Townsville Astronomy Group

Well, another great night was enjoyed for Townsville Astronomy Group's monthly viewing night.

This was held at Pallaranda, and was made into a public night, as the previous public night was clouded over, and we had a good turnout of about 30 or so of the public.  The Howards had their signs up on the road, and they definitely helped, with even the coppers slowing down to see what they said.

Beautiful skies greeted us when we arrived, and I think we had forgotton that Pallaranda is a reasonable dark site, with multitudes of stars visible. Alas, the midges also welcomed us, so we had to quickly cover up and spray. It didnt get too cold, and by the end of evening, some dew was settling, though certainly a lot drier than our usual soaked sessions.

We had Sue and Lex, David, Charles and myself. Great to see Andy who popped in to say hello, and kept us entertained for awhile : )     Think we had more gasbagging last night than viewing!! New TAG website member John, also popped in to say hi. Gary didnt make it, as was his birthday, and he was probably also looking at stars by the end of the night.

Usual targets seen and enjoyed by the public and ourselves -

• Alpha Centauri - a beautiful double star through the scope, 4.3 LY away, which had the public oohing
• Jewel Box - a very pretty open cluster around Kappa Crucis,
• Omega Centauri - our supherb globular cluster, with its million members, at 17.000 LY away
• NGC 5128 - this amazing galaxy is always a wonderful sight through the scope, with its cental dark band
• Leo galaxies - we checked out a few of these, but a bit of trouble in Pallarandas light pollution
• Orion nebula - most of us manged to nab this before it sunk in the west, behind the telegraph poles
• Saturn - still a wonderful sight with 3 Moons prominent
• Gamma velorum which David showed me - it has the brightest of the Wolf-Rayet stars (real hotties)
• saw a few other open clusters and double stars.

We observed the passover of Hubble, but missed the Space Shuttle ... due to ah, ......   chatting!! All saw a very nice and bright meteor over Maggie ..... except Lex!!

David's little 5 year old neighbour, Leslie, kept us very entertained, as he did last year. Such a funny litle fellow, with the constant stream of comments he was coming out with. He desperately  wanted to hold my BIG binoculars (noculars as he said it) and i said they were too heavy, to which he replied that he did exercises every night when he went to bed!! He gave us all cuddles when he left!! At one stage he flattened my scope, when I was chatting with Sue and Lex, as he was trying to look through the finderscope, and the whole scope went down, lucky he wasnt hurt...... or my Dob.

All packed up by about 10ish ....... then, Charles decided he liked my car better than his (both silver 4 wheel drives, though mine bigger than his Subaru) - he had hopped into my car, and was wondering why the key wouldnt fit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hilarious.

Next Tuesday(26th May) at Pallaranda, a few of us will be there with the 50 + scouts. We will have 4 scopes, so should be enough, but if anyone wants to join us, come on down. It will only be for about 1 hr, from 6.30 - 7.30pm. (looking cloudy at this stage on 26th at 4 pm).

2 weeks time is our next scheduled Public night at Pallaranda, June 3rd. This will be a bigger night, so please  come down if you can, with your scope, or just to say hi.

We are having another camping trip for either 4 weeks or 8 weeks time on our group viewing night, out at Ravenswood. It will be a lot of fun, though probably freezing. Please let me know if you are interested, and whether 4 weeks or 8 weeks suit. You can bring your families out for a camping trip.  Last years camping fell through, but this one will go ahead. The Howards are minor celebrities out there now!!

Ed is still doing a great job with our website www.astronomy.abigbluesky.com please have a look regularly if you can, and leave some input, or start some new conversations. It can be very quiet/boring with only a couple starting threads, and leaving comments etc. Lex has been writing some very interesing Moon articles too, well done Lex!! We are up to 37(now 39) members on it now, though we are yet to meet a few.

Gary is still doing a marvelous job on 4ttt radio at 7.30pm, on the last Thurs of the month - he is a lifesaver to most of us (chickens) , though David did join him a couple of months back.

All the best.. and big hello to our members that we havent seen for awhile : )

Liz