Happy Birthday to us! 7 years of IceInSpace! Tell us your favourite moments..

[iceman]

Happy Birthday to IceInSpace!

What an amazing ride the last 7 years has been. I think back to those early days and how far we've come. How much we've grown.

I noticed some lovely comments by some people in the thread started by Mick (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=80407) (thanks Mick), and it got me thinking about an article idea.

Please tell us your favourite moments on IceInSpace. Your best memories. The best thing you've learned out of IceInSpace. How IceInSpace has been there for you or helped you in your astronomy journey.

My favourite responses will be collated into an article to be published next week.

I appreciate all of your support. We would not be here without you.

[Osirisra]

I think my favourite moment and also for alot of others here, would be when I got back into astronomy and I found IIS while looking at astronomy sites.

The awesome warm and friendly folks here that are always super helpful with tons of information is what makes IIS a brilliant place for anyone interested in Astronomy.

[Ric]

Just being here and meeting people who all share the passion of amateur astronomy is my favourite moment.

Also the knowledge base that has been established here is amazing through the talents of the members.

Happy Birthday IIS and a big thanks to Mike and Terry for making this all possible.

Cheers

[wavelandscott]

I agree 100%!

I am proud to be a part of this wonderful thing. It sure has grown since I joined at member 50.

Well done Mike and Terry and everyone that makes this place special.

[Mick]

I’ll always remember the first day Mike, without your vision we would never have had this amazing community. The sharing of information and the wonderful images are the reason I visit nearly every day. :thanx:

[ZeroID]

My favourite moment was when I found the place .... my kind of site !!:thumbsup: :D :thanx:

[Alchemy]

Finding the site.... Through a google search

Posting my first, blurry eggy/starred image from a non modded dslr, and getting encouragement.

Getting to meet someone local from IIS, ( hmmm must catch up with them again soon)

Being one of the first to see birds Jupiter impact, and knowing what a special event it was. So special they turned the Hubble telescope on it. ( see it first on IIS)

Getting some of the inside tips of processing from jase, who has been most generous with his knowledge here on IIS, some of those processes are still used on each and every image I make.

The MALIN COMPETITION thread each year for which some imagers only come out of the closet for, watching Big Mike get all excited, the comeraderie as everyone says they're in as well.... The suspense as everyone gets or doesn't get THAT email,

I'm sure there's lots of others, its a journey, the discoveries, the new ideas, the sharing.....:thanx:

For a community based in one of the smaller populated countries, we pull way above our weight, just have a look at the recent English competition, Aussies took more than their fair share of the podium.

[strongmanmike]

Like this crocodile..? :question:

Comet McNaught at IISAC 2007 by a country mile :thumbsup:

It is the place to share our obsession and for me it is the place above all others.

[icytailmark]

happy bday iceinspace!!! My favourite moments were the Impact photos of Jupiter and the massive storm we saw on Saturn.

[sheeny]

Happy Birthday IIS and congratulations Mike and Terry!

Favourite moments?...


Comet McNaught at IISAC
Finding out how easy astrophotography is to get into (compared to the old film days... I'd a had a big break from it in between!)
The swimming hole at Lostock:P.
Learning, learning, learning (from all you other IISer's:thumbsup:)
Learning about drift alignment and the K3ccdTools drift tool from 1Ponders:thumbsup:
Being involved in such an active online community that is at times right at the cutting edge (thinking especially of Bird's impact discoveries:thumbsup::thumbsup::thu mbsup:)
Enjoying and marvelling at the diverse interests and personalities of my fellow IISer's. ...it doesn't seem to matter what it is, someone here seems to be able to help if you have a problem! Just ask...
Being able to admire some really superb astrophotography, and learn from "amateur experts" while still contribute to helping others... all in the one place!
Having my interest in another dormant hobby (programming) rekindled - by fellow IISer's. There's been a similar development in programming languages as in astrophotography... a lot of the dull drudgery has been eliminated.
My first astro photo from video (with the trusty old ToUcam!).
My first solar images.
My first spectra!
Building my L200 spectrograph. Thanks Ken!:thumbsup:
My first view through Hector.
Oh... here's a gem... laying on my back at the first IISAC next to Lyn and looking at the stars in between views through Hector... Someone asked Andrew a question about Argo Navis, which he duly flicked to Gary who was setting up another dob next door. While Gary was explaining the maths involved IN DETAIL:) Lyn whispered to me: "Is he making that up?"... Despite my years of engineering mathematics I didn't understand it all, but I knew enough to answer with confidence: "No".:D :lol:

Al.

