Observation Reports

The observation session tonight went well. After the scattered cloud cleared , we had very nice views of our usual deep sky targets. Especially M81/M82 and Andromeda and the globular in Hercules. Later the seeing improved even further and we had very good views of saturn at high magnification. Toward the end I took out the Dwarf Lab smart scope camera system and we photographed the the targets we had just viewed. These photos were taken very casually. About 30 minutes exposure each. The smart scope does all the work. We continued viewing through the telescope while the photos were being taken. The smart scope does all the image stacking and everything.

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We had an observation session on March 21st in Banna car park 2. Even though there was high wispy cloud, the “seeing” was very good. We had very good views of Jupiter and we watched Europa pass behind it. Brian brought his new 6’’ reflector on an equatorial mount with very good tracking and the optics delivered very good views of Jupiter. We viewed many of a our favourite deep sky objects but we felt that the sky wasn’t as dark as usual. We concluded that the high wispy cloud was somehow magnifying any distant light pollution.
All in all, an enjoyable observation session.

We had an observation session on February 13th in Banna car park 2. Conditions were very good but also very cold. We started with Saturn before it sank too low. The edge on rings meant alignment of the moons and we could just make out Rhea as well as Titan. We hopped on to all our usual deep sky targets. The Orion nebula was perfectly positioned for us. Jupiter was dominant and we returned to it a few times and saw the great red spot (not so great brown spot) .
An added bonus was the presence of our new member and contributor Goran Loncar. He brought his camera and tracking mount and took some great photos. It was interesting to compare what we could see through the eyepiece versus what long exposure photography could bring out (real time !).

We had a observation session at 8pm on October 16th in Banna car park 2. The forecast suggested the sky would clear to 60% from 8pm onwards but unfortunately that did not happen. I called the observation session in the hope of seeing the two comets since the forecast that weekend was not good. We had a few clear patches and got to view a few deep sky objects and Saturn but we did not get a clear view of the comets  .
Thanks to those who attended. They were all very patient.

We had an observation session on April 25th at our new observing site at Fermoyle beach. We focused on deep sky observing in order to test the dark conditions. It was perfect timing to view many galaxies as Leo was high in the sky. M65 and 66, the triplet and the Virgo cluster of galaxies were on display. Our usual targets like M81 and M82 and the Whirlpool were on display. The site is definitely darker than Banna car park 2 but not massively darker. It is a bit of a drive. Definitely an option for deep sky for nights with no moon at all.