Duckadang Roundup!!! - Post your experiences here

[[1ponders]]

I'll start the ball rolling with a quick Woooo Hooooo!!! Yeee Haaa!!!

What a week!

If you feel like posting your experiences then let the good times roll here.

I have to spend some quality time with the family for 5 or 10 mins ;) and then I'll post a full report of my week at Qld Astrofest at Camp DuckaDang later. I'll just say

Clear Skies
Great Company
Flawless tracking :D
And lots of pictures to come.


Thanks to everyone there, IIS and non-IIS for the pleasure of your company. What a Rootin' Tootin' week down on the farm in outback Qld.

[matt]

Looking forward to the pics and reports.

I'm very disappointed to have missed this year's event. The timing wasn't ideal, having just moved to Brisbane and trying to get work and a new house in order.

I know, where are my priorities!?:rofl:

So, bring on the pics and stories of a great week so I can see what I've missed;)

[IanL]

I posted this under who is all going to QLD astrofest but i will post it again here.

What a time at QLD astrofest. I stayed Thursday to Sunday. Gees i now wish i went the full week. WHAT A TIME :D.
I now know why it was in the top ten star parties in sky at night. I will post more words what i get time in front of the PC.

No i got to say it:)

Organization of the event was first class.
Accommodation was great.
Food provided by camp managers superb
Facilities were excellent.
Fellow amateur astronomer’s friendly warm welcoming people who I had great pleasure in meeting and talking too.
And the classes during the day were very informative and interesting.
The wife won the female counter weight throwing competition:D
Dennis Simmons won the catch the counter weight competition.:eyepop:
And to top it off the wife won an IIS beanie.

Ian Law

[AstroJunk]

A Classic Moment: Showing Fred Watson the pillars of creation live on my TV being fed from a GSTAR-EX on SDM006!

Not quite AAO standard, but he was very nice about it:D

[dhumpie]

The Qld Astrofest was a blast. Went up with my friend Henry last night and stayed the night. Food and lodging was great plus we were blessed with steady and transparent skies last night. Throughout the day (we got there just in time for the vendor tables) we also caught up with various familliar faces (mostly IIS and SAS members). It was good to see all you good people, Paul (1ponders), Mark (Hodgson), Jeanette, Ron (thanks for letting me use your 16" and the 13T6 Nagler ;), Pete (Robbins...got a sneaky peak at the M57 and the Veil despite problems with the encoders), Pete (Marples) and Kevin (Dixon). Met several other good people and got to look through scopes of different apertures including Neptune in Astrojunk's SDM scope. Plus I got to try out my new StarBlast under dark skies (and it did not disappoint), and bagged a few new galaxies with the C6 in Pavo.....

Anyway,
Darren

[h0ughy]

LOL great shot - you have to send that to Steve Massey, he will go ape over that:D:lol:

[h0ughy]

:whistle:well I had a fair time, the moon was a problem, especially Saturday morning when it rose just before 6am:rofl: but I was taking darks then....

with the exception of a cantankerous G11, I had a brilliant time. I met strange people in a far away land, and had a "hoot" of a time. the best bit was I got autoguiding - the bad bit was the focus.....:help::shrug:,

anyway here are some shots with the Pentax, I took heaps of images, but no quality ones:rofl:. JJJ glad to see you up and about, Dennis it is indeed an extreme pleasure meeting with you once more, and Paul, well what is there to say about the photon collection centre you had going, but thanks for the "lift";), Gerald, Ron, Steve - gees I cant remember everyones name - must be the 2000 K I have driven and the late mornings:doh::D, and Phil you look very different to your typing voice:rofl:

Johnathan, it was indeed a pleasure seeing that a SDM can be an imager - wow:eyepop:. Please PM me as we need to have a chat!!:whistle:

on a sad note Alan and I were minutes away from where a fatal accident occurred near Grafton (south of by 5 minutes). we arrived literally minutes after it occurred, it was a stark reminder of the risks involved travelling to our favourite pass-time:sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

And just in case you miss the skies this is what we had to endure - all night long..............


yes the last one was just to show what Paul was emitting onto the rest of us:P:whistle::rofl:

[thunderchildobs]

The astrofest was excellent as always.

