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  #241  
Old 06-09-2012, 07:33 AM
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Analog6 (Odille)
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I just redeived the following email from http://www.birdwatchers.com.au/ at Jurlatten. So if anyone is looking for last minute accommodation they may be able to (ahem) accommodate you.

Dear Odille,

Just checking our bookings for the Eclipse and wasn't sure if you still wanted a camp site or not. We actually have some self-contained units now available for the two nights of November 13th & 14th as the Japanese tour group cancelled after finding they couldn't get flights into Cairns.

I imagine you have made other arrangement, but thought I would let you know.

Kind regards.

Lindsay

Keith & Lindsay Fisher
Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge
RN 6 Mt. Kooyong Road
Julatten QLD 4871
Ph : (07) 4094 1263
Web Site: www.birdwatchers.com.au <http://www.birdwatchers.com.au>
Blog: http://kingfisherparkbirdwatchers.blogspot.com/

Winner: Wet Tropics 2010 Cassowary Award for Nature Based Tourism
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  #242  
Old 06-09-2012, 07:36 AM
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iceman (Mike)
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For those not travelling up to see totality, I've written an article based around the AAQ's great infographic posted a page or two ago.

Partial Solar Eclipse for Australian Capital Cities, 14th November 2012.

Thanks to the AAQ for a great graphic!
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  #243  
Old 06-09-2012, 08:09 AM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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More hints : flying with scopes

My worry with carrying on lots of stuff as hand luggage is that if it's deemed too large or too much, they'll take it and check it in. Happened to my camera bag once because the bag was deemed too big on a small commuter plane. Fortunately it survived.

So if you carry on, it has to be packed for solo check in anyway.

I prefer to pack it myself in a suitcase in a form where I'm confident of it's survival and once done, I'm not burdened by too much hand luggage. Once I discovered that I could safely check in optics, I never looked back.

Whichever way you decide to carry, I agree with Terry that I wouldn't dream of leaving good optics behind when going to an eclipse. Both of us are however driving to Cairns this time with a carload of gear so for once, neither of us have to scrimp. We've organized spacious accommodation with car parking right next to the apartments so we have space to store the gear during the week when we are not using it and it's easy to load and unload the cars.

One trick I use to minimize gear to pack when flying is to do a complete setup on the lounge room floor. The suitcase or a box is on standby next to the setup. Once set up parts are transferred to the packing box as the set up is disassembled. Only parts from the set up and tools used during the assemble/ disassemble are packed and nothing else. Any contingency tools are carefully considered before inclusion. I carry one small 100mm shift spanner and I even went to the extent of filing out my own spanner from aluminium for one larger nut on my mount.

Flying to Tatakoto for the 2010 eclipse, we were warned we had strict limits of 3kg hand luggage and 20kg checked. We were flying in smallish 40 seat planes landing on short airstrips. The cabins had small overhead luggage holds for carry on. The above prep technique kept me under these limits. All this may sound pedantic but it adds up to kilograms in the long run. Since 2001, I've worked at reducing my check in baggage from 30kg to 20kg without transferring weight to carry on. My current setup has more functionality than the much heavier gear I hauled and paid excess baggage fees on in 1999, 2001 and 2006. Of course going by car this time - all bets are off !

Joe
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  #244  
Old 10-09-2012, 11:35 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OzEclipse View Post
My worry with carrying on lots of stuff as hand luggage is that if it's deemed too large or too much, they'll take it and check it in. Happened to my camera bag once because the bag was deemed too big on a small commuter plane. Fortunately it survived.

So if you carry on, it has to be packed for solo check in anyway.

I prefer to pack it myself in a suitcase in a form where I'm confident of it's survival and once done, I'm not burdened by too much hand luggage. Once I discovered that I could safely check in optics, I never looked back.

Whichever way you decide to carry, I agree with Terry that I wouldn't dream of leaving good optics behind when going to an eclipse. Both of us are however driving to Cairns this time with a carload of gear so for once, neither of us have to scrimp. We've organized spacious accommodation with car parking right next to the apartments so we have space to store the gear during the week when we are not using it and it's easy to load and unload the cars.

