Reports - 2010
Astronomy Benalla Baddaginnie Dark Sky Site Report - Saturday 15th May 2010
With the nights drawing in earlier 'Astronomy Benalla' commenced its viewing at 6-00pm at the Baddaginnie Rec Res venue.
The evening started reasonably warm with the sky dark & clear. Venus beaming brightly in the west was the first to draw our
attention before it dropped below the horizon. Patrick used his Maksutov-Newtonian telescope to concentrate on the Orion
Constellation The Hunter and closed in on the beautiful Orion Nebula known as M42, lit up by the four huge bright young
stars in the Tripisium, he followed up by sighting the huge stars of Orion's belt, Mintaka, 90,000 times more luminous than
our Sun, Alnilam another giant Type B star and Alnitaka a triple star whose primary is the hottest Type O star in the sky.
A bonus for the night was to see a fast bright sporadic meteor emanating from the Virgo
Constellation. The planet Saturn, now high in the sky, showed that its rings were almost flat
allowing its moons to be easily seen by David & Cynthia's scopes. Ron's quality binoculars
proved more than adequate to drag associated objects in the small and large Magellanic
clouds. Beside the usual members in attendance we had nine visitors from Melbourne,
Violet Town, Shepparton & Baddaginnie, all keen to move around the five telescopes and
see many outstanding celestial sights.
Rupe concentrated on globular clusters and showed the visitors these huge balls of millions
of stars in the constellations of Centauris, Scorpius, and Tucana. The fainter M4 object just
near the giant red star Antares was a new one to be added to his growing Messier list.
Later in the night, because of the very high humidity and the sudden drop in temperature, the telescope tubes became wet
with moisture and the lenses and mirrors started to fog up, so everyone retired for an early supper. With no one having anti-
dew equipment it was decided to call it a night which lead to driving home in fog and being back in bed at a reasonable time
for a change.
Interested amateur astronomers continue to join & attend the Astronomy Benalla' s meetings with a result the numbers have
nearly doubled. At last Wednesday's meeting Cynthia Webb’s talk on the ‘Winter Fashions for Astronomers' drew
considerable interest when she opened her case. Starting with colourful thermal underwear, then a range of beanies &
balaclavas to protect the head, fingerless gloves & mittens and finishing with woolen jumpers, polar-fleece jackets and a
freezer suit, suitable for temperatures down to -20 deg. With these clothes there in no reason to not be out viewing this
winter she said.
David Webb was the next presenter on “Telescopes for Beginners”. He had brought along for display a 70mm refractor, light
to carry, well-priced, requires a minimum of maintenance and not taking up much space when transporting it in the car. He
showed how easy it was to point and focus. Interest was also shown when it was suggested that individuals could easily
make and use a 150mm diameter Dobsonian telescope for a minimum of cost that would enable members to view many
more celestial objects.
Next Viewing Night will be Sat 12th June at the Baddaginnie venue, subject to weather conditions. The month of June is the
time to look forward to viewing the Constellation of Leo where the eight members of the small M96 Group of galaxies will be
found huddling between the Lion's legs just 38 million light years distance.
So rug up with your thermals & warm wooly jackets and join us to look at the winter wonderland in the sky.
Virgo Constellation
