Here I was thinking that nobody was discussing where to meet on Friday
for dinner, only to realize that the RASC meeting is not until the 9th
of June. Dooh!

I was looking forward to seeing everyone again but I guess it will
have to wait until July's meeting as I have other plans for the 9th.

Mike Z
Slightly confused as usual.

Hi Folks,

It was foggy, but clear here last night. I had company so didn't get outside
until 2 AM. (Boy, I love being retired!)

Because of constant harassment by Albert, I spent some time using drift
aligning to polar align my scope, and then I grabbed about 80 minutes of
M27. (20 minutes each of LRGB)

The M27 image is in the files at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg

Bob

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg

Nice image, Bob.

So like, why is there such a color variation in how astrophotographers
are chooing to color M27. Compare bob's image to:
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/Jpg/m27.jpg

-ad

ps. or is this yet another taupe argument?

Yuk!
Richard:o)
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Attilla Danko
   To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 6:09 AM
   Subject: Re: [OAFs] Clear sky on Thursday Night


   > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg

   Nice image, Bob.

   So like, why is there such a color variation in how astrophotographers
   are chooing to color M27. Compare bob's image to:
   http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/Jpg/m27.jpg

   -ad

   ps. or is this yet another taupe argument?


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Beauty!!
Richard:o)
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Bob Olson
   To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 12:04 AM
   Subject: [OAFs] Clear sky on Thursday Night


   Hi Folks,

   It was foggy, but clear here last night. I had company so didn't get outside
   until 2 AM. (Boy, I love being retired!)

   Because of constant harassment by Albert, I spent some time using drift
   aligning to polar align my scope, and then I grabbed about 80 minutes of
   M27. (20 minutes each of LRGB)

   The M27 image is in the files at:

   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg

   Bob




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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hey Bob et al,

Here is my thursday night story: I got out early (9h30) and had
planned to start acquiring at 11h30. Since the scope/camera/guider
was still set up from a previous night and I was shooting the same
target (it's dim, and with the short nights...) I figured I could let
her rip, get some sleep and go outside to shut it down at 3. Well....
silly me had "updraded" software in between sessions (Ajai's new
gemini driver + POTH + thesky + maxim) and what was the first thing
to go wrong? the cursor in TheSky would not point to the target.
Click on target, command: SlewTo, watch hand paddle say finished
slewing, planetarium display shows cursor offset by several arcmins.
Try it again, cursor doesnt move. Is target on chip? Well, no. but I
think that's because over the course of 4 days, with no user
intervention or attempted improvement the mount has acquired serious
backlash. There was some before but maxim's point here used to work
well, not anymore!!!

Ok after messing for way to long, back to basics, disconnect POTH,
use Gemini bookmarks, Maxim and TT3 view finder to go from focus star
to object and use the hand paddle with timed button presses (count 1
steamboat, 2 steamboat, ...) to align image with previous night.

But wait, the star while focusing I noticed a tail on one side of the
star, and I cant get the FWHM down below 5 pixels, but seeing seems
pretty good, what up?!? Turns out collimation had shifted since 4
days ago, ugh. Point to Arcturus, pull off camera, remove dew shield,
fix collimation and yes seeing was good. Focus numbers get down to
under 2" (3 pixels). Longer expsoure is more like 2.5"

Ok reacquire target and get autoguider going. But I decide to change
the autoguider exposure time from 1 sec to 0.5 sec. That should make
things better, well, no. The MX716 locks up (it seems that changing
the binning or exposure time can do that, havent figured out the
exact conditions yet), worse simply unplugging the USB and plugging
back in doesnt restart it (usually does). Cycle power to camera, no
good, futz with windows drivers, no good, reboot computer, finally
maxim connects.

Of course polar alignment isnt perfect so target had drifted during
the interminable reboot and USB driver futzing, realign target, ok
dont touch anything except start sequence button I tell myself, it's
1h30 am. Cant go to sleep now since there's no way I'd wake up by 3.

Dew was really heavy that night but the at least the dew heaters +
dew shield worked.

Of course I'm not retired so I was dragging some feet the next day
at work. Good thing it was cloudy friday night.

Isn't astroimaging fun!!!

Wouldnt have it any other way,
Eric B.


