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Greetings from Les Granges

MartinB

By MartinB
in The Astro Lounge

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MartinB

MartinB

Posted
Posted

Bonjour mes copains. J'espere que ils fait beau en Grande Bretagne. D'accord that's it with the French.

Arrived here after a 2 day drive from Chesterfield to a bitterly cold but crystal clear evening. Greeted by Olly, wood burning stoves and all round cosiness. Les Granges is situated at the southern limit of Haute Alpes at 900m looking across a deep valley to a chain of wooded hills. 3 roll off obsys - 2 set up for imaging and 1 housing a 20" dob (Sir Isaac). There is also an area set aside for guest's own kit. All spots have superb wide views from east through south to west.

As night fell the starry vista was truly breath taking, M44, the double cluster and M35 standing out bright with the naked eye. The dob was quickly out and collimated. All deep sky views were far and away the best I have seen. The spiral structure of M51 and M101 were easily seen without averted vision, the owl neb's eyes were popping out, and the needle galaxy had the dark dust lane seen in the images. Also saw the flame nebula for the first time complete with clear areas of dark nebulosity. Didn't have a hydrogen beta or uhc filter to try for HH unfortunately.

Had to have a play with Olly's new pride and joy, a 140mm TEC apo. The wind was making the seeing very frothy so mars and saturn weren't at their best but M42 with a 17mm Nagler was a sight to behold. The combination of dark sky and optics producing immense contrast in the swirls of nebulosity. Star colour in M35 was very pronounced.

Even managed a few DSLR wide fields before crawling into bed.

Woke in the morning to thick snow. It continued to snow for the next 24 hours. We are now holed up in the middle of nowhere with nothing but roaring fires, a few bottles of wine, books and a good selection of films.

Here are a few photos. The starry shot is with a Peleng 8mm fisheye, the hill off to the R isn't really as high as it looks, just distortion from the lens. The house in the snowy photo is Les Granges.

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barkis

barkis

Posted
Posted

Olly seems to have a great site there Martin, although his Images always gave that indication.

Hope you enjoy the visit, but how could you not with all those toys he has got there.:headbang:.

Ron.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
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Plenty of time to plan for SGL5 eh?

Mike

Nope, he's too busy putting my imaging on a more scientific footing!

Alas Windows Weather seems to have encountered a problem and has had to shut down... It is sort of doing its best but failing today.

I die of the guilts when this happens.

Olly

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narrowbandpaul

narrowbandpaul

Posted
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good stuff olly, I think knowing some science can really help your imaging...

looks like a really good place you got there olly. and with a TEC140, which i have used at a friends, i may have to go out sometime, maybe for some central milky way action in summer!

have a good time guys!! especially with some nice french vin!

merci

paul

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AndyH

AndyH

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Posted

"We are now holed up in the middle of nowhere with nothing but roaring fires, a few bottles of wine, books and a good selection of films."

Oh the hardship:D

Lucky pig;)

Cheers,

Andy.

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