SGL5 OBSERVING REPORT.

[Jamie]

Well where do i start.

Daytime -

I got out the solar bins and pointed them at what i thought was going to be a semi quiet sun, how wrong was i!!

On the first day of solar viewing (Friday 16th) there were a couple of cracking filaments at 7oclock on the disc as i looked at it and also some superb prominences at 2oclock and 5oclock. The prominences grew and subsided throughout the day.

On Saturday's solar session those previously mentioned filaments had some new friends that had joined them (more filaments) The prominences seemed to put on a show just for us, there were loads of new prominences, some of them were massive and really active.

We had all sorts to observe small loop prominences, hedgerow, spikes, detached and so on.

To put the icing on the cake i was able to share the experience of both days solar observing sessions with all the lovely people that showed the slightest interest in looking at the sun in H Alpha....

Night time -

My night time observing started on the Friday night. The transparency wasn't 100% due to the volcanic dust in the atmosphere and the usual atmospheric fluctuations.....Got the 100mm bins out and started...So what was on the observing menu? As a surprise to me and a good one at that the very first object observed was the crescent moon which through my bins was just spectacular. Although there were some planets to that i could have been observing i decided to observe a little further out (there were people on the field with kit better suited to planetary observing and i payed them a visit accordingly)

I will try and list some of what i and others observed, though i doubt i will remember most of them. (Must remember to start writing things down during an observing session)

My first target was The Beehive Cluster, another one of those clusters you feel like you are falling into. The bonus to observing this cluster is that you get Mars in the same field of view. NGC884, M13, M5, M81/M82 to name but a few. The reason i am forgetting most of what was observed is that people were coming up to me and asking to see things i hadn't planned or thought of observing (which was a big bonus to the night)

All in all a very satisfying SP!!!

[NickH]

It was fantastic looking through your bins in H-A...now...mod em :-)

[lunator]

Jamie

Nice report.

Your Bino set-up was great to look through

Cheers

Ian

[MartinB]

It was a treat to look through your very clever Ha set up Jamie. Like you say prominences and surface detail all at the same time. Really enjoyed the view of M81/82 through the big bins as well.

The best observation was seeing the size of your rump steak on Friday night. Awesome!!

[Doc]

Thats what I enjoy about a star party as well Jamie and that is sharing your equipment with other observers who are interested. at SSP I never got to use my dob as it was always in the hands of others