Queensland Astrofest was way better than SPSP

[h0ughy]

I'm back. Had a great time meeting Mr Ponders and the gang at Astrofest. A report will follow later but for now here are some snippets

My nice new eyepieces, which were tested out in a 30" scope :D , Ice in space crew, ICE :scared2: and the temp of -3 deg celcius on friday saturday morning after an allnighter!!!

[[1ponders]]

Glad to see you and Alan made it back safely h0ughy. I'll join you in posting something once my feet hit the ground and I can get my head back together. Are you feeling as wacked as I am?

What a great weekend, hey. I'm definately in for next year. :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

oh and we saw the ISS and Discovery, some stars and some more stars

[h0ughy]

yes Paul, I am very tired. Have a load of washing on and will go and see my friendly Subaru person very shortly to get the relay problem fixed.

[h0ughy]

Oh and guess who this is :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :poke: :poke:

[astro_south]

The stories will flow soon, but in the meantime here are some pics....

A very cold saturday morning!

1 - Alan Meehan, h0ughy and xrekcor thawing out near a 20" dob
2 - Short-term advertising for the site
3 - jjjnettie's charts - luckily they are laminated!
4 - 1ponder's ice covered table
5 - Steam coming off scopes and cars as the thaw begins
6 - Argonavis's 25" defrosting

[astro_south]

30"

...the pictures speak for themselves!

[astro_south]

some general field shots.....

[Argonavis]

[QUOTE=astro_south]The stories will flow soon, but in the meantime here are some pics....

1 - Alan Meehan, h0ughy and xrekcor thawing out near a 20" dob


This is actually a picture of Norman Pappas' 25 inch, which is so compact that it is easily mistaken for a scope of lesser aperature. It fits in the back of his Mitsubishi Nimbus.

[astro_south]

Whoops!.....thanks Argo for the heads-up and apologies to Norman. Do you know what the focal ratio is?

[[1ponders]]

What a fantastic long weekend. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: And great company to go with it. :gday: From where I was looking ( as I lay back and soaked up the beautiful Queensland sunny winter weather) the Astrofest was a roaring success in viewing and intercultural activities. IceInSpace was well represented with at least 14 members taking in the opportunity for a meet and greet.

After a one and a half hour :driving: last Thursday I arrived at Camp Duckadang, Linville on the the very upper reaches of the Brisbane river. All the while watching :cloudy: skittering around the sky. It didn't look like a promising first night. h0ughy, Alan, Rob, Ron and Andrew were already there looking very settled in and I'm sure I heard someone say "Ya shoulda been here last night" :D :stargaze: :stargaze: Apparently the skies were fantastic. Not looking good for tonight. Yep it :rain: on my :campfire: :astron: :camera: :drink: :drink: :drink: :P Not to worry It was great to catch up with some unfamiliar faces and just chew the fat. Early night to bank up the sleep credits, as the forecast was for a cracker following two nights.

Friday morning. Another perfect day in paradise. Wasn't even too cold last night. Rain was good for something then. Time to explore the equipment on exhibit. WOW :eyepop: Niiiice. :D And that 40" dob is a work of art. The day was given over to looking at equipment catching up with friends and chatting and making new ones. You meet the nicest people at these fests. Everyone wants to chat about their equipment and find out what you do, and no ones equipment is better than anyone elses. Though I think I did detect the odd bit of scope envy here and there. ;) One of the highlights of the day was the opening of the venders stalls. Astronomy Online, Sirius Optics, York Optical, Wildcard Innovations, our own Eddie T with some awesome photographs, plus a couple of others I am :ashamed: to admit I can't remember. I resisted temptation, I left the building, went back, left then decided to go back and get that erecting 9x50 finderscope I couldn't do without. Well I didn't have one for my Orion. :innocent: I nearly bought the beautiful 8x50 illuminated reticle finderscope but even I couldn't justify that to myself then. I can now but not then :P

The night rolled around and delivered everything the beautiful day had promised. Crystal clear skies, :stargaze: a glowing milky way, very minimal sky glow from Bris Vegas and a rather brisk feel to the air, that only got briskier, :cold: and briskier :cold: :cold: and briskier :cold: :cold: :cold: By midnight it was well on its way to negative degrees. By the time I decided it was cold enough to go to bed the temp had dropped to -2 and there was a quarter inch of ice on the roof of the cars. The temp eventually reached -3 just before dawn. Fwoooor!!!! Damn it was cold in that sleeping bag.

