trackerau
31-05-2015, 02:44 PM
The VicSouth Desert Spring Star Party is to be held on the weekend Friday 6 Nov to Monday 9 Nov, 2015.
VicSouth is an annual weekend of astronomy, held at the Little Desert Nature Lodge about 16km south of the town of Nhill in western Victoria.
VicSouth is jointly hosted by the Astronomical Society of Victoria (http://www.asv.org.au/) and the Astronomical Society of South Australia (http://www.assa.org.au/), and offers a great weekend of social and astronomical activity as well as some nice observing targets.
Over the weekend there will be a series of presentations in the afternoon and evening. The principle speaker this year is the renowned comet finder Terry Lovejoy.
We book the entire Lodge for our use during VicSouth and we implement various measures to keep the observing area dark.
Accommodation ranges from on-suite rooms to camping.
Bookings for VicSouth 2015 open on June 1 -- the booking form will be available on the VicSouth web site : http://vicsouth.info/vicsouth.htm (http://vicsouth.info/vicsouth.htm)
By 9pm on a clear night at this time of year, more than 100 deepsky objects are above the horizon and visible to 7x50 binoculars. The target count is similar at midnight and at 3am. And the naked eye limiting magnitude for stars at zenith can go as faint as 7.0.
The Lodge is bordered to its south by the Little Desert National Park which contains a variety of plants, wildlife, 4WD tracks and walking trails.
Lodge location maps and driving directions are available here. (http://vicsouth.info/location.htm)
If the Nation Park is not enough Mt Arapiles (brochure (http://vicsouth.info/mt-arapiles-sp.pdf)), about ½ hour drive south of the Lodge, offers world-famous rock climbing. Plus some nice bush walks suitable for all ages and fitness levels.
VicSouth is an annual weekend of astronomy, held at the Little Desert Nature Lodge about 16km south of the town of Nhill in western Victoria.
VicSouth is jointly hosted by the Astronomical Society of Victoria (http://www.asv.org.au/) and the Astronomical Society of South Australia (http://www.assa.org.au/), and offers a great weekend of social and astronomical activity as well as some nice observing targets.
Over the weekend there will be a series of presentations in the afternoon and evening. The principle speaker this year is the renowned comet finder Terry Lovejoy.
We book the entire Lodge for our use during VicSouth and we implement various measures to keep the observing area dark.
Accommodation ranges from on-suite rooms to camping.
Bookings for VicSouth 2015 open on June 1 -- the booking form will be available on the VicSouth web site : http://vicsouth.info/vicsouth.htm (http://vicsouth.info/vicsouth.htm)
By 9pm on a clear night at this time of year, more than 100 deepsky objects are above the horizon and visible to 7x50 binoculars. The target count is similar at midnight and at 3am. And the naked eye limiting magnitude for stars at zenith can go as faint as 7.0.
The Lodge is bordered to its south by the Little Desert National Park which contains a variety of plants, wildlife, 4WD tracks and walking trails.
Lodge location maps and driving directions are available here. (http://vicsouth.info/location.htm)
If the Nation Park is not enough Mt Arapiles (brochure (http://vicsouth.info/mt-arapiles-sp.pdf)), about ½ hour drive south of the Lodge, offers world-famous rock climbing. Plus some nice bush walks suitable for all ages and fitness levels.