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Observing Reports
Observing Reports are articles about trips to dark sky sites, star parties, public events, astronomical events that we have witnessed or imaged - if we were outside and saw something that we think you might find interesting it'll be posted here. This is also where you'll see the very latest images from our pool of hard-working astrophotographers.
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Written by Ivan Gastaldo
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Thursday, 21 August 2008 17:55 |
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Area 27N Report (08/06/08)
By Ivan Gastaldo
Weather Man was predicting a not so good night, with a 30% chance of rain, and mostly cloudy skies. ClearSky clock was predicting clear skies by sunset time… so, as you see, it was a gamble…
I decided that A27N was close enough that if weather turned out to be bad, I could easily turn around and go home.
I started getting in contact with other members via The Yahoo! Forum, and saw that they were also interested in going, if weather cooperated.
I left work around 5:30PM, and headed straight to A27N… (stopped for a bite to eat near the area, and as I was eating I was tracking the clouds, which were all heading WEST. This was a good sign, as the skies were clearing up on the EAST) |
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Written by Charles Lillo
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Saturday, 02 August 2008 20:52 |
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Observing Report
Date: July 26, 2008
Site: 27N
Target: M08
Accomplices:
Bennett Burbank aka: Mr. Freeze
Joe Moskowitz aka: Hyperstar Moskowitz
Another Saturday rolls around and I’m hoping the sky would be as clear as it was on Friday. After the last couple of months we have had, I did give it much of a chance. To my surprise it was looking pretty good around 6pm so I began to pack up my gear. The plan was to go to Fox until 8:30 or so then head out to 27N, but as luck would have it I forgot to charge my camera batteries…UGH! No big deal I’ll just give each one ½ charge and that should get me thru the night. Needless to say that puts me behind schedule and I don’t leave the house until 8:30pm. I arrive at 27N around 8:45pm and begin to set up and soon realize I’m the only thing the mosquitoes have had to eat in a week! Bennett and Joe arrive soon after giving them another food source, thank god! |
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Written by Nick Izzo
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 12:08 |
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A Night of Firsts
by Nick Izzo  Last night (7/10) was a night of firsts. For some reason unknown to me it was the first time I have been to 27N. I arrived there at 7:30 and the sky looked lousy with more clouds coming, I waited till about 8PM and nobody was showing up (couldn't blame them) - so I left. As I was leaving I looked in my rear view mirror and saw someone pulling in so I went back. It was Joe Moskowitz, so we set up and hoped for the best with the help of a few brews. Bennett showed up shortly after. The gods were with us and the sky cleared up pretty good. The second first for me was that this was the first time using my Stellacam 11. Needless to say I was all thumbs even though I knew what I was doing (thanks Jay). I tried imaging with M13 -15 and 57. After making the necessary adjustments the most trouble I had was in focusing but I did get a pretty good image of M15. The night ended abruptly at 11:30 when my battery went dead, but I was satisfied with what I had accomplished and look forward to the next time. |
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Written by J. Manuel Briseño
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 11:20 |
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Imaging Report - Area51 on July 9th, 2008
by J. Manuel Briseño Hi Group, After all, the weather cooperated and we could do some astrophotography. I arrived around 7:30PM, with me also was: Fred, Bob, Ed and Jay. It was a clear night and we could see the Milky Way all above us, we had some clouds from time to time but in general it was clear. At had some issues with the polar alignment (typical). I know that this something with the version of the firmware of my scope since it is not the latest but I don’t want to upgrade, otherwise I will lose of the PEC and SMT data. Therefore I did 2 star alignments and then do iterations. The main objective was to test my camera. I had some objects in mind, my first one was The Crescent Nebula (NGC6888), but with my configuration it was very small. I decided to slew to the South I tried some of the Nebulas. |
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Written by Charles Lillo
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 11:54 |
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Dark Site Report 27N by Charles Lillo
Date: Monday, July 7th, 2008 The decision
Monday afternoon I was driving home from a tough day at the office (not really) when I noticed what seemed to be the color blue in the sky. Surely this was just a mirage, as we all know this is the time of the dark ages. That was all I needed and I quickly fired off a text message to Bennett “27N?” His reply was quick, “I was just thinking the same thing”. With that we were set.
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