Madrid
We left early with the car full of illusions.
We stayed with Patrick and Maria to spend the weekend observing the Camping where stone (Cuenca) , they carried the LB 12 "and we are the newly acquired LB 16" to which we have affectionately named as Sauron (the Great Eye of the LOTR trilogy).
We traveled excited and thinking about the night would give us surprises.
The trip was very comfortable and when we wanted to realize we were in the same basin. Plano .
A jump Villalba de la Sierra and from there to where stone . This is the only stretch a little heavy on the corners but is there a good climb to the village (1400 m).
Arriving teams left in the cabin and went to reconnoiter the area, also visited the Mirador but we left early and remaining few minutes of sun and we had to assemble the equipment.
Fernando glimpse of the abyss. 
Patrick, Maria and Leo in the abyss, the sunset is spectacular. 
The decline caught us in the car back. Took the opportunity to take photos of the moment.
Before arriving at the camping Patrick received a call from Jesus, who was on his way to join the observation, the expected party under the stars. In a few minutes come to Las Majadas, went to the crossing to give a good description when he got there and not lost.
already at the camp began to mount the telescope while the sunset lights surrounded us and took leave of us. In the west the brightness of the day is lost minute by minute on the horizon, which color dyeing party fireworks. Venus and Mercury did the same, they left the west greeting us with their bright flashes of light. Then came Jesus. We introduced ourselves and talked for a long time happy, then we get the equipment and began to adjust the optics.
primary adjusting screws.
During the trip listening to a rattle in the rear of the car, later found out that primary fixation screws were gone out and the whole was subject only to the adjustment screws. (On the way back we decided to take the mirror "sitting" in the seat so well behaved).
Yet once put in place the collimation of the mirrors was a breeze. These bugs are quite hard.
Patricio, Jesus and Fernando during the assembly of Sauron. 
Balancing conjunction with a weight bar and I had. Yet we have not changed anything but it will improve soon. 
The LB 12 "compared Patri looks so tiny ... but also wonder and strip also offers spectacular images. 
often expensive of happiness ... and that we did not know what we were going to see ...
This picture in which we are both wrong focus because it was the lamp that is just behind , thank goodness, who would soon turn them off. Even
aguantábamos temperature but soon we had to entertain a lot because at that point it felt the cold much.
Country full observation with Venus and Mercury in the background.
This picture is in first place LB 12 "ready to work. In the background are Fernando, Patricio and Maribel Sauron preparing for collimation testing. At the end the team of Jesus, a double set of refractor and reflector to look at the same time comparing the optical (I had built an Argo Navis to the location if I remember correctly) .
Moment collimation.
for settings Patrick gave us a laser collimator and a Cheshire, the orders we had for this output but we had not yet arrived (and now we are at home and testing).
Maribel and I took advantage of the twilight to take pictures of the environment.
Preparing Sauron to watch.
Shortly before going to dinner and had the equipment ready for viewing. Background light bothered enough (and you will see another photo below) is the main house, could not turn it off tonight but the owner told us that all will be covered when we come out of the way.
We did some pictures with the telescope: astronomers in a pure state, under dark skies ready for a magical night of visual observation.
As twilight progressed Mercury and Venus took leave of us strongly emphasizing on the skyline. Here you can view
accompanying the telescopes.
began observing session, we aim to Orion before she started to hide in the skyline. M42's vision left us breathless, and that the area of \u200b\u200bCL was not clean and was very light interference. What most stood out for me was the silhouette of the black cloud, like a bird, an eagle with open wings. The issuance of the surrounding cloud behind cutting more intensely. We do not spend much time with her and the kingdom of galaxies called us from above.
I used a picture of M42 with our retouched to remove color saturation and get a result as close to the direct sensation we perceive. We also rotated to illustrate the position-orientation of the Orion Nebula as is the saw to get over the western horizon. So you can appreciate the wings and the bird's head shaped dark foreground the issue of the trapezius
Before beginning the observation session of galaxies and other objects placed the tripod and camera to take some pictures of the entire sky. The objective used was a Samyang Fisheye 8mm f3.5 manual completely and ISO 1600 coupled to a Canon 350D unmodified, this set captures 165 º field so you do not get to catch the full horizon as a circle.
Here you can see how many constellations captured in a single dose of 25 sg. In the bottom right is the silhouette of Patricio silhouetted against the background of the western horizon.
