QLD Astrofest 2014?

[Tandum]

What about children? Surely they get a free day pass?

[Octane]

It's all very reasonable pricing. I have no problem paying it, even if it's per person.

Might see some of you one of these nights. :)

H

[h0ughy]

well today i drove to Coffs Harbour to pass over the 14" meade to Pat - it will be at astrofest tomorrow on eq8. At last it will be put to good use. i passed over my astrofest imaging entries and wished him well for the week. i also passed over the box of goodies. please enjoy with my heartfelt wishes to all at atrofest

it was good that something positive came from the trip, some time with my son and it reduced the guilt i have with not attending this year - clocking up 800km round trip - totally non astrofest related

Pat was beaming upon having the scope unloaded to his car;)

[pmrid]

Strewth Jeanette, if I didn't know it was ice on your windscreen it would look suspiciously like something else entirely.
Peter

[mental4astro]

This may have been answered earlier, sorry if it has, but how is mobile reception at Duckadang?

[geoffw89]

I just got back last night Alexander. Absolutely no reception. I'll be back Thursday with more gear and some critical software fixes :D

[mental4astro]

Thanks Geoff.

Is there a phone there? I'll be needing to do an ET while there.

[geoffw89]

There is, and you can buy a phone card I understand. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. It's raining here now so I'm hoping my scopes are fine under their tarps up there.

[Tandum]

Mobiles work in places on the road to Moore depending on your carrier.

[stanlite]

only light showers yesterday at astrofest. So far mostly good nights with no cloud only last night was it really affected otherwise some good photon weather.

huff your donation to the clouded in support group was appreciated last night ;)

[geoffw89]

I've been worrying about the cloud and rain because I'm back there tomorrow. might have to take something to drink instead and just enjoy the company. :D

[geoffw89]

And how fast are Bintel hey? Ordered some Shoestring cables Monday evening and they just arrived. Great work.

[h0ughy]

was there a group photo taken of that Grady?:lol:

[RickS]

I was supposed to go up today but I got caught up in work meetings. The weather forecasts haven't been looking too flash for the remaining nights.

[strongmanmike]

LOL, not expecting you to be travelling anywhere near Astrofest this year Houghy, I was glancing through the posts here and saw these photos thinking they were someones astrofest trip photos and quickly opened them up without realising it was you Houghy...and I thought gee, that young man looks like Houghys Bradley, uncanny...then I woke up and realised it was you and that WAS Bradley...mate, has he grown up :thumbsup:

You must have been spewing getting that close to Astrofest and turning around :lol:

Mike

[h0ughy]

well this is disappointing - another night of processing images perhaps - or more port

[geoffw89]

Did you do a rain dance on us since you couldn't make it? :D

[h0ughy]

:sadeyes: yess i was:help:

[AstroJunk]

Not sure if I am going to make it this year due to work commitments, but I have to say, I'm more tempted if its cloudy! The final Saturday turns into a monster P-up when the sky covers up :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

i received this from their first cloudy night

[Tandum]

I tried to take a run up there on Thursday but the oil sight glass blew out of the crankcase of the bike on the way west before I even got out of town, closely followed by most of the engine oil and a huge plume of smoke.

Wayne runs BikeTowBrisbane.com.au. We are on a first name basis :sadeyes:

[Garbz]

Have you seen the photo from the day after?

Some of the people in that picture weren't in much of a loud music mood the next morning.

Also attached is an astrofest group photo. twas a fun year.

[h0ughy]

was that Peter?:rofl:

oh i love that aerial shot - excellent - what day or evening was that taken?

[stanlite]

Yeah that was peter lol.

It was a good astrofest, only one (two if you count tonight) night completely lost to cloud. Most nights finished about 2:30-3 due to either moon or fog (never together).

Last Friday and Saturday were probably the best from an imaging point of view as they were the coldest nights and the fog didn't show up so it stayed clear til the moon arrived. Sunday and Monday were good to but they were fog nights, Tuesday started poorly with some cloud but came good and finished at 3ish. Wednesday saw a complete write off and the return of portfest.