For me there was one annoying problem which had nothing to do the organisers or the venue.

There seemed to be increase in inconsiderate smokers.

A number of smokers set up in the middle of the imaging field.
Enjoying the beatuiful crisp fresh air, then someone elses smoke floats by.

When queuing for the astrofest there were people smoking in the queues. They think by standing two feet from the queue that they weren't bothering anyone. Wrong.

Even worst was that the smokers were dropping the smokes on the ground. Around one scope there was at least 10 butts. Funny the scope had a tarp on the ground around it. There were no butts on the tarp, but all were within to 2 inches of the edge. Obviously they didnt want to get the tarp dirty, but it is okay drop the butts on the ground. It is no way to treat the great venue. I went back to the spot after the smokers left, hardly suprising they didn't bother to pickup all the butts.

I have pictures which show the problem. I wish I had the guts to publish the photos to embrass the people involved.

This is the first time in 15 years at astrofest I noticed how bad the smokers were. I know of a number of people who said they had problems with the smokers and have / will make comments to the organisers.

If smokers want to kill themselves fine, but to do it well away from others.

I will be talking to the organisers to see it they can ban smoking from future astrofest. If not, could they have a smoking area well away from the observing fields and community / common areas.

Rant off.

Brendan

[dhumpie]

Excellent photos Houghy. Forgot to mention that Houghy also won a prize at the raffle (and so did Jeanette!). And yes Brendan I was very annoyed at the inconsiderate smokers. I was unlucky enough to be downwind of some and had to hold my breath thus debilitating my ability to see faint stuff!

Have not downloaded my photo's yet but I promise to upload soon.

Darren

[h0ughy]

to add to the many images to be posted here are the following, the imaging field at duckadang........:whistle::rofl:

[IanL]

Just for note. I did notice the smokers walking about and thought that it was not fair on everybody else. Myself and my wife are smokers but we went down to the putting area and once finnished put the cigs in the bin. Just in case anyone thought it was myself or my wife. Apart from that it was a great time.

Ian

[h0ughy]

the astrofest widefield view and a photo of some of the IIS contingent at astrofest. Some were sleeping (sorry JJJ):whistle:

[IanL]

Great photos Houghy. Mine never turnded out, The wife forgot to take off the exspoure compansation before the group shots. I'll post some over the comming nights got a few to get through like everyone else.

Ian

[acropolite]

Just a quick note from me, I'm still on the road and won't be back on line seriously until the 21st, I had a ball, my lack of exerience and preparation did nothing to dull the experience. Fantastic, to meet (and reacquaint) with some of the IISers and others, Dave (h0ughy) was a lot quieter than his on site persona, [1ponders] should be renamed [1teaches](thanks for all the tips Paul). JJJ was jjjust as I imagined... warm and friendly, I recognised Gargoyle Steve from his Avatar. Ron (Astroron) was like an old friend from the first instance. drmorbius looks just as his name would suggest. Then there's Dennis....You can't miss Dennis, larger than life, almost as though he's popping out of another dimension, his commentary at the counterweight tossing was brilliant. Thanks to Peter and the others with the big dobs who gave us a glimpse of what it's like to have a 20- 30 inch monster. I wish I had more time to meet people, the 3 days went so quickly. Took a little while to settle in, particularly as HRH Liz felt a little uncomfortable at first with a crowd of strangers. On the first night, a stranger (John Smith) wandered up in the dark and started to chat, a bit like a friendly moth, flitting from scope to scope in the darkness, I suspect many at Astrofest met him. John Smith, a likely name you say. I shared a class at Launceston matriculation college with a John Smith in 1969, he was then a mature age student, the exact same fella... what a small world it is, we had a laugh and exchanged quite a few stories. I have some pics, nowhere near enough, I'll post them when I get back home.
Thanks to Anne-Louise (earthlight) and Tony (Firstlight) (did i see a couple of small flashlights there as well...) and the rest of the committee for organising such a great event and to Donna Burton and Fred Watson for sharing their experiences with us.
It was mentioned that Astrofest is going for 10 days next year, I think I'll be there for all of them.:thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thoughtful and commendable behaviour – well done. I also saw Al one morning, picking up not only his butts, but those of others too. Well done Al.

