Qld Astrofest 2010

[CometGuy]

The online registration form appears to be broken at the moment. Does anyone know whether you can pay/register for a daypass on the day?

Terry

[astroron]

I think a day pass is $5:00 just See Anna Luise or Tony on the day:thumbsup:

[CometGuy]

Thanks Ron, Hopefully get up there this coming Sunday.

T.

[firstlight]

We have stopped on-line registration as these last few days become hectic, and difficult to make sure that payments have been made.

Registration is still open at the Astrofest from Friday and we accept cash and cheque...CREDIT CARDS ARE NOT ACCEPTED as we do not have the facility. If you register and pay at Camp, please do not be surprised that there are no lowwer bunks available because that is one reason to register early.

Day Passes are never a problem and available any day you wish to attend, pay at Registration at Camp Duckadang.

The Erwin van der Velden Memorial Trophy for Astro-Photography competition is now closed. If we have not received your entry by last mail today it will not be on display and voted on.

A number of Registration confirmation slips have been sent with a formatting error on them. the columns are not lined up correctly, but the information we have here is correct. Thanks to those who have alerted us to the problem.

[glenc]

Here is a list of objects to look at or image.
The first lot are for 8pm.
The second lot are for midnight.

Refr SkyMapPro

[[1ponders]]

thanks glen

[h0ughy]

3 days to go...........my "new" 70-200mm L lens should be here soon, i have almost finished packing the trailer, the cameras are in, tables, stellar chairs, a couple of boxes with some vital gear in and the food. the freezer suit is in, as too the dunny tents, power leads, Al's gear and the sleeping bags. Now what have i forgot?

[jjjnettie]

I still have your power board Dave. Will pack it in my box of tricks right now.
What time do you 2 hope to arrive?

[h0ughy]

we will be there some time on friday

[drmorbius]

After a last minute change of previous commitments, Mini-Morbius and myself will be able to attend... at least for a couple of nights :jump::jump2:
See you all on Wednesday!

And thanks for squeezing us in Tony :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

:jump::clap::jump:

[h0ughy]

well here is the weather prospects for Brisbane and a prediction into next week:shrug:



gaze into the crystall ball:P

[jjjnettie]

It got down to 2 degrees here this morning. So knock 3 degrees off for Duckadang.
2 sleeps to go.

[Louwai]

I packed the trailer last night. The tires are bulging a bit :D

The SDM 20", the C8SCT, Ladder, table, Tents, 3 x EP cases, Box of general cables etc, camera, Cold weather bag (hi-alt sleeping bag, freezer boots, gloves, heavy coats, long undies).
Extension leads, Solar panels, 12v Fridge, Gas heater ;). gas cooker.

All that's left oto pack is my clothes & the food.

the weather's not looking good tho....... fingers crossed.

[acropolite]

We're in h0ughcastle as we speak, leaving tomorrow AM to minimise the chances of getting caught in h0ughy's vortex. Won't be at Duckadang till monday.:sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

that east coast low we had was warming the engines up Phil:P

[hotspur]

Hi

where is the link to book into astrofest,?I see they have coffee mugs this year.and I want to come down and get some.Might just come down for the one night,I was thinking of two,but by looking at Houghys' weather reports,does not look to flash at this stage weather wise.Hopefully things will improve.

Living 10 Km's as far as the crow flies from Duckadang,the weather has not been good the last few weeks.Hopefully we will see clear skies next week.

Thanks,Chris

[Louwai]

I've never been to astrofest before & I've just been looking at the map in the information pack.
I see that the camping is off to the side of the observing field + I see that the big dobs are seperate from all the others.

My problem;
1) I will have both my 8" SCT + my 20" Dob.
2) Both scopes are powered from the 12v system in my trailer so they both need to be within 10m of the trailer. (length of pwr lead)
3) I will be sleeping in the trailer as well.

How strict are the organisers with where you can set up????

