Hi All,
With thanks to a couple of roving Queenslanders who brought fine weather with them, we had a very successful innagraul Australasian Astrophotography weekend.
Friday was a stunning day for the drive upto Taupo. The autumn colours of this country are truely spectucular.
Friday afternoon began with one attendee (who shall remain nameless) chasing deer off the observing field into another paddock!. From about 3pm anwards attendees started arriving. Tents were setup and Scopes mounted. It was great to see an observing field dominated by equatorial mounts rather than Dobs. But true to fashion it's hard to keep the Dob owners away with Dave Moorehouse turning up with his 8" bino-Dob. He was planning to do eyepeice projection... onto the eye!
Friday eveing began casually with old friends catching up and new ones being made. A couple of drinks and a bit of tucker and it was dark!!
The first part of the evening was pretty much dedicated to drift aligning and tweaking setups in preparation for astronomical dark and imaging! True to New Zealand form the long white cloud turned up at about 8pm just as most were ready to go. Jupiter stayed clear and many focussed on that as a few of us retired inside to catch the 2nd half of the Rugby.
A few late arrivals (Coops) heralded the clearing of the sky and from ~11pm onwards it was a stunningly clear night. Dew heaters & battereis were tested as the temperatures dropped. Some battled dew while others (myself included) battled dwindling battery power. Many nice images were taken and plenty was learnt by checking out other peoples methods.
Fog interrupted proceedings at about 4am, by which time most welcomed the excuse to catch a few zzzz's. Eta Aquarids meteor shower was unfortunately fogged out.
Saturday dawned foggy, but at least that kept the frost away. The temperature got to ~3°C overnight. Much warmer than was expected.
In true astro observing fashion the place was pretty quite first thing. A few headed off into town for breakfast and a couple of our international visitors headed out to see the tourists sites of Taupo.
Saturday afternoon was dedicated to a few talks on astro-imaging and we had excellent presentations from....
Chris Picking - Piggyback Astrophotography.
John Burt - Guidance on Guiding
Rob Beck - Hardware interface for guiding
John Drummond - Focus on Focussing
Mark Cannel - Image processing by way of Convolution & DeConvolution.
I am sure those that were there can echo my sentiments as to the quality of the presentations. Lots was learnt!
A basic BBQ dinner was arranged for Saturday evening and all available energy was devoured in preparation for another long nights observing/photograpghing.
Thanks to the previous nights efforts, setup tonight was minimal and it was just a matter of turning it on and getting started.
Again Jupiter was the target for many early on as we ran a competition for the best Jupiter image taken between 7 & 8pm. Jupiter continued to be a popular target as cloud started to form in the south. A few deep sky images were taken before high cloud set in around 9pm. The cloud hanged around and we only got views via "sucker holes", which are not condusive to photography.
The remining of the night was spent observing doubles from the bottom of a wine glass and general good natured chatter. This aspect of the weekend is always popular as cloud means lot's of laughs and healthy discussion on what is the best Globular in the sky.
Groups formed discussing everything from image processing to the latest Rugby results. A good night albiet with limited photography opportunities.
Sunday dawned cloudy, but still no rain as forecast!
A short session that enabled attendees to show-off thier weekends efforts was followed by the prizegiving.
Three spot prizes were up for grabs from ImagesPlus, K3CCDTools, & a book donated by RASNZ & Ursula McFarlane of Tauranga.
A full copy of ImagesPlus was won by John Burt of Gisborne
Many thanks to Mike Unsold for this contribution to the event
http://www.mlunsold.com
A license for K3CCDTools2 was won by Andy Dodson.
Many thanks to Peter for this contribution to the event.
http://www.pk3.org/Astro
A copy of the book "The New Amature Astronomer" was won by Terry Butt of Te Horo
Discussion followed the prizegiving on the future of the event. Most found the weekend to be worthwhile and supported the idea of it being an annual fixture, but perhaps a little earlier in the year. John Drummond had been approaced by RASNZ (Royal Astronomical Society of NZ) about starting an Astrophotography section of the society. This was a well supported idea and it was decided that this should happen. John was elected as director of the section.
Many thanks to Bruce & Pat Bailey for use of their farm and premises for the event. It was an excellent dark sky site, with great views south.
More Aussies next year!.... But not too many!
Cheers
Robby, great weekend and once again a big thank you to you and John D for putting the weekend together and to you Robby for all your asistance you gave Paul (1 ponders) and myself.
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