Cheers

Dennis

[[1ponders]]

JFYI after h0ughy took the above images of the imaging field I borrowed his camera to take some of the observing field. Unfortunately they didn't turn out as it was just too dark over there to get an image ;)


:D

[Dennis]

Hey Houghy

You’re a photo monster! I can now see why you need the proliferation of DSLR’s and 4 gig cards – you were a one man imaging machine. Amazing photos of the red LEDs bobbing around!

Great meeting up with you again. I am in awe of your prodigious planning, packing and travelling capabilities.

It is now a well known scientific fact that H0ughy can pack outrageously large, incredibly complex volumes of scientific equipment into the most cramped cars and travel for several hours following the sketchiest of scanty maps to accurately arrive at this delightfully dark, remarkably remote viewing venue. Then, in the darkest depths of a moonless night, under the dim red light of a feeble torch, he can assemble and polar align the most sophisticated of horrendously expensive astronomical equipment; RS200's, DSLR’s, cooled DSLR’s, G-11’s, EQ6’s, etc. etc.

Sir – you truly are a legend!

Cheers

Dennis

[IanL]

A photo on Friday night. A bit out of focus as i did find it hard to foucus through red gel on the laptop and camera screen.
I will leave the photos to the wife to sort out as she took them of the milky way and people around the site. I did try and post a couple but i am finding it tough to bring down to max 150k when they are 10millionmp each.
Ian

[h0ughy]

Dennis you are a gentleman - just come out an say i am an idiot and be done with it:rofl::whistle:

[h0ughy]

nice images Ian, could have gone for longer on the second one!

[GrahamL]

I had a great time :)..the pillars of creation live were a treat .
I must buy a good quality sleeping bag though the two cheapies
just didn't cut it in the lower camping area with the ice :D

[astroron]

I have just arrived home after staying at a mates place 25kms up the road from Duckadang, I had a great time with the time spent 50-50 between yacking and observing:lol:I spent a good couple of hours Saturday morning talking to acropolite (Phill) one would think we had known each other for life.
Thanks for the BOAGS Phill nice drop:thumbsup:
I left the 16" ready to go and quite a few people had a great time observing with it:).
It was great to catch up with Glenc, Houghy,and others to many to mention.
Great to meet you all, and look forward to meeting all again next year:thumbsup: astroron

[jjjnettie]

First I'd like to say sorry to Brendan. I was one of the smokers who was annoying him. I did pick up every butt in my area before leaving, I don't expect others to have to do it for me.

I had a beaut time. It was wonderful to meet up with everyone.

[jjjnettie]

More photos

[jjjnettie]

Here is Mini Morbius receiving his ATM Encouragement Award for his Dob.
Well done Jarrod.:thumbsup::hi:

[Dennis]

An excellent portfolio of photos Jeanette. Even though it was only 2 days ago, they bring back many fond memories. Nice one of the H0ugh in action, looking through his lens looking at you looking through your lens. :lol:

I note that in the first batch, there are heaps of photos of ultra-large dobs - a sign of plans to upgrade the Annie Jump Cannon perhaps? :whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[mickal555]

The smokers annoyed me too... Didn't notice a problem last year though.

Reading some of these reports makes me a little regretful of not grazing the telescopes more. Ah, it can't be helped I guess.

Just as a side note, is the astrofest website crashing anyone else's browsers(I.E & Firefox) for no apparent reason?

[firstlight]

Hmmm... haven't noticed a problem at this end, might be because of the java timer going into positive? Don't know what we need to do about smokers.

I had a blast at this years Astrofest. I did the most observing and imaging a an Astrofest for years. I took some people shots too, but I have a few astroshots I want to share.