One trick I use to minimize gear to pack when flying is to do a complete setup on the lounge room floor. The suitcase or a box is on standby next to the setup. Once set up parts are transferred to the packing box as the set up is disassembled. Only parts from the set up and tools used during the assemble/ disassemble are packed and nothing else. Any contingency tools are carefully considered before inclusion. I carry one small 100mm shift spanner and I even went to the extent of filing out my own spanner from aluminium for one larger nut on my mount.

Flying to Tatakoto for the 2010 eclipse, we were warned we had strict limits of 3kg hand luggage and 20kg checked. We were flying in smallish 40 seat planes landing on short airstrips. The cabins had small overhead luggage holds for carry on. The above prep technique kept me under these limits. All this may sound pedantic but it adds up to kilograms in the long run. Since 2001, I've worked at reducing my check in baggage from 30kg to 20kg without transferring weight to carry on. My current setup has more functionality than the much heavier gear I hauled and paid excess baggage fees on in 1999, 2001 and 2006. Of course going by car this time - all bets are off !

Joe
brilliant advice - you dont have a photo of your setups for said journey's?
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  #245  
Old 10-09-2012, 10:39 PM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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Thanks for your comments David.

I have some photos scattered through my web site

Picture of the mounting + 70mm f6.3 APO
http://tinyurl.com/9j7u9ey

Few pictures of me with the equipment (less detailed) on the motu (little island) at Tatakoto taken by Geoff Sims or Bengt Alfredsson at the top of this page :
http://joe-cali.com/eclipses/PAST/TSE2010/joe.html

The equipment developed gradually over a ten year period of eclipse chasing. I have a whole article describing the evolution of my gear.

Basically it wasn't a question of whether I could get away with carrying the weight, it was that I didn't enjoy lugging it around and I had to cut it down so I could also enjoy the travel associated with these trips.

http://joe-cali.com/eclipses/EQUIPME...Evolution.html

Basically the whole mount is designed specifically for solar eclipse observing and flight portability.

Every component of the mount and tripod is constructed from hollow tubes or thin struts. Strength and bulk only where required.

The single arm fork can be slid back and forth transverse to the RA axis to balance the load around the RA axis thereby eliminating the need for any counterweights.

The drive is a very small diameter not very accurate worm drive driven by a small step motor and a simple driver circuit. Accurate enough for any solar event but definitely not for long exposure astrophotography. With a max exposure of only a few seconds for the outer corona, you don't need an accurate drive for a solar eclipse. However a drive that keeps the sun centered is a great convenience.

It's strong but so light the payload can tip it so I often hang weight off the tripod under the head or more commonly use rubber bands to attach bottles of water to each leg to stabilize it. These can of course always be purchased at or near destination and not carried on the airline. In the photo on the China page, I was about to pack up and removed the water bottles before taking the photos.

Of more importance is that an equatorial drive will keep the image correctly rotated which makes stacking vastly easier. Whilst you can rotate and align images from an alt-az mounted system, Moon and the corona are moving at different rates. Background stars down to mag. 6 to 7 are visible in my longer exposures but not in the short ones. Following each solar eclipse, the solar eclipse mailing list is full of people asking how to align alt-az acquired images. It isn't easy and many give up in frustration.

Cheers

Joe
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  #246  
Old 11-09-2012, 11:30 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OzEclipse View Post
Thanks for your comments David.

I have some photos scattered through my web site

Picture of the mounting + 70mm f6.3 APO
http://tinyurl.com/9j7u9ey

Few pictures of me with the equipment (less detailed) on the motu (little island) at Tatakoto taken by Geoff Sims or Bengt Alfredsson at the top of this page :
http://joe-cali.com/eclipses/PAST/TSE2010/joe.html

The equipment developed gradually over a ten year period of eclipse chasing. I have a whole article describing the evolution of my gear.

Basically it wasn't a question of whether I could get away with carrying the weight, it was that I didn't enjoy lugging it around and I had to cut it down so I could also enjoy the travel associated with these trips.

http://joe-cali.com/eclipses/EQUIPME...Evolution.html

Basically the whole mount is designed specifically for solar eclipse observing and flight portability.