Thursday was expected to be the last clear night so everyone went hard and denied fog when it rolled in at 2 for an hour. Then came the disco in the pleasure dome (aka the rotunda which has been changed to be enclosed by tarps this year)

Friday night was a surprise (weather report called for a write off) as it started with early cloud that cleared to the south although threatened for the rest of night. Surprisingly for me at least this was the night were i got my sharpest images of the fest briefly recording 2.8 arc second seeing according to CCD inspector when the average for other nights was 3.8 (n idea if this is indicative of actual seeing lol). Friday night was also shenanigans night (due i think to the mind set we took into it of not expecting anything) and i think everyone was secretly happy it ended at 2am for the sleep it brought.

I am sure others will soon add more.

[Garbz]

How did you guess :-)

Took it Tuesday arvo. Would have loved to get a weekend shot where there were more people but I had issues getting the thing in the air. Troy was kind enough to bring up some spare parts to get me flying but he only arrived Monday afternoon.

[h0ughy]

I wish all astrofesters well for packing up and travelling today

[jjjnettie]

The port knocked Bockie for six. He stood up, walked to the door, turned around and then fell face first onto Pat.
After making sure he was ok, Tony and I took photos of him on his back on the floor.
Will post the piccie when I get around to it. :)

[jjjnettie]

I thought up a new game to play this year. :D :D
Describing astronomical objects using Interpretive Dance.
It started off a bit slow, but when they saw my brilliant "Omega Centauri", it really took off.
Even some on the observing field joined in.
Al's version of Rho Ophu was inspired.
I only wish we'd been able to take video. LOLOLOL

[h0ughy]

:rofl: i am glad some enjoyment was had by all.

look forward to photos etc and all the stories - i really missed being there this year

[jjjnettie]

The group photo and a couple of light paintings I did. :)
Plus as an added bonus, I joined up 3 of the time lapses I made during camp. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLWMsI2uh0g

[troypiggo]

Nice Nettie! Should have got one saying "What could possibly go wrong!" :)

[h0ughy]

how cool is that - brilliant JJJ

[jjjnettie]

:D :D
"What could possibly go wrong" is now my official Astrofest cocktail. :)

[RB]

Great shots jjj.

:thumbsup:

[acropolite]

At last some happy snaps...

Nice light painting JJJ, you missed the Port side...:P

[jjjnettie]

The people of Astrofest.

[jjjnettie]

More happy snaps.

[jjjnettie]

And more people .

[jjjnettie]

So many photos.....

[jjjnettie]

That's it for now.
I seem to have misplaced a couple of sd cards. I have some fab shots of Houghy's port being demolished. :)
Everyone said "thank you" very much and you were toasted many times Dave. :)

[h0ughy]

Ok so who won the erwin trophys this year? What new gear was on the field and why the cone of silence in the rotunda?

Also who took my position on the field?

[jjjnettie]

Yours and Al,s site was left vacant in your honour.
The Pleasure Dome was built as a camp kitchen as no one is allowed to use the one in the dining room.
They have a coffee machine in the dining hall now. :)
Renato won the "under 400mm".

[RobF]

Thanks all for a great astrofest.
Loved the pics Chris and JJJ - thanks for putting those up.

[mental4astro]

I had an awesome time! :D

Thank you all for your hospitality. I was made to feel very welcome (even though I came from over the border), and met some extraordinary people with a fantastic enthusiasm for all things astro & for life :) I will always treasure this visit and hope to return. I certainly recommend to everyone who hasn't been to Astrofest to get to one!

I hope my presentations have inspired. I enjoyed the experience & hope I did not rabbit on too much :lol:

Alex.

[jjjnettie]

ha ha, I found the missing cards.
Now for some incriminating shots from the Astrofeast. :)

[jjjnettie]

strangely, all my photos seemed to start becoming ever so slightly out of focus as the night went on. I had to delete a few.