Shot with Canon 400d, kit 18 - 55 mm lens:
LMC Friday morning single shot, LMC merged 3 shots in PS CS2, Maall and large clouds ascending, Taurus rising with Mars merged 3 shots.
305293053030528
30527

Managed to get an extremely good bargain, I'm too embarrassed say how good. I bought a C90 and after borrowing a Schmidt cass to t-ring adapter from Dennis, and a t-ring to canon adapter I had a play. Considering there is a slight problem with the baffle tube degrading the star images, difficulty in focusing, mounted unbalanced on Terry's excellently aligned mount, I got this result:
30526

All in all, feeling pretty good, even if we haven't finished unpacking.

Tony

[glenc]

Well said Brendan re smokers. Thanks to those that smoked away from the fields and picked up butts.
Thanks also for all the images that have been posted. Thanks for the free ear plugs too!!
And thanks to the people who shared their big scopes with everyone.
Thanks also to the organisers, well done.

[Dennis]

Hi Tony

You guys on the organising committee did an awesome job this year, yet again – thanks! I’m sure there were a few problems and niggles, but overall the totality of the event was simply outstanding and it really was great to see everyone there. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I didn’t do too much imaging this year; a few equipment/operator problems so mainly spent my time visual observing (sorry Brendan – I have now formally come out!) and chatting to people who dropped by my hutch.

Whilst my head was buried in my observing hutch trying to chase down a guiding problem – I was probably a little terse with my answers when people dropped by – my apologies for this, I was otherwise occupied. :(

Please pass on my thanks to the committee members and their band of helpers for making a very crowed and busy event so enjoyable for so many – you guys rock! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Brrrr! What you sleep on is equally as important in terms of keeping the cold at bay. I use the closed cell camping mats as an underlay in the tent and then a self-inflating Thermarest (http://www.thermarest.com/)to provide the luxury and comfort of my bed at home.

In the UK, I once used an inflatable air mattress, but found that it did not provide any thermal insulation so I got cold from the ground despite a nice warm sleeping bag. It was -10 deg C outside at the time!

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Here are some of the (few) images I managed to capture on Tuesday evening. The colours in the doubles are really lovely and it was terrific to have the opportunity to take an image of Albireo as at home, it is blocked by some trees and drowned by the light dome of downtown Brissie.

Jupiter is a little shabby - I thought it looked more promising than that when I captured the avi. Oh well, at least my tripod didn't get a free kick!

Cheers

Dennis

[drmorbius]

A fantastic week... thanks Jeanette for the photo of Jarrod... I was kicking myself for not being prepared with a camera. He was so excited about receiving that award... a big "thumbs up" and thank you to the judges and organisers for their support and encouragement. :thumbsup:

And thanks to everyone at the event... we had a wonderful time. Can't wait for next year...

[GrahamL]

yep I found the same thing:rofl:

[h0ughy]

Lovely doubles there Dennis:thumbsup::whistle:

[Lee]

With smokers - there should be a designated area, far enough away and down wind so as to not pollute the non-smokers air, with facilities (maintained by the smokers) to dispose of their butts.
Annoys me everywhere I go....
Great photos guys!

[thunderchildobs]

Appology accepted Jeanette.

Since I started it, can I make the suggestion that there are no more comments on smoking on this thread.

My comments in the "Ban smoking at astro events poll" apparently upset some and the thread has gone to the moderators. I do not want my comments to hijack this thread or get it locked.

Before the poll thread was locked, 29 out of 33 said there should be a designated smoking area.

Anyone who had problems with smokers please email privately or contact the Astrofest organisers.

Anyone who have problems with my comments / views can also email me privately.

I will not be making any further public comments on smoking or responding to smoking posts until I hear from the moderators.

Brendan

[thunderchildobs]

The one thing which was very noticably was the number of porta-loos in the imaging field and how effective they were.

I wonder if next year will there be a "My loo is bigger / better than yours" competition?

