeting. I think there was only maybe two or three I saw all night. With Leo a late riser 11pm is going to be a bit early to finish for this particular meteorwatch still expected we would see a few more so a little disappointing.

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Hi guys,

I'm from Sutton Coldfield and am just beginning to get into astronomy. I will be ordering a Skyliner 200P in the next month or so.

Would it be okay to come down and meet some of you guys when you meet up next? I'm a real beginner to this so it would be great to come and meet some more experienced people and get a feel for different equipment etc..

Anthony.

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Hi guys,

I'm from Sutton Coldfield and am just beginning to get into astronomy. I will be ordering a Skyliner 200P in the next month or so.

Would it be okay to come down and meet some of you guys when you meet up next? I'm a real beginner to this so it would be great to come and meet some more experienced people and get a feel for different equipment etc..

Anthony.

Yes no problem. Your not to far from me. We normally post on here when we plan on going.

Steve

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As far as I'm concerned the more the merrier, as Steve said keep an eye on posts here for arrangements. It really is a great site, so far I have only met Paul and Pat there and Morgan at the Meteorwatch events, but if thats a good measure of the calibre of people coming you'll be sure to be in good company :D

Always good to have a look through different scopes and if you don't mind sharing the views it'd be great to have a peek through the 200P when you get it. Will all be willing to help out if you need too. I like to get my teeth into imaging so to be sure to get to site early when I will set my kit up for visual before getting the imaging train on or if things go pear-shaped with the imaging I'll revert to visual setup.

Be nice to get a few of us down there too.

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Hi Anthony, welcome to the SGL mate, the Skyliner is going to give you a great start in astronomy, as Anweniel says - it would be nice to see you at the site - I'm new to the site - only been there a few times, but its a great site to say how close its to Wolverhampton and even just naked eye, its far better than my back garden, and the company is tops - really nice like minded guys - just into astronomy - last time we had Pats 10" dob and Anweniel's imaging set up - 2 totally different set ups - but each give you their own insight into what ever path you decide to steer towards.

I just do visual work - with a little webcam imaging - so - when we all get our heads together you can see how much experience there is - so anything your not sure about - ask away.

As your just starting out - searching the net for tips and advice - finding this site was great for me as there are hundreds of astronomers on here - all with different set ups ranging from - naked eye to set ups costing many thousands of pounds - so someone on here has "done that" or are "doing that at the moment" - even just reading the posts or doing searches - you can find a wealth of detail and advice.

Just a point though - your starting out - if you can put all the fantastic images and photos to the back of your mind when you start using your scope and remember that your never going to see visually, the detail and colours in the images/photos all around us, so, when searching for objects in the sky, many of them are hundreds of thousands of light years away - so many only show up as patches of a sort of misty cloud, grey in colour. (hope I've explained that ok!!!!). But the Moon, brighter planets and alot of the brighter Messier objects are amazing, the Moon will blow you away!!!, the mighty Jupiter with orbiting Moons, cloud bands - not to mention the rings of Saturn - your in for a real treat Anthony, keep in touch on here and let us know when the scope is going to land in Sutton Coldfield!!!!!. Paul.

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Thanks for the welcoming replies. Yeah I'm very excited to be getting the scope and happily do have realistic expectations of what to see through it. I don't think it needs to look like an edited photo from the web through the scope, just being able to see these things with the naked eye is enough to blow me away. I looked at Jupiter through binoculars for the first time when we had a nice clear(ish) night on Friday and it was incredible.

I've subscribed to the thread so next time you're are planning to head down there I'll try my best to meet you. Unsure if I will have the scope by then (there is a good chance this week however), but it'll be fun to just bring some binos down if not.

Cloud weather forecast is not looking too great at the moment though sadly. It's strange only caring about weather at night now.. :)

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Nice 1 Anthony, yeah, you see a lot of people coming into the hobby and "expecting" to see a lot more than they do, but sounds like you've done your homework mate - bet you cant wait for the scope to arrive. I know what you mean about the weather, I'm constantly moving the curtains and having a peep outside - I know - crazy - we had some bino's last time at site, but they soon dewed up, but the sky is very nice there - you can see the Milky Way and to be honest - just looking around the sky - its great.

From my back garden, the light pollution is quite bad - you can only see the brightest stars in each constellation and the sky glow is terrible - so you only seem to concentrate on the top half of the sky, never being able to see constellations lower down, so at the site were all lost as the lower half of the sky comes alive - even the naked eye views are great - you just can't compare the views from the garden - but we seem to manage whatever the conditions are like and surprised at the amount of objects that can be seen with a little patience - but so rewarding.

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I've very excited about it coming. It's probably been 20 years since I looked through a telescope when I was ten or so with my Dad. Can't wait.

I live near Castle Vale which means seeing anything from my garden is going to be impossible. I plan to find a site near Wishaw as I can get up there within 10 minutes or so, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the spot you have managed to sort. Hopefully it's not too much of a drive.

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I've very excited about it coming. It's probably been 20 years since I looked through a telescope when I was ten or so with my Dad. Can't wait.

I live near Castle Vale which means seeing anything from my garden is going to be impossible. I plan to find a site near Wishaw as I can get up there within 10 minutes or so, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the spot you have managed to sort. Hopefully it's not too much of a drive.

Let me know if you find a good site by wishaw as I can easily get there, there is a shooting country club that looks ideal not sure if we could use that?

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