Reports - 13th Snake Valley Astro Camp - November 2011

[ballaratdragons]

Here is what everyone got up to at our 13th Snake Valley Astronomy Camp - November 2011 :thumbsup:

[leon]

Well that may be so Ken, and maybe i should wait to post anything, but i feel for you guys, all that preparation, and effort and such ordinary weather so far, hope at least you get one good night.

Cheers Leon

[erick]

Had a good night observing Friday night for several hours before a fair amount of cloud rolled in.

Watched an Io shadow transit on Jupiter and lots of the usual suspects. The sky improved as the night progressed until the E & F stars in the Trapezium were sharp and well resolved. Several times we had crystal-clear skys horizon to horizon - but with lightning flashing from over the horizon.

Had a good look at "Thor's Helmet" at moderate elevation. An OIII filter seemed to improve the contrast significantly.

Yes, it was foggy and overcast this morning with some rain sprinkling. Then a significant downpour for about 30 minutes.

The fireplace is warming in the dining room for those coming up for this afternoon's music and meteor talk.

Plenty more opportunities for good astronomy evenings before we have to leave - let's see.

[leon]

Have to feel a bit sorry for the Snake Valley Astro Camp attendees, :sadeyes: the weather has been so lousy one would want to pack up and nick off.
We just arrived back home as well from NT, and it certainly is a shock to the system leaving 30+ degrees to about 12 all in a matter of days.:sadeyes:
Anyway hope you guys get at least one night in.;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[Astroman]

I doubt the cloud will dampen the spirits of many of them, if not all of them. Gives them a chance to spend some time and get to know each other more, reflect on their friendships and have a bloody good time.

[dannat]

Reflect on their friendship:P, someone stars aligned last night & the moon came out early :jawdrop:don't know if the photo will get posted though ;)

Shane G was fantastic as usual

[erick]

We are doing just fine, Leon. Several good hours observing the first night. Plenty of time to cover up and secure before the rain came. Shane G was great. Trevor's presentation was great. The feast was great, as always. Lots of new folks to meet. Lots of existing friends to catch up with. Lots to laugh at. Lots to learn.

And the towel is out drying in the intermittent sunshine. Good prospects of the covers coming off later today for a night's observing tonight.

Not too cold and not too hot. Flies are infrequent. The mossies are preferring to attack the ladies.

Hot water is hot. Toilets are flushing.

Only one downside - I forgot the counterweight for my dob, so it cannot look super snazzy with the eyepiece box riding outrigger.

It's all good. :)

[Big Dave]

Heres to the Early 2012 event :cheers:
thanks to the organisers. Some happy snaps I took.

[Big Dave]

More Pix
(The last one was the favourite!)

- Big Dave (Dessert Monster)

[OneOfOne]

After more than an hour of listening to the strumming of Shane Gilbert, I returned home to find that Russell Morris was giving a free concert at the local shopping centre....and it was the real thing (umm ma ma ma ma, umm ma ma ma ma, umm ma ma ma ma)...., so we soared on the wings of an eagle down to listen to him to find that Rachael is coming home!

Two "concerts" in the same weekend, I am feeling spoilt :).

Had a great time, thanks guys.

[leon]

Nice one Eric.

Leon

[traveller]

I arrived late on Sat, so only caught the second half of Shane's performance, but enjoyed every second of what I heard.
There are many highlights, meeting the people from the forum, the FEAST! and of course Trevor's lecture.
Pity about the weather on Sat, but looks like a cracker tonight (Sunday). Enjoy!
PS: Jen, Ryan said he will go to the March camp is Drew goes!
Bo

[richardda1st]

Thanks again Snake Valley for a good time, despite the weather. Had some good hours of viewing on Friday night at least. :thumbsup:

Thanks to the PEEERFEK weather there was ample time to chat with the mob, and what a mixed bunch of characters we are.:lol: Nice to meet some new attendees.

Good luck weather wise for the rest of the camp.:rolleyes:

Thank you Shane Gilbert, nothing beats a bloody good live performance.:thumbsup:

Thanks Trevor I enjoyed your presentation. :thumbsup:

Cheers
Richard

[niko]

12:40pm Monday - sitting at my desk at work feeling a little dazed.

Great weekend. Thanks to everyone - esp. Martin - for helping me get my gear setup. All is working terrifically, it's a pity the weather didn't play along.

Mind you - the stars are only half the fun at Snake Valley.

You guys rock!

Thanks Ken for all your hard work and to the trusty band of Monday nighters who will have to mop the floors.

Hey Drew - it was great to see you again - you're such a great kid.

And Ken - you have 2 fantastic young men on your hands - well done

See you all in March!

niko

[ballaratdragons]

Well, us diehards are still here and the sky has cleared up to this weird looking colour called Blue! :lol:
And it's HOT!!!

