Meteor Extravaganza - Snake Valley! COME ALONG!

[ballaratdragons]

The Snake Valley Astronomical Association invites you to come along and experience a night of Meteor Showers at the ‘SVAA Meteor Extravaganza’ from our Very dark site here in Snake Valley on Friday night 28th July from 7pm.

It is the best night to view the Multiple Meteor Showers ‘Delta Aquarids’, South Iota Aquarids’, Alpha Capricornids’ & ‘Piscid Austrinids’ and is anticipated to be quite a show!

Our SVAA Club site is extremely Dark, so bring along the Banana Lounge, Camping chairs or blankets and make a night of it!

Don’t forget to bring your Telescope to take advantage of our dark skies while you are here. A very thin 9 degree Crescent Moon should give some fascinating Lunar images whilst still giving a dark sky.

There is no Entry Fee!

There will be some Hot food and Hot & Cold Drinks for sale (cheap), and there is also a Hot Food Vendor (Fish & Chips) about 500m away that is open until 8pm.

Anyone wanting to stay overnight just bring your Sleeping Bag, Doonas, Airbed, Lilo’s etc and crash out in the Clubroom.

Please let me know if you are coming by posting your reply in here, so I can work out how many to cater for.

Come along and see the Show!!!
http://snake-valley-astro.homelinux.org

[Wombat_In_Space]

I will be there so will the kids and wife.

[h0ughy]

sounds great , when can you come and pick me up,?

[Astroman]

I might be there but cannot guaratee the time off work yet, will let you know as soon as I can Ken. Not too sure about heading east something bad always happens when I do.

[h0ughy]

ok i have to be home by midnight though, is that a problem? Love to be there but a 12 hour drive is a bit much.

[janoskiss]

That would be fantastic Ken. I'd love to come but I'll be out of the country at that time. :(

[asimov]

Me too! :lol: I'm staying put.

[ballaratdragons]

Only One Month till the Meteor Extravaganza.

So far we have 7 attending.

Please let me know if you are coming, as I have to organise for it. :thumbsup:

[Lester]

Sounds good Ken,

But the 1300kms, doesn't.

Hope you have a wonderful time.

[danielsun]

Sounds great Ken!! I'm 90% there but will confirm it with you in a week if thats o.k.
At the same time whilst i'm there i'll sign up with SVAA!!! :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Excellent Daniel!!!!

90% is cool. I don't mind if you leave the other 10% of you at home :lol:

Look forward to catching up :thumbsup:

I will put a map in here soon of how to get to our SVAA spot. It is only about 1k from the general store.

[gaa_ian]

Sounds good Ken !
I will have to organise the same thing for GAA up here, I have been thinking about it too !
Should by all accounts rival some of the bigger showers for the year with up to 70/HR !

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Ian,

It should be a great show with 4 meteor showers happenings simultaneously and an almost Moonless night!
Should be a great Astronomy night all up. Wouldn't like to be doing long-exposure Deep Sky pics though, with all those meteors around! (unless you want meteor trail pics)

[leon]

count me in Ken, i'll definetly be there.:thumbsup:

[Jupiter]

Thinking about making the trip, its 'only' 3 hrs from here, but its prolly my closest star party I know of.
Will let you know as the date gets closer.

[ballaratdragons]

That would be great Joop!

You can crash out in the Clubroom.

[Jupiter]

Funny thing is I know where Snake Valley is, I go to Melb often and pass the sign post to Snake Valley, I often think 'I wonder whats there?'

[leon]

Well Jupiter, there aint much there, :lol: :lol: only the important stuff, very dark skies.

Leon

[astrogeek]

Count me in Ken :)

[ballaratdragons]

That is good news Leon.

See you in a few weeks :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Here are the directions to our SVAA site.

If you get to Snake Valley and still can't find us, just ask anyone where the footy ground is, they'll know! It is only 1k from the centre of our town.

When you get here it is behind the row of huge pine trees. :thumbsup:

[leon]

Oh Dear....There's going to be another "Leon" there.....:scared:

Cheers Leon

[astrogeek]

And may the best leon win :rofl: :whistle:

[danielsun]

I'm there Ken!!! Even the other 10% of me is comming too so i'm now100% there!!
Now trying to decide, do i bring the 10" dob or do i bring the ed 80 on the eq or both.

[ballaratdragons]

That's good news Daniel!

Up to you which scopes you bring. Sorry, I can't answer that one for you. The very thin Lunar crescent will look spectacular before it sets early.

