Southern Skies Part 2

[moondog]

Just a quick update on trip to New Zealand.

Arrived OK after 23 hour of flying.

Just got round to looking at the sky as we've been out most nights doing the usual touristy things

Managed to have the first look at the sky yesterday. First impression is of excellent transparency even though we are staying on the edge of a city. I reckon that the quality of the sky made the 70mm Mak I took with me the same as a 100mm one in the UK at least. My 5 ins frac in NZ should be equivalent of a 6 ins !

I will report at greater length on the wonders of the Southern Sky when I've found my way about!

MD

[daz]

Good to hear from you MD, the skies sound nice!!

Plenty of WF shots please

[CELESCOPE]

cheers Md , looking good then mate ,keep up the good work , lovely to hear from you

Rog

[ZOG]

Good to hear you arrived safely MD, but 23 hours on a plane ? they'd have to do the Mr T thing on me, I hate the 4 1/2 hours to Turkey.

[SteelRat]

Nice stuff MD - have fun mate

[Albireo380]

Enjoy your time in New Zealand MD. Please give us regular updates on your observing sessions. Can you see the LMC and SMC? Take photographs! (Or we will have to disembowel you when you return. :twisted:

Tom

[TheMightyKong]

Sounds fantastic! Did you see comet McNaughty?

[moondog]

The moon's been a pest for the past week or so. Rising when it just gets dark and it's soooo bright - like a searchlight !

Managed to get two really good clear evenings with no moon.

In one word the sky is fantastic. I could see the whole of the milky way from horizon to horizon very clearly.

From the Pleiades one side to the Southern Cross on the other. Both Megallanic Clouds and Tucanea were to the South West of the milky way band and easily visible to the naked eye as largish grey patches.

I've managed to take a large amount of RAW images with the Canon to stack later- the individual images look excellent and I hope I do them justice when I get back. The maximum exposure I could get undriven on a camera tripod was 20 secs @ F3.5 800 ISO 18mm wideangle.But I've some at 10 secs @ F4.5 1600ISO 24mm wide angle. Images even at max zoom on the LCD are pretty sharp, with no trailing. Must go now the beach and a Mac's Gold calls!!

MD

[SteelRat]

Sounds great MD - looking forward to seeing those pics 8)