[strongmanmike]

Gold :lol:

[astroron]

Me turning up at Lostock for the first astrocamp and seeing everyones jaw drop when I told them I had come from Perth:lol:

All the friends I have made on here including my best astro friend :) .

Being able to help people joining astronomy for the first time :D.

Cheers Mike and Terry for seven great years :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Page 5 of this thread: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=56696

I still laugh!

H

[DavidU]

LOL H yes that was gold. I liked the morning I woke up to find Anthony Wesley had imaged a comet hitting Jupiter.
The ebay add for the real mans BBQ was good too.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=54318&highlight=BBQ

[FJA]

Happy Birthday Ice In Space! :birthday:

[PCH]

Lol - faith, here's a little (and I mean little!) joke for you. The setup being that there used to be a girl on one of those quiz shows (Brucie - nice to see yer, to see yer - nice) over there many years ago called Isla St Claire.

So (this is the joke, so get ready to laugh!), guy comes on the radio (think it was DAve Lee Travis - remember him?) and says, ... "If Isla St Claire was to marry Barry White, then divorce him and marry Brian Ferry. Would she be an Isla White Ferry?"

Well, I told you it was just a little joke. But a bit funny I thought :D

[mishku]

My post was initially going to be a sentimental, heartfelt thankyou to all of the lovely folks who have been so patient, kind and generous with their time and knowledge (can't tell you how much I've learnt since I've been a member of IIS), but my NEW favourite IIS moment was reading the ebay bbq bmx thread... comedy gold!!

[atalas]

Seven years already! no wonder I feel old....favorite moments...huddled around a new group of friends at the first IIS star party early hours of the morning,freezing! hehe

How has IIS helped me? I'm still here ain't I? sanity!

[michaellxv]

:birthday:

Bird's 2 Jupiter impacts.
Jupiter SEB disappearing.
Saturn storm.
Constant stream of the world's best astro images.
Friendly and helpful group of people and a wealth of information stored in these pages for beginners through to experts.
The amazing diversity of astro activities that people from this forum are involved in.

[Inmykombi]

I joined in October 2007 after almost losing interest in aastronomy and not being sble to find a local club to join near Gosford NSW.

I joined to sell my old scope and buy a new scope ( Meade 10 inch SCT ) and found a wealth of knowledge and help which kept me on track and interested in my hobbie.

Ice in Space has been a fantastic resource that has kept me in touch with like minded people and introduced me to a vast array of new friends that share a passion for the night Sky.
The talented people on this forum is nothing short of incredible.

Many Happy Returns IIS for many many more years to come.

Thanks Mike for your help and input too.

Well done to everybody who has helped me over the years.

woooo hoooo.

Geoffro.

[h0ughy]

for me this site has been good and bad and ugly and beautiful and sad, and joyous, poignant, factual , nerdy, obsessive, second home, life changing, very very very bad with the for sales, a great place to meet and catch up.

I have meet a few people over the years, and i must say they all have been influential with my future:P. Some good friends to boot

for me there is nothing that has surpassed this momentous theorem (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=2191&highlight=straw+theory)

[danielsun]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:That was Gold!! Absolutely laughed my head off!!:lol:
Yeah, Ken has done a few rippers like that!:lol:

I also remember a thread about a BMX that was on sale on Ebay and the blurb was an absolute classic with one bit saying something like that he done a skid that long that it almost got a chick pregnant.

[Octane]

That thread is comedy goldmine, indeed. I loved it the first time I saw it, and, you just brought back a bunch of memories, haha.

H

[ballaratdragons]

That wasn't really me :P
It was my Averted vision member.

Yeah, I'm much like Houghy.
For me, this place has been up and down, good and bad, boring and exciting, but most of all always adventurous :lol:

Waaayyyy back in the early days much to the annoyance of Mike and the Mods I was constantly having posts and even whole threads deleted - Regularly! :D

At one stage I disagreed with a deletion, so I deleted about 500 posts and about 20 threads of my own!!! :eyepop:

That's why you can't delete threads you started nowdays. My fault :P

At another time I almost had IIS sued by Sky and Space magazine :lol:
and gave poor AS&T a hard time! I spoofed their magazine covers regularly :rofl:

But apart from the hell I raised, I have also met some of the nicest people I know, in person and in here.
I have received some of the best help I could have wished for, and I hope I contributed to newbies in a positive way.