Forecast from BOM says: You suckers miss out :P

We are just getting the gear ready now for a wonderful night of observing, imaging (Jen says she is going to blow you all away with her stunning Joop shots), and Video (me).

Also, Chris is so excited that he has forgotten his viewing list and says he doesn't know where to start. "Maybe the Horsie".
Eric has the same plans.

A bit of a COMP, which one of them will see the Horsie first :lol:

I will be just trying to get all my gear working properly (again!) and zipping around at all sorts of objects.

Jake & Drew have given up and selected a bunch of movies for the night :rofl:

[niko]

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!

Tell Jen she can thank me for those clear skies - it's always clear after I leave :confused2:

Have a great night guys ridin' that horsie!!

niko

[mishku]

Oh Ken, STOP!!! You're killing me here!!

This SV newbie had the best time EVER. I can't wait to get in to work in the morning so I can book in my annual leave for March (how many sleeps??)

Camp highlights for me


Seeing Princess Mary on the drive out west
Meeting some of my favourite chat/IIS buddies
The incredibly warm welcome from the SV regulars
Sneaking in some observing when the weather permitted (first time seeing 47 Tuc (my new favourite), Eta Carina and good ol' Sol)
Waking up with sore abs from laughing so hard the evening before
So many seasoned pros prepared to patiently break things down for the new kid
Learning more about fire hoses and lilos than I ever wished to

Ken and the SVAA, thankyou so much for your hard work putting the camp together. I really can't wait to come again, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I figured it would be good, but I didn't realise just HOW good it was going to be - which says alot for an astro camp where we spent alot of time observing cloud nebulae!

To the other wonderful folks I got to meet - JenJen, Drew, Davi, Ken, Wren, Eric, Paul, Dougie, Martin, Niko, Darren, Pete, John, Richard, and others whose names I've forgotten, thanks so much for an excellent time, see you all next year! :hi:

Mishku :)

[barx1963]

To the Diehards, we have our fingers crossed for you!
Made it into waork at 10-30 this morning feeling a tad sleepy. The Missus enjoyed the joke about the doctors, now how many were there?

Anyways, despite the clouds I enjoyed the night and looking forward to clear skies in March!

Malcolm

[Ijay]

A great weekend, thanks to everyone for the company. At least we got some viewing on friday night.
Thanks to Ken and the SVAA for a great feast and Shane Gilbert for the entertainment. Also to Eric for helping to collimate the 8'' Sky watcher, unfortunately couldn't get to test it out on Saturday night. Damn the rain!!!

Below is a quick sketch I did of NGC 253 in Sculptor on Friday night. Called the Silver Coin Galaxy, a side on spiral. Not much of a central core but bright.

Then someone said Io is egressing from the disk of Jupiter. Quick slew to the giant planet and there it was - Io like a pimple on the side and the shadow was still visible!

Hope to catch up with you all next time'

Cheers

Ivan.

[Exfso]

A couple of shots of Darren retrieving a RC model float plane that didnt quite get airborne

[Paddy]

I would have thought that the cloudy night would have meant more sleep, but I still seemed to be up late laughing with the crew. Great to see old friends and meet some new ones. Had an absolutely fabulous time. Thanks to Ken and the Snake Valley mob and all who turned up to create another very enjoyable camp.

Some photos: Darren, Jen, Neale, Niko, David, Malcolm, Michelle and Wren.

Somehow I'm especially fond of the one of Darren rising from slumber at about noon. And is Wren tweeting?

[erick]

While we are waiting for the passing showers to clear :sadeyes:, here are a couple of shots I took.

[desler]

The simple rule for March, no more pics of me, we don't want to scare people away!!!!!

That's great news about the weather Ken! I hope you all have a great night!

Thanks so much for all the fun! My stomach still hurts, had something to do with 5 Doctors or it may have been 4.

Once again, one of the best groups of people to spend some time with, diverse but all with a love of astronomy and a good laugh. You couldn't ask for more!

IS IT MARCH YET??????????

Darren

[erick]

Bit lonely on the field tonight - and we've ended up at the four corners :D

[Cloudyagain]

Thank you Ken for another great event. They just seem to keep getting better. Shane Gilbert was great, even better than last time if that's possible.

Martin thank you for your generosity (again).
Darren I promise I will try and learn the difference between 4 and 5 if at all possible.

Thanks to everyone else that makes this event what it is. What a great bunch of people you are.

Is it March yet?

Neale.

[Jen]

Douggie stuck on the throne with his knees up around his neck buahhahahahahahhahaha :rofl::rofl::rofl:

104772

:D

[Cloudyagain]

And just a couple more.

