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Post by kevinblack on Nov 6, 2005 22:40:53 GMT
Ok mate, no problem, i just nipped in for a cup a tea ;D. its a cold one out there tonight. hope all goes well martin. text me if anything exciting happens. chat soon and clear skies.
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Mark K
Canis Major
LX200GPS UHTC/SMT
Posts: 75
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Post by Mark K on Nov 6, 2005 22:45:17 GMT
The sky is totally obscured here..... can't see a thing. So much for metcheck ! Doh!
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Post by Neill on Nov 7, 2005 9:39:38 GMT
Hi guys,
Really enjoyed the Mars watch over the 2 nights. Big thanks to everyone who put the work in to organise. Fri night - I have rarely seen the sky so dark - the skies down at Castleward are superb - the Milky Way looked brilliant over head - impressed with my Moonfish wide angle eyepiece - it was really good on the star clusters - pleased to get the go to actually aligned for once even if it was not precise. Mars was better on Sat even though there was more cloud about - it was prob best view of Mars I have had. Also Neil P and myself saw a Taurid fireball on the Sat night about 21:30 ish - travelled in SW direction - first spotted it just right of Mars - it was very bright - prob at least as bright as Mars - had to be to be seen through the clouds - it was a white/yellow colour. There were some meteors spotted on fri night also - I saw a couple - other people saw up to 6 I think - Aaron saw one pass through his FOV.
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Post by Neill on Nov 7, 2005 9:44:52 GMT
Looking at the Gegenshein and Taurid watch topic- i reckon Kevin saw the same meteor that we saw.
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 7, 2005 18:12:42 GMT
Had a great session here last night as the sky remained clear all night long. I did an evening and a pre-dawn comet search with the 16" completing 4 hours of sweeping and 6 hours observing in total. With the 16" i swept up over 20 galaxies as well as the Veil nebula, M27, M71, M11, M10, M12 ,M14, M57, M56, Saturn and many lovely open clusters and binary stars within the milkyway. With the 10X50 binos i observed the North American Nebula, Veil nebula, M33, M31, M34, M44, M35, CR89, M81, M39, M52, Double cluster, M67 and NGC 952. With the naked eye i seen M81 and counted 16 memebers of the Pleiades which i confirmed using the binos. Throughout both sessions i seen 51 meteors and one fireball which lit the sky above me a brillant white. The Gegenschein was visible with ease in the east only tonight it was a very striking dark green patch with sharp edges and very elongated along its horizontal axis level with the Ecliptic. It was 15*X12* in size. This is my 7th sighting during this monthly dark period! During the predawn search i saw 11 incredibly bright silent blue explosions in the sky that appeared near the E, W and N horizon. I soon realised that these where not fireballs but distant lightning flashes reflected in the atmosphere from some distance away....these where frightening to watch! Overall this was a great night for observing and i had a great time! Clear skies! * Glad you guys had a great time over the weekend! * Paul hope you get better soon! * I wont be attending the meeting tonight due to dangerous weather conditons so i will be sad to miss Les's talk. Pity someone couldnt record it for me! Have a a good one
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Post by kevinblack on Nov 7, 2005 18:27:13 GMT
Well done martin. That sounds like an excellent nights observing. the weather is terrible her tonight. Hope all is well with you, keep up the good work. Clear skies ;D
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 7, 2005 18:43:44 GMT
Thankyou Kevin...how did your night end up? Tonight we have dangerous gales and heavy showers but i can see clear patches so i am going to head out and watch the sky with the naked eye for fireballs...lights might go out tonight if this keeps up! All best mate
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Post by kevinblack on Nov 7, 2005 18:57:00 GMT
Hey martin, my night eneded early because it had totally clouded over but i set my alarm for 4.00am and it was totally clear and cold. I had a look at saturn. This was the first time with the RCX400 and it was breath taking. i went on to look at M44 (BEEHIVE CLUSTER), M67, M48 AND M50. They looked amazing. :othe optic of this scope is great and the sharpness of the images are outstanding. hopefully i will get some images soon.
Clear Skies all.
p.s Martin i hope the power does go of and the skies clear, i deserve to have a dark sky once in awhile.lol
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 7, 2005 20:26:15 GMT
Sounds like amazing views through that scope.
It might go out yet..these winds are VERY strong and we just got a very dangerous gale force gust that ripped the covers of my telescope ..its getting stronger too! They sky looks great in the gaps and we seen 5 - 6 distant ligtning flashes that looked like head on fireballs!
Whats the weather like in your are kevin?
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Post by kevinblack on Nov 7, 2005 21:45:35 GMT
Hey martin. I have some good news but i will answer your question first. The weather here is dry but very windy and the sky is about 70 percent clear. At 21.31, i saw an amazing orange fire ball. It was in the gemini region. i would say it was mag -2.4. beautiful orange colour. Did anyone else see this??? I hope it stays clear but the forecast is ment to get worse. Clear skies all. p.s I hope the monthly meeting went well
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Post by markmc on Nov 7, 2005 21:49:10 GMT
seen that lighting you were talking about martin ,weird thing to watch that and no sound at all .it light up the hole sky .seen one fire ball in the northeast and a few meoters was a lovely night last night but a few clouds floating by but the seeing was great .had a good look at mars ,never seen that much detail before it looked sweeet .then tryed so astrophotography but the battery that my scope is linked up to died(motorbike battery) so heres me runing about like a headless chicken at 4 in the moring trying to get the battery out of the bike to take to the scope .and people think i`m mad? .have to say but the bike battery is a great job lasts for about 6-8 months and is small.anyway to windy here now to do any watching .time to go out and tie the roof of my wee shed down ,it`s a roll off roof job i built very handy and warm even with roof rolled back.sorry i missed the mars watch sounds as if you all had a great time but work had other ideals for me aaagh.
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 7, 2005 21:45:02 GMT
Great stuff Kevin. That sounds like a nice Taurid you saw and i feel bad that i missed it However i did see 4 Taurids and one farley bright border line fireball (mag -4.0) at the zenith as well as lightning flashes. It was hard going standing in the pitch with gale force winds battering us but it was a good session all the same. Keep us informed kevin of you see anything else Markmc thats great you saw those flashes too...your roll off roof observatory sounds a treat (i need one myself) by any chance do you have any images of it? Clear skies all.....how did the meeting go tonight?
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