An IIS Member Came To Visit Me....

[Jen]

:hi::hi: Hey guys/girls i got to meet another IIS member on the weekend :thumbsup:

Astroron was passing by and decided to pop in to say gday (he was only just passing through) but ended up staying three nights :lol::lol:
I must have feed him to well :lol::P

Anyway thanks to Ron and clear skies i managed to polar align my scope for the first time woohooooooo ;););) I was so happy to have the scope on Saturn and run off to have a ciggy and a can to come back and Saturn was still in the eyepiece :D:D i was one happy gal i can tell you :thumbsup::thumbsup: :cool::cool::cool:

Ron got his 16inch out and there was lots of talking and lots of drinking and very late nights :D Hey i even got to chat to JJJ and say a quick gday to Ponders on the phone on Sat nite ;)

Mind you there was a doh.... moment in the process before i managed to get it right hahaha :rofl::rofl:
:ashamed::ashamed: (i will post that on the doh thread)

Thanks for all ya help Ron he should be back home real soon :)
Will post some pics soon :P

and thanks to IIS too you lot are an awsome bunch :D

:love2::love2::love::love::love2::l ove2:

[norm]

Yeah, but what about the scope ?;):rofl:

Ok, I understand if this post is deleted. My bad...but it was too tempting to pass it up.

Well done Jen, sounds like you had fun and learnt some tips!

Norm:)

[Jen]

:lol::lol: lol Norm yeah i have a way of saying things so wrong sometimes :rofl::rofl:

I can see the temptation :lol:

[GrahamL]

:party:

[jjjnettie]

It was great to chat Jen. :D
All us girly IISers will have to get together one time eh.:cheers:
Our Ron's a top bloke isn't he.
We'll be glad to have him back with us again.:thumbsup:

[Jen]

:lol::lol: yep sounds good to me JJJ :thumbsup:

[Lumen Miner]

16 Inches!! :jawdrop:

[Jen]

Here are a few pics :thumbsup:
How tiny does my scope look next to Rons hahaha :rolleyes:

71175

71176

71177

[jjjnettie]

:D Cheers Jen, thanks for posting.

[Liz]

Hi Jen .... thanks for the pics and news :)
I wanna know how/where Ron squeezed the big scope in if he was travelling around Aus!!
Wful that he did the polar align thing to ;)

[jjjnettie]

LOL It's a truss dob Liz.
He had my little iOptron Cube with him to use with his WO refractor if he wanted just a quick session.

[Liz]

..... and a refractor!! Even if a truss, it still takes a bit of room, unless he had a truck and not a little camper van ;)
Oh, I wonder if he can pop by my place and help me with the Argo Navis .... I seem to be making a bit of a meal out of it.

[AstralTraveller]

I though you said 'clear skies'?? What's that stuff in the last pic?

[AstralTraveller]

Obviously a man who travels with only the bare essentials.

[erick]

You cut the grass especially for Ron?

[supernova1965]

O NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO there is an explosion of Coloured Text look out it's going to be a rainbow of colour when we read IIS:P Hope it's not Catching aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[gary]

Hi Jen,

Thanks for the post.

After doing battle with the Sydney toll road system, Ron visited us yesterday afternoon
here at Mount Kuring-Gai, which in the far north of Sydney. He talked about how much
enjoyed his stay with you. He also mentioned being able to catch up with some of the
WA observers, including Roger Groom.

Ron had also visited us on his way down at the beginning of the trip and it was
great to catch up with him again over lunch. Not shy to just get behind the wheel and drive,
when I asked, Ron told me it was his sixth trip across the Nullabor!

One thing he was adamant about was never trying to do it again in summer.
I would imagine the 41C-plus temperatures whilst camping out can be hard going
after a while.

Despite carrying the scope all that way in the trailer, it sounds like he did not have much
luck weather-wise, experiencing the unsettled weather we have had across large
parts of the continent recently. So many an observing night was denied him for
want of clear skies. He also mentioned rolling into Port Lincoln when the town was
subjected to the bush fires.

When he departed late yesterday afternoon he was Newcastle bound and only
a few more nights from home. We wish Ron a safe trip home and hope to catch
up with again very soon!

Jen, thanks for looking after our mutual friend, Ron!

Best regards

Gary & Mai

[spacezebra]

Hi Jen

Thanks - what a great post!

Cheers Petra d.

[Kevnool]

Good to hear Jen i hope it was a great nite.
Did you lead Ron astray ?
Great times again.
Cheers Kev.

[mozzie]

hi all he popped in to see me this afternoon we had a cuppa and i showed him my settup i met ron last astrofest and his a funny funny man.his knee has given in on him and trying to get home to the doctors,ron rang me around 4.00pm and i wish he'd rung before hand i could have shuffled work and let him stay the night ,4 months on the road he's had a gut full,safe trip home ron here from you soon

[Jen]

:lol::lol: those clouds appeared on the Sunday night so thats when we decided to take a few pics before we packed them up ;)
Friday and Sat nite were awsome except the dam moon was so bright :rolleyes:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: LOL Warren its very infectious :P:P:P:P

[Dave47tuc]

Sounds great Jen and the 6" is going ok then?:help:
But now you have started to look into these big scopes you bet to get your order in to Peter Read pretty soon and you know the old saying "when looking into the dark size does matter SDM":eyepop:

See you soon :rolleyes:

[Jen]

:hi::hi: Gday Gary oh i hope he said all good stuff about me :lol::lol: im glad he managed to stop in to see you too he said he was going to ;) I tried contacting him today to see how he was travelling (havnt heard from him yet) hope he gets home safely :)

[Jen]

Thanks Kev for contacting me to let me know Ron was on his way :lol:

Great night we had two great nights with the scopes and the third was cloudy so we just talked to all hours of the morning :lol: Wow that guy has some stories to tell :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RobF]

Ron's such a helpful and nice guy, we're really missing him up here Jen. I'm surprised you learned so much and had such a great time. Good on ya both.