Dawn and another day in paradise starts. More scope checking, more chatting, more lectures and presentations (I forgot to mention the two excellent presentations from last night. One on Nightvision myopia and one on evaluating historical Stellar catalues. There were alos two during the day yesterday on "Secrets fo building your own Obsession" and "High resolution lunar and lantetary photography") For me the highlight of the day was purchasing an Argo Narvis to complete my mount setup. He's a smoooth talker that Gary Kopff. To think he nearly talked me out of it. :lol: I think I'm in :love:. So you know what I spent the afternoon doing. Installing it :D The second highest spot of the day came when jjjnettie and h0ughy cleaned up all comers in the counterweight tossing competition. Congratulations guys. :thumbsup: Excellent work. But h0ughy wasn't finished there. He even tried to clean up in the raffle draw that night after the Astrofeast. Missed out on the big prizes but I think he was still happy. There was an LX75 schmit newt, two 8" dobs, 8'nexstar, Meade DSI pro, Coronado PST, portrait photos by Eddie T, Nexstar imager (won by Alan) Celestron Binoculars (won by Grant). More stuff than I can remember. Then it was out to the evening sky.

I have very little idea what the others did that night as I considered myself the luckiest person there. Gary Kopff offered that afternoon to come over at night and help me set up my Argo Narvis. Well it didn't work out quite how we expected it to do. My dovetail plate appears to have a slight out of collimation issue (different to lense collimation) and it was the perfect opportunity for Gary and Mai to field test some new diagnostic firmware they have been developing. So for the next 5 or 6 hours I spent my time pushing my scope to the four corners of the sky with Gary and Mai experimenting, testing and trialling different aspects fo the new firmware. I was like a kid in a toy shop with the toymaker building something special just for me. It was excellent. Was it cold that night? Up until I went to be I had no idea. What a great night. Thanks again Gary and Mai. You guys rock. :thumbsup:

Sunday morning finally came around, and I really didn't want to start to pack up. Chatted to more people, said my goodbyes to my fellow IceInSpacers as they left, and just generally mooched around slowly packing up and stowing things away. Finally drove out the gate at about 12:30, with a heavy heart but an enormous collection of wonderful memories.

Without a doubt this has been one of my most enjoyable weekends. SAS and BAS, the Lions Camp Duckadang, the venors and the rest of the coordinators excelled themselves. From my perspective the whole sheebang ran as smooth as clockwork. The accomodation, facilities and organization were in my mind superb. I know how I can tend to get carried away and mybe varnish the reality at times :innocent: :innocent: :innocent: , but not this time. First class is the only way I could describe it.

As I said up the top. I'll be back again next year. Hopefully for the full week.


Ah and BTW here's a couple of snap shots of the weekend. I didn't get many 'cos I was having too much fun.

[iceman]

Sounds like an excellent weekend! 14 IIS'ers, that's some representation. Well done guys and gals! I hope you diligently spread the word :P

Need a who's who on the IIS photo up there by h0ughy..

I might have to try and make it myself next year.. might have to build up credits with SWMBO starting today.. :D

[[1ponders]]

Just did a recount of attendees, and there was at least 17.
[1ponders]
h0ughy
Alan Meehan
Astro-south
xrekcor
jjjnettie
nightshift
ErwinvdVelden
mhodson
dhumpie
Billche
ArgoNarvis
Gary
Astroron
EddieT
Nick
iddon

Did I miss anyone???

[Striker]

Great turn out guys......sorry I couldn't make it due to to family issues...would have loved to meet a few more of the members.

Like Mike said...who's who in the above Iceinspace pic group pic by Houghy.

P.s I was a comfortable warm 15 degree's all night everynight...lol

[[1ponders]]

Here ya go Tony

[iceman]

Cool, thanks Paul.

I wanna see the t-shirts that h0ughy and Alan printed up! Did they look any good?

[[1ponders]]

They looked great Mike. I want to put my order in but they were only one ofs (well two ofs actually :) ) They are likely to become collectors items.:thumbsup:

[Striker]

I love that picture of Irwins space....lol

[toetoe]

Great pics, great reports, thanks for sharing. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

this is the back

[Argonavis]

f4

did you get a chance to look through it?
for many years it was the largest scope on the field

[ving]

great writeup guys! looked like a great time was had....

theres a IIS t-shirt? got a pick of it?