Every component of the mount and tripod is constructed from hollow tubes or thin struts. Strength and bulk only where required.

The single arm fork can be slid back and forth transverse to the RA axis to balance the load around the RA axis thereby eliminating the need for any counterweights.

The drive is a very small diameter not very accurate worm drive driven by a small step motor and a simple driver circuit. Accurate enough for any solar event but definitely not for long exposure astrophotography. With a max exposure of only a few seconds for the outer corona, you don't need an accurate drive for a solar eclipse. However a drive that keeps the sun centered is a great convenience.

It's strong but so light the payload can tip it so I often hang weight off the tripod under the head or more commonly use rubber bands to attach bottles of water to each leg to stabilize it. These can of course always be purchased at or near destination and not carried on the airline. In the photo on the China page, I was about to pack up and removed the water bottles before taking the photos.

Of more importance is that an equatorial drive will keep the image correctly rotated which makes stacking vastly easier. Whilst you can rotate and align images from an alt-az mounted system, Moon and the corona are moving at different rates. Background stars down to mag. 6 to 7 are visible in my longer exposures but not in the short ones. Following each solar eclipse, the solar eclipse mailing list is full of people asking how to align alt-az acquired images. It isn't easy and many give up in frustration.

Cheers

Joe
classic GOLD! thanks
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  #247  
Old 13-09-2012, 09:39 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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Just a word of warning for those that think that they can just use their camera directly with the computer and software to control the camera. Its all good - right up until you start to take a few images then things will go pear shaped if you have a bog standard class 10 memory card. Your camera can't write to it fast enough before the next shot comes. i have just widened the bottleneck to allow for fast image download to the memory card - just got 2 x 32GB Lexar SHDC Professional 600x for the 60D and the 650D. i thought i would have been ok with what i had, but my poor little fujifilm 32gb class 10 SDHC can only write at 23MBs max. The new ones will do 90MB/s . Dont skimp on your memory!!!!! After all you are spending all the readdy on getting there So at a minimum get some thing likes of 90MB/s or higher. i'll get off the soapbox now
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  #248  
Old 13-09-2012, 11:19 AM
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AstroTourist (Terry)
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Great advice Dave.
But the ESSENTIAL thing is that you give it a COMPLETE run well before the day with all the gear you will use on the day (using simmulated time).
Then CHECK the images that have been recorded to see that you are getting exactly what you want.
This will check that the script is correct and that you do not have any skipped images due to delays in writing and the program has correctly set the exposure for each image.
If you dont do this there is a high probabality that you will have a problem.
And you only get ONE go at it on the day.
Happy snapping.
Terry
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  #249  
Old 13-09-2012, 11:39 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AstroTourist View Post
Great advice Dave.
But the ESSENTIAL thing is that you give it a COMPLETE run well before the day with all the gear you will use on the day (using simmulated time).
Then CHECK the images that have been recorded to see that you are getting exactly what you want.
This will check that the script is correct and that you do not have any skipped images due to delays in writing and the program has correctly set the exposure for each image.
If you dont do this there is a high probabality that you will have a problem.
And you only get ONE go at it on the day.
Happy snapping.
Terry
Oh and look at your battery life, turn off the auto focus, and a whole other swathe of stuff......including the "backup plan"
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  #250  
Old 17-09-2012, 07:05 AM
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DarthWombat (Alex)
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Eclipse here we come!

Just scored beachfront accommodation in Trinity Beach due to a late cancellation in my local astro society.

Who else is planning to be in Trinity?

Now... What gear to take....
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  #251  
Old 17-09-2012, 11:25 AM
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jjjnettie (Jeanette)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy View Post
the "backup plan"
The back up plan is standing on the beach complaining about the cloud then spending the rest of the day at the pub throwing down commiserative ales with the rest of the IIS crew.

Astroron, along with Anne-Louise and Tony Suma-Hawes will be at Trinity.
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  #252  
Old 17-09-2012, 11:32 AM
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h0ughy (David)
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I have been putting together the kit for the event as started here . i was thinking of the ED80, you are able to remove the filter without disturbing the focus?
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  #253  
Old 17-09-2012, 12:27 PM
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erick (Eric)
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I hope I don't sleep in on the 14th.

