Snake Valley Club Night - January

[ballaratdragons]

Hi all,
The next Snake Valley (SVAA) club night is Friday 27th Jan :thumbsup:

Visitors are very welcome to come along to our SVAA Club nights at our own Club site.
Don't worry, we don't hold a 'Meeting'. We Observe/Image.

Because it is our own private property (SEE HERE) (http://astronomycamps.bravehost.com/facilities.html) feel free to pitch a tent and stay over for the night (or two).
No, it's not at the Crystal Lake camp. It is our own site.

We have a Clubroom if it gets too cold outside.
Kitchen area has Urnie Hot Water, Microwave oven, etc.

The next few Club nights are:

- 27th Jan
- 24th Feb
- then 4 nights of Snake Valley Astro Camp March 23rd - 27th, 2012 :)

Come along :thumbsup:

[mishku]

Squeeeee!! How exciting!!

Think I'm going to come along!! Is it nearly March????

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: you think you'll come along to which one Mish?

The 27th of this month or March camp?

[mishku]

To all of the above??

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: excellent :thumbsup:

[traveller]

My mother in law will be here this week until early February so most likely to give the 27th a miss.
Bo

[rmcconachy]

In my case that would have been additional motivation to go rather than to stay at home! :D

[Jen]

Mmmmm im in Melbourne that week Drew and i might tag along up there with you Mish :D how long is the drive from where you are :question:
I wont have my gear with me though, but will there be some toys there that we can play with :question::D

[traveller]

Sounds strange but I actually don't mind. She helps with the cooking and looking after the kids. Besides, if I take the only car for a couple of days, I might sleep on the couch for the next two :)
Bo

[ballaratdragons]

Jen, if you need to put your eye to something there are the Club scopes :)
or I could introduce you to Video Astronomy :D

[mishku]

OH MY GOD JEN ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Yaaaay!! It's about two hours from my place :)

[mishku]

Hey Ken,

Could one of the club scopes find it's way into my car on the way back to Melbourne? I can bring it back in Feb or March :D

... PLLLEAAAAAAAAAAAASE???? I'll bring you a Jen! :D

[Jen]

:D awsome Ken that sounds good and video astronomy hell yeah i would be up for that for sure :thumbsup:

[Jen]

Yeah i will just shuffle a few things around with the rellies an come up to your place on Friday then we go road trippen to Snake Valley what do ya reakon ;)



:lol::lol::lol:

[danielsun]

Hey guys! I'm in for the 27th!:thumbsup:
GO Jen!!! It'l be great if you guys can come.:)
I Defiantly want to get up there for some timlapse and widefield shots.
Now I just need to try get Marty and Darren and Niko up here too!!:D ;) (and anyone else who wants to come) The more the merrier, it'll be a great night. ;)

[barx1963]

I should be able to make the 27th. Have a leave pass but it is weather dependent.


Malcolm

[mill]

Grasshopper i will be there anyway (Ken's puter needs some loving care :P ).
Darren might be having night shifts so i don't know if he can.

[Jen]

Woohooo go Daniel you need to get a bit of a Snake Valley fix do you after missing last camp :lol: It will be great to catch up it will feel like a Monday night at camp haha :thumbsup:
Oh yeah and depends on the weather also :shrug:

[byronpaul]

Hmmmm, I might be in for Jan 27th as well, as long as I'm not away with the family.

Will confirm closer to the night.

[barx1963]

Hey Ken
Can you PM me with directions to the clubrooms?

Malcolm

[ballaratdragons]

Malcolm, I can put the directions here for all to see :thumbsup:

From the Snake Valley General Store head south along the main road (Carngham-Linton Rd) for about 500 metres