Public stargazing on Mount Stromlo this Friday night

There are only three more public viewing nights scheduled for this year on Mount Stromlo. Daylight savings makes dates over summer too late for the kids.

So far the weather forecast is looking good, which will make a nice change. But it always pays to check the all-sky camera on the MSO website to make sure before you rug up and set off.

And please do remember to rug up, same for your kids. It's a mountain top, and often a lot breezier and colder than down at your home. Your kids may be climbing a cold metal step ladder to a big scope, so make sure they have gloves. A snow jacket is my standard kit for a night on Mt Stromlo...

Despite a half moon that will be fairly bright, viewing of Saturn should be good, and there'll be a lot of other cool sights for first timers like binary stars, globular clusters, and perhaps a look at the brand new nova that was just discovered today.

The event starts at 7pm, until about 9. See you there!

More details:
http://rsaa.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/star-gazing-evenings

Public stargazing this Friday night—Mount Stromlo. I'll be there. Will you?

The members of the Canberra Astronomical Society will be back up on Mount Stromlo this Friday night for the second of this year's joint ANU/CAS public stargazing nights.

After the full-cloud washout from last month, if the skies are clear this week, we expect a huge turnout. 500 people is normal, and on one pretty busy night last year, I was sure every one of 500 people checked out Saturn through our telescope...

It will be the first public outing for my new telescope and the big wide-field eyepieces I bought especially for these public viewings. I've been setting it up to control the new equatorial mount via bluetooth straight from Stellarium on a notebook PC, and using a wireless gamepad for steering. This process uses programs called ASCOM EQMOD and Stellarium Scope.

It would be nice if I could get some clear sky to actually test it first…There's one crucial component that I haven't tested yet—the sky alignment program Alignmaster. :-/

Please make sure you check the Mt Stromlo All-sky Camera before you set off, to see whether anything is visible:

Here are the details posted by ANU. Note the 'warm clothes' advice—it does get cool and windy up there! Ski jacket is my standard gear…

The Mt Stromlo Observatory in conjunction with the Canberra Astronomical Society invite the Canberra community to attend our public observing night.
Come and see the rings of Saturn, the craters of the moon as well as beautiful star clusters and nebulae. On the night attendees will be taken on a ‘tour of the universe’ with talks by astronomy experts and observations on several telescopes.
This event is free and open to the public. No bookings are required.
Warm clothing is recommended. In the event of cloudy weather, star gazing will be cancelled. You can check out the weather at Mt Stromlo using our all sky camera.