Brendan

[Dennis]

H0ughy had the biggest and best this year IMHO.:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

Brendan,
Sorry mate I already have taken that award out............:rofl: this years effort ecliped the others, yes I started a trend from last year when everyone looked into what I had set up. and what luxury they have set up in their own little digs, why Pat Pearl had two monitors, a desk and a office chair....with rubber flooring.....:lol:;)

[thunderchildobs]

I just happen to go pass a camping store today, and noticed you can get a double "loo". You can get a single loo with two rooms! It is twice the size of the standard loo. A loo with an ensuite.

Brendan

[h0ughy]

:D
LOL I expect to see you in that next year Brendan:whistle::lol: although it can gert rather cosy inthe back of the Van Eh mate!!;););):D

[jjjnettie]

Here's Darren receiving his Patrick Moore autographed Sky at Night magazines. Fred Watson looks on.


Re. smokers.
Designated areas for each field located near the fenceline could be the go, with tins of sand for the butts.

[[1ponders]]

And DaveO in the background as well. These IISers seem to be appearing everywhere ;)

[firstlight]

Except for the fact this is where people are camping:shrug:

[dhumpie]

Thanks for the piccy JJJ ;)

Darren

[iceman]

Excellent writeups and pics, everyone! Sounds like it was a great, successful event.

I hope to make it in the next year or two.

[h0ughy]

mike, it goes for 10 days next year - from the 10th to the22nd I think - two complete weekends:Dmate I will have no proverbials left if I go for the whole lot:whistle::rofl:

[earthlight]

Yeh right! :lol:

But then the question is which weekend to miss??? :shrug:
Do you miss the first? and miss the only good weather (maybe :doh:) and the exciting stuff we're planning.
OR Do you miss the usual Astro-Feast with the Raffle? :shrug: Which you KNOW is great.

Both could be great! You can't judge the weather even at the camp, in the morning on Thursday it looked like it was going to be terrible but it was almost the best night of the week.
I can't understand thoes who don't make the whole week. I love it! I'd hate to choose. But I do understand people have commitments, so I'm hoping the extended program will be a hit.

Thanks to everyone who came to the camp, paid and registered early. It really took the load off me, and made Friday and Saturday so much more enjoyable.

I'd like to thank everyone for working so hard at getting along together. It's hard not to with such a great group of people to meet.

I love all the photos. We've got up a heap of shots on to the gallery page. http://www.qldastrofest.org.au/html/gallery.htm Many more to come every day.

Anne-Louise

[IanL]

I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable events I have been too in my life. I was amazed at the turn out from the astronomy community. And every body seemed to just start talking to each other even although they had maybe never met. I really really enjoyed the event. And next time I will be their even longer. I would also I like to say thanks to all who organized the event and made sure it went to plan.
You's done a GREAT job.


Thanks
Ian

[dhumpie]

That's the part I like best about the Astrofest. Its like one big happy observing family with no boundaries. Everyone is so willing to share their observing expertise and their telescopes! And kudos to the organizers. You guys have been doing a great job...keep it up :)

Darren

[Greg Bryant]

Hmmm...lunar phases in August 2008 are:

New Moon: Aug 1
First Quarter: Aug 9
Full Moon: Aug 17
Last Quarter: Aug 24
New Moon: Aug 31

So, will Qld Astrofest be late Jul/early Aug or late Aug/early Sep?

Houghy has done a writeup of this year's Astrofest that will appear in the Nov/Dec issue of Australian Sky & Telescope magazine. Sadly, no cover pic of Houghy winning the counterweight toss...since it didn't happen!

[glenc]

I think it is 25/7 to 3/8/08.

[firstlight]

These are the date we are hoping for, but there is a bit of confusion on what WE call a weekend booking and what Lions call a weekend:D. We hope to have the good oil on it soon, stay tuned.

Tony

[h0ughy]

They moved the line!!! - it was rigged - a saw them do it:rofl::whistle: Honest I beat them all!!!!!!!!!! they just shifted the line:D:lol:

[Dennis]

It is true – our man from Newcastle, who single handedly pulled the Pasha Bulker off the beach at Newcastle as part of his training regime, did in fact chuck the lump of metal the furthest. However, it was a competition of vectors – magnitude of throw AND angle of throw.

