Yeti Monsters star party and fuzzy hunt

[yeti monster]

I'm planning a wee do, 9th and/or 10th April, and wondering if anyone local might be interested in coming along.

I'm located about a mile from Tod Astro Centre, but on the western side of the hill (elevation 305-330m), which gives an excellent view down the valley as the sun sets. This allows for a great chance to observe those cheeky little planets that like to hide near the sun and are only available for a few short minutes before they themselves set.

So I plan to start the do with (after sunset), Venus and Mercury in the darkening western sky. Then, as the night starts, begin the fuzzy hunt.

Also, anyone heading to Tod Astro (on any occasion) wishing to take advantage of the excellent western aspect is quite welcome to call in on the way (prior notice would be nice!).

PM me for details.

YM

[yeti monster]

I spent most of the afternoon working on the SNT, rethreading the holes in the corrector plate, as only 1 screw was actually doing anything, so from 4mm to 2BA, for future reference, you can just run the 2BA tap into the holes without needing to drill.

Whilst the corrector was off, I blackened the edge of the secondary and gave it a clean with my new lens pen, and took the opportunity to remove the optical finder scope. After cleaning the inside face of the corrector plate, I put it all back together.

Then I set up the 10" SNT trained on a piece of white junk in the farmers field across the valley, and positioned the Telrad, making the OTA with a fine black marker. One located it just required a wee tweek to set the alignment.

Dark Amender called round about 17:30 and we got busy repairing his busted tripod.

As it was overcast we spent the time holding a telescope workshop.

I explained to DA about Newtonians and SNTs, demonstrated collimation and explained how the EQ mount works and how to polar align his scope.

Keeping an eye on the cloudage, it did appear to be thinning, but no chance of Venus, never mind Mercury.

Undeterred, we made (or rather finished) our solar filters. and then chatted about astro stuff.

After some cheesy mas, beans and sausages I checked the sky, and I could make out the plough.

We geared up and moved the SNT and DAs 70mm frac outside and started teasing what we could from the sky.

After a while, around about midnight we realised that it had cleared right up and were able to spend plenty of time on Saturn, being able to use full 406x mag and get occasional details flashing through, excellnt!.

I did a spot of fuzzy hunting, eventually finding a few of the Virgo galaxies (dunno which ones though!), the sky was quite bright still due to LP from Rochdale/Rawtenstall, which surely hampered my fuzzy hunting. By about 03:30 or so DA retired and I tried for some Ms around the handle of the plough, finding one definate (need to look up which one, as I've forgotten), before retiring myself around 04:00.

I didn't bother staying out to see ISS, as I recon it would be too low.

A worthwhile night it turned out to be, today I've been watching the sun, but no sunspots visible yet, maybe later. It's looking good for an evening start with the Venus & Mercury show, then, fingers crossed, maybe nail Mars for some detail.

[Rockrae78]

Eh up! I live down t'road from you!

I'm on Rochdale Road! Bit poo down 'ere in the valley sometimes because I lose things behind the houses before they've actually gone beyond the horizon! I was thinking yesterday that I should have gone up to the observatory car park to do some observing because it was a waste of time down 'ere!

Next time we have some nice clear nights forecast, I'll drop you a line to see if I can borrow your 'aspect' for the evening!

Rae

[yeti monster]

No worries Rae, I'm in China until 14th Dec. though. Is that Rochdale Road Todmorden or Rochdale Road Bacup?

[Rockrae78]

I don't expect we'll be having any clear weather anytime soon anyway! Forecast is miserable AGAIN! Enjoy yourself in China!

I'm in Tod. Please don't hold that against me. I'm not at all weird. Promise.

[yeti monster]

Hopefully I get some decent observing time when I'm home, are you able to drop everything and scoot over? Often the skies clear at short notice...

[Rockrae78]

Pretty much... I have the luxury of working at home so I'm here all the time anyway... No kids, just a very lovely dog! I'm car-less at the mo, but my other half wouldn't mind driving me up there... He'd be glad of the peace and quiet!

[yeti monster]

Or I could pop over and give you a lift, if need be.

[Rockrae78]

That is very kind of you! I'm sure we'll work something out once you are back in the country! And if we ever get any decent weather! Past 2 nights have started off so promising and descended into clouds and rain after about an hour!

Oh well! I did at least manage to get a good look at the ring nebula (M57) tonight before it all went Pete Tong!