September Weekend

[billw]

Dear All,
The next observing get together is provisionally for the 27th (Saturday night) September.
As this is the September weekend and depending on the weather it could be +/- a day.
We'll be using the ASE site at Addiewell, to the south of Bathgate.
If anyone needs directions then get in touch.
cheers,
Bill.

[horstm]

The site is so much in the middle of nowhere that everyone calls it after a different place they pass through as they approach. I call it "Pearie Law" after the nearest named feature on the OS 1:50000 map. Directions are included in www.astronomyedinburgh.org/publications/journals/54/meyerd5.shtml
Don't be put off by the picture in the article, the exposure had to bring out the sky background for artistic reasons, plus it is taken northwards across the Central Belt.

[billw]

Hi,
The weather improves at last but will it hold out until Saturday night!?
Anyway the plan is now to meet at the site from 8.30pm onwards and hope for some good observing.
See you there.
Cheers,
Bill.

[billw]

Hello All,
Despite a ropey looking afternoon the skies cleared!
It turned out to be a great night. The only problem was the extremely high humidity which resulted in serious dewing on everything.
Even with this a few hardy souls enjoyed the observing.



This is a shot of some galactic open clusters in Cassiopeia. Working left to right, the main clusters are NGC 654, NGC 663, NGC 659 and M103.



By this time the skies were getting a bit hazy and my camera and lenses were dripping with water. The North American Nebula and the Gamma Cyg neb can just be made out. The rift is fairly prominent.

It turns out we may have also been treated to possible out burst of the minor Alpha Aurigid shower. There were comments about the unusual number of meteors which prompted the searching of meteor list to find out what was going on.

Thanks to all who came (and I can announce I have now purchased fresh coffee, the next time it should taste much better!)

The next get together will be announced as soon as possible.


PS a wee bit more digging as of 13/10/08 reveals that the meteor show was more likely the Delta Aurigids.
Bill

[horstm]

Here are three more Messiers from the September Weekend. M11 and M27 are stacks of two 2-min exposures, M13 is a single 2-min exposure. f = 400 mm, f/6.3, Canon EOS 400D on SkyWatcher HEQ5 mount.







M13 was clearly nicer visually in Mike's 4-inch Newton. The picture here does just about show NGC6207, a 12.3 mag galaxy, at the top left.