[jjjnettie]

more pics

[jjjnettie]

things were starting to get rolling now :rofl:

[jjjnettie]

And we finally got to the "wearing of the tiny origami hat" stage of the evening.
We'd all like to thank Houghy so much for our head aches the next morning. :) Cheers buddy. :)

[troypiggo]

Trust Peter to have a beer in his hand. And isn't Allan photogenic this year :)

[RickS]

:eyepop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Most_Interesting_Man_in_the_Wor ld

[RickS]

Sorry Allan, couldn't resist :D

[h0ughy]

my goodness he looks like Santa - is that your upcoming vacation work Allan?

[jjjnettie]

Greg Bock found there wasn't enough port to weather the storm.
Or was it too many ports and not enough storm.

[h0ughy]

umm was there too much choice? did he rest thee for a while?;)

[jjjnettie]

He had a little rest and cooled off ( we stripped him of his freezer suit as he was cooking inside it)
We felt a little heartless taking the photos, but hey, we know he'd do the same for us. :)

[troypiggo]

Awesome, Rick :)

JJJ as long as you feel bad for a second, it's ok.

[Octane]

Looks like a great event. :)

Perhaps, next year.

H

[Garbz]

And still no photo of me without a beer in my hand. I think I did well. :-)

[RB]

I'd love to visit AF one year.
Looks like such a great event.

:(

[jjjnettie]

You really should. :)
It's totally kid friendly too. Bring a tent or stay in the bunk houses.
If you decide to come up, give us a hoy and I'll throw in an extra mount and scope so you don't have to haul yours up. :)

[RB]

Thank you so much jjj, very nice of you indeed.
I will come up one year for sure.

:)

[mental4astro]

Thought I'd throw in some of the pics I took in and around Camp Duckadang, including those miserable spht-spht-spht-spht sprinkers that ran all-flaming day that fed that all conquering fog...

[acropolite]

I'll believe that when I see it..... Perhaps we could have a mods reunion, recall Geoff, John, Ponders & the h0ugh..... I could drive up at the same time as rounding up the stragglers....:P

[Garbz]

Since I was bored today I made a lame video of the general river area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWdoG3a5Q8

[jjjnettie]

Nice one Chris. :)

[h0ughy]

thats so cool chris

[firstlight]

Great video Chris. You can see Hadar riding his bike in the last sequence.

[firstlight]

Anne-Louise wanted to know if you had any images of the boys fishing in the waterhole?

[Garbz]

I have one single frame where you can make out 4 people in the corner but that's about it unfortunately. It only took photos every 4 seconds and the lens was so wide angle that I didn't get anything.

I actually turned around when I saw you guys because I didn't want to scare away any fish or anything otherwise I would have flown by.

[Tandum]

How about a pic of the drone?

[RickS]

Drone selfie? :lol:

[Camelopardalis]

Thank you, thank you, thank you --- to everyone for making Astro Fest what it was, the organisers/committee, everyone I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with, for all the advice and help with my kit, and last - but certainly by no means least - thank you again to the camp crew (especially Bellinda!) for making me so welcome and looking after me after everyone else left... I had a blast, days and nights :D now time to get some sleep :thumbsup:

[allan gould]

Thought I would post these two images of the frantic activity of some people at Astrofest, especially the iron grip in their beverages although still slumbering.
There must be something in the DNA of people named Chris.

[Garbz]

It's a hard life but someone had to take one for the team.
Though you ruined everything Allan, I can't believe you have a photo of me without a drink.



In lieu of flying the thing in-front of a mirror this phone snap will have to do.
Hopefully it won't look the way it does for too long.
I'm going to 3D print a mount for the camera Gimbal to suit the front of the frame like the real one, except without the $600 price tag:
http://team-blacksheep.com/img/gallery/18820.jpg

[glenc]

Here is a copy of my power point presentation at the Qld Astrofest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Lcgm5fsRA&feature=youtu.be
You will need to hit pause on some slides.

The list of 110 southern DSO is attached.

[acropolite]

Thanks Glen, I've downloaded the PDF and bookmarked the video.

[astroron]

Graet presentation Glen.
Thanks for posting it :thanx:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Robbos30]

Hi Glen, thanks for posting your presentation. Great stuff!
Look forward to catching up next Astrofest 2015.
Cheers Peter.