Back from Barambah

[Davros]

Well i'm back and i've had a kindy nap so here is a sort of report. I think i can happily say everyone had a ball last night. I was only there for the one night. But i left a satisfied person. Excellent layout at the campsite with really top shelf facilities. Steve took us all under wing as we arrived to guide us around and make sure we were well looked after. It was great to catch up to the gang and put names to faces (thanks for the stickker JJJnettie). We had a feed and then rugged up for the chill descending on the valley.
The setup field was across the road from the camp and had an excellent, clear view of the sky. The expected horizon trees were there but they did not impact on the viewing. Once the sun had set the skies came alive. The darkness was absolute and the Milky Way glowed above us.
I ran my eye through the new Dob and got to bag Saturn, Mars and Jupiter within the Solar system plus many of the old favourites of M42, Eta Carinae and more clusters than you can poke a telescope at. The contrast and definition of objects was fantastic and Jupiter was new to me. It was especially good to see it through Steves 12 inch. I did keep a record of items viewed but it is well and truly damp after the dew rolled in.
Thankyou to everyone who let me make free with their telescopes and an expecially large thankyou to everyone who had anything to do with the organisiation of this event. Ive included a couple of happy snaps from the obs field while i was setting up.

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/05042008194.jpg

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/05042008193.jpg

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/500/medium/05042008195.jpg

[iceman]

Looks like a nice place! Looking forward to reading more reports and seeing more pics!

[davewaldo]

I'm glad to hear you had a good time up there Mick, and that the scope went well!

[Argonavis]

I would first like to thank Steve and Randall and the rest of the organising committee for their hard work and dedication to making this astrocamp a success. Everything was superbly organised. On the drive up I meet Steve and Randall who were putting up direction signs, such is their attention to detail. The direction signs from Jimna were needed, as the area is a confusion of tracks and turnoffs that can easily confuse. I know.

I arrived about 5 which did not leave me a lot of time to set up before dark. Friday night was clear with a few clouds coming and going. Unfortunately with both increasing cloud and the seeing deteoriated during the night was such that I gave it away by 12. I checked the sky again at 5am at it was crystal clear.

Saturday dawned fine and the morning saw most of the group go for a 3 hour walk, returning all hot and sweaty. The sensible ones relaxed in the shade.

Saturday night the seeing was much better, but still dogged by clouds. C/2007W1 Boattini was bright and obvious and with a hint of a faint tail to the SE.

Unfortunately I had a power problem (flat battery) early in the night that put me mostly out of action. Time to check out Steve's binocular chair, which is a very cool piece of kit.

This time of year is ideal, as the temperatures are pleasant, the weather usually co-operative and the southern milky way still visible and rising. These nights are a chance to view both the objects in the Orion arm and southern milky way, as well as the Sagittarius arm and the centre of the Galaxy, which rises later in the evening.

As an aside, I was asked about the visibility of stars in M31. My understanding is that through most amateur scopes individual stars in M31 would not be visible, although with big scopes many of the globulars in M31 and M33 can be seen. However, Don Pensack (a US amateur visual observer) claims that the brightest stars in M31 are luminous blue supergiant stars between magnitude 16.5 and 17, in the NGC206 star cloud. This should make them visual telescopically. He claims to have seen at least one or two of these stars in a 12.5".

The facilities at the Barambah EEC are first rate, with a full commercial kitchen, power, separate bunk houses and well maintained grounds. The centre itself was lit up with lots of red lights, whatever the neighbours would be thinking. There was about 11 on the Friday night, and a few more on Saturday night. The facilities are ideal, as the observing field is well away from the centre itself, and is family friendly. Dr Who on the big screen projector on Sunday appeared to be a hit, as was ping pong.

I am giving it 5 stars, and I am looking forward to the next one, hopefully in September/October.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Thanks for the kind words William. All I can say is that it was great to see how much everyone seemed to enjoy both the camp facilities themselves, and the wonderful skies we enjoyed overhead at night.

On behalf of the Committee I'd like to thank everyone who came along and made this event a success. We had a great mix of old friends and brand new stargazers make the effort and attend. There was a great feeling of companionship throughout the camp and I don't think anyone was left to feel they were "on their own".

It was wonderful to welcome new faces such as Mick (aka Davros), Mark & John C, Richard, & John R to our fold. I hope you all enjoyed your stay, and I hope to see you again soon.
:thumbsup:

I'll post a bit more detail when I get some spare time but for now here's the short version:

The weather God's were pretty good to us - some drifting cloud cover during the days kept things from getting too warm, while the nights were mostly clear and not too cool. Monday night was the coldest as such, the observing field dropped down to 8° briefly but hovered around 9-10° much of the night. By comparison the coast here (a mere hour or so due east) from all reports suffered blustery and rainy conditions much of the time, with viewing conditions at night not worth the effort.

At camp it was a different story - the skies were great, though a little moist at times. Sunday & Monday were the best nights overall, the list of objects visible was naturally huge as expected for this time of year, and I did my best to view as many of them as possible.
:rofl:
I had my Argo Navis running hot, especially during my Messier Marathon on Monday night. I've got 55 'M' objects logged on my sheets for that night alone, but bagged another dozen or so the previous night as well.

Daytimes were spent in various ways: bushwalking (as previously mentioned), watching DVD's (the big screen projector got a bit of a workout), astronomy related discussions, some equipment maintenance / modification, a bit of catch up snoozing, some wildlife observing (various birds, our old mate the goanna, etc) and general chatting & socialising.
I was there for 5 days and to be honest I don't know where it all went, the time just flew and all too soon it was time to come home.

I'll get a few images posted in the next couple of days, in the meantime I'm looking forward to reading some other peoples posts with their experiences and impressions of their stay at Barambah.

Cheers Folks! :hi:

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I'd really appreciate any feedback, positive or negative, or general suggestions on ways we could make the next camp even better.
Feel free to post comments here, or send me a pm if you prefer.
Thanks!

[davewaldo]

Great to hear everything went well Steve!

Congrats to you and the crew for your endeavours to make such a great camp!

I can't wait till I can go... hopefully the next one.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

Good news Dave is that we're already looking at prospective dates. Keep late September / early October in mind..... ;)

[jjjnettie]

Sorry not to have posted earlier, but work etc has kept me off the computer.
The boys and I had a terrific time.
The facilities are VERY child friendly with lots to keep them occupied.
I also had technical problems and wasn't able to take advantage of the dark skies and do any imaging with my Gstar.
Though I did capture a few niceish piccies with my Powershot.
It was great to be among fellow amateurs and be able to talk the talk.
As per usual, the weather was heaps better at Barambah compared to that on the coast.
I truely hope to be able to make it to the next camp.
Thanks heaps to Steve and Joy for making this camp possible.

[Gargoyle_Steve]

You are more than welcome Jeanette, glad that you and Tom and Jack enjoyed yourselves.

Our own Dark Sky web guru Randall aka Dr Morbius has updated the website with some new images form this camp, etc, well worth a look if you haven't seen the updates.

(Jeannette if you or anyone else has pics from Barambah you wouldn't mind us using on the website, with images credited to you if you want, then please email them to the registrar address or pm myself or Randall and let us know. )

We are already working on dates for the next camp - think "new moon" on Monday September 29th.... ;)

[astroron]

Great shots Steve:),sorry I missed this one:( will pencil in the dates for the next one :):):astron:
Ron