The weather forecasts for tonight are generally for cloud. There may be a period of clear sky, but not enough to ensure a good observing night.
Therefore, observing at North Turramurra tonight (Friday 7th) is OFF.
The forecast for Saturday night (8th) looks much better, so we will plan for an observing night tomorrow instead.
Email and SMS notifications will be sent by 4pm tomorrow, or check the web site for updates.
Peter Nosworthy
Unfortunately some unexpected cloud appeared late in the afternoon and as of 8.30 pm it does not look like improving.
Therefore observing tonight is now OFF.
PeterN
We tried out Howson Oval for the first time on a cold and windy night, so it was probably the worst weather we would experience there, as it is exposed. Unfortunately, it was only me and Jenny, a visitor joining NSAS, so we persevered for several hours and gave up at 8 PM, when it was clear everyone else stuck their heads out their doors and decided to stay in front of the fire.
Howson Oval is a great observing site, far superior to NTGC, once we do a deal with the Council about access to the security lights on the dressing shed. There are no streetlights visible, and the only lights on the horizon are The San to the north, but even that is hidden. We could see near the horizon for 360 degrees from the middle of the oval, and while not as good to the north as Golden Julilee, it’s not bad. Even better, the toilets were unlocked! (probably Council security forgot them). We’ll give Howson a go again on a better night.
Observing is ON tonight at Howson Oval, Turramurra (see previous post for directions). IT IS NOT AT NORTH TURRAMURRA GOLF CLUB. Someone will be there at 6 PM. It could be a short session due to forecast cloud later.
Three members and four visitors attended the observing site at North Turramurra with 5 different scopes. Despite some initial concerns about bushfire smoke from hazard reduction burns to our east the evening turned out to be very good for viewing. The smell of burnt eucalyptus soon passed.
The Jewel Box, Omega Centauri and Eta Carina nebula were popular targets as the scopes adapted to the conditions and gave an indication of the seeing to some.
With Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, Serpens and Ara rising in the East many globular and open clusters and nebula were observed including, M4, M6, M7, M8, M10, M12, M20, M22, M28, M54, M80 and NGC6397. M53 in Coma Berenices and the planetary nebula NGC4361 in Corvus were also observed.
Given the conditions Geoff’s 16″ dosonsian was put to good use tracking down galaxies in Leo and Virgo. I quickly lost count of those that were observed as the scope moved on from one galaxy to the next. It was the highlight of the evening and only a few galaxies evaded us. M49 and most of the Markians Chain of Galaxies in Virgo were worthy of a mention.
Seeing to Saturn was good too with the Cassini division being observed in the 16″ dob. A little dew slowed a few of us towards the end but otherwise a successful evening.
Tim Herridge
If Observing goes ahead this Friday the 25th, we will try out Howson Oval, Turramurra, which can be found on Google Maps by inserting these coordinates: -33.741275,151.107565
Howson Oval is off Howson Avenue, is a large cricket pitch with no streetlighting, and minimal security lights. You will have to move your scope from the parking lot to the middle of the oval, about 25m, but level. PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN TURNING INTO HOWSON AVE FROM THE SOUTH, AND DON’T MAKE A RIGHT TURN TO THE NORTH WHEN LEAVING IT (turn left and make the first right, and do a U-turn). This a very blind intersection on Comenarra Parkway. Look for the On/Not on Friday afternoon. Since we’ve already had two Observing sessions in May, we won’t back up this one to the Saturday.
Observing in on this evening at North Turramurra Golf Course and the gates will be open from about 5:15pm. There may be a little smoke from Hazard Reduction burns in the Sydney area but the sky should otherwise be clear.
The sun sets at about 5;00pm. Here is a link to a map showing the location:
http://nsas.org.au/contact/north-turramurra-golf-club/
Tim
Next Tuesday is the May General Meeting, and will be held at Regis Hall at 7:30 PM, but in the classroom under the hall we normally use. Our speaker is Dr Michael Ireland from Macquarie University, and the abstract for his talk follows:
Planetary Detection and Precision Astrophysics with (arrays of) Small Telescopes
Most of the big discoveries in astronomy are made with big telescopes. However, there is much to learn about naked-eye stars and their environments. I will describe current research with the SUSI and CHARA optical interferometers, where arrays of 0.1 to 1m telescopes are used to resolve individual stars, and hopefully one day detect the signature of planets using precision astrometry. I will also describe efforts we have begun this year with a spectrograph for the Macquarie University observatory 16″ telescope to detect planets around dying stars.
As usual, visitors are welcome.
With the weather quite balmy, and clear skies, about a dozen lucky observers descended upon North Turramurra Golf Course for a pleasant night’s observing. The dobsonian was king, with all standard sizes being represented, ranging from 6 inches, through 8, 10, 12 up to 16 inches, the latter with two fine examples. The 8 incher was a shiny brand new scope and help was given by NSAS members to get the finder scope aligned and to point out some of the main targets in the sky at this time of year. One of the 16s arrived in a sedan and it was intriguing to see its large base being assembled from a flat packed state then later on disassembled and packed back in the car. Pete’s 12″ goto dob kept disconcertingly slewing to things even though no-one was anywhere near it, but it was really just Pete showing off his Ipad/SkyFi system from 10 metres away.
A good range of objects were observed, from the usual suspects such as Orion Nebula (for the early arrivals only), Mars, Saturn, Omega Centauri, the Jewel Box, and Eta Carina; a few planetary nebula such as the Blue Planetary, the Ghost of Jupiter, and the Bug Nebula; globular clusters such as M22, M28, M4; some open clusters such as M7; galaxies such as the Leo Triplet (M65, M66 and a fairly faint NGC 3628 seen using averted imagination), the Sombrero (M104), and some members of Markarian’s chain of Galaxies including M84 and M86, plus many other objects too numerous to mention or remember. Some time (probably too long) was spent in a fruitless attempt to see the Dark Doodad Nebula near Musca, purely because we liked its name.
About half the observers were visitors, so there was a fair bit of chatting going on about scopes and observing, and comparing gear. Chris was doing a good job telling the visitors about NSAS’s activities.
The seeing was pretty good and we had a fun time at the end of the evening viewing Saturn through all the scopes. We could pick out the four moons Titan, Dione, Tethys and Rhea in the eyepiece, as well as the Cassini Division and some cloud banding on the planet.
All in all a very enjoyable evening.
Gary Maass
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