Just a gentle reminder that unless you have made arrangements to help the set-up of the Queensland Astrofest with the Astrofest Committee, participants are not to arrive before the Astrofest opens at 10:00 on Friday 3rd August.
Magnitude 9 comet C/2016 M1 PanSTARRS is near alpha Cen in August.
On the 3rd at 7pm it is 2.4 degrees from beta Cir.
The attached map from Guide 9 shows the comets path from 30/7 to 27/8 at 7pm.
The zenith is up and alpha Cen is near NGC 5617.
For those coming up for the first weekend, a few of us will be heading up to Yarraman for a solar transit of the ISS on Saturday. Meet outside Stargazers Café from about 10am for setup at the memorial, followed by celebratory pie at the bakery after the transit at 10:57
The Queensland Astrofest is ready to open at 10:00 tomorrow (Friday 3rd August). If someone wants to complicate my life to the extreme, please send any images for the Erwin van der Velden Trophy by tomorrow afternoon. Your images will miss the starting gun by a day or so, but I will be able to update the presentation by Saturday.
On another note, Astro Anarchy has come on board as a Major Sponsor. Please visit our Major Sponsors websites and social media, and support them as they have supported us:
Terrific Astrofest this year, one for the books I reckon. Had 7 clear nights out of 8 and no fog so mostly allnighters. Stacks of data and photons were collected, beer, wine and cheese reserves were quickly depleted and all this good times turned into some extra kilograms. Now back on my bike. Great to catch up with everybody. Had a ball.
I had a super astrofest (did you see what I did there, Peter and Troy?) Great to see you Marc, and all the other IIS denizens. I managed to lose weight despite the beer, wine and cheese Now the processing begins!
One of the most enjoyable I have been to. Thanks Belinda for making the digital piano possible which provided me with a distraction during the long light tea time of the soul
One of the most enjoyable I have been to. Thanks Belinda for making the digital piano possible which provided me with a distraction during the long light tea time of the soul
that provided something else to listen to while waiting for signal on the verandah