South Pacific Star Party 2007 pictures

[gary]

Left to right
Picture 1: Spot yourself
Picture 2: Iceman Mike wins yet another astro imaging prize. Look at that grin.
Picture 3: John Drummond's "Go the All Blacks" imaging acceptance speech. Good on ya John!
Picture 4: Mike Sidinio's shot of M83 was jaw-droppingly good - The People's Choice!

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080
Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au

[rmcpb]

Great weekend to see so many setups and meet so many other observers. The opening ceremony with Alan Dyer from Canada was especially brilliant.

[gary]

Left to Right

Picture 1 : Lachlan's 25" Obsession imaged from low Earth orbit
Picture 2 : Who said you should never look at the Sun?!
Picture 3 : Telescopes lined up wing-tip to wing-tip. Military planners fear these
may be vulnerable to surprise enemy aerial attack.
Picture 4 : David Reneke looks on as Steve Mogg shows Chris Ramage one of
his amazing adapters.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd

[davidpretorius]

looks like a lot of fun................even if mike did win something!!! :D

must make this trip one day!

[gary]

David, not only did he win something, he won multiple times!

Best Regards

Gary

[davidpretorius]

arrrgh MAN

surely there is a forum filter that will stop him back in...............actually he is married with kids, he will get a cursory 10 seconds of "well done etc" and then get handed the pooey nappies to wash..........and the.... and the...

welcome back honey!

[davidpretorius]

now who gave the mike to mike?????

is he still talking after everyone has gone home???

[gary]

Joe Cauchi's stunning award winning shot of the Pleiades was proof that
emulsion is not dead ... as Joe put it ... 'yet'.

However, few have the experience and skill of a Joe Cauchi.

I remember when I first use to come up to Ilford many, many New Moons
ago and Joe would be there hand guiding his big Anssen mount in the freezing
cold for hours on end. Back then, many fellow observers thought
astrophotographers must be a little bit crazy. :screwy: Looking at the line-up of this
years SPSP 2007 atrophotography winners, I am sure some would say in that
regard nothing has appeared to have changed. :camera:

Best regards

Gary

[acropolite]

One consolation is that we only have to say "Congratulations Mike" to cover both IIS'ers. Looks like it was lots of fun. :D

[h0ughy]

this is a just a sample from my modded camera - no processing, yet to do any of that.

I would like to thank my imaging team of StrongmanMike, Dennis Zambellis for the "autoguiding" and the polar aligning on the 5 minute images of Orion, Eta C(i was too sick to do it), and they helpfully donated their skills to help test the gear.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: We had some fun:whistle:

I know Orion i burnt out, but I havent done anything yet with the images, the last one is a 62 second shot with the 200mm lens

[h0ughy]

:whistle: ok going nature walking, and various other shots;)

1 - dennis zambellis from NAS on the way home - he lives for coffee
2- guess who -(hint he owns the forum)
3 - Dave (the unbeliever) with Petra's lightbridge (Spacezebra)
4 - petra and dave
5 - Xtreme, Anna, Dave Rod and Mike

[iceman]

Great shots! I didn't take any terrestrial (or people) shots this weekend.. glad to see these! Hoping to see more!

[Dennis]

Looks like you guys and gals had a fantabulous time - welcome back to the Forum! Thanks for posting the photos. We're looking forward to a further glut of piccies!

Cheers

Dennis

[matt]

Looks like fun.

A small favour to ask, houghy (and others about to post piccies). For those of us who haven't had the pleasure of meeting some of these folk face-to-face, would it be possible to include captions letting us know who's in the pic?:)

In the meantime, I'll start making plans for getting along to these star parties so I can recognise these folk in future:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

thanks i amended the post above

[matt]

Onya Houghy:thumbsup:

Pic 2 is a classic. Is he looking for another imaging award in the bushes?:lol:

[gary]

Hi hOughy,

Your "Coffee Time" portrait of Dennis is exceptional and if there
was a category called "The Face of Amateur Astronomy", it would be a
winner.

Now this particular "Face of Astronomy" is not one you would want to kiss,
but man, one look at it and you can almost taste that coffee.

Well done!

Best regards

Gary

P.S.

Hope you are on the mend soon.

[ving]

so, everybody have fun then?

:)

[RB]

You bet........:thumbsup:

You should have come too David !

:)

[ving]

i know andrew, i know :)

glad the weather was good for yas :)

[spacezebra]

Hi all

Just a few of the pics from the SPSP/IceinSpace breaky club! And one at the end for those who would love a challenge to guess who this is!

In the group

Pic 1 L to R - Anna, Mike, Kate and Mark and Alan
Pic 2 L to R - same as above with the addition of Houghy
Pic 3 L to R - same as above with the addition of Petra and David
Pic 5 L to R - the happy campers Anna and John
Pic 6.1 and 6.2 - you guess!!


25800 25801 25802 25803 25804

25805

25806

[Rodstar]

Boris, you are a VERY ATTRACTIVE MAN......