[astro_south]

I didn't get to look through it, and come to think of it I didn't get to look through your monster either. Perhaps I can book some quality time with yours out at Leyburn next time. I did get to look at NGC1566 anf NGC1365 through the 30" in the wee hours and they were very nice :thumbsup: :D :D

[h0ughy]

did post it some where else! look a page back :poke:

[[1ponders]]

I want one!!!!! "T" shirt that is. Don't have the room for a 30" Dob

[atalas]

Wow sounds like you guys had a ball ! wish I could of been there.

Louie :2thumbs:

[acropolite]

Thanks Guys, a nice story and a couple of pix is next best to being there. It doesn't get to below zero that much, even here in Tas, so it's good to see you North Islanders suffer a little cold. :cold:

[Orion]

Wow! I think I'll keep a few days up my sleeve in holiday pay for the turn out next year. Great to see that everyone had so much fun. I also wish I could have been there. Great Stuff! :thumbsup:

[astroron]

I only have a film camera, and with 36 exposures it will be a while before I get the film developed,but it was a great Astrofest, (they seem to get better every year) and it was good to catch up with other IceinSpacers, and as Houghy said it was much better than the SPSP, it also has in the past been much cooler.
I look forward to meeting you all again next year.
For all you SE/Qld members I will have my place available for an astro night on the 3rd September :doh: if anyone is interested in coming, that is the night of the New Moon. astroron :thumbsup: :astron: :stargaze:

[[1ponders]]

Don't you mean the 3rd of Sept Ron. I can't make the 3rd of August I was at the astrofest :lol: :P

I'm certainly going to try to be there. :thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

top report paul, can't wait until snake valley!!!!!

[seeker372011]

super report,guys

makes me wish i could have been there!

[xrekcor]

What a excellent week, it was great to finally meet a few of you. And really nice to see IceInSpace so well represented. I was proud of Houghy and jjjnettie who both took out the counter weight toss. btw, Houghy doesn't sound like it say's and was nice to know he really isn't one of Donald Ducks children :doh: :doh: :D

I find these event more of a social thing and a chance to look through the big light buckets on the field. Primarily the big 30"er of Pete's getting up there early allowed those who were there a very short line up for a look see and we were even able to throw some request. Hats off to Peter I thought his attitude towards allowing his new scope views to be shared outstanding since it was first light for his big beast. An attitude that was shared by 99.9% of attendees. The Lagoon and Tarantula neb's would of have to be my favourites follwed closely by 1365, The spanish Dancer, 47 Tuc, Omega Centuri and something called the "spare Tyre" which literally looked like it had spokes exttending towards a central star.... and the list goes on.... I think Peter got more of a kick out of peoples faces as they come back down the ladder.

Actually some of the home made light buckets were truly works of art, they looked good just looking at them never mine looking through them.

Personally I found the sky glow at Duckadang a real pain, but that didn't stop some excellent views of the heavens. I would pick Wednesday evening the best of the week followed closely by Friday and Saturday nites.

The event was well catered for, with fresh food available at a reasonable price. I think the only major downer was hearing that one of the venders had two ep's worth $600.00 stolen from the stalls. I think everybody from hearing that went and made sure their gear was secure or locked away. As Pat said it's thing like these that can stop these events happening. The venders were offering great deals on gear so it was ashame that such a thing could happen. Next year I think I will take a few extra bucks as there were several things I would of love to have brought. Mind you there were several things I would of love to have brought but weren't available.

Anyways here's a few pic. Unfortunately the earlier shot from the week were lost during a PC malfunction so I dont have any of the Peters huge beast.

1) the 25"er of.... sorry cant remember your name
2) IceInQld brrrrr
3) Was that the Baileys Neb I saw last night
4) An entertaining bird fight, although the Wedgetail wasn't too bothered
5) Jake "I can get the girls dancing" myster... he's got something the old man never had lol
6) More Ice

[dhumpie]

It was a great gathering of friends for sure! We got there rather late on Sat (me, john (Zhu) and Bill Cheng and family) so we did not get to have the family portrait with the Ice in Spacers. But we did get to meet up with all the lovely poeple. Its nice to be able to put a face to the names. Great to meet up with all of you and hopefully we can get together again at some stage. And Ice in Space did represent. We won the counterweight toss for the mens and women's division (I think this is right...Paul 1ponders told me so :) and some of us won some prizes at the raffle (Grant won a Celestron 10x50's). Observing was great as well. It was like Rob said more of a social event and I did not get any serious observing done. But I spent some time with astro_south's 12.5" and Pete's 30" monster. The dumbbell nebula almost knocked me off the high ladder. WOW! The central star was soooo bright through that scope. But I found particularly appealing was the views through astro_south's scope where the stars just seem to twinkle in and out through the nebulosity....NICE. Anyway I have some piccy's which i will try and upload later (one of them with the 30"!!!!!)

