Quote:
Originally Posted by shahgazer
Good luck guys
How I wish I can fly back for the SPSP this year! Just couldn't get enough 'fund' for the trip this year. 30" SDM scope scope sounds very tempting. 
The biggest scope that I've ever managed to observed with and play around was the 25" at Ozsky at Coona last year.
And I can still vividly remember the first thing that I saw when I stepped out my motel room at Coona, the CoalSax!!! 
BTW, Gary,how's the Ozsky event this year? |
Hi Shah,
Thanks for the post and hope you have been keeping well.
We really wish you could have been there but we appreciate that making the
trip from overseas is a considerable expense particularly when you add the
overheads of transport and accommodation.
As has been mentioned, the weather was the complete opposite to last year
and the night were beautifully clear. The temperatures hovered just above
freezing but the warmth and comfort of the freezer suits made that simply
a statistic and the cool air certainly helped with mirror cool down times.
I believe there were well over 300 attendees.
Courtesy of the Three Rivers Foundation (3RF), Lachlan MacDonald
and Tony Buckley had transported a 30" and an 18" which were made
available for sky tours in addition to the club scope which Lesa Moore
operated. Lach operated the 30" on both nights attending to perpetually
long queues and Tony operated the 18" on the Friday night and Mai and I
gave Tony a well deserved break and operated the 18" on the Saturday night.
There were plenty of "wows" from atop the ladder as we showed them objects
such as Omega Centauri, The Tarantula, The Antennae, The Blue Planetary,
Saturn and many, many more.
Lach and Tony were fresh back from Armidale, where along with the help
of John Bambury, had hosted an observing night there with 500 attendees.
Special congratulations to Lesa who was honored with Life Membership of ASNSW
and also to Scott Mellish who was also recently awarded with Life Membership.
Scott had also designed this year's T-shirt. Emblazoned with the famous
ship of Jason and the Argonauts, Mai and I particularly liked it!
Attendee Phil Hart was left with the problem of how he was going to transport home the
Celestron SCT he won in the lucky door competition in his already fully loaded
car.
Congratulations also to the lucky Argo Navis discount winner and thanks
to all the other sponsors.
Every year the astrophotography becomes better and better and Mike Sidonio
took home so many awards that most others would probably have trouble lifting them
all up at once!
Congratulations Mike!
At the end of the prize giving, attendees were asked to stand.
Then they were asked if they had attended only
one SPSP to sit down and so on until a small number who had attended all
18 were left standing. They were asked to come forward and to give accounts
of the first SPSP's - like how they would ride there on horseback or in hand cranked
automobiles armed with their speculum mirror telescopes.
The volunteers did a fabulous job and they made the event go like
clock work and it had a relaxed feel about it. Thank you to all the people
who work behind the scenes to make it the success it was.
The spit roast really hit the spot before venturing out into the cold air on Saturday
night. Whilst having dinner, it was interesting to look back at the photos taken
from previous SPSP's. Many familiar faces, some distinctly younger than
they look today and some sadly no longer with us at all.
It was great to be out on the observing field during the day time and soak up the sun.
The lower camp ground was abuzz and the astrophotographers set up around the
house with their arsenals of computers and equipment made it look as if Mission
Control had relocated to Wiruna.
It was great to catch up with so many people and to meet some new ones as
well. Kelly and Juanita were probably the two who had traveled the furthest,
some 2400km, all the way from the Yukon in Canada at 63 degrees North.
Another attendee had come from Japan.
Trev from Broken Hill was there and he recounted the excitement of being at
the Kecks. It was great to spend some time chatting with Trent and Julie and
to Don Huggup. We always look forward to seeing Monte and Bruce Wilson.
Rob Greaves had brought his HF transceiver and with the help of Lach
climbing the tower, they strung up a dipole. On Saturday morning I chatted
with Rob up in the house whilst the squawking of SSB transmissions from
amateurs around the world went on in the background. Rob had attempted to
make contact with amateurs at the Texas Star Party but had no luck
on that morning and there were many factors working against it, including the
state of the ionosphere during a sun spot drought.
Looking through the solar scope that Michael Chaytor from Bintel had set up
outside the meeting hall revealed several distinct prominences but little in the
way of sun spots.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Mount Kuring-Gai
P.S.
Shah, this year's OzSky event was fantastic and we were lucky to have
many great nights of observing. Hope to see you back here in the near future.
Failing that, it has been many years since I was in K.L and as we discussed
I am sure I would be flabbergasted by the changes so it would be great to
visit you guys one day.
import better intruments
SPSP 18 Huge Success
