Two good observing nights at Almberg star party (1141 m)

From Saturday, September 15, to Monday, September 17, 2012

Two observing nights at the Almberg star party in eastern Bavaria, near the Czech border.
With Manfred and his 16''-Bino, and about 50 participants.

Manfred unloads his 16''-Bino


The first night was initially cloudy, but cleared up around midnight, and stayed so till dawn -
with dry conditions and a limiting magnitude of about fst=6.9.

Rather cloudy at dusk

00:22 CEST: Finally clear, with two bino's in action

Among the participants was a father with his son, they had acquired a 6", but had not much experience. The mostly cloudy
first half of the night didn't tempt them go to sleep, and so they experienced a clear second half. And their site neighbor happened
to be my fellow club member Martin Brueckner, with his 18" Dobson. He integrated them into his observations, all along till dawn,
so they got an impression how the main highlights from the summer Milky Way to the classical winter sky look in a big Dobson -
a leap from near zero observing experience into intensive Deep-sky activities.

00:37 CEST: Martin's 18-inch below handle of Big Dipper, ...

Martin Brückner

03:24 MESZ: ... and his neighbours view M42


Sunday morning, view to South


Hike to Ploeckenstein (1376 m)

And on sunday a hike in the bizarre forests of the "Bavarian Forest National Park", with vast areas of dead spruce trunks - the bark beetle
is intentionally no longer battled here, so that new natural vegetation will eventually grow up.

Bizarre scenery in hill moor, with Michael and Manfred

Granite formation on Czech border


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