Darren

[xrekcor]

Darren,

Was lovely to meet you, even if it was just fleetingly. I did try to find you Saturday nite. But I guess you must of been two steps ahead of me... perhaps another time ;)

regards, CS

[gary]

Fellow Ice In Space members,

Firstly, thanks to Paul (1 Ponders), for his kind comments.
It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and we appreciated
your patient assistance with the pointing test.

Mai and I drove up from Sydney, a 2400km round trip.
We had a wonderful time.

Having attended Astrofest a few times before, including as
a guest speaker on a few occassions, we have been privileged to have
made so many great friends. For example, I remember the
first time I attended a few years back. I had flown to Brisbane and rented a car
and managed to take a wrong turn at Kilcoy. I was miles from
where I was suppose to be and was due to give a talk in the next
few minutes. I arrived without having had time to pick up provisions
for the stay. Peter Robbins shared his dinner with me and we have been
good friends ever since.

It was therefore great to see Peter so esctatic about his new 30" Dob.
And rightly so! What a beautiful instrument. Scope builder Peter Read
has done a fantastic job. Peter Robbins told me that his brief to Peter
Read was that he wanted "the Rolls Royce of telescopes". He certainly got it!
It is one of those scopes that is as good to look at as it is to look through.
Mai and I spent the evening with others going up and down the step ladder
looking at one fabulous object after the next. I have never seen the Veil
so bright nor seen NGC 253 in quite the same way before.

Ron Knight (astroron) was there like so many of the others, we think of them
all as our Queensland family - a brotherhood of observers.

In fact, some of the best times can be when you aren't observing at all,
but just sharing some chat with someone else, maybe over a coffee and biscuit.

The organizers have to be congratulated. Even the simple things
like a printed name being stuck on your bunk when you arrive make
Astrofest run like clockwork. Yet someone behind the scenes such
as Anne-Louise, Tony, Max or Pat are making these things happen.

Mai and I were humbled when the organizers presented us with an
"Award For Excellence" for Argo Navis. Thank you so much. We have always
been greatly appreciative of our Queensland supporters.

Congratulations also to Michael Horn who was drawn in the raffle and
picked the Argo Navis we donated. Michael said he was the last one
out of the Leyburn crowd to own one. :)

One of the great hilights of Astrofest this year was when amateur
astronomer and amateur radio enthusiast Renato Langersek
made contact with the International Space Station (ISS) as
it came up over the horizon early on Saturday morning.
Renato re-played the taped conversation to Astrofest
attendees at the dinner. Australian astronaut, Andy
Thomas, reported that the ISS was passing over the
Queensland border and he sent a special greeting to all
attendees at the Queensland Astrofest. This went over
extremely well, meeting with spontaneous applause. When
Renato asked whether there would be any possibility of
making contact again the following night, Andy indicated
that Space Shuttle Discovery would be leaving ISS tomorrow
and "would not be back for some time". Congratulations to
Renato for this great bit of DX'ing and thanks to Andy
Thomas for taking the time to talk to us.

Once again, it was great to meet some old friends and to make some new
ones. Mai and I thank you and we look forward to seeing you there at
Astrofest next year.

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

[[1ponders]]

Just call me [beta ponders] from now on. I seem to be doing a lot of this sort of stuff lately. It's all great fun. :lol:

[acropolite]

Next you'll wanna be Alpha Ponders....Too much Test...tosterone eh Paul....:D

[Iddon]

that was indeed a great event. I will be there ext year for sure - will try for perhaps 2 or three nights next time.

Andrew - am looking forward to Leyburn now :)

[[1ponders]]

:lol: @ Phil

[EddieT]

Hi to all,
I had my usual hidden location at Astrofest this year so didn't mingle with the maddening crowd too much, but it was good to catch up with you all.
Although Sheree looks at astrofest as a holiday, it's always a mad time for me. I have projects planned and getting the sytem running adequately after the relocation can take days. This year I had several issues that kept me busy and I wasn't really ready to image until Thursday unfortunately.

Maybe next year I won't take any equipment and be a bit more social. Then again, after 8 years of Astrofest, it might be hard to change :)

Great to catch up with you all. Though the weather was not as good as last year (7 straight gloriously clear nights), it was still a great week.