[astroron]

Bryan, Give Tony or Anna- Luise a call the number is in your booklet.
Cheers

[earthlight]

Hi all
Just a quick warning about some road work on the Esk turn off from Ipswich Rd. It stopped us for 15min

[thunderchildobs]

There is also a lot of lane / exit changes at Dinmore on the Ipswich Motorway. You could easily end up on the Cunningham Highway instead of the Warego. There are signs that say "Follow the signs not the GPS".

[COSMOPARADISE]

This will be my first Astrofest and i'm really excited. Seriously hoping that i get everything right and dont forget anything. Coming from the Goldy will be a beautiful drive. Hope everyone has a blast. I know i will.

[astroron]

:hi:Nick and :welcome: how long are going to astrofest for?

[Louwai]

Will be hitching up the trailer & leaving in about an hrs time. See you all at around 5pm-ish.

[COSMOPARADISE]

hi Ron, i was booked for next friday to sunday but am seriously contemplating coming on the thursday if i can get all my gear together by then. spent a couple hundred just standardising my ETX125 to reasonable starparty levels. so excited adrenalin is keeping me up way too late however my circadian rhythym is syncd with the twilight.
look foward to seeing everyones gear.

[astroron]

If you want to catch up, just look for the 16" with the green carpet around the base:):):thumbsup:

[GrahamL]

Guys how do I take the right exit off the motorway that dosn't let me count every traffic light through caboolture .. again :(

[astroron]

Graham, don't turn of at Caboolture, stay on the highway and turn of at the Glass House Mountains Road /Steve Irwin way travel to Beerwah and turn Left.
Follow the signs to Kilcoy
You go through Peachester and stay on that road to the Woodford Kilcoy junction .
Turn Right at the junction and travel to Kilcoy.:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Hi folks.

A quick update from Astrofest.

First few nights and days? Glorious. Days are shorts and T shirts, nights are definitely cold weather gear. Last Sat morn -4.5 at least. I heard one person had -7 on the thermo - meter.

Clouded over last night, and was lightly raining when i left. After tomorrow afternoon the forecast is for clear and cold for the rest of the 'fest.

[RB]

Hi Paul,

Glad to hear you had some nice weather, we miss you here.
Looking forward to the pics.
Say hi to Ian for me........:P

[[1ponders]]

thanks Andrew. Oh I have, I have LOL.

We've all been having a fun time. There were a few grumbles about the weather today, but a bit of a break in the middle of the week seems like a good idea to me. Lots of learning going on as well, day and night. I only managed to make one of the guest speakers; Terry Cuttle on preparing for the 2012 eclipse. I know where i'm going to be setting up now, do you. ;)

And it is a really beautiful spot on the upper Brisbane River. You can literally jump across it. And being a mad keen plant fiend its a botanical dreamland for me. :lol:


Here's a Ha hot off the press.

[CometGuy]

Hi Paul,

Nice to catchup with you and others. Hopefully should be able to get up there again on Saturday.

Pity about the rain..boy is it coming down now! 12mm in the last hour at Linville :eyepop:

Terry

[[1ponders]]

I hope my tent is up to it. I'm sure someone is looking after it.

I hope I can get back in :eyepop:

[DavidTrap]

Radar pic as at 7:30pm - Duckadang is just above the yellow bit. The 512km composite shows rain well out into the coal fields and heading south-east... I am soooooo hoping this clears up by tomorrow Paul.

I delayed my travel plans today, and will head up tomorrow regardless - I've taken time off work, so may as well have some relaxation.

Hopefully Duckadang hasn't been washed away - at least the tent pegs will go in a bit easier!

It's someone's birthday (not mine) tomorrow, so if the weather is still foul, there might be cause for drink!

Cheers
DT

[[1ponders]]

I wish I'd stayed there now.

Imagine, coming back to go to work for a day :screwy:

[DavidTrap]

I stayed home today to work - couldn't justify going away to look at cloud. I'm sure they're having a great time!

