A brief visit to Largs

[G1ZmO]

Well tonight I had the "pleasure" of taking my daughter to her gymnastics practice in Largs!

On the plus side its fairly dark over there and I asked a local if there was any vehicular access to the top of the hill behind the town. He helpfully pointed me in the direction of a derelict farm and a road up to a couple of transmitters up on the hill.

The sky view was great up there though I gave up with the scope after about 20 mins as the wind was making it impossible to keep the scope steady.

Used the scope for: Saturn, M42, M45, Perseus double cluster. Attempted Sirius's "pup" but failed due to wind shake. tbh don't even know if I should be able to see it with the 8" dob (should I?) M31 was poor as high cloud was coming in from the sea.

Used my eyes and the bins for a while and got nice views just scanning through the milky way.

Apart from the long drive, a decent nights viewing and a spot worth returning to if anyone is out that way.

http://tinyurl.com/yq4wsd

Cheers,

Paul

[garymcgrory]

Sound like a good spot Paul if a bit exposed, mind you it is clear here but the wind is up!

Just good to get out and bag a few of the old favorates.

Gary

[G1ZmO]

Yea Gary,

Problem is that after such a drive on a thursday night I've now had 3 rum n cokes and dont really want to go to bed lol (gahh the bottle is calling! make it stop! aaaaaah!)

Paul

[The Warthog]

My wife has often mentioned Largs. Is it possible she went there on holidays? I'll have to ask her when she comes in. She's from Paisley. Took me there last year. Showed me her close. I spent a whole week there one afternoon.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I spent a whole week there one afternoon.

Captain Chaos

[garymcgrory]

As you know, since you have visited Paisley, there is a reason your wife lives in Canada. I lived there briefly when I was a wee boy and suffice to say the people are salt of the earth however the town is a bit of a s@*thole. Pardon my french and anyone who lives in Paisley.

Largs is close by geographically but about a million miles away in all other ways.

By the by WG, did you get to see any of the more scenic parts of this more civilised part of the UK?

Gary

[Kain]

Sounds good mate.

Not sure if you can see the Pup in 8" dob, but I can see it on good seeing with the 10"

Not sure how much difference the 2" make.

Kain

[Astroman]

Surface area of an 8" telescope is 50.26 in².

Surface area of a 10" telescope is 78.54 in².

It's about half-again as much light gathering in a 10" than an 8", hence the large increase in resolution.