Hi Paul,
We have met have we? I did indeed go to the SPSP in 2004 (I've been about 5 different times -- sometimes as a speaker) and you tend to meet a lot of people. Hmmm ... I think in 2004 I spoke about several deep sky objects in and around Corvus (much like the present DSD article in AS&T) and I seem to remember I wasn't at the star party long at all because of my back and instead went up the road a bit to stay at a mate's in Mudgee where I knew I could get a proper bed to sleep in and had a shed to store the 'scope without having to disassemble every night!
So from memory, I was actually only at the SPSP that years for a few hours on the (Friday??) to do my talk -- I can't remember much more about that year's SPSP -- I was in a Panadiene Forte and Endone "haze" for much of 2004 & 2005.
The operation I had in 2005 fixed it all though!
Thanks for the feedback on the articles -- much appreciated. Sometimes I wonder how well they are received (or indeed whether they are read at all)because I don't get a huge amount of comment (positive or negative) from the readership of AS&T. Good to know someone reads 'em!
2,900 observations -- whew! That is a very, very impressive log my friend, you should be proud! The biggest (current) observing log (I'm aware of at least) is kept by Steve Gottlieb who currently writes for Astronomy and used to write occasionally for S&T in the US (we have observed together a couple of times here in Australia). Last I heard, it contained about 10,000 observations of over 6,500 objects.
Now
thats an observing log that would even have impressed Herschel (either or both of them)!
Best,
Les D