Unbeknown to him, the Qld spies had been observing his throws and a precise mathematical analysis determined the exact included angle of the throwing wedge, outside of which Mr H0ugh’s throws would land with a confidence of 60% ± 10%.

Well, as we all by now know, fate stepped in and took a hand. As a result, the finest and longest throw ever witnessed at the Astrofest, fell just outside the harsh, unyielding, dispassionate, unfeeling marker lines.

Sorry dude; great effort, but better luck next year.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy]

this comes from a man that can catch a 5kg weight in his teeth while in the Yoga prone position of the eclectic dove in winter..........I saw him move the line.......tis true!!;)

[earthlight]

It seems that when I asked for the 3 extra nights, they were tacked on to the end and not the front of the week booked. :doh:

So now due to a new booking, we can have the extended dates :clap: but we can't start using the camp till 4pm Friday. :doh:As the 'weekend booking' is normally from Friday afternoon, not morning, and the group leaving is notoriously late leavers (a bit like us :P)

We have 09/10 and 2011 booked correctly now so we'll just we'll have to make do in 2008. :thumbsup:
It shouldn't stop the sky from being clear! :stargaze:

__________________________________
Earthlight

:D Counting down already:D
2008 25th July-3rd August
2009 13th - 23rd August
2010 5th - 15th August
2011 21st - 31st July

[[1ponders]]

Can I book now...can I ....huh huh....can I book now :prey:

[h0ughy]

mmmm that data was not what I saw, but being in July it should be colder too! So will the astrofeast be on the saturday night?

[Greg Bryant]

Hat's off to putting in the effort and volunteer hours to hold such a long-duration event. I keep hearing nothing but praise for the Queensland Astrofest.

We were delighted to be a major sponsor of this year's event, and look forward to 2008.

I've updated Australian Sky & Telescope's online calendar of events with the dates for next year.

http://www.astmag.com.au/AstroCalendar.htm

[mickal555]

Right well I'm going to post my experience

Well, this was my fourth astrofest but the first I actually went up for the entire week. I had to take a week off from school, which was a bit of a pain, had to go around to all the teachers to get work to do while I was away, I didn't really end up doing much of it though...

As I still hadn't got my license (turned 17 of thursday), I had to ask my mum to drive me up, and take me home. She said she would which was great :D

The plan was to drive up monday, she and her partner(alan) would sleep over till Tuesday, and then drive to malaney and stay the night there, then come back for saturday night. There was a bit of a mix up though and alan couldn't come up for the saturday, but mum luckily managed to get a bed for saturday.

Anyway, we left about 11am, after managing to fit everything in the car somehow, stopped in at carsaldine to grab a few supplies (beer I think). Then hit the road. Then sat in traffic for about half an hour. Bah. Never happened before, turned out to be some pretty nasty looking fires, we managed to get off the freeway though and went through the back of morayfield through the back of the shopping center (?? Why??).

We arrived about 1:30pm, something like that. Signed in, and I began to set up, first time bringing my laptop, and I planned on covering it up with red gel, but there wasn't any avalible to first night, so I made with a few layers of celephane, which worked really well when combined with The Sky 6's ability to go into "Night Vision Mode". I also made sure to set up right on the edge of the visual field and point it outwards, so it caused no problems.

Only problem was that I set up on dirt, but after a closer inspection it looked like everywhere else was dirt, it can't be helped. I'm thinking about a tarp for next time though, cause when the due came, that dirt got a bit muddy, and my Jeens were a bit long...

First night wasn't too duey though and I had a good time just browsing around the sky, getting reaquanted, as it had been a while.

Some time after midnight I noticed some weird glow in the sky, confused me for a while, surly twilight would start much later? Then the source cleared the hill. Ah, the moon. Ah, Bedtime.

