Greetings from COAA (August Group)

[Carole]

Hi every-one, this is Carole on behalf of Delphine, Ian, Miriam, Jeff, Carole, Adrian, Brian, Tom and David.

Having a great time so far.  Great skies, I have managed to see Sagittarius complete for the first time.  We had a good evening viewing nebulae and globular clusters on Sunday and last night watched the Perseids.   COAA held a Perseids party for lots of local people too so there was a huge crowd.  We didn`t see too many before it became too cold to stay up any longer but we did see a few meteors in colours, I saw a pink one and Delphine saw a green one.  Delphine had a fight with the dog over the duvet in the garden, who refused to let her have it in it`s entirety we think it must be the dogs duvet!!!  Hoping to see some galaxies tonight. 

On the non Astronomical side we have a good programme having explored Alvor yesterday and the mountains, we are going on a river Cruise to an old moorish village today, we have a sea trip to see the dolphins, a visit to the Bird Field Centre (Adrian and Carole are bird watchers) a small plane flight to see the landscape from the air and planning to go to the most westerly point of Portugal.  We have 3 hire cars between us.

Will send an update and possibly a photo if we can.

Carole, Adrian (husband), Delphine, Ian, Jeff, Miriam, Brian, Tom, David,

[Mike]

Hello to everyone out at COAA. Glad you are all having a good time and are getting some enjoyable experiences in as well as seeing some great sights in the night sky. Look forward to seeing your photos/videos.

[Carole]

End of Monday update.

We went on the river trip today which was very pleasant, lovely old Moorish village and lots of bird watching on the way.  Unfortunately it clouded over on the way back and the river (which is an estuary of the Atlantic) became very rough and we got thoroughly soaked and chilled.  Came back to COAA and dried out.  Luckily the skies have cleared again so hopefully another good nights viewing.  I have requested galaxies this evening.

Carole and all

[Carole]

Thursday:

We have had a feast of viewing through the 1/2 metre Newtonian doing a mini Messier Marathon.  Last night we had the Dobsonian to ourselves as Bev (at COAA) was not well. 

Day time, have been dolphin spotting on the sea, and Carole and Adrian have finally seen the elusive Hoopoe (bird) they have been trying to see for some years.  Some went to the Westerly point today and others went inland. 

Some are hoping for air flights tomorrow depending on whether Bev has recovered as he is the pilot.

See you all next week.

Carole and All

[Carole]

Had two more good nights viewing and taking digital photos. 

We have seen and photographed an object which will make you all jealous.  We will let you know what it is on Thursday!!!!!!

All at COAA

[Mike]

Ooohh!! I can't wait !! 

[Whitters]

Sounds like you have all had a great time. I look forward to seeing the pictures.

[Miriam]

We all arrived home safely yesterday evening, having had a good flight back to Gatwick (not too much waiting around for luggage when we got back - despite queueing for an hour to check in at Faro airport)

Us astrophotography novices are very pleased with the images we took (under Bev's supervision), and especially proud that many of us managed to guide the 20" scope manually without too many mishaps.

We'll bring the photos to the meeting on Thursday.

It was a great holiday!!

Miriam and Jeff