--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Olson" <r.olson@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> It was foggy, but clear here last night. I had company so didn't
get outside
> until 2 AM. (Boy, I love being retired!)
>
> Because of constant harassment by Albert, I spent some time using
drift
> aligning to polar align my scope, and then I grabbed about 80
minutes of
> M27. (20 minutes each of LRGB)
>
> The M27 image is in the files at:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg
>
> Bob
>

>Attilla Danko wrote:
>So like, why is there such a color variation in how astrophotographers
>are choosing to color M27. Compare bob's image to:
>http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/Jpg/m27.jpg

That is an interesting question. The blue green colour of M27 is produced by
OIII and falls right in the gap between the blue and green filters that many
astrophotographers use. This makes it hard to get accurate colour rendition
in the OIII region. Don Goldman is spectral engineer and has studied the
colours of nebulas and he calls the colour of M27 "teal".

My colour might be a touch too blue, but it is close. (I should have looked
at Don's image before I processed mine.) The seds image is way off!

Bob

Hi Eric,

Boy, sounds like an exciting night. I can't tell you how many times I have
had experiences just like yours!!!

It is great fun though.

Bob

Bob,



I am writing the Sky This Month section for the RASC eNews and was
wondering if I have permission to link your photo of M27.



Thanks

Gary



-----Original Message-----
From: OAFs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:OAFs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Bob Olson
Sent: June 3, 2006 12:32 PM
To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [OAFs] Clear sky on Thursday Night



>Attilla Danko wrote:
>So like, why is there such a color variation in how astrophotographers
>are choosing to color M27. Compare bob's image to:
>http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/Jpg/m27.jpg

That is an interesting question. The blue green colour of M27 is
produced by
OIII and falls right in the gap between the blue and green filters that
many
astrophotographers use. This makes it hard to get accurate colour
rendition
in the OIII region. Don Goldman is spectral engineer and has studied the

colours of nebulas and he calls the colour of M27 "teal".

My colour might be a touch too blue, but it is close. (I should have
looked
at Don's image before I processed mine.) The seds image is way off!

Bob





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bonjour everyone,

Just recently became aware of your group, so I thought I'd drop in to
say "hi".  However, before doing so, my dad always told me I should
introduce myself before posting so...

My name is Robert Courtemanche, 42 years old and a member of the NCR
are since birth (though I lived in Fort Coulonge for a while...).
Family consists of a wife, 2 daughters (aged 12 and 14), two cats and
one Celestron CPC800 telescope (anxiously awaiting the arrival of a
DSI II-C).  I presently live in Embrun (have for the last 10 years of
so) and am a fanatic of Astronomy (and emulation/pinball, but that's a
story for another place/time).

Well, that takes care of the introduction, so on the subject at hand:
some of my astro pics found here:

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/photos/browse/1fae

I am very much an amateur when it comes to Astro photography,
specifically relevant to post-processing, but I am eager to learn and
appreciate any constructive feedback.

Rob/Loafer

Hi Rob. Welcom to OAFs.

> http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/photos/browse/1fae

Cool.

-ad

Bob,
Nicely done...nice to see you flexing those imaging muscles again.

Cheers,
Albert.

--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Olson" <r.olson@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> It was foggy, but clear here last night. I had company so didn't get
outside
> until 2 AM. (Boy, I love being retired!)
>
> Because of constant harassment by Albert, I spent some time using drift
> aligning to polar align my scope, and then I grabbed about 80
minutes of
> M27. (20 minutes each of LRGB)
>
> The M27 image is in the files at:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/BobOlson/M27.jpg
>
> Bob
>

Hi Rob,

Welcome to the group!

What camera did you use for your moon mosaic? Very nice, by the way.

Is the CPC800 an 8" SCT on a fork? If so do you use a wedge?

Bob

Thanks Bob (and Attilla) for the comments, appreciated.

Moon Mosaic:
The camera used was the Meade Deep Sky Imager, borrowed from a friend
while I wait for my DSI-IIc to come in.  The mosaic itself was
assembled from 22 images via MaximDL.  No stacking of images (always
get worse results when I image the moon), rather I selected the best
frames from a minimum of 10.  Since I was using a 0.5x focal reducer
(I had no intention to image the moon that night, my targets were
nebulas, a comet and globs) I think I sacrificed quite a bit of
detail.  Also, since I hadn't planned this out, I took way too many
different frames, overlapping way too much, but since this was to be
my first mosaic I figured better "too much" rather than "not enough".