Building Orion was hiding the camera turned around and did another shot this time the entire western horizon from Cassiopeia to the Canis Major. Here we see the silhouette of the telescopes silhouetted against the weak CL from the west.
few hours later I repeat Photos the sky, this time pointing out to the east and seeing the Milky Way from Swan to Scorpio.
But first I am going to talk about the experience of visual observation. We came to see as many objects in the night we lost the account, thank goodness for breakfast Fernando began to write and the four could remember many of them (yet we have yet to add to the list.)
Fernando, who had never driven a Dobson, was surprised at how easy it was to find many objects with the Telrad and just how easy it was to follow when they left the field just pulling on the bars, because with wide field eyepieces we used was just enough time to go recreating the view in order to approaching the edges. With a simple movement of the whole place came back in the middle so neither you realize this ... just enjoyed the task of focusing and became an operator learned in a couple of minutes.
The LB12 "and LB 16" worked to death, both show a very similar luminosity (it is the impression we had on the same site conditions, air quality, eye ...) although the LB16 "offered a lot more definition, and allowed to rise much further without losing image details or light, so galaxies showed more incredibly detailed despite being very small objects.
The impression they gave us more details of which M51 was shocked us all, we were like watching a detailed picture, occupying almost the entire picture and full of dark and light structures, were defined long arms and curved. The companion also had a lot of detail and fully appreciated the connection to the greater, the bridge area of \u200b\u200bArp. M82 showed
details and structures as well as the black band cut it in two ... We tried several eye but the best result for us was to "Sauron" was the 13mm Ethos. Filled the entire field almost looked like a galaxy tortured, she went downtown structures as if tormented, crying a psychoanalyst.
M13 was a sphere in three dimensions, literally not fit in the field Ethos 13mm. Was an area in depth and accompanying galaxy (NGC 6207) is appreciated spindle-shaped perfectly, with details ... was amazing the amount of information coming into our eye ...
could not give a description of each object because it would be endless, but so that you see an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat we saw on that night, even though they are shivering in the cold, here I pass the list of what we remember:
Saturn - NGC 2906 - Leo Triplett (M65, M66, NGC 3624) - M 57 - Centaurus A - M51 - M42 - M43 - M27 - M81 - M82 - M101 - M108 - M109 - M104 - M97 - Ghost of Jupiter - Eskimo - Blinking Nebula - The Veil (east, west and Pickering triangle) - M13 - NGC 6207 - M92 - M5 - M4 - M56 - Polar - NGC 6939 - NGC 6946 - NGC 6229 - NGC 6210 - NGC 4361.
We thank the Patrick and Jesus have given us for this first light of those jewels of Sauron Eye: Ethos 13, Ethos 17, Uwano 28, and filters 2 "NPB, OIII ...
After seeing with These eyes are going to have to go throwing out the piggy bank to renew the eye.
Hours passed and with Antares on the horizon and I put back the camera to take some pictures. This is a shot looking toward the south.
The bluish glow on the right was the headlight of a car that appeared while doing the photo. The CL had fallen little more.
A short time later and had risen more Milky Way rising over the horizon more clearly being noticed. Two images showing a spectacular sky:
was very cold. According to the hygrometer had 1.5 ° C and 85% relative humidity. The worst was the breeze of about 15 km / h which rose to the meeting was awkward. So we gradually keeping the team and retired to the cabin to rest.
The next morning we took breakfast: coffee and toast and astronomy books ... We sat in wonder. We talk about the objects we had seen on geology ... interesting vision of the tectonic plates of the Mediterranean Sea ... etc.
Breakfast-vision toast, coffee and books
We are preparing to spend day of March. We left with backpacks and before entering the car we realized that "we watched" from the sky ....
I took the telephoto (300mm) and I took some shots.
This is only the first part of the Chronicle, the astronomical, the second is focused on the nature hike all day with landscapes, animals, plants ... waterfalls ... but as I think maybe this is not your site have preferred complete and upload to the web Astronomically, if you want to enjoy and see our full adventure do not miss this link:
http://www.astronomadas.com/todo- astronomia/cronicas-y-actividades/10-abril-2010-las-majadas / We have uploadedlots of photos of nature, I hope you enjoy them also.
Now I leave you with a picture I took of the camp at dusk with the cabins, teepees in the background and the long shadows of the four adventurers in the foreground. Keep the telescopes and parted with many wanting to return ...
... will very soon be 14 to May 16, 2010. If you want more information on this macro-lie (star-party) click here, still you register you can:
PARTY OF THE STARS IN THE FLOCKS
Up soon! Greetings from astronomers.