Alarm clock!
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  #254  
Old 17-09-2012, 02:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by erick View Post
I hope I don't sleep in on the 14th.

Alarm clock!
Good point Eric, beep beep! Is anyone going to actually watch the eclipse or are you all going to be too busy fiddling with your technology?

Cheers -
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  #255  
Old 17-09-2012, 03:49 PM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by erick View Post
I hope I don't sleep in on the 14th.

Alarm clock!
That's not a silly as it sounds. Not so much for the day but to get used to the early start. Some would say I'm not a morning person. Others would be more honest and say I sleep like a sloth. So from when I start traveling the alarm will be set to 5am so that the eclipse morning won't be too much of a shock.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob_K View Post
Good point Eric, beep beep! Is anyone going to actually watch the eclipse or are you all going to be too busy fiddling with your technology?

Cheers -
I will watch no matter what. If the technology fails - it fails. Others will get better images than me anyway. If it works I'll frame my best effort so I can say 'I did that'.
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  #256  
Old 17-09-2012, 03:55 PM
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Originally Posted by AstralTraveller View Post
I will watch no matter what. If the technology fails - it fails. Others will get better images than me anyway. If it works I'll frame my best effort so I can say 'I did that'.
That's the spirit !
Same here.. but.. it would be nice if technology doesn't fail
So, if kept at minimum, the prospects of success are maximised
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  #257  
Old 17-09-2012, 07:57 PM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by h0ughy View Post
I have been putting together the kit for the event as started here . i was thinking of the ED80, you are able to remove the filter without disturbing the focus?
This is a really important issue. You must be able to remove the filter without disturbing focus or pointing yet it must be securely fitted so that it can't blow or fall off.

After one blew off a 500f4.5 telephoto during TSE 2001 in Zambia while I was looking through the camera, I developed a method for mounting filters that is both very secure and easy to remove without disturbing pointing or focus and now thoroughly tested at the past 5 total eclipses.

http://joe-cali.com/eclipses/EQUIPME...arfilters.html

Joe
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  #258  
Old 19-09-2012, 06:22 PM
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shahgazer (Shah)
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Hi All,

Yes, I will be returning to Australia again after 3 years. For the eclipse, most of the hotels, motels are all booked or have a ridiculous room rate!

So, I'll be flying from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, and then Melbourne to Cairns, rent a car and check in a motel at Mareeba. And during the early morning hours before the eclipse, will drive up to Port Douglas. Google says it'll be about 1 1/2 drive from Mareeba to Port Douglas, right?

I'm not too familiar with that area, so here are some questions:
1. Is there any public beach for the eclipse viewing? Most of the beaches I read over the internet are privately owned, and not really sure if I can pop in.
2. Weather prospect. Which website or tv channel anything that I can refer to, for a quick look a day before the eclipse, just in case I need to change plans.
3. Will there be any group watch among the IIS members?

Thanks!
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  #259  
Old 19-09-2012, 07:33 PM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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Hi All,

So, I'll be flying from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, and then Melbourne to Cairns, rent a car and check in a motel at Mareeba. And during the early morning hours before the eclipse, will drive up to Port Douglas. Google says it'll be about 1 1/2 drive from Mareeba to Port Douglas, right?
Shah, why would you leave from Mareeba and go to Port Douglas? You'd be better off going out past Mt Carbine. You'd be sure to find a spot, the drive will be easier and the weather prospects much better. Bobs Lookout 25km past Mt Carbine is a good location. There may also be some public or private viewing areas - Bustard Downs is one I've heard of.
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  #260  
Old 19-09-2012, 07:57 PM
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shahgazer (Shah)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AstralTraveller View Post
Shah, why would you leave from Mareeba and go to Port Douglas? You'd be better off going out past Mt Carbine. You'd be sure to find a spot, the drive will be easier and the weather prospects much better. Bobs Lookout 25km past Mt Carbine is a good location. There may also be some public or private viewing areas - Bustard Downs is one I've heard of.
Hi David,

Yes, that would be a good idea. I was reading through and found your post regarding Mt Carbine route.

Worth to consider. Thanks!
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