[Jen]

The weather didn't dampen our spirits what so ever Leon we are having a great time and still here :D

[spacezebra]

Looks like you all had a great time! Good to see that Border Stargaze 2011 was represented there (spotted the T-shirt)!



Cheers Petra d.

[JohnG]

Well, back home after an 8 1/2 drive, mostly blue skies all the way, lol.

Another great camp, excellent company, pity about the rain but.... always March. Great, as always to meet up with old friends again and to meet new attendees, just good to get away and relax for a bit.

Thanks Ken :thumbsup:

See ya all in March.

Cheers

[jjjnettie]

Great photos everyone. I really enjoyed them.
Doug....looks like the perfect loo if you've had too much to drink. No chance of falling off. LOLOL

[Rob_K]

Sounds like a great time was had by all (as usual!). Congrats to Ken & the team for putting on another bottler!!! Apologies for not making it - work interfered at the last minute and I had to cancel. :mad2: Anyway, will definitely catch up in March! :)

Cheers -

[Greenswale]

Yep, another great camp, and it proved that these events are truly great social occasions. With a mix of cloud, rain, floods, great music, feasting, broken computers, some sleep, sinking model planes, fair dinkum meteorites, and occasional clear sky; this was one to remember!

A big thanks to Darren for his valiant rescue of my little float plane, from the freezing lake!

And congratulations to Ivan on his sketch - it really shows how difficult visual observation of galaxies can be. Incredible art!

Finally, good on you Ken - you work so hard to make it all happen, so a humongous thanks!

[iceman]

Ken, I've merged Leon's thread into here so it's no longer a thread on its own.

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Mike :thumbsup:

[Hagar]

Another great camp. The skies were forgettable but the company put an end to any thoughts of getting bored. With finishes most nights around 3 am who needs clear skies.

Great to see you all again and meet a few new members. The pain from laughing is starting to subside and it's just like I haven't been away already. Looking forward to March for the next great installment in the SV camp story book.

[Octane]

Excellent reports, guys. I thoroughly loved the one Snake Valley camp that I attended, so, know first hand just how much fun it all is.

Might see you guys again at some future camp.

H

[Astroman]

Great to see everyone had a great time, and the weather didn't dampen the spirits of this great camp. Look forward to my next camp there again... This time with some Astro gear :D

[ballaratdragons]

Yeah, I'm here to report now too after my looooong drive home (all 2.5k) :lol:

Thank you to all the attendees for making this event another success :thumbsup:

This is our 1st event out of 13 that has had all 4 nights affected by cloud or rain. Not a bad record!
And even on 2 of those nights (Friday & Monday) we still managed to get a few hours of observing into each one.
Nicko, Jen and a couple of others even managed to get some imaging in :screwy: :lol:

Thanks to Trevor Hand for a really top notch professional presentation of Meteors and Dinosaur Poo.
It's pretty hard to present Dinosaur Poo in a serious professional way :P
I also agree with all the others, Shane Gilbert (Gilbo) was fantastic. I booked him to entertain us for 30 minutes, but he went for 1 hour and 15 minutes and only stopped because he had another gig to go to.

Thanks again to Anne and the CFA for the great Feast that was cooked up,
and a really big thank you to Evelyn McIntosh (our Treasurer Angus's wife) who makes all the desserts by herself each Camp.
She is Big Dave's favourite person at Camp :lol:

It was good to see that most weren't even affected by the weather. As an example, Peter (exfso) came all the way from Adelaide again but left his gear at home on this trip! He came purely for the social side (the laughs, the stupidity).
And those like Big Dave and Ricky who drove up all the way from Melbourne just to say Hi for a few hours.
But if there was a prize for determination in cloudy rainy conditions, it would have to go to:
1. Heath, who drove all the way up from Melbourne on Sunday afternoon only to find out that he left his Guidescope rings at home, so he drove all the way back home to get them, then returned with a big smile even though it was still cloudy :P
and
2. Wren, who had to leave camp to attend a Birthday Party back down in Werribee, and returned to Camp feeling a little ill after eating 8 different desserts :lol:

And changes have been made. I wasn't the last to get out of bed! Nicko holds the sleep-in record now :rofl:

I had a great time and it was a good feeling to see everyone else have a great time too.
Also great to see all the First-timers relaxing and enjoying themselves when it usually feels strange to be the newbie.
It shows me and the other SVAA members that this event is really worth holding, even when it clouds over.
Daniel, mate, we missed you. Your spot on the field looked lonely :sadeyes:
But thanks for the phone call and the update of good news on Theresa's operation :thumbsup:

That's about all for now until I can think of more (when I recover from Sleep deprivation).