Don't forget to bring something to sit back in to enjoy the Meteor show. Some sort of recliner or airbed.

p.s. and a blanket or something to keep the dew of you. :lol: :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Reminder


OK Folks, only 6 sleeps to go.


Let us now if you are coming so we can cater. :thumbsup:

We will be doing normal astronomy observing with scopes and stuff from about 7:30pm, then relaxing back in comfort to watch the Meteors later on.

Don't forget to bring something to lay or sit back on and a blanket to keep warm. There will be a heater in the clubroom to take the chill out.

[Astroman]

Sorry Can't make it Ken, Work and other things got in the way. Good luck with it though, I will be thinking of you when I unwrap my C14 for my B/Day...

[ballaratdragons]

No worries Astrew, enjoy the scope dream.

7 Day weather forecast for Friday is for showers in Melbourne, but clear weather up here. :)

[Wombat_In_Space]

Will be starting to pack the trailer Wednesday night :D the girls will be only at school till lunch time so we should be there at about 5pm. Thats if all goes to plan, Will bring the Dob Hut to make it easy to put the gear away. :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Due to the small amount of responses, it has been decided that the non-SVAA folk that said they are coming from Melbourne won't have to provide their own food on Friday night (Daniel & Astrogeek). They will be fed by the members of the SVAA on Friday night. :)

The weather report is still very favourable :thumbsup: 'Clear Sky'

[Wombat_In_Space]

Sounds good :thumbsup:.

[danielsun]

Thanks guys!!! So that means i had better not pay for my SVAA membership till after dinner.:lol: :lol:
Looking forward to Friday.Thanks again and much apreciate the welcome!!:thumbsup:

[Wombat_In_Space]

:eyepop: :whistle: ;)

[ballaratdragons]

errr. . . . . ummmmm. . . . . err . . .

Hmmm, didn't think of that. OK, you still get fed for being clever :lol:

[astrogeek]

Thanks for that Ken, but I may be bringing a friend (If thats ok) and I wouldn't expect you to feed him too. Hopefully the weather is good, it has spoiled my last three attempts at getting out of melbourne. Hope to see you there :)

[ballaratdragons]

That's cool Leon. We don't mind feeding a few more.

Yes, the weather can disturb many a good viewing night! Lets just hope for clear skies. See ya Friday.

[matt]

Now...

if only I was still living in Bendigo or Geelong.

Sorry Ken.

Bit too far for me.

[astrogeek]

From BOM:

Not looking good. Oh well, I'll wait to hear what they say tomorrow. Hopefully it will change so I can come up :)

[ballaratdragons]

Current report from BOM for up here:

Precis Forecasts for Victoria
Issued at 1610 on Thursday the 27th of July 2006 for Friday 28/07/06
Ballarat Fine. 3 / 13

[astrogeek]

What's the best way of finding out if it will be clear tonight? I hate BOM because I never know if "clouds increasing tonight" means at 7pm or 2pm or so on. It is always so ambiguous.

[ballaratdragons]

Leon,

I don't know of any way of finding out exact info except to look out the window.

The radar sometimes helps see whats coming. According to current Radar there is nothing on the way.

http://mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR022.loop.shtml

At present (3:45 pm) it is pleasant and sunny!

[astrogeek]

Yeah, I think I might risk it and come up. Hopefully there will be some clear sky after dark. If not it will still be good to meet you guys and put faces to names :)

[ballaratdragons]

Yep, that's how it goes sometimes. If we don't get too much observing done we can chin-wag all night :lol:

See you very soon! :thumbsup:

[astrogeek]

Just to clarify, is there a place to lay down a sleeping mat and stay the night because I don't feel like falling asleep and hitting a tree?

[ballaratdragons]

yep, Leon, in the warm Clubroom :thumbsup:

[astrogeek]

Excellent, hope to see you tonight then. I will be leaving melbourne about 5pm so I should get up there around 6:30pm.

[ballaratdragons]

:thumbsup: See you soon. I am going up there now to set up so I will see you up there.

[danielsun]

Just got home and about to pack the car.Should be there by 7.00 at the latest.
Sky dont look too bad from here at the moment :thumbsup:
Catch you all tonight!!

[gaa_ian]

So how did it all go for you guys ?
We had about 20 hr by the rough count those who were sitting back taking in the view during our obs night last night.
As usual I found the meteors came in bursts.
So when you see one, it is worth stopping what you are doing otherwise (Eg: looking through a scope) & seeing if you can pick up a few more !