ITT: Two really fine nights on Emberger Alm

Friday, September 11, to Sunday, September 13, 2015

Once again back on the ITT, on alt.1750 m in the Austrian Alps - in the southern province of Carinthia, situated more than 1100 meters
above Greifenburg in the Drau valley. It was the altogether 31th ITT, and the 20th event on the current site.

The "Western Meadows" are the traditional ...

... site of the Munich group


Guenter and Haley introduced their new Explore Scientific 16" Dobsons on the ITT. I had intended to take my 16" Lightbridge along as well,
then we would have had a parade of three 16" f/4.5 instruments on the meadows. But I was not really fit these days, so had only the 120mm
in my luggage. This time I just wanted to be a tourist, taking a look here and there - but far from it ;-) - given the quality of the sky to come ...
Our rented log cabin was well filled this time, with nine people, among them Carola and Martin with their three small kids.

Friday: The two 16-inch - at left that of Haley, at right that of Guenter - enframe ...

... f.l. Haley, Ben, Guenter, Carola with Flori, Leo, Martin and Basti

In the Munich corner

f.l. Haley, Gabi, Michael, Stefan and Guenter


Gabi and Haley: Relaxing in the low sun ...

... and when interviewed by the Austrian TV


On Friday evening there were still some remnant clouds, and the moisture was noticeable on various surfaces. But that soon changed, and
the sky got increasingly better; the second half of the night was excellent, not only the transparency, but also with quite a good seeing. While I
I discerned the face-on galaxy M33 - with the naked eye - initially only with averted vision, I could clearly recognize it directly as a small patch later.
And Haley pointed out that the zodiacal band could be seen, and yes: Around 2:00 A.M. I could also discern a continuous band ranging from Taurus
to Aquarius. And with 300x and 400x we had still really sharp images in the 16-inch telescopes, and in Haley's Dobson Uranus was wandering as a
sharply defined greenish ball through the eyepiece with 400x.


21:53 CEST: f.l. Leo, Carola, Michael and Gabi

Leo at the eyepiece: He took part in both nights at the beginning,
and experienced the clusters M11 and M13 as "star tornadoes".


2:28 CEST: The summer triangle is sinking in the NW ...

... and Atair is soon gone.
f.l. Michael, Carola, Stefan and Guenter intensively observing


The night became so good that I did not manage to keep up the role as a "tourist" any longer ;-) And I started actively putting in objects in
the telescope as well, especially in Guenters 16" - also for guests strollimg along sporadically. I had taken along my Ethos eyepieces, and
Guenter was very impressed by the 100 degree field view, and intends to acquire at least the 21mm as well. Initially we were active in the
southern Milky Way regions in Sagittarius and Ophiuchus: With the nebulae M8, M20, M17 and M16, and globulars like M22 or dark
nebulae like B86 (plus cluster NGC 6520), the Snake nebula B72 plus neighboring "ink stain" B68.

The classical highlights were all good in the 16": M31 with the dust bands, and M33 with spiral and various knots were excellent, especially
with the 13 mm Ethos (with 140x). While the galaxies NGC 891 - the great "dustband sandwich behind the stars", and NGC 7479 (with spiral
structure) were most appreciated with 200x. And likewise also NGC 7331,with the nearby Stephan's Quintett (all five parts good to be seen),
while the planetary NGC 7008 ("Fetus Nebula") showed really spectacular details with 300x. And Haley showed the planetaries NGC 7009,
NGC 7293 ("The Helix") and NGC 246 ("The Skull") - all with interesting details. And with a high-up Cygnus in good skies the Veil-, North
America- and Crescent nebula were of course observed as well. And in between I also put in the galaxy clusters of the NGC 1275-, NGC 906-
or NGC 507 groups. The supernova "ASASSN-15mc" in UGC 2295 - about 16 mag bright - was near the limit, Haley and I discerned some
pointlike source at times in the right position - with averted vision only of course.

And in between we had the usual chats about everything under the sun, of course reviving stories about the "old times" as well - as parts of a
typical "ITT flair" ;-). The conditions remained excellent till the end of the night, and I went sleeping at around 5:00 CEST; others stayed
active the whole dawn along.

0:34 CEST, Northeast: Rising winter constellations ...


3:35 CEST, Southeast: ... like Orion here; in the image at left Stefan and Haley


The second night Saturday to Sunday

The second night began even better than the night before, and the conditions were excellent already in the first half. Later it became more moist,
and the sky as a whole - especially in the Southeast - got a somewhat brighter background, and with some clouds coming in as well. So it did not
provide the amount of euphoria I felt the former night, when I observed the whole night despite being a bit ill. Now I went sleeping about 1:00 A.M.

Saturday evening the conditions were great as well

f.l. Michael, Carola, Haley and Guenter (below)



Saturday during the day

An agreeable day; getting some additional sleep, and visiting some folks on the site. And as always with a good gastronomy at Angelika's
mountain inn. At the lower site I had some nice talks with old friends, and Stefan showed the Sun, Venus and Mars at our meadows.

Saturday: Stefan showed some daytime objects

f.l. Stefan, Ben, Gabi, Csilla, Frank and Haley


The lower site with "Sattleggers Alpenhof" and ...

... f.l. Joe, Irmgard and Martin Birkmaier


Here two images from Martin:

Morning dawn: Our cabin ...


... and the eastern sky


Here four images from Michael:

Morning at our cabin


At the small reservoir


Orion Nebula


Plejades



And summing up ...

A really good ITT star party with fine skies, good weather and a good-humored atmosphere :)

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