DT

[[1ponders]]

I'm more worried about the equipment that is stored in my tent. I secured it against what was happening when I left, I hope it stays watertight

[DavidTrap]

Hopefully the smoke doesn't leak out when you fire it all up again... When are you going back up Paul?

DT

[[1ponders]]

The mount will be fine. Its well covered and protected. If it gets too bad I'm sure someone will move it under the rotunda. My tents never been through real wet weather before, so I'm crossing my fingers. I looked closely at it before I left and it was nice and dry.

At this stage, tomorrow afternoon. I'm monitoring the weather very closely atm, but I think I'd be better off going to bed and forgetting about it. Not much I can do about it. :shrug:

[GrahamL]

Hopefully it will clear tommorow , the rains eased to the south and its definately getting cooler.

Good luck with the tent Paul , most all of them leak a little if the rains persistant enough.

[[1ponders]]

I've decided against going to work today and instead I'm going to return to Duckadang this morning to check everything out. I'll be leaving in about an hour so if anyone has any messages they would like passed along, send me a pm before 9 am EST

[hotspur]

I am just on my way now,(I live on top of the Blackbutt Range not far from Linville),We had 3 inches of lovely rain last night.But its clearing now-Marberg weather radar says clearing out-clear tonight:)

So all looks great!!,It will get very cold,sleet predicted for Gatton area,and quite windy 2mrow.

Looking forward this great event.

Chris

[astro_south]

Here is a widefield shot (single ~3 minute exposure) of the galactic centre from Astrofest on Sunday night. It was taken with a portable tracking mount (borrowed from Houghy ... thanks a heap mate :thumbsup: ) on a camera tripod.

[Tandum]

Looks real nice Andrew. I'm all packed and leaving in the morning for the rest of the event :D
I'm hoping all that rain doesn't generate too much fog.

[Screwdriverone]

WoW,

That's great Andrew, What ISO did you use and has it been processed?

Cheers

Chris

[astro_south]

Have fun Robin - weather should be fine. We had touches of fog around and dew is certainly an issue.

Chris - the ISO is 1600 (the ambient temp was around 0 degrees C so that helped keep the noise down). Only processing was a slight tweak of the curve in Lightroom :thumbsup:

[Davros]

If i can get it together i will be heading up there Friday. I imagine its freezing tonight because its very cold here and i am about 100kms away. The dew heaters will get a workout.

[COSMOPARADISE]

im coming up friday morning as well from the Goldy, can i trust the google maps directions?
cant wait for my first party
:P

[glenc]

The first 6 nights were like this.
Friday - clear, big frost
Saturday - clear, big frost
Sunday - clear most of the night
Monday - mostly cloudy
Tuesday - heavy rain
Wednesday - clear, small frost

[GrahamL]

Have you come home Glen?

[glenc]

Yes Graham, home again. Do you want to do some observing from here?

[DavidTrap]

Back home safe & sound. Thoroughly buggered after just 3 nights (but 3am finishes on 2 of those).

The air was very moist on Wednesday - but to be expected after 3 inches of rain on Tuesday. The wind tried to blow us away and then the clouds teased us on Thursday. Friday was fabulous - the fog rolled into the paddock next door about 2am, but didn't cross the fence properly until ~3:30am.

Tonights looking good - hope all enjoy Astrofeast and a last night of observing.

Regards
David T

P.S. Tony S-H, are you going to create a "formal" feedback thread when you return. I'd be interested to hear people thoughts on "power issues", plus a few other things.

[jjjnettie]

Aaaahhh home again.
I'll post a few pics soon.

[coldspace]

Back today, 2 excellent nights of observing even with that smoke haze around.
Big thanks to Jonathan Bradshaw for letting us play with your 20inch SDM over the last 2 nights and letting me use my Mallincam and driving your excellent SDM dob last night,was really fun.
Big thanks to Brian for taking us on plenty of tours of some nice deep sky delights with your 20inch SDM, and good luck with that puney little 12 dob you won last night. It will make a nice finderscope,lol.

