3 weeks!!
Anyway, just a note to say that my computer is playing up tonight. I was going to send some emails but will have to wait until Sunday as I am away until then.
If you send me an email, please be patient until I can sort out what is going on.
Ken has let me know he will be making copies of his presentation available to keep if you bring along a memory stick.
Hi all
I have done a reconciliation of the bookings over the weekend. We have people in all the cabin and I have made sharings where possible.
List of bookings to date is as follows
Julian O'Donnell
Steve Porter
Steve Fleming
John Gurkin
Jamie Pole
Josh Pole
Paddy
John Pullen
David Murton
Paul Byron
Paul Milvain
Chris Milvain
Paul Fitzgerald
Darren Quinert
Wren
Simon Waters x 2
John Glossop
Tom Fowler
Rowland
Norm Matyson
Melissa Matyson
Markus Stone
Jen
Stefan Del Pra
Dennis Busato
Tony Busato
Malcolm Barker
Barry Coverdale
Rex James
Andy Campbell
Ian Merrick
Alios
Aamir Mirza (not staying overnight)
Eric Nelson and Nancy Nelson (Utah USA) Sunday only at this stage
Ken Harrison (not staying overnight)
Other we hope to see!!
Daniel
Dunk (camelopardelis)
Manual Stama & David Booth
Colin (atmos)
Paul Albers
Kevin (sharptrack)
There are still a few regulars I have not heard from. One interesting thing is that the number staying the 4 night is much higher than usual, I think around the 15 or so for the Sunday night.
The offer was made some pages back of a moderate sized dob for you young fella to use (I am sure I will end up viewing through it more than him) I that still open?
Hi all
Barry C and I visited the site today to check the conditions. I have posted some photos.
First the good news. The grass is not long and the top half of the field is useable for setting up gear and tents.
Not so good news. While the field is useable, we will not be able to take vehicles onto it. Although you may not get bogged, it will chop up the ground.
The bottom 50% of the field is very soft and wet. In some patches it is not bad, but overall that part is too wet to safely use.
I have checked out the alternative parking area and it is fine and has power and water for those with vans etc. I have attached a photo of this area.
Photos shown are:
1 The lake
2 The lake again
3 Where Barry is standing is about where the field gets too wet
4 The debris in the foreground shows how high the lake got the other day!
5 The lake behind the toilet block, never seen so much water there!
6 The last 3 shots show the alternate parking area.
Hi all
As some may be aware, I visited the SV Camp yesterday. I have attached some pics I took. The good news is that the grass is not long and there is lots of water in the lake.
The bad news is that the lower part of the field is very wet and the upper part is OK but still too damp to allow vehicles on it. If vehicles did drive on it, the ground would get chopped up and that would not be good.
I have attached some photos showing the lake and #2187 shows Barry standing at about the spot where the ground closer to the lake gets too damp to put up tents or scope in my opinion.
So overall we have a plan:
1) No vehicles on the field. There is a space on the township end of the property that is quite suitable for cars and caravans. It is about 50-100m from the toilet block. I have attached 3 photos of this area (#2190 to #2192) and it has power and town water. I know one or 2 of you camp with a tent attached to your car, this area can be used for that. If you have any queries about this, please contact me on 0448 567 187
2) I think the dryish area is large enough for us all to setup tents and scopes, but we may have to be considerate as to how much space we take up. In particular, those with laptops please make sure your screens are properly shielded and try to setup so the screens are facing away from those doing visual work.
3) In the past we have mainly setup the bigger dobs in “Dob Alley”, As we cannot use vehicles to transport gear onto the field, we will be wheeling the bigger components on and may have to setup closer to the huts if we cannot move them over the damp ground.
4) If bringing heavy gear, please consider bring bricks or pavers to set your mount on to keep it stable on wet ground (I know most of you already do, just worth suggesting for newbies)
5) As most gear will need to be unloaded and carried onto the field, please help each other out. Obviously you can park at the gate or inside the quad and unload there. If someone asks for help carrying a mount head or whatever, please give them a hand.
6) We are expecting more rain this week, shouldn’t change the situation too much, but if we find the field has deteriorated, we can look at putting some setups inside the quadrangle and having some stricter light controls in there, but I do not think that will be necessary. Having said that, if anyone feels the ground is too damp for their gear and would like to setup inside the quad, let me know.
7) We will enclose the power boards inside weatherproof boxes as in the past 3 camps. If you access one of these to plug in your gear, please take care in closing it back up again so we minimise risk of moisture.
