Our OOG ( Orion Observation Group) had a delightful star party this past weekend at Stellenbosch on a beautiful wine farm about 30 km from Cape Town. It was arranged by our very able secretary, Serena Ingamells. By the way, the acronym, OOG, is Afrikaans for EYE.
It was a very warm summer evening and the attendance excellent. We had a talk on computers in astronomy by one of our founder members, Willie Koorts, of the SAAO at Sutherland and a very entertaining artistic presentation of the astronomical folklore of the San peoples ( Bushmen) by Carol Botha.
Telescopes of all shapes and sizes were positioned and we had a royal time viewing some of the deep sky wonders of the Southern Hemisphere. The pick of the crop was a 14 " Meade SCR and 47 Tucanae is a sight for sore eyes through that monster.
Believe it or not, I had my first view of the Andromeda galaxy! It is very low on the horizon when viewed from the Cape and mountain chains often obscure the view, But not this time.
Auke Slotegraaf from the South African Astronomical Observatory ( SAAO) was also in attendance making his expertise available to everyone, young and old.
All in all a very successful evening.
One of the images shows the view we had of Table Mountain.

Phil

Attached Images

	Dirtopia6.jpg (41.2 KB, 22 views)
	Dirtopia3.jpg (53.0 KB, 25 views)

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If at first you fail, you're running average

Hello
I have friends in Stellenbosch and Somerset West, I love the region (ek kom van die Laeveld, but I was born in the UK, raised in Nelspruit).

Hopefully you'll post some night images too. I miss seeing the Southern Cross.

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Round...everything is always round!

Hi Eric,

Nice to hear from you. Our secretary, Serena Ingamells, lives in Somerset West.
I haven't got an image of the Southern Cross for you and the closest I could get is an afocal image I took of Alpha Centauri, one of the pointer stars.
We live close to Hermanus on the Southern Coast 1 hour's drive from Somerset West.

Phil

Attached Images

Alpha Centauri2.jpg (2.4 KB, 12 views)

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If at first you fail, you're running average

Cool,
I love alpha centauri as a double star

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Yes, excellent. What is that double star in the handle of the plough called? I can reolve it with my little ETX 70..er...Mizar
Not something you'd see from Stellenbosch or Hermanus tho'.

Berties was is one of the places I know eric used to frequent...oh...and that Portuguese restaurant, for Spitada's (I think they were called)

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Miles and Miles of Stars