It's on again! Last year's Astronomy Calendar Competition was a huge success, with over 220 entries, 64 fantastic photographers, over 900 votes cast and over 3000 calendars sold (500 via IceInSpace!), so we're running the competition again for 2014.

The IceInSpace Astronomy Calendar for 2014 will again be made up of images captured by and chosen by the IceInSpace community!

Yes - you can submit your images for the chance to appear in the calendar, and you get to vote for the final images that will make up the calendar!

For more information about how to submit your images and how to vote, check out the article here:

IceInSpace Calendar Competition 2014

Image submission opens on the 1st May, so start preparing your images!

The IceInSpace AstroCamp for 2013 was a great success!

We had 3 out of 3 beautiful clear nights, with only some slight high cloud on the Friday night, but still with lots of clear sky. The clouds added some depth to the timelapses and nightscapes so it wasn't all bad :) The days were warm, the nights were cool and clear, and there was no wind or rain. I really couldn't have asked for better weather.

IISAC2013 was the 7th IceInSpace AstroCamp! I can't believe I've been running these since we had our first one in 2006. I was just a young man then ;) Each one ages me a little more, but I also start to enjoy each one a little more, because routine sets in and I worry less about the camp itself.

Every camp has its problems, and this one was no different. We had two guest speakers that couldn't make it and no catering this year, but if you get amateur astronomers under clear and dark skies, the rest pales into insignificance and people will have a great time anyway.

I was a little worried about how many attendees we'd have, because a lot of the regulars (people I was used to seeing there each year) couldn't make it - but a great thing happened.... lots of first-timers came along!

Over the course of the 3 days, we had 118 attendees, and based on the survey so far, almost half of them were first timers! This is great news, and a great sign of things to come for future years. It was great catching up with familiar faces, but I met a lot of new people and made some new friends.

There's some great writeups and field/candid shots on the IISAC2013 thread on the forum here, and if you have a look through both the Nightscapes and Deep Space forums you'll see lots of images taken by people at IISAC2013.

The date for IISAC2014 isn't 100% finalised yet, but hoping for late-April 2014. Keep an eye out on the IISAC page for more info as the year unfolds.

IISAC2013 is only 4 weeks away now, and we have over 80 registrations which is great to see! Keep them coming in!

• IISAC2013 Info Page
• IISAC2013 Registration
• IISAC2013 Black T-Shirt

What can you do at a star party?

• Observe under beautiful dark skies
• Photograph nightscapes, solar system or deep space objects
• Chat and mingle with other like-minded amateur astronomers and night-sky enthusiasts
• Learn heaps about telescopes and astronomy
• Learn from some fantastic guest speakers
• Perhaps win one of the great lucky door prizes!

I'd like to shout-out to our generous sponsors who have donated prizes to IceInSpace AstroCamp 2013. They provide prizes for YOU to win! Thanks very much to:  

Please support our sponsors because they support the amateur astronomy community through events like IISAC2013, but also by providing great products and great service all year round.

Thanks