[Jen]

:eyepop::eyepop: Thanks for the update Peter hope his knee isnt too bad and he gets home ok

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup:
:hi: Hi Dave yeah the 6" is just fine (for now) :lol:
Yes size does matter after looking through those monsters :P

[danielsun]

Top stuff Jen and nice pics, sounds like you guys had a great time. ;)
I bet you would have had some awsome views through his beast.:thumbsup:

PS. Was the weekend sponsored by UDL.:rofl:

Cheers Daniel.

[Jen]

:lol::lol: yes Daniel it was sponsored by UDL
:cheers:

[Outbackmanyep]

Ron's wearing his shirt out! Someone send him a new one!

[astroron]

The Wanderer hath Returned:)
I arrived back in Queensland after driving nearly a thousand kilometers from Budgewai about 50kms north of Gosford to Strathpine about 15kms north of Brisbane in one day, as you can imagine I was pretty tired when I eventually hit the sack:(
I enjoyed the trip all 17000kms of it with one of the Highlights meeting all the icinspacers along the way, Roger in Perth with some others I have lost their names.Jen was a revelation, I am glad I was able to help in setting up her Polar Alignment:D Jen thanks to you and Harry for putting up with me:thumbsup:
Thanks Peter (Mozzie) for the Monitor and the cuppa:) it was great to catch up again.
Gary and Mai I hope we can catch up again soon:thumbsup:
I look forward to getting back into doing some Astronomy and iceinspace:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Welcome back home Ron!!!

[[1ponders]]

Welcome home Ron. :hi:

[GTB_an_Owl]

Well might you all welcome that Astroron fella back to Qld - but you better not let him cross the border back into NSW again.

There is a warrant out for his immediate arrest if he is sighted south of the border.

the reason you ask ?

HE NEVER HAD HIS PASSTHROUGH VISA SIGNED IN GOSFORD

I believe there was a certain chicken farmer that wanted this astroron fella to help him out by giving some of his new lot of chickens Qld names.

somebody said that the iceman wanted to rope him into minding his kids for a couple of hours so he could go to a judo tournament and bash someone up

a certain group spent hours cutting grass and cleaning their clubhouse room (and toilets mind you!) so that they could show him what this "Pony Club" thing was that is talked about on the forum.

I mean, there are more than a few pee'd off IIS members down here because they got snubbed.
I mean, who in their right mind would go to Hornsby and Budgewoi, and not stop at Gosford ? I ask you !

Anyway, just make sure he gets this message and you keep in on the other side of the border in future.
I mean, after all, he IS an IIS member, and we don't really want to see him get arrested. It would look bad for the rest of us.

Did i mention how much it cost us for ice to keep the ginger beer cold in anticipation of his visit ? I probably didn't.

geoff

PS - welcome home Ron ;)

[GTB_an_Owl]

Oh!

good morning Ron :D

geoff

[astroron]

G_DAY Geoff, sorry I missed you and the gang, but I have busted some bone chips in my Knee and was keen to get home as I am in a bit of discomfort and so wanted to get to the doctors as soon as possible
I hope to make it down there again, maybe NACCA in Canberra?

[Liz]

Welcome home Ron!!
Glad you made it back safely, dodgy knee and all. :sadeyes:
Sound lke you did a huge amount of km, and saw some bful Aus sights along the way, well done!! Still cant believe you managed to squeeze in that BIG scope, plus a refractor and the famous cube :rolleyes:
You can relax at home for awhile now ... we have all missed you here :)

[Kevnool]

Gday Ron welcome back sure must of been a fantastic trip,Lots of yarns and sights along the way.

We may see a few piccies on way around.

Cheers Kev.

[Davros]

Welcome home Ron, hope you had a good adventure. :thumbsup:

[Outbackmanyep]

Ron returns!
Nice catching up with you at Coona, Ron!
Hope to see you at NACAA!

[astroron]

Just a quick happy snap of Jen and I with our telescopes on my visit on the way back from my trip to Perth.
Thanks again Jen for your Hospitality.:thanx::thumbsup:
Ron

[jjjnettie]

:rofl:

[Liz]

Great happy snap Ron .... I think Jen is in love :love:
Am still amazed that you took the BIG scope on your trip :whistle: .... did you manage to get it out as often as you would have liked, to observe in the darkest sites :astron:

[astroron]

Hi Liz, I had the scope out about half a dozen times on my trip the first was a Star night for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service with GlenC at Lismore then to Tenterfield Airfield which is 800mtrs above sea level and was Minus seven deg C also with Glen and I only had warm weather clothes:cold::cold::cold:
I had a night with ROGERG and JACQUIE? and some othericeinspacers who's
names I can't remember at their "Dark Sky Site" at Tammin some two hours from Perth East along the Great Eastern Highway, it was the opposite, boiling hot around 32deg at 21:00
One just couldn't win with the weather:(
There was a couple times with the family over in the west when I got the scope out, But not as I planned on the Nullarbor Plain due to cloud or really not feeling like it because it was so Hot:sadeyes:.
As you can see it fits into the car alright, but with all the other stuff packed in it was a bit of a chore to unload it.:rolleyes:
Cheers
Ron

[Jen]

:lol::lol:awwwwwwwwww the big bear hug with the big scope :love: i miss it already :rolleyes:;)

You welcome anytime Ron :thumbsup::thumbsup: