Nacaa 2008

[AstralTraveller]

I'm just back from NACAA 2008 and I get to start the postmortem, while others are still enjoying the BBQ. It was a blast!!:eyepop:. I had fun. I believe this is my first NACAA since 1980 and I've been away too long.

The organisers did a first rate job and everything ran like clockwork. They used a venue which caters for conferences and that took some of the work off them - the place specialises in food, drink and accommodation and so we didn't have to kip in a dorm and have the ladies auxiliary making sandwiches (the ladies are too feisty these days to agree to that). Not to do that would be near impossible and that of course is why such venues exist. Never-the-less organising such and event requires a huge amount of work. There's logistics, finances, printing, web site, presentation support, guest speakers to invite, tours to arrange, sponsors to chat up.. etc etc. Then the organisers have to run around like headless chooks all weekend and get to see less of the event than the punters. I've been to a few academic conferences that weren't so well done.

The quality of the speakers was fine. I've heard comments that some previous NACAAs had a few speakers that were .... ah ... fillers? Not this time. Even though they ran concurrent sessions for the first time, every talk I attended was worthwhile and I missed a few I really would have liked to see. The only thing I might have liked was a bit more breadth in the topics, but that simply means getting the word out about NACAA and so attracting more speakers; the organisers weren't to blame for that.

I've come back revved up about what amateurs can do to advance science while having fun and I plan to:

take up variable star observing
try my hand at asteroidal ocultations
get back into grazing ocultations
cure the world of all known diseaseI've believe that the next NACAA will be Easter 2010 in Canberra. Be there or be square!

cheers,
David

PS And I collected some IceInSpace stickers that I'll place in strategic locations.

[h0ughy]

great report, did you get any crowd shots?

[Bassnut]

Yes, a good time was had by all, and very well organised, very professional, and I enjoyed doing my "pretty pic" presentations (as relatively amature as they were :P). The presentations by well known alumini were very interesting, nice to see them in the flesh , and I got to meet a couple of IIS regulars on the way. The BBQ was fun too.

Mike, the IIS beenie prizes were a nice touch too, well done, and thanks for that.

[AstralTraveller]

Yes, the obligatory crowd shots were taken. Doubtless they will appear somewhere.

[AstralTraveller]

Amateur?? Relative to what? They are great images that could easily grace the pages of any magazine. I'm still trying to get a decent focus - now that's amateur.

[okiscopey]

I attended NACAA 2008 as well. I found it very well-organised and more than worth the $275 cost for full rego plus one workshop, certainly for someone like me trying to determine which direction to go in future ... visual-only, astro-imaging (planetary or DSO?) or quantitative/scientific.

The Convention was held at the Penrith Panthers, and, as has been pointed out, it’s well set-up for meetings with professional catering and attention to detail.

I met IIS regulars bassnut (Fred Vanderhaven, NorthRyde, Sydney - and the GRAS set-up in SA), and outbackmanyep (Chris, from Walcha, NSW ... yes, he of the blue IIS text!). It’s strange how you form a mental picture of how particular on-line contributors might look like, but then they turn out to be a completely different in appearance and manner when you meet them in person.

There was none of the usual computer and organisational glitches that often occur at conferences. The only one I came across was when Tom Richards (www.woodridgeobsy.org/ and Chairman of the Organising Committee) realised the PowerPoint presentation he’d brought was corrupt. That just wasn’t a problem for him, he gave the whole paper (A Variable Passion: Three Case Studies in Amateur Variable-Star Research) in such an accomplished way I’d suggest he needn’t bother with ‘slides’ at all in future.

There were about 40 presentations (approx. 4 workshops, 4 plenary and 30 parallel sessions) delivered to the 108 (?) delegates, with a bias toward amateur quantitative work (astrometry, photometry, etc). These emphasised the fact that anyone with relatively inexpensive gear can do worthwhile work, supplying data that can (and often has) been of great use to the professionals. If anyone had any doubts on this, the presentation ‘The Amateur Scientist in Modern Society’ by Arne Henden (Director of the AAVSO) would have convinced them. Other subjects ranged from “What Went Wrong with the Great Melbourne Telescope?” through “Aboriginal Australians - the World’s First Astronomers?” to “Planetariums of the World”. It was interesting to note from the last paper that Sydney is either the largest or second-largest city in the world not to have a public-access planetarium.

I was really looking forward to seeing Fred V’s two presentations on narrowband imaging, and I was not disappointed. This was the first time I’d seen the stacking and tweaking operations required to achieve the stunning results he and others end up with. Fred also gave a paper on the GRAS ‘Rent-a-Scope’ system and all the trials and tribulations of setting up the equipment to become part of the network.

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) saw everyone in the grounds of the UWS observatory for a BBQ and prize presentations. Apart from the main dome (housing a 24-inch locally-made RC) and the adjoining building, there was an old 2.3m Sirius observatory shell shoved alongside a nearby rubbish bin. I hope one of the garbos is interested in astronomy!

Of course, the attendees are not all amateurs, some are professional astronomers or ‘hybrids’ and it was great to meet some of them to get a ‘high-end’ view from them of the interest I’d had since eight years old (but never pursued professionally, perhaps due to my abyssmal mathematics skills). At one point, there being no room at the tables, I sat on top of the concrete top of the observatory’s septic tank to save eating standing up. I was soon joined by a fellow with the same idea, and I remarked “this thing must be the observatory’s ‘neutrino detector’ wondering if this remark might go over my dinner companion’s head. Far from it! He turned out to be Dr. Ragbir Bhathal, astrophysicist and award-winning author who ‘wrote the book’ on SETI - the search for extraterrestrial intelligence - and whose presentation on this subject I hadn’t attended earlier that day.