It's been an interesting ride, that's for sure :thumbsup:

Here's a sample of some of mine that didn't breach copyright: :P
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7700
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=31361
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1144

To new members, stick around and enjoy the ride :lol:

[erick]

Yes, the day of the Bird Strike was an exciting time! :thumbsup:

From an observational astronomy perspective there have many highlights - after that initial exhilaration of observing brand new objects in the sky, eg. Omega Centauri for the first time, through binoculars - most of mine revolve around equipment - so discovering SDM Telescopes through this site was great. First they seemed so unattainable, and now.....I got one! :)

[FJA]

Not bad. :D

[ausastronomer]

Hi Louie and everyone else,

My two best memories of IIS involve two of the IIS astro camps.

The first one (2006?) was excellent because we actually got to meet a lot of the people we had only met online before. All of the original Central Coast contingent had met before and it was great to see them all turn up at Lostock. Mike, Rod Berry, Louie, Rocket Boy, Gary, Andrew Murrell, Ed Rocca, George Livanos, Mark Suchting and possibly one or two others.

The highlight of the first IISAC for me had to be without question Mike Bogan (Sausageman). He arrived early afternoon on the Friday having driven down from Queensland and proceeded to consume copious quantities of VB stubbies. As it was in January and not dark until after 9pm Mike was absolutely legless by the time it got dark. He fell asleep and did not do any observing whatsoever that I can recall on the first night, notwithstanding the skies were superb. Mike woke up on Saturday morning and proceeded to make a whole batch of homemade sausages for lunch for everyone. He bought everything with him to make them, including the pork, the mincer, the meal, all the spices and the skins. They were pretty tasty too I might add. I thought, "well Mike is as bright as a button this morning and at least he can do some observing tonight." How wrong I was. Mike started on the VB stubbies early afternoon and proceeded to do a total re run of Friday. By 9pm Mike was absolutely legless again and fast asleep in bed. Mike surfaced early Sunday morning, packed the van up and drove back to QLD without looking through an eyepiece to my knowledge. The observing conditions that first IISAC were excellent with very transparent skies and some excellent seeing in the early AM on both days.

The other highlight for me was Comet McNaught in 2007. Possibly the single most stunning thing I have seen in 40 years of looking. Andrew Murrell, Lachlan McDonald, Gary Kopff, Tony Buckley, myself and a couple of others stayed up on Mount Dissappointment to observe the comet and take some pictures under full darkness. By the time it had gotten fully dark probably 95% of the people who originally trekked up there to observe it, had already gone back to the IISAC campsite and in fact missed the Comet at its best.

The other highlight for me is seeing so many people who have now been able to get into astronomy, through this website and because decent equipment is now a lot more affordable than it was 20 years or more ago.

I hope to see many of you at IISAC 2011. I plan to be there on the Friday and Saturday nights. Gary, Andrew and myself will be running sky tours as we have in past years.

The dissappointment of IIS for me was missing IISAC 2010 because of work commitments and the fact I had just moved to Kiama and started a new job only a month beforehand.

Cheers,
John B

[iceman]

Thanks to everyone for your great responses, I really enjoyed reading those.

The article with my favourites (it was very hard to narrow down) is now on the homepage:

IceInSpace Homepage (http://www.iceinspace.com.au)

Thanks!

[Jen]

:birthday::birthday::birthday:

Congrats IIS cheers to plenty more years to come
:cheers:
:D:D:D
I have some amazing friends from this forum that i will now treasure for ever and hoping to meet many more of you in the future

:love2::love2::love2:

:love::love::love:

:love2::love2::love2:

It is so great to talk to people about astronomy and not get the rolled eyes look of oh no here she goes with her astro talk AGAIN
All my non-astro friends think im weird :rolleyes: but i feel normal on here hahahahha
:screwy: :rolleyes: :screwy:

[g__day]

Happy 7th Birthday IceInSpace,

I've been here for a few years now and enjoyed every moment of it. The community is great - to tap into know how, to see images of astrophotography done right, to understand the pros and cons of gear and there limits and for me to buy and sell used gear (two OTAs, two cameras, software, eyepieces and a mount so far).

Thanks to all for making it such a great place!

Matthew

[steve000]

WOO happy bday. clear days ahead for brissy :)