Area 27N Report (08/06/08)
By Ivan Gastaldo

Weather Man was predicting a not so good night, with a 30% chance of rain, and mostly cloudy skies. ClearSky clock was predicting clear skies by sunset time… so, as you see, it was a gamble…

I decided that A27N was close enough that if weather turned out to be bad, I could easily turn around and go home.

I started getting in contact with other members via The Yahoo! Forum, and saw that they were also interested in going, if weather cooperated.

I left work around 5:30PM, and headed straight to A27N… (stopped for a bite to eat near the area, and as I was eating I was tracking the clouds, which were all heading WEST. This was a good sign, as the skies were clearing up on the EAST)

As I headed to A27N, I got a message from Bennett, who was under a Summer Thunderstorm. I called him (he even had me hear the thunders in his area on the phone), and told him that things were looking promising in the area, with clouds clearing up and light rain fading away as I was driving… He got excited, and told me that he would meet me there an hour later.

I got to A27N and parked my vehicle, waiting for the clouds to leave the area (about 20 minutes later), and after that it was all clear!

At about 7:30PM Marc pulled up, and then we had Steve Cox, Nick, & Bennett joining the group. (Fred stopped by, much later in the night, to help out Marc with some technical issues)

Besides some wispy clouds here & there, I’d say that the night was a nice one to share with friends, and shoot some of those beautiful Deep Sky objects.
While not as good as Area51, Area27N is much closer, paved, and comfortable location to be at, in case of weather changes. (good for quick sessions, specially in the middle of the work-week)

Here is a shot from last night... NGC6960 (The Veil - Witch's Broom), taken with the Orion Starshoot I & the William Optics 80mm ED-II refractor. 10x4min exposures, taken & stacked with Nebulosity, processed with Adobe Photoshop CS2. (autoguiding done with the W.O. 66mm SD, a Meade DSI Pro & PHDguide software)

All in all, another great night out…


Clear skies to all,
Ivan
9^)