I couldn't sleep though, I'm sorry to say, I didn't really think I needed earplugs, never needed them before, bad mistake. I was in the mcdonald house with two snorers. Agh! Sorry guys... but wow! No sleep that night. Tried to blocked it out by listening to my mp3 player, but you know... I had to turn it up too loud to block the bass rumbling of the snore, that it was useless. I had a headache by that time so gave up on that idea, at about 5am I decided it was worth a try to see if tony or something was still up or maybe left the door open to the registrar, where I remembered seeing free earplugs. It was locked though, and I just about froze going there and back in my PJ things. Oh well, I slept a little during the day, and managed to get a little sleep during the night, I assumed.

The next night was much the same, went to bed around the same time, I started logging some of the stuff I looked at using the sky 6 logging thing, I did that the previous night as well, but this time I actually started writing something about each object. I didn't really have a list of things too look at though so just picked out things that I could see on the star charts on the computer (Stary night enthusiast(came free out of a magazine :thumbsup:), and The Sky 6 (Raffle two years ago :thumbsup::thumbsup:).

I just want to say here that using the laptop for star charts is the best thing ever, so, soooo much better then using paper maps! It's so easy to zoom around and pick something to look at, and if I zoomed in to the right level, the target in TS6 would be almost the same size as my telrad in the sky, making everything so much easier. No more torches in mouths, no more insufficent stars, no more dewy books, no more pain. Awesome.


Wendsday night was clouded, I saw Jupiter, and a -7th magnitude iridium flare through the thickest cloud in the region, which amounted to a slight brightening of the cloud, far from spectacular.


So I watched some TV things on my laptop (WIN again for laptop), wandered over to astroron's area and talked with them, and everyone was playing with their lasers. Went to bed around 12am. Didn't look like it would clear.

To be continued...

(My feet/legs/ass are(is) going to sleep on me here.)

[acropolite]

Finally got back to Tassie today, it's damn cold compared with Queensland at the moment. Visited a few IISers on the way back down (Thanks for your hospitality Rocket Boy, John & Anna, Petra & Dave and Ken). Here are a few of my pics, I wish I had taken more.

[acropolite]

and a few more.

[GrahamL]

there I be .. the dopey looking guy on the right in a blue shirt :)

tracey (striped shirt ) and her husband and friends camped next door
great people , they hadn't had there 8 " scope long and bought a telrad at the vendor sales a little earlier.. they had a great time with it later finding stuff themselves for the first time ... wish I'd been able to stay a few days longer .

[earthlight]

Hi all,

Just a quick question.
Does anyone know an Ian McKay? I need to speak to him. I believe he's from Sydney. He was at the camp for 4 nights, Wednesday to Saturday.

Anne-Louise Surma-Hawes
QLD Astrofest Registrar

[spacezebra]

Hi guys

What can I say - you have had a very successful event.. Well done for all the hard effort and man/woman hours that have been put into it.

I now fully appreciate the work that goes into a Star Party!

Well done.

Looking at your dates for next year - looks like I can come to your Astrofest.


Cheers Petra

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Anne-Louise if that's the same Ian who was staying in the white van with the big tarp out one side (covering the camp grounds wooden table & chairs) I'm afraid I don't know him, but I did speak with him there a number of times - he had driven up from down south somewhere, as he was flying out of Brisbane Monday morning to go overseas, something to do with his job. I had the impression that he may be away for a few weeks.

Not much else I can tell you unfortunately, but a few of us had spoken with him during his stay, maybe someone else has some more info.

[earthlight]

Thanks for that. Yes he was in site 10. I can't tell you if it was at the table as I didn't go for walk past after Monday and my Master map is hiding right now (and after spending so much time with it I don't feel like trying to find it).

Hopefully we'll eventually get in contact with him. Last resort I'll put a message in the notice board and maybe he'll look for info about next years camp.

Anne-Louise

[thunderchildobs]

Glad astrofest wasn't this week.

[firstlight]

I hear you!

[astroron]

I spoke to Sue tonight and she told me the Brisbane River is not flowing and they have only had 90mm in the last few days.:(
They are not impressed:mad2:

[firstlight]

They may not have had much rain, but I bet there were plenty of cloud. 90mm is more than we got here in Acacia Ridge though.