It'll be great to catch up with everyone Mike.
Looks like it'll be a mad rush tonight to get things packed and get some basics from the supermarket.
The Hotbox is on charge and so are all my camera batteries.
Hi guys and gals, I'm not going to make it to lostock this year... I was looking forward to it all year, but a combination of work and another booking for that weekend means I don't have any time to get away...
I hope to get there sometime just before 4pm tomorrow afternoon. Everything is at the front door ready to go into the car, except for 2 very important things
Unfortunately I striped both the 14" and 18" scopes down for a little cleaning and TLC before ISAAC 2009. The weather since has been absolute crud and I haven't been able to re-assemble them with all the wind, rain and dust flying about. At the moment both scopes are in about 11,000 pieces on the floor of the garage.
You might say I have a little re-assembly to do before I can pack everything in the car and head off.
At the Caltex/McDonald's at Alison, approximately 60 km out of Newcastle.
Watched the sunrise over Lake George whilst leaving Canberra this morning. It was surreal! Seriously wanted to pull over and take photos but decided against it and kept going.
I just got back after a 7 hour drive. Absolutely buggered.
Jason and I had so much fun putting up our tent (we fondly referred to it as the Hilton -- a ten man tent for the two of us -- very comfy) in the gale force winds on Thursday morning. It took us 2 hours to put it up.
I had the best time. Pity about some shoddy weather here and there, but, Friday night was just unbelievable. Capped off by two of the most amazing fireballs I have ever seen!
I only got to make it to one of the talks (as the rest of the time I was catching up on sleep), by Professor Geraint F. Lewis about the Anthropic Principle and I found it quite fascinating. He is an excellent speaker.
It was so good to catch up with the regulars, put faces to names, and make new friends. Fred Vanderhaven and Mike Sidonio had us all in raptures when no imaging was taking place due to the inclement weather.
I'd like to thank Mike for a well organised event this year. The guest Speakers were terrific and i managed to stay awake through them. this year i camped up near the dunny's so i could get some power. I have included a few happy snaps of the area. When i arrived at the site on Wednesday to help prepare it for the event we were in the middle of another dust storm, then it rained mud, was extremely windy destroying my tent and gazebo Wednesday night - both will probably be landfill soon. there was hope of clear skies and we got some with Friday night being the best of the time there. I'd like to thank Chris, Alan Meehan, Sheeny for their help for Wednesday - we never watched so much TV eh guys.
anyway each star party has its memories, good and bad. id like to remember this one for the good experiences shared by all
i had a total of about 10 hours sleep the whole weekend from wednesday to sunday - slept well last night i can tell you
wow its going to be quiet in here on the weekend with two astro camps happening 
