Hello felllow members A meeting was held at Garys at Bluewater on Saturday night 5/7, and was a good success, with about ..... maybe 15 people at a given time. Weather held out, overall, though quite a few clouds at frequent intervals, but still, quite a few targets seen and enjoyed.  Lots of chatting filled the gaps when cloud cover obstructed views.  Some good chatters around : )

People were packed up by about 11pm, though chatting continued until after 11.30 ish.

Gary has put in a large concrete area beside the house,  so easy to set up on, instead of driving around the back, dodging septics and trees. We had our cars  and scopes up on the concrete easily.The main worry now, is to drive into the right driveway!!

Scopes included Daves10" Dob, Garys  big impressive Meade, The Howards Newtonian  (? 8") which was tracking well over the night, and my troublesome 10" Dob. Still trying to finetune a few teething problems with mine, although ..... a young girl (? Willow) said that Omega Centauri looked better in my scope, compared to Garys.  Sorry Gary - i'm the one writing this : )      Lots of good targets seen including the usual Omega Centauri, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, a few galaxies, Ring Nebula and more. Dave and Greg whizzed through the Messier objects in Saggitarius. Highlight of night was probably NGC 4945 - a spiral galaxy in Centaurus which showed up as a bright streak, and was a pleasant surprise. Gary was taking pics through his scope, and I took a few with camera on tripod - my new Canon 450D had a close encounter with the concrete, but luckily OK.

Murray unable to attend on Saturday night,  though hear he has his mirror back, and a homemade tracking platform which we all eager to see!!!! Our best to MaryAnne.

Camping night at Burdekin on 26th July  ....  at Macrosson ( let me know if thats wrong) - members planning to leave about 2pm. The Howards are heading out this weekend for a look, make sure there are not  too many 'grey nomads' set up etc. Please ring the numbers on the previous Astronomy  letter if you want to meet up and travel together ... convoy style.       Alas, I wont be able to go camping on  26/7 as thought it was Aug 2nd : (

A few other regulars were missed on the night - Charles, Ken, Roy and Richard - hope to see you all next time, and to all others interested, please join us.

Cheers all, and clear skies

Liz

Hello fellow observers

This may be the last 'newsletter' now that the website is up and going. I could incorporate it into a 'personal blog' on the website, or keep on sending it out, let me know.

The website is coming on well,growing and developing with Ed at the helm http://astronomy.abigbluesky.com/ eachtime I visit there is something new and exciting. Cheers for our webmaster. clapclapclap. Please join and drop aline.

We held our 2nd viewing night at Garys on Saturday. The previous Saturday was clouded out, though still about 6 of us there chatting, and getting occasional glimpses of Jupiter, and some double stars. Saturday evening started with some smoke and cloud that luckily cleared, though we had about an 8 day old Moon.

Some great sights seen, and I probably had the best night viewing out of my 10" dob since purchase. Venus, Mercury and Mars formed a great triangle setting in the West. Jupiter again was popular, but also lots of double stars - spurred on from Rex last week. Albireo of course, which is the best double in the sky, designated 'bic' by Lex, was brilliant. Also other doubles including Alpha Centauri, Alpha Crucis, Gamma Delphinus,Gamma Crucius, and more.

Gary had a lovely view of 2 sets of small doubles inclu Gamma Delp in FOV. Comet Mcnaught A1 was seen in binoculars, but elusive to the scopes, though Sue and I gave it a try. Moon also was beautiful, despite emitting too much light .... The Howards had some lovely views, and were naming the prominent features. I think 'crater of the night' was Posidonius, just off Mare Serenitatis.

Also seen were M 56, M57,Andromeda Galaxy, beautiful red carbon star near Beta Crucius .... and much more. Andy was also searching for the South Celestial Pole, and was aided or misguided by my help : ) I actually havent done that for ages... that is... finding South Polar region, and was fun. I do think that snazzy scope was leading him astray ... .and I was pointing to where I thought it was at mid left of Octans. This will also help whem I try some star trails around South polar region.

Time went very quickly, and when I told Barb that it was 11.15,all were surprised, and gradually packed up, as some cloud cover had come over, although had disappeared by time all packed up and leaving at midnight!!

ublic night at The Strand tonight .... but probably cancel due to cloud cover/drizzle, shame, unless clears this arv. BIG congrats to Rex and his 'wife' on their marriage at the weekend, we were all thinking of you Rex, hope all went well. Next observing night on 27th September - on newsletter we had it at Woodstock ..... few of us thought Garys woud be fine, and save the travel. Anyone prefer Woodstock??

Cheers all

Liz