I will say it was a good learning session though, as I now have more
experience and will consider the proper framing in advance.  When I
got the first few pics of the moon done, my instincts told me to just
dump the Focal Reducer and restart, but as I'm still at the stage
where I struggle for 30-60 minutes to get proper focus, I figured for
this session, let's just leave the FR on.  There will always be
another day.  Thanks very much for the compliment, I'm actually quite
happy with this effort.  I just had it processed via CostCo for
something like $4 for a 12X18 and it turned out pretty good.  It's
actually still not finished, as someone on Cloudynights.com showed a
quick improvent on another moon pic via processing through different
layers via photoshop, so that's my next learning step with this image.

CPC800:
Yup, the CPC800 is an 8" SCT on a fork mount.  When I picked it up at
Focus Scientific, I also purchased a used wedge with the HD Wedge
upgrade kit but have yet to try it.  I know that imaging in alt-az has
its limitation due to field rotation, but right now I'm in baby step
mode and have gotten good results as long as I stick under 15
seconds.  Still, when considering these limitation and my
unfamiliarity with the meade software/post processing techniques, I
think the M13 and M57 are pretty ok.  Once I get my own CCD, I'll
surely have no choice to install the wedge and get into the
polar/drift alignment thingy for longer exposures/more detail.
Blech!  The price to pay to get better pics I guess eheh

I've really been impressed with the CPC800, specifically with it's
ease of setup/alignment and ability to track.

Rob




--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Olson" <r.olson@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Rob,
>
> Welcome to the group!
>
> What camera did you use for your moon mosaic? Very nice, by the way.
>
> Is the CPC800 an 8" SCT on a fork? If so do you use a wedge?
>
> Bob
>

Rob,
Nice images...they don't get better than that using a 15 second
exposure time.  You did a good job processing the glob...no core burn,
very good. However, fainter objects such as face-on galaxies will need
you to track for at least 60 seconds.  So suck it up and get drift
aligning...although you'll really need to autoguide which will mean a
second camera, not many hobbies are as expensive in terms of time and
money as astro imaging!  Welcome to the club.

Cheers,
Albert.

--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Robert Courtemanche" <loafer@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks Bob (and Attilla) for the comments, appreciated.
>
> Moon Mosaic:
> The camera used was the Meade Deep Sky Imager, borrowed from a friend
> while I wait for my DSI-IIc to come in.  The mosaic itself was
> assembled from 22 images via MaximDL.  No stacking of images (always
> get worse results when I image the moon), rather I selected the best
> frames from a minimum of 10.  Since I was using a 0.5x focal reducer
> (I had no intention to image the moon that night, my targets were
> nebulas, a comet and globs) I think I sacrificed quite a bit of
> detail.  Also, since I hadn't planned this out, I took way too many
> different frames, overlapping way too much, but since this was to be
> my first mosaic I figured better "too much" rather than "not enough".
>
> I will say it was a good learning session though, as I now have more
> experience and will consider the proper framing in advance.  When I
> got the first few pics of the moon done, my instincts told me to just
> dump the Focal Reducer and restart, but as I'm still at the stage
> where I struggle for 30-60 minutes to get proper focus, I figured for
> this session, let's just leave the FR on.  There will always be
> another day.  Thanks very much for the compliment, I'm actually quite
> happy with this effort.  I just had it processed via CostCo for
> something like $4 for a 12X18 and it turned out pretty good.  It's
> actually still not finished, as someone on Cloudynights.com showed a
> quick improvent on another moon pic via processing through different
> layers via photoshop, so that's my next learning step with this image.
>
> CPC800:
> Yup, the CPC800 is an 8" SCT on a fork mount.  When I picked it up at
> Focus Scientific, I also purchased a used wedge with the HD Wedge
> upgrade kit but have yet to try it.  I know that imaging in alt-az has
> its limitation due to field rotation, but right now I'm in baby step
> mode and have gotten good results as long as I stick under 15
> seconds.  Still, when considering these limitation and my
> unfamiliarity with the meade software/post processing techniques, I
> think the M13 and M57 are pretty ok.  Once I get my own CCD, I'll
> surely have no choice to install the wedge and get into the
> polar/drift alignment thingy for longer exposures/more detail.
> Blech!  The price to pay to get better pics I guess eheh
>
> I've really been impressed with the CPC800, specifically with it's
> ease of setup/alignment and ability to track.
>
> Rob
>
>
>
>
> --- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Olson" <r.olson@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Rob,
> >
> > Welcome to the group!
> >
> > What camera did you use for your moon mosaic? Very nice, by the way.
> >
> > Is the CPC800 an 8" SCT on a fork? If so do you use a wedge?
> >
> > Bob
> >
>