Big thanks to the organisers again.
Can't wait till next year.

Matt.

[glenc]

Thanks for coming out in the rain on Tuesday night to hear my talk on James Dunlop.
Here are pictures of some of his objects with his original descriptions.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dunlop1826/Dunlop28#

[mozzie]

home safe and sound!!!! thanks to everyone that organises this event it was another fantastic year, 2 great nights of viewing and the high light last night in the big dobbies and nightstalkers binos was the pluming or crash of the satellite. we watched the plume and 2 satillites tracking for over an hour and was a real highlite!!!!!!!!!!! thanks all

[Louwai]

One photo that says it all :)

I had a GREAT!!!!! week... Thanks to all tha took part.
Especially good to meet so many of you as well...


B

[acropolite]

Back in Brisvegas, it was great to catch up with everyone and meet some new people.
A special thanks to Paul ([1ponders] for his assistance with my previously unused mount. As with every other Astrofest the time just flew it was over far too quickly. I have to agree with mozzie, the UFO (it was after all Unidentified Flying and an object) was a buzz, hopefully we'll find out a little more about it in the near future.

[AstroJunk]

What a blast!

It was great to make new friends and meet old mates too. Astrofest is a very special time -although always to short for me.

Matt, you and the gang made my weekend; how great was that malincam last night - we are going to project into the main hall next year...

Bryan, that scope of yours is very special and certainly one of the finest mirrors I have ever enjoyed.

JJJ, Great happy snaps on the other thread - Mozzie's gatecrash with 'junior' was fab; still chortling:)

And Ron, how good does the Patriot look?! I will send the money, honest.

[coldspace]

That scope looks good ontop of the Meade, didn't suit the SDM ,lol.. Yep if we could get a wireless router we could project the images into a building and display onto a large screen, would be a bit of fun.

Bryan, your 20inch inch mirror is so crisp, gotta be happy with that one.

Matt.

[astroron]

I had a great four days :) it was great to catch up with some of the older faces again, and some new ones.:D
The Flair certainly was a highlight and looked great in all forms of optical viewing equipment :eyepop:.
The committee did a great job, and now deserve a well earned rest from Astrofest duties, Well done people:thumbsup:

[NJB]

Got back last night after four nights. The last night was the best of those four, I thought. Wish I could have had one more night. (I was supposed to go up Tuesday, but we all know what Tuesday was like!)

Astrofest is always great for meeting new people, catching up with old friends, observing and photography. Oh, and deciding which new piece of equipment to get!

I didn't have any power problems, and I thought it was excellently run, as usual. Already looking forward to next year!

Noel

[h0ughy]

that came out ok Andrew - turn you to the dark side yet....lol

[AstroTourist]

For anyone interrested I have just placed an image of the rocket "plume" we saw at Qld Astrofest in General chat.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=64800

Terry

[Louwai]

Thanks guys. I'm really pleased with it. Peter has excelled himself with the entire scope.

The swim doesn't seem to have affected it too much. Just a few little issues to fix up. All in all, everything ended up good.

B

[coldspace]

Good to hear that the swim has not damaged it, hope to look through your scope again in the near future.

Cheers mate.

[xstream]

Peter was telling me about it on the phone today Bryan. All new SDM's are now going to come with a removable bung! ;)
It will make washing the mirror a breeze. Fill her up, swish and empty. :lol:

[GrahamL]

1.. lower road
2.. and again
3.. front gate east
4.. bit o water comimg down the river , maybe it rained a little earlier in the week :)
5..try and steal breakfast next year now I know what you look like smart arse :)
6.. cow laying a pat :0
7.. not sure what this is ?.. tosser symposium maybe ,they both look to be experts :)

[that_guy]

When do we get our group photos??