Staring next month, we have been keeping records of the objects seen each month for 1 year.
What I intend to do is draw up a table of the objects we have seen each month, the likleyhood of seeing them (weather) and any other difficulties and successes we have had. (For example worst month for mosquetos!)
These past results can then hopefully supplement the monthly newsletter as an aid to what we can see each month as it comes around again
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wed 12 Dec 2007 Pedros Castle
Nick and I arrived early at 6:15 to find the gate still locked and the weather looking increasingly cloudy. After a bad run of recent meetings I guess we were both keen to make this a successful meeting.
The Arrival of Durty Reids during the summer (taking over the small under used restuarant at Pedros) has some potential on nights like these - perhaps an Astronomical Pub Quiz? However as soon as we got the gates open we had one enthusiastic visitor already waiting for us to finish setting up the scope.
The game of "Chase the object though the shifting clouds" then commenced. The moon was a difficult topic!!
Slowly but surely the cloud cover cleared and more people turned up.
Richard was very enthusastic on his predictions for an Iriduim Satellite Flare at close to 7:00PM. Amazingly it happened and it was really very bright. The prediction was for Mag -8 , it certainly shone brightly through the cloud cover. An excellent object for the evening.
Other objects bagged as the night progressed were
i) Comet Holmes now fading rapidly but easily spotted through binoculars
ii) Andromeda Nebula
iii) Pliedes
iv) Double Star Alberio
v) One meteor ( spotted by me - Chris)
vi) Orion Nebula
and finally low in the East
vii) Mars, though still a dissapointingly small disk even through the 10 inch
So a successfull meeting ( in that it happened) , but tampered by the moving cloud cover. Highlight definitely the Iridium Flare.
8 Objects in total but several revisted as visitors arrived
The Arrival of Durty Reids during the summer (taking over the small under used restuarant at Pedros) has some potential on nights like these - perhaps an Astronomical Pub Quiz? However as soon as we got the gates open we had one enthusiastic visitor already waiting for us to finish setting up the scope.
The game of "Chase the object though the shifting clouds" then commenced. The moon was a difficult topic!!
Slowly but surely the cloud cover cleared and more people turned up.
Richard was very enthusastic on his predictions for an Iriduim Satellite Flare at close to 7:00PM. Amazingly it happened and it was really very bright. The prediction was for Mag -8 , it certainly shone brightly through the cloud cover. An excellent object for the evening.
Other objects bagged as the night progressed were
i) Comet Holmes now fading rapidly but easily spotted through binoculars
ii) Andromeda Nebula
iii) Pliedes
iv) Double Star Alberio
v) One meteor ( spotted by me - Chris)
vi) Orion Nebula
and finally low in the East
vii) Mars, though still a dissapointingly small disk even through the 10 inch
So a successfull meeting ( in that it happened) , but tampered by the moving cloud cover. Highlight definitely the Iridium Flare.
8 Objects in total but several revisted as visitors arrived
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