Just got a note from SkyNews. One of the crescent Moon mosaics I built
last month is this week's photo of the week!

http://www.skynews.ca

The original mosaic is actually much bigger, equivalent to a 20
Megapixel image (though most of the pixels are black :). If you have
the bandwidth and a big monitor, here's the link (~800KB):

http://www.borba.com/images/moon/mosaic-060430-5550x3700.jpg

Cheers,

Ricardo

Very Nice Ricardo!

Congrats!

Cheers,

Matt

--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Ricardo Borba" <ric@...> wrote:
>
> Just got a note from SkyNews. One of the crescent Moon mosaics I
built
> last month is this week's photo of the week!
>
> http://www.skynews.ca
>
> The original mosaic is actually much bigger, equivalent to a 20
> Megapixel image (though most of the pixels are black :). If you
have
> the bandwidth and a big monitor, here's the link (~800KB):
>
> http://www.borba.com/images/moon/mosaic-060430-5550x3700.jpg
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ricardo
>

Hi Folks,

This is the link to StarFest. I plan on going, does anyone else?

http://www.nyaa-starfest.com/starfest/index.htm

Bob

Hi all,

OK  so I'm finally writing my trip report from Baja. The main purpose of the
trip was to camp out at the prospective property we are thinking of buying down
in northern Baja Mexico. To give an idea of where the property is check out this
link to the Meling guest ranch which is about 8km west of Rancho Conception (the
name of the 1200 acre ranch where we stayed)
http://www.melingguestranch.com/where.php
  The trip from the border crossing at San Diego to the observatory road turn-off
is about 2 1/2 hours, when you start reading tourist guides to Baja you hear a
lot about how bad the roads are, well I figure it must be an American
perspective cause I did'nt find it to be the case at all! The paved road from
Ensenada to the turn-off is like a standard 2 lane Canadian highway, but with no
shoulder and sometimes a 7-8 inch dropoff at the road edge(so yes you do need to
drive with attention). The 100km road to the National Observatory  which is in
the San Pedro Martir park is newly paved 2/3rds of the way, they will be
finishing it this summer. I hear that this is partly to entice the new 30 meter
telescope project to build there (it is one of the 3 candidate spots, the other
2 being Mauna Kea and Cerro Tololo).
  We arrived at Meling ranch late in the day to check in and let them know that
we were going up the observatory road to camp out at the property, I was a
little uneasy about the condition of the road since last fall but the winter had
little in the way of rain so I figured it was probably not washed out. I was
however concered if with the length of the truck and the trailer if I would be
able to make the 2-3 sharp switchbacks and indeed it was a tight squeeze!
Heres where we started just off the observatory road:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/roadentrance.jpg

And the roughest part of the road, what you don't get a sense of here is the
15-20% upgrade!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/roughroad.jpg

  But we did make it in albeit a bit white knuckled! It was about an hour before
sunset so we setup basecamp gringo and after I set up the scope, the thing that
struck us was how immensly quiet it was!! I mean here at our farm its pretty
quiet but theres always a car or truck/tractor every now and then, but there wow
just NO sound of civilization! The entire 5 day stay I only heard a few jets
flying overhead!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/basecamp.jpg

During the days we did a lot of hiking/exploring and also did measurements with
the GPS and tested how much flow the local stream had for future mini hydro
setups. I brought along a little 30 watt solar panel I got at Crappy tire but it
was not quite enough to charge the battery on the RV. Even though it was moony I
did a fair bit of observing, the seeing did not ever get especially good
(although it was never bad either) so I never got any good lunar images. It
could just be that for that stretch of time the seeing was off in the area or I
may have to find a hill a bit further away to set up on. I did bring a satellite
phone but we could not get the damn thing to work at all, hope we can get our
money back on that rental!
I did get one nice image of the moon coming up over the mountain ridge:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/moonrise.jpg

After the moon set the milky way structure was mind boggling, I measured 22.00
with the darkness meter, if I ever get setup here with an observatory it should
be quite something!