[traveller]

Hope you are getting some decent Zzzzs Ken, you deserve it. Yes, bring on March, and make sure Jen brings Drew along, Ryan loved to have an older kid to play with.
Bo

[mill]

As usual the SV camp was funny and wonderfull.
Talked to regulars and new people.
It was a great experience and i will see everyone in March again i hope.
Sorry no photo's, i was to busy installing software from my red drive :P

[erick]

I'm home. A lot of rain between Melbourne and Sydney. The border region and Canberra were getting hammered!

But all stayed dry in the trailer!

[ballaratdragons]

. . . and guess what?

Tonight the sky is absolutely perfect :doh:

:lol: Typical!

Good to hear you made it home safe Eric :)

[danielsun]

Great reports and pics guys!! Would have loved to have been there to catch up with everyone again and see Shane Gilbert. Was also looking forward to Trevor's meteor presentation, that would have been cool! Go Trev! :thumbsup:
Wow Darren, that water must have been freezing in that lake!!:eyepop:


Thanks Ken, I sure missed being there and was thinking of what a great time you guys were having regardless of the weather, but the main thing is that yes, the op all went well and Theresa is doing fine.:thumbsup:
Thanks all for the well wishes and pm's.

The camp sounds like it was a blast as usual and I cant wait till March.:)


Cheers Daniel.

[niko]

Daniel it wasn't the same without you but I'm so glad to hear Theresa's op went well. She'll be up and about running your life in no time!

Bring on MARCH

[alistairsam]

Daniel,

Good to know the op went well. I missed this one as well, but see you in March.

cheers.

[desler]

To tell you the truth Daniel, the water temp took my breath away.

We missed you mate, but I'm happy to hear all is well at home. I'm thinking the March group photo should be done in the lake, with Jen wearing her snorkel!


See you soon!

Daz

IS IT MARCH YET????????

[mishku]

Hahahah!!! What if we get Jen on her Lilo???

[ballaratdragons]

. . . and attack her with big fire hoses :rofl:

[mishku]

but wait a while to be sure the pressure reeaaaallly builds up before you let 'er rip :lol::lol::lol:

:rofl:

[danielsun]

Thanks Niko but she has already started. Now that she is in recovery mode she has got me going flat out around the house and I have actually learnt alot like putting her evening dresses in the wash with my work clothes is apparently a big no no! And woolen jumpers should not go straight in the dryer! :lol:..................just kidding of course, I'm not that bad.:rolleyes:

Thanks Alistair, look forward to catching up again and checking out your home made beast again.:thumbsup:


Thanks Daz & :lol: Jen in the snorkel get up!


Nah, she'll be floating around on her slab or eski of UDL's.:lol: BTW. I sure hope Jen is feeling o.k because I didn't see her holding one can of UDL in any of the pics.:D

[dugnsuz]

Great pics - I'll have to get off my lazy butt and attend a star party soon!
Doug

[Jen]

:hi::hi: well i made it home safely :lol: I have finally recovered then i decided to make the most of the clear skies last weekend and went for an hours drive out of Swan Hill to Kyalite in N.S.W. camping so i needed to recover all over again (yawns) Johnny was still not co-operating :mad2:

I HAD THE BEST TIME EVER :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Rain, hail or shine this camp is always a great place to be regardless of the dam cloud nebulae's. I still managed to only get 13 hours sleep in total for the whole four nights :rofl: :rolleyes: :screwy: Friday night and Monday night was the best weather wise :D thank you so much Niko for going home early :lol: All you guys are just so much fun to be around and always very helpful i learn so much each time i go to these camps and i also have very sore ribs & abs from laughing so much :rofl::rofl:
It was great to catch up with all the regulars and the noobies :thumbsup: Mish it was nice to have another chicky babe around on the field ;)
Shane was awsome as usual, and Trevor's presention was amazing thanks Trev :thumbsup: I even got to take some snaps with Pauls solar scope it wasnt very focused though we couldnt see the screen :lol::shrug:
I did miss you Danielsun i kept waiting for you to pop into the kitchen at al crazy hours of the morning :lol: glad Theresa is doing ok :thumbsup:
Great people, great food great camp regardless of the weather thank you so much Ken for making this all happen for us MUAHHH!!.....
I now have some very special friendships forever :)
Drew also had a great time thank you all for making him also feel so welcome and yes Bo he will be there again in March :D

IS IT MARCH YET :D

[Jen]

Here is a few happy snaps :D

[traveller]

Nice snaps Jen, make sure Johnny behaves next time!
I am taking Ryan to Heathcote this Sat, just down the road from you guys. Will see a few new astro buffs there for sure. Just hope the rain will be kept at bay, otherwise I might have to do extend wine tasting...
Bo