Northern Sydney Astronomical Society » Observing

Observing Fri. 20th Jan. is OFF

PeterN — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:01:16 +0000

Yet again, the forecasts are for increasing cloud tonight.
So observing for tonight (Friday 20th January) is OFF.

We still have another chance next Friday (27th) when there will be a 4 day old crescent moon.

Peter Nosworthy

Observing Fri. 20th Jan. – decision at 5pm

PeterN — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:36:39 +0000

The forecasts for tonight are conflicting – some say mostly clear and some say cloudy.
I will wait to make a decision until about 5pm, which is 3 hours before sunset.

Peter Nosworthy

Observing Friday Jan 13th is OFF

PeterN — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:13:47 +0000

Once again the forecast for tonight is not good.
Cloud is expected to increase during the evening with about 70% cloud cover by 9pm.

Therefore observing for Friday Jan 13th is OFF.

Peter Nosworthy

Christmas Morning Comet

PeterN — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:01:10 +0000

I photographed Comet Lovejoy at 4.30am on Christmas morning from Riverview. I was looking east towards the city so there was a lot of sky glow. However being Christmas morning, the city sky was darker than normal. The comet was just barely visible to the unaided eye, but in binoculars it was easily visible with a tail of about 15 degrees (three binocular fields) in length.

Image details: Nikon D700, 15 sec, f10, ISO3200, 60mm lens

Peter Nosworthy

Observing Fri. 23rd Dec is OFF

PeterN — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:45:39 +0000

Hello observers,

The forecast for tonight is dubious – about 50% cloud cover for most of the evening.
Therefore observing tonight (Friday December 23rd) is OFF.

For those interested, Comet Lovejoy may be visible in the eastern morning sky before sunrise for the next few days.
Here are some pictures taken this morning:

http://astro.gunagulla.com/

Peter Nosworthy

Observing Sat. 16th Dec. is OFF

PeterN — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 05:23:18 +0000

The sky looks good right now (4pm), but the forecasts are predicting cloud for both Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Therefore observing tonight (Saturday 17th Dec.) is OFF.

We’ll try again next Friday.

Peter N

Observing Fri. Dec. 16th is OFF

PeterN — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:34:19 +0000

It’s 5.30pm and the sky hasn’t improved, so observing tonight (Friday 16 Dec.) is OFF.

Peter N

Observing Report : Friday November 18th

PeterN — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:29:42 +0000

A successful observing night was held on Friday 18th November at North Turramurra. We had four members with scopes in attendance and two visitors who had found us through our web site. The scopes were 16, 12, 6, and 4 inches.

Before it got dark, we spotted Venus and Mercury a couple of degrees apart, low in the west. However they were too low to see in our scopes.

We then turned our attention to Jupiter which was already quite high. Only three moons were visible, but we could clearly see a black spot on the planet’s surface. A check with my Sky Safari software revealed that Io was in transit and we were seeing its shadow on the planet’s surface. In fact the shadow was right next to the Great Red Spot! Jupiter is just past opposition and is also close to perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) meaning that the planet appears at almost its largest possible angular size (currently 49 arcseconds). This, and an unusually stable atmosphere, made for a magnificent view of the planet even at very high power.

At about 9.40pm, we watched as Io emerged from the transit and appeared as a pimple on Jupiter’s limb. Here is a picture I took through the eyepiece showing Io emerging with Ganymede nearby.

Jupiter with Io on the limb and Ganymede nearby

Some of the other objects we observed during the night…

47 Tucanae – globular
Tarantula nebula
M31 – The Andromeda Galaxy
NGC6752 – globular in Pavo
NGC7009 – The Saturn Nebula (a tiny blue elongated object)
M42 – The Orion Nebula (magnificent through an Ultra High Contrast Filter)
M79 – globula in Lepus (very small and faint)
M41 – open cluster in Canis Major
M77 – spiral galaxy in Cetus

The evening also produced some dew which caused us some problems. Since our last dew-filled observing session (on August 26th) I had installed dew heaters on my scope and this was the first time I was able to try them in dewey conditions. The result was good. All the optical surfaces were cleared of dew soon after switching on the power and remained clear the whole night.

At about 10.15pm some thin cloud began appearing overhead. We then had intermittent periods of cloud for the remainder of the evening. We were able to view a few more objects in the clear patches, but by 11pm the sky was almost fully covered with thin cloud so we packed up for the night.

Peter Nosworthy

Observing Fri. 18th Nov. is ON

PeterN — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 04:24:37 +0000

The weather forecast is looking good, so observing tonight (Friday November 18th) is ON.

The location is North Turramurra Golf Club. Here is a map:

http://nsas.org.au/contact/north-turramurra-golf-club/

Sunset is at 7.39pm.
There will be no moon.
The gates should be open by 7.30pm.

Peter Nosworthy
ph: 0403 071303

NSAS Events for November

bobsastro — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:39:47 +0000

NSAS this November will have the Theory Group on Tuesday the 8th at the new time of 7:45. The Nov General Meeting will be Tuesday the 15th at 7:30, and the speaker is David Malin, the famour AAO astrophotographer. If you ever make it a GM, you should make it to this, as David is a fascinating speaker who will talk on the history of astrophotography. All meetings are at Regis Hall, St. Ignatius. Observing this month is Friday the 18th, and would have been on the 25th, however the Field Trip to Coonabarabran will likely take our Observing Officers away, but there could be Observing if someone is available. Finally, the second Field Trip of the year will take a group to Coonabarbran for a tour of the AAO, followed by dark-sky observing with either own scopes or at a commercial observatory. It’s not too late to join up, so just let me know.