After our stay we heard from the owner that a road crew was coming to fix up the
road since the previous falls Baja 1000 race had messed it up pretty good. We
did'nt want our only path out to be blocked by graders so we decided to explre
the coastal penninsula a little south of where we were. San Quintin is a coastal
fishing/farming communty 35 km south but it also has 7 very cool extinct
volcanoes:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/volcanoes.jpg

This fall we plan on returning but this time if the seeing does not pan out we
will also try camping at the summit. LAst time on our visit to the observatory
the grounds director said I could setup my scope outside the 2.2 meter dome!
It'll be cool at that elevation but well worth it!

at the meeting I'll bring my laptop to show some more pics!

Piz






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

That's a definite maybe from me. -ad

On 6/5/06, Bob Olson <r.olson@...> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> This is the link to StarFest. I plan on going, does anyone else?
>
> http://www.nyaa-starfest.com/starfest/index.htm
>
> Bob
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
attilla danko, danko@..., http://cleardarksky.com/csk

Bob Olson wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> This is the link to StarFest. I plan on going, does anyone else?

Yes... I'm doing one of the seminars.

Doug

-----------------------------------

Doug George
dgeorge@...

Diffraction Limited
Makers of Cyanogen Imaging Products
http://www.cyanogen.com

25 Conover Street
Ottawa, Ontario,
Canada, K2G 4C3

Phone:    (613) 225-2732
Fax:      (613) 225-9688

-----------------------------------

Sounds like "Pam and Mike's excellent adventure".


> And the roughest part of the road, what you don't get a sense of here is the
15-20% upgrade!
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/roughroad.jpg

That's a *road*?? Holy c**p!


> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/basecamp.jpg

Idyllic. However, I wonder if the high mountains around you are
causing your seeing to not meet expectations.  The seeing might be
very good at hilltops where you have a line of sight to the sea, and
crap in a nearby valley just 2000 feet lower.


Glad you guys got back safely. Your prolonged absense was causing me to wonder.

-ad

Excellent report Mike, Glad to see you made it back in one piece. The
photos are amazing. It sure was some trip.



Gary



-----Original Message-----
From: OAFs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:OAFs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Mike Wirths
Sent: June 5, 2006 12:41 PM
To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [OAFs] Baja adventure



Hi all,

OK  so I'm finally writing my trip report from Baja. The main purpose of
the trip was to camp out at the prospective property we are thinking of
buying down in northern Baja Mexico. To give an idea of where the
property is check out this link to the Meling guest ranch which is about
8km west of Rancho Conception (the name of the 1200 acre ranch where we
stayed) http://www.melingguestranch.com/where.php
The trip from the border crossing at San Diego to the observatory road
turn-off is about 2 1/2 hours, when you start reading tourist guides to
Baja you hear a lot about how bad the roads are, well I figure it must
be an American perspective cause I did'nt find it to be the case at all!
The paved road from Ensenada to the turn-off is like a standard 2 lane
Canadian highway, but with no shoulder and sometimes a 7-8 inch dropoff
at the road edge(so yes you do need to drive with attention). The 100km
road to the National Observatory  which is in the San Pedro Martir park
is newly paved 2/3rds of the way, they will be finishing it this summer.
I hear that this is partly to entice the new 30 meter telescope project
to build there (it is one of the 3 candidate spots, the other 2 being
Mauna Kea and Cerro Tololo).
We arrived at Meling ranch late in the day to check in and let them know
that we were going up the observatory road to camp out at the property,
I was a little uneasy about the condition of the road since last fall
but the winter had little in the way of rain so I figured it was
probably not washed out. I was however concered if with the length of
the truck and the trailer if I would be able to make the 2-3 sharp
switchbacks and indeed it was a tight squeeze!
Heres where we started just off the observatory road:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/roadentrance.jpg