Finally, and this is most important, the main concern I have had since the rain event a week or so back is that we may face a combination of a very wet field AND crappy weather. After discussions with the other members of the Committee, we decided to tentatively book the venue for the weekend of Oct 28 -31 (the next New Moon). We have done this to enable us to have an alternative if the weekend turns to crap weatherwise. I was reluctant to simply postpone the camp as many of you have organised time off from work to attend and it may not be possible for you to simply shift at short notice. In addition, I am already committed to go to an event in Horsham on the Friday and Saturday of that weekend so would not be available to help with setting up etc.
So the plan is to run the camp as planned, pray for decent weather and if it all works out, we can cancel the other booking (may lose the deposit but not a major issue in the scheme of things) or if the weather Gods do not smile we can activate the new booking and hopefully things will improve.
I emailed the same to you but my feedback would be to move the camp if required. I am not able to attend the later date as I am going to Nhill, but if everyone is going to be shivering around in gumboots and still not get any observing in it would be better to move the date than grit the teeth and push on.
All we can do is hope for the best in how the weather evolves over the week. If Rain was still forecast I would have to consider my attendance as my gear is mains powered and electrical safety has to be a concern in those conditions. I did not really design my power box with rain in mind.
Hi Malolm
First up a huge thank you to yourself and the committee for all the work that you've put in to try and make the camp work this coming weekend. If this weekend needs to be postponed then next new moon as an alternative sounds ok.
Paul
Hi Malcom.
Many thanks to you and the committee for the info. I can appreciate your efforts in making this weekends camp possible. If you do change for the later date I may have to beg and bargain for the time off again! Anyway, here's hoping for decent weather.
Cheers!
Thanks Paul
I am still hopeful that the Saturday and Sunday will be OK. I have seen worse weather forecasts this far out and weekends have turned out well.
Luckily through the support of the wonderful people who have supported the camp over the past 2 years we have an amount of dollars in the bank that can act as a backstop if we run into issues.
Obviously it will be up to each person to make a call on their own gear. I am confident with my gear that I can leave it out with the covers I have, but everyone will have to make their own call.
Hi guys
Unfortunately the weather forecasts are appearing to be getting worse this week. Pertinent points are that forecasts are for about 2 inches of rain in the Ballarat area from Tuesday to Friday, Thursday and Friday are going to be windy with a top on Friday of only 8 degrees! Although the weekend is looking better, it is still not good and Saturdays forecast has deteriorated since I checked it this morning.
So after sober deliberation, we have made the decision to go with a postponement. We did not take this decision lightly and I know it will be a disappointment to many of you, but the odds are that the weekend would end up not being enjoyable. With the rain predicted this week the field could well be unusable for tents or scopes and with limited opportunity for clear skies, I feel this is the correct decision.
An additional set of factors we had to take into account is safety. In order to turn off the floodlight at the site we have to climb a ladder and with the windy condition this could be very dangerous. In addition, running electrical cables over sodden ground presents obvious risks to participants and their valuable gear.
At this stage we have booked the following new moon weekend. The Saturday for that weekend is the 29th October. The logistics are still being worked out and I will advise everyone once we know for sure what arrangements we will put in place.
What we can advise at this stage is the following:
1) Anyone who has paid will have a choice to rebook. Any monies paid we will roll over to the new dates. Any surplus will be refunded.
2) Existing bookings will be given priority in allocation of cabins
3) Anyone unable or unwilling to attend will be refunded. I will try to contact each person individually to arrange.
4) Naturally we hope the weather will improve over the coming month and give the ground a chance to dry out. I will monitor the situation and keep everyone informed.
5) Some of the Committee members will not be available for the entire weekend. I am unavailable for the Friday and Saturday, though I should be able to attend on the Friday afternoon to help with setup. Paul is not available on the Saturday. I am still awaiting advice from Niko.
6) As a result of the above, I am working through the logistics to see what combination of days will work best and will advise shortly once we have a firm plan.
7) I believe that Ken will not be available to do his presentation on the revised date. I hope to organise him to do this at a later camp.
8) I have spoken to John at Bintel regarding the discount offer for attendees at the camp and he will extend the offer for an additional month.
Obviously it is very important that I know that everyone has received this message. I do not want anyone turning up this weekend and being disappointed. So could I ask that you all respond with a quick email or give me a call on either 0448 567 187 or 03 52313048 to advise you have received this message.
My apologies that we have had to take this decision, but considering all things on balance, I think we have made the correct decision.