[leon]

Looks like you guys had a great time, hope to see you at the Border Stargaze,

Cheers leon

[33South]

Petra, Alan, David, Mike, Michael, John (kicking the tyres), LB16", Ian, Jonathon and Geoff

[spacezebra]

Hi again


Cloud pics from Wiruna SPSP
25817 25818 25819


More to follow....:D

Cheers Petra

[spacezebra]

Hi me again

This pic taken on the way home from SPSP, especially for JJJ.

25820

Cheers Petra

[h0ughy]

Boris, you are a VERY UNATTRACTIVE MAN...........:rofl: :rofl: :help:

[DaveGee]

Beaut weekend, Eh!

I only took sky pics. Here is one of M104 and I made an animated .gif of C/2007 E1 Garradd with the comet in motion over 37 minutes. Alas the file is a little to big to attach so here is a link...
http://tinyurl.com/25qdvv

The comet was via 8"LX90 and DSIpro and M104 is the same cam in a C11. Both Alt/Az and drizzelised.

The occultation of HIP81169 by 3275 Oberndorfer was a miss.:(

Regards
DaveGault

[33South]

:lol: Oh Sveta can I ...........

[okiscopey]

A few more pics, including some general Wiruna views for anyone who hasn't been to the site. With thanks to the ASNSW organisers, the Kandos scouts and everyone else who made the whole thing a great success. This was my first SP, and a great experience it was too. Sorry Matt, cannot identify every person nor every scope, so went for minimal captions all round.

1. Wiruna cattle shed ... er, sorry, meeting hall.
2. Bush kitchen
3. One of the many Wiruna pemanent roll-offs.
4. Tucker tent
5. Note to Geoff: if this is a better pic than the one you have, PM me.
6. Astrophoto competition
7. General rabble ... oops, sorry again ... audience

[okiscopey]

8. Spectroscope - something completely different!
9. Big dob
10. Another big dob
11. Budget scope
12. ED80 imaging (thanks Richard for the personalised demo!)
13. Bintel stand with THAT door-prize: 16-in Lightbridge in background
14. Sidereal clock (Mogg Adaptors)

[okiscopey]

15. Lucky Lightbridge winner (in cap)
16. Big dob
17. Stargazer
18. Scope judging
19. Scope judging
20. Steel rule spider
21. Stringscope
22. Battery box

[nightsky]

G'Day,
Yes I remember those days well :) my first visit to Ilford on New Moon 6th Mar 1989 most of the lads used the old film,I sometime use to keep Joe and David Coills Bird's film in my fridge when I brought up my Camper, memories :P The good old day's
Cheers
Arthur

[okiscopey]

23. PST
24. 25-in Obsession ... I want one!
25. ASNSW 17.5in reflector
26. 12-in bino telescope

[GTB_an_Owl]

DiD you have to mention THAT doorprize mike
:sad: :sad: :sad:

[GTB_an_Owl]

if you look in that photo of the winner - SOMEONE is contemplating how good it would have been if HE had won it

[okiscopey]

Taking the group photo.

[iceman]

Great images, bringing back memories already.

[sheeny]

Looks good! Glad everyone had fun. Get well soon HOughy! Wish I could've got there, but I had other plans (which were subsequently interrupted by a search for a missing bushwalker...)

Al.

[rmcpb]

The "Budget Scope" was a real surprise. Given it breaks almost every rule about trusses (4 3x1.5" pine poles) it gives amazingly brilliant images BUT the greatest surprise is that it is a "handicapped user" scope as the eyepiece is situated at the pivot point. Simply amazing!!

[leon]

BY Gee Mike, you have been busy, great photo's.

Leon

[Omaroo]

When was this taken? Somehow, down the bottom of the campground, our fellow campers and we didn't hear about it over any loud(ish) speakers. Very sad to all the way there and not have proof! :sadeyes:

[iceman]

1pm Saturday! So antisocial you lot were ;)

[Omaroo]

Dang! Dang! Dang!!!!!!! Jenny, Riley and Mike Sidonio and I all went in to Kandos to do a little shopping for the rest of the stay's munchie quota at precisely that time.

Oh well.... we had lots of yummo smallgoods to eat any way..... :doh:

[strongmanmike]

Yep Kippers, cabanossi and cheese...yummmmm :-)

[h0ughy]

ok some more shots

my scope
Mr Bobroff at his spectrascope
the gathering - the meade 16
petra and GTB helping Mike
Dennis Zambellis taking inthe view of the spectrascope
the finished 16
Mike S scope setup
part of the crowd at the photoshoot

[h0ughy]

and more...

the photo shoot
with chesty bonds
the S&S team
gratuitous advertising
hands up
the crowd that stayed for my aerial shot

[h0ughy]

and still more


gary on the prowl
gtb
chris
george winning a prize for his scope
that bloody New Zealander winning some imaging prizes
my little abode with astrogoodies
the aftermath of a "viewing" evening

[RB]

Nice crop of pic's Sir Hough !!!

[jjjnettie]

:lol:
Nice one Petra.