And the roughest part of the road, what you don't get a sense of here is
the 15-20% upgrade!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/roughroad.jpg

But we did make it in albeit a bit white knuckled! It was about an hour
before sunset so we setup basecamp gringo and after I set up the scope,
the thing that struck us was how immensly quiet it was!! I mean here at
our farm its pretty quiet but theres always a car or truck/tractor every
now and then, but there wow just NO sound of civilization! The entire 5
day stay I only heard a few jets flying overhead!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/basecamp.jpg

During the days we did a lot of hiking/exploring and also did
measurements with the GPS and tested how much flow the local stream had
for future mini hydro setups. I brought along a little 30 watt solar
panel I got at Crappy tire but it was not quite enough to charge the
battery on the RV. Even though it was moony I did a fair bit of
observing, the seeing did not ever get especially good (although it was
never bad either) so I never got any good lunar images. It could just be
that for that stretch of time the seeing was off in the area or I may
have to find a hill a bit further away to set up on. I did bring a
satellite phone but we could not get the damn thing to work at all, hope
we can get our money back on that rental!
I did get one nice image of the moon coming up over the mountain ridge:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/moonrise.jpg

After the moon set the milky way structure was mind boggling, I measured
22.00 with the darkness meter, if I ever get setup here with an
observatory it should be quite something!

After our stay we heard from the owner that a road crew was coming to
fix up the road since the previous falls Baja 1000 race had messed it up
pretty good. We did'nt want our only path out to be blocked by graders
so we decided to explre the coastal penninsula a little south of where
we were. San Quintin is a coastal fishing/farming communty 35 km south
but it also has 7 very cool extinct volcanoes:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OAFs/files/Pizzlespics/volcanoes.jpg

This fall we plan on returning but this time if the seeing does not pan
out we will also try camping at the summit. LAst time on our visit to
the observatory the grounds director said I could setup my scope outside
the 2.2 meter dome! It'll be cool at that elevation but well worth it!

at the meeting I'll bring my laptop to show some more pics!

Piz






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Anyone up for sidealk astronomy wednesday or thursday night at
Chapter's bookstore in Kanata?

-ad

--
attilla danko, danko@..., http://cleardarksky.com/csk

I mean tuesday, wednesday or thursday night. Friday is the rasc
meeting. Tonight will be clear but is probably soon soon for some of
us.

-ad

greets, a!

i"m up for sidewalk wed. or thrus., if weather there.
with SM16 (no cam).

rol


--- In OAFs@yahoogroups.com, "Attilla Danko" <danko@...> wrote:
> I mean tuesday, wednesday or thursday night. Friday is the rasc
> meeting. Tonight will be clear but is probably soon soon for some of
> us.
>
> -ad
>

Duh!!  Yeah!!  Now if you can just bring Paul, I can pay for my trip!!

Richard
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Bob Olson
   To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 12:58 PM
   Subject: [OAFs] StarFest


   Hi Folks,

   This is the link to StarFest. I plan on going, does anyone else?

   http://www.nyaa-starfest.com/starfest/index.htm

   Bob



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On 6/5/06, roland_prevost <r.prevost@...> wrote:

> i"m up for sidewalk wed. or thrus., if weather there.
> with SM16 (no cam).

Kewl. The rest of us will be hoplessly outclassed. :)

-ad

Should be available any of those nights.

FB
   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Attilla Danko
   To: OAFs@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 3:16 PM
   Subject: [OAFs] Re: sidewalk astronomy this week


   I mean tuesday, wednesday or thursday night. Friday is the rasc
   meeting. Tonight will be clear but is probably soon soon for some of
   us.

   -ad


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am observing that one in b.y. now (sess#532)
moon brite & city lights too
but with OIII & UHC, some decent targets,
including Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) - spent last 1/2 hour
even from city, can take 16mm + 3X barlow magnification, no OIII
it doesn't look dim, even at hi-power in moonlight
central star visible yellowish against
blue-green mottledness of neb

one of allround faves

/rol