[dhumpie]

Hey Rob,

But we did talk a lil bit more on Sat night at Andrew's scope (actually a few times). Maybe you did not recognize me in the dark. Rememeber you were telling me about that carpet snake that hit you hard on the shin :)

Darren

[h0ughy]

I wonder from the impact of the IIS'ers whether any new members have signed up as a result of Qld Astrofest activities?

[xrekcor]

hehehe :doh: damn we were all dressed like eskimo's and looked the same in the dark, sorry I thought I was talking to your friend... :doh: :doh: :doh:

[xrekcor]

AstroFest group photo is up on the AstroFest website

AstroFest 2005 (http://www.qldastrofest.org.au/)

regards

[h0ughy]

LOL at least my face is hidden :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Zubenel]

Hi Ron ,
Yes Yes Yes I have joined . Call name?? IS ZUBENEL.Actually it is Zubbenel but I hope they can get rid of one "b". Cheers Wes

[xrekcor]

Yeah! and I wonder what Jake was checking out :rofl: is that John Wayne 3rd in, second row from the back :confuse3:

:D

regards

[[1ponders]]

Glad you joined Wes. See you soon at Ron's hopefully

[h0ughy]

Oh now thats nasty, he's dead :rofl: . It is really a rouges gallery there. :poke: :poke:

[firstlight]

Hi everyone,

We have just joined your forum, and I just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words regarding the organisation of the Astrofest. One thing I need to point out is that the Astrofest is run by the 5 local clubs in Queensland, BAS, SAS, SEQAS, AAQ and ATMQ, all of which have representatives on the committee.

On another note I have updated the Astrofest webpage (after a fashion), and I'm interested in stories and photos you might want to have posted on the 'site. One of the updated items is the audio of Renato contacting STS 114 and the ISS on the front 'page. The file is largish (1.8 mb), but Renato didn't want to reduce the size.

Cheers for now
Tony and Anne-Louise (AKA earthlight)

[xrekcor]

Welcome aboard Tony and Anne-Louise, Great to have you guys here ;)

regards,

[h0ughy]

Tony and Anne-Louise,
you guys did a great job! Welcome to Ice in Space.

[xrekcor]

I know he's a lil bugger at times, Still he did want to know where your horse was :rofl: :poke:

regards

[[1ponders]]

Welcome Tony and Anne-Louise. You and your fellow coordinators put on a great weeks. I'll certainly be there again next year.

[Starkler]

Wow thats a huge turnout. They sure do things big in QLD :thumbsup:

[xrekcor]

Not only _big_ but as the threads title suggest _better_ ;)

I'm waiting for registration to come around again to imediately sign up for next year :D except I'll go for the whole event instead of 5 night :D

regards

[astro_south]

I think I will do the whole event next year as well :thumbsup: - 3 nights wasn't enough!

[xrekcor]

Hmmmm, Maybe they should look at doing two events :D

One in summer another in winter :thumbsup:

I'd be in! ;)

[dhumpie]

Great to have you guys on board! And fantastic job on the Astrofest!!!!!!!!!!

Darren

[jjjnettie]

I loved the chance to talk to people who's eyes didn't glaze over once you started talking telescopes/astronomy. Mind you my eyes started glazing as Gary and Mai were explaining the finer points of their TPAS? system in regards to Pauls scope.
As a beginner, it was such a learning experience, and thanks to everyone ( especially Andrew and Paul ) who helped me, taught me, and treated me as an equal.
You all made Astrofest a weekend to treasure.

[cyclone]

Hello, (http://www.gorgecreekorchards.com.au/)
I recorded Renato's contact with the Space Station, on the mornng of the 6th August, its on my website

Cheers

[earthlight]

Hi everyone,

This is the web site of our visitor from Florida http://www.wlcastleman.com
He has put up his shots from this years Astrofest and there are lots of familiar faces and some great shots.

Anne-Louise

[h0ughy]

wow, nice to see his images of a great time!

hey who's this person http://www.wlcastleman.com/astro/qaf05/people/pages/people_cx8811.htm

[[1ponders]]

don't recognise the hat :confuse3: Must be a mate of his http://www.wlcastleman.com/astro/qaf05/people/pages/people_cwtoss_c9401.htm

[h0ughy]

Yes a complete failure to meet any objectives that was. As in the 80's underarm was not a good choice :doh: Mind you I don't quite front up too well, gammy arm and all :rofl: