Good night/Good morning

Astronomy can be both an antisocial hobby and yet a social one too. Over the weekend, being down the observatory with the lads was a great way to wind down a little, and on Saturday night we made sure we filled it to the max. Arriving there about 9-45 pm, just as night was starting to take a hold, the three of us spent the night observing, taking pictures of the objects we were looking at, drinking tea/coffee and scoffing chocolate biscuits, plus bossman George brought a pie each (cheers George! Steak and Kidney pies too!) as we really had a fun night. Next thing we knew, the sky was lightening up in the northwest, telling us that the night was over and the sun wanted to be back in the sky.

Yep, we lasted longer than the night and was it worth it? Definitely. Paul took some nice images, and this of number 57 in Charles Messier's catalogue, aka The Ring Nebula, was very tasty indeed. Its not an easy object to see, even through a telescope, due to its size and realatively low brightness, but a short timed exposure of a few seconds or so through the scope brings it out nicely.

Rolling into bed at 4-am is not something I'd done for a while but on reflection, Saturday nights are definitely all right (for astronomy that is!).