All in all, this was a very different experience from astro society meetings, star parties and the like. When I first heard of NACAA I thought to myself ‘If there’s so many societies and field meetings, such that it’s a difficult choice which one to attend sometimes, why do we need another one’? But I now realise it fills a missing link with a completely different formula and does it very well. I’m assuming here that this is the only ‘academic’ amateur astronomy meeting in Australia, if I’m wrong, please correct me.

NACAA happens every two years, the next one being in Canberra in 2010. I highly recommend it, so start putting something in the piggy bank now!

PS Sorry, no pictures either!

[gaa_ian]

I also attened NACAA and found it to be a great experience too ...
I would agree that the Pro Am collaboration opportunities, were a real highlight & shows just how much we can all contribute to "Real" science.
I was privileged to have been asked to conduct a presentation myself "Aboriginal Astronomy education - Teaching and learning "
If the questions were anything to go by it was well received by the audience.
I will certainly be aiming to be at NACAA 2010 in Canberra and will be seeking to introduce some new concepts into our club GAA in the NT.

[Blue Skies]

[/LIST]:lol: I feel the same way! Except I have to add "take some serious meteor shower observations" to the list.

NACAA is meant to be somewhat academic, they can be also just for interest sake, such as the historical aspects of astronomy, but this time in particular it was a spectacular showcase of pro-am work, the kind of stuff that gets you revved up and wanting to join in, as AstralTraveller says above. You get to actually see what people are doing. It's one thing to read about it in a magazine but a whole new sphere to actually meet the person behind the work. Putting faces to names is something I get a thrill from attending.

It would be great to see some new faces there next time, even though I went this time to catch up with the old ones. Hi to Outbackmanyep, I think he was the only Ice In Spacer I had a good chat with (other than gaa_ian of course ;) ) I'm going to be doing my best to get more Perth people over there next time.

See you all in Canberra 2010! :hi:

[iceman]

Sounds like it was a great event, and a great motivator too.

It was also a good weekend for indoor astronomy! Full moon and rain! :lol:

I look forward to seeing some pictures.

[Glenn Dawes]

Hello all,

It was wonderful to log on and see such great reviews after the conference. Thanks to Ian, Mike, Jacquie and Fred for your comments. Being one of the organizes I can say everything went off without a hitch.

Didn't we have some fun over the BUNNY (right up to when I didn't win it of course ;) ) The IIS beanies went over well too (I wish I'd kept one now!)

I was pleased to meet a few IIS I hadn't met before. I am curious who was there who are regular IIS? How many of you were new to NACAA? And what influenced you to attend?

This could be great info for the incoming Canberra Nacaa people.

Regards

Glenn

[okiscopey]

I was new to NACAA and was attracted to the program because I'm at a stage where I need to gather as much info as I can for setting up an observatory with who-knows what end specialty (visual, photos, astrometry ... or ????). Also it was in Sydney, so no major travel or accommodation overheads. Also I'm used to attending 'scientific' meetings in another field and know that you learn as much chatting over coffee as from the papers. My situation wouldn't apply to most delegates or potential attendeees, as they're far more advanced than me (or are experts!) in practical work, so I'm not sure what to suggest with regards to attracting people. Advertising and word of mouth would have to be the usual and obvious angles. If the quality of the content and organisation can be kept up to NACAA 2008 standards, I'm sure numbers will be maintained or increase. I wonder if some special deal can be arranged for younger hopefuls who want to attend who might be put off by the registration cost? I noted there was a definite slant towards the - ahem - more senior age group. A big-ticket attraction is always worthwhile - a Mt. Stromlo visit in 2010?

[Outbackmanyep]

Hey guys!
Great to see you all got home safe and sound!

Yes it was a great motivator!!!!!, now i have my hands full everytime i go out observing!
I have just signed up to 2 of the Yahoo groups, and should be interesting to see what happens from now on!
I found the asteroid occultations quite interesting! I have been playing with the programs supplied to us from Occultation Symposium, quite easy to use first up so i'll have to get out there and see what i can achieve with this gear!
I thoroughly enjoyed the Convention, and am looking forward to 2010!

Sorry i wasn't able to see you all off at the BBQ as i had a family engagement, i got to the Observatory at 9:15pm only to find everyone had left! I was hoping the BBQ would be still raging at that time!!!!!!

To Glenn, Fred, Ian, Jacquie, David and Okiescopey! Was great to meet you all and hope to see you guys around in future!!

I hope to meet some more people at Nambucca Heads for the Planetary Imaging camp and/or IISAC.....

PS.....The "rotten-egg" nebula should be renamed "Bowling Pin Nebula", as it looks like a Brunswick Bowling Pin!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[AstroJunk]

I enjoyed your talk Ian, thanks - hope to visit you all up there some day.

I went up mainly for the TTSO, and was the one preaching about the perils of timing with integating video cameras!

Great event and a venue too, I missed the bbq because I never made it out of the gaming rooms ...

[SMR]

Hi all

Thanks to everyone for your positive feedback. A lot of people worked hard on NACAA 2008, so on behalf of all the committee members, many thanks for making it worthwhile, and we're glad you enjoyed it.

Please spread the word and encourage people to attend 2010 in Canberra. It should be even better.

Steve.