Vic-South Star Party 1-4 Nov

[stevous67]

Ok, no posts on this event so far, so here's a quick reminder!

Seems like a good attendance coming up as nearly everything was booked out!

I'll be camping this year, should be good fun. :campfire: Hopefully NO rain like last time or I'll be washed out! :windy:

It's been a shocking few months with lots of ordinary weather, so what are the chances the cloud gods will give us a break?! :cloudy:

Cheers,

Steve :thumbsup:

[jamespierce]

Couldn't agree more on the weather... I've had a brand new bino-viewer to try for months and months with no joy... Really looking forward to Vic South, great dark site.

[PeterHA]

Hi, is this the Snake Valley start party or is ther another one in Vic-South?
Are there any details available?
I cannot go to Snake Valley but if the Vic-South is around Melbourne I would look into it.
Regards,
Peter

[jamespierce]

Rather further I'm afraid...

http://vicsouth.info/vicsouth.htm

Little Desert Nature Lodge ~ 5hrs drive give or take. Stunning skys though, good range of accom...

[jamespierce]

And a quick update from the event...

Night 1: A crappy forecast gave way to a still, not too cold evening with decent seeing. Heaps of locals here for the public viewing which is always good fun and more night than most people could handle. I bailed at about 1:30am with a clear sky and Orion etc starting to get quite nicely up into the sky. It's a fun time of year with lots of great stuff to see.

Night 2: Windy, lumpy clouds early and then solid clouds plus a gale drove everyone off the field like lemmings (all bobbing around with their red lights)... A mate of mine had come to visit, so we went back out later when it cleared a little but gave up quickly in the wind. Oh well ... I pity the folks who were in tent city last night - it's still howling this morning.

Forecast is to clear for 2 brilliant nights from here, hopefully the wind drops. Really beautiful location for a star party ... great field setup, great accom and facilities - food and so-on all sorted and a great little bar of an evening !

[jamespierce]

Night 3: Beautiful ... got pretty cold in the end but prefect observing conditions - 3/5 seeing. No light pollution, a clean horizon and little haze made for nice observing of many far north objects that are normally more of a challenge... Only the cold drive us all inside in the end.

Night 4: Another clear night, very still so more dew than night 3. I had to bail out at around 1:30am when the field was still a buzz with observers. It was nice to see some new faces even for the final night.

I can't recommend this event enough for future editions - great observing field, decent food, good company and great a comm options.

For the nerds - I had SQM readings of 21.8+ every night once Venus buggered off... about 21.7 before that. I observed a number of mag 13 and 14 galaxies in my 16" ... I'm calling that pretty good conditions !