People, weather forecasts for Saturday night are turning good!!! I would say, let's try it!! We are just over new moon with 11% illumination and super late rise.

http://www.wetter.com/wetter_aktuell/wettervorhersage/wettervorhersage_details/?d=1&s=3&id=DE0012124002

Sky is gonna be clear after 10.30 (the sky won't be pitch dark before that time anyway) and humidity, while still high, is more reasonable and our countermeasures will be more effective.

So... who's in? :D

Here the details (copied from last meetup attempt):

After our "organization" meetup on Thursday, we came up with a great plan for our next real observation meetup! Let me thank everyone of you who took part, it was lovely to get to know you, it was productive and fun! Can't wait to implement all the activities we talked about!

Logistics

We'll go again to Havelland Sternepark, less than 1.30h from Berlin by car. This time, we want to go super early, in order to have still plenty of daylight to find a proper spot, set up the instrument, relax and start with the activities (more on our activities below). PLEASE, as always, RSVP to the meetup in advance. This will ease a lot the organization. We'll have to reserve one or more cars depending on how many we are, so the sooner we know, the better. Also, write this numer down and send me an SMS with your name, so that I can contact you directly for any evenience [masked]. You know if I already have your number or not, so if not, please write me! :) Last time we had two cars, we were 7 persons and we spent 15 euro each. If this time we'll be more efficient, it's gonna be even cheaper.

When/Where

We'll leave from Berlin Moritz Platz around 17:00, and if you guys want or need, we can organize two batches of cars at different times. I'll go there with the first one, we'll find a cool, dry spot and set up the instruments.

What

Coming to the activities, what are we gonna do??

I'm excited to announce that we'll take part to a special edition of Ian's Astrophotography Workshop. Ian and Diana are travelling Europe and proposed to join us and deliver a workshop about astrophotography, especially Milky Way photography. I gotta say it's really amazing what you can achieve with non-professional level gears, and Ian will teach us the best practices to move the first steps! Take a look at what he's doing... Whatever was on my calendar for the 26th, it just got postponed :P

http://www.lonelyspeck.com/

What will you need? I report from Ian's website:

• Digital SLR camera or equivalent

• Wide Angle Lens with f/2.8 aperture or lower

• 16GB memory card or larger

• Intervalometer remote timer (optional, or check if your camera has this function)

• Tripod

• Headlamp and warm clothes

Thank you Ian for this opportunity! It's really generous and inspiring to share your experience with us, a foreign newborn astro group! A big hi-five from me and the others. Can't wait!

We discussed a lot during the meetup, so I'll add some emphasis for the people that weren't there. The bare minimum to enjoy the workshop is a camera with manual shooting, the fastest lens you have (the lowest f/number the better!) and a tripod. I do not have a tripod, but we should try not to get there with 2 tripod to share among 10 persons. Just drop a comment below "I have it/I don't have it" so that those who wants to buy one, have a really good reason to do so now :P

There will be of course telescopes for everyone to use and enjoy. I wanna grab the suggestion by Ioannis to photograph Vesta and Ceres, two asteroids that are currently pretty close to each other visually. We should give it a try, and I put this also on my todo list.

Another reason why we want to move so early this time, is to have some "theory" discussions about what we are going to do at night by looking at each other faces and not in the complete darkness!

Random things

Everybody should bring a bit of food and beverages, so that we'll have some energy throughout the night (don't exaggerate!). If you are a driver, we'll make sure we compensate for your alcohol absitence with some hugs. I have a portable table that probably won't be enough (last time we were 7 and stuff was piling up!) so if you have a camping table, it's a good time to put it on use!

As always, everything is super exciting on paper, but the meetup will be only confirmed the day before when we'll have better weather forecasts. So, finger crossed! Expect me to bug you a lot with update emails and communications as we get closer to the event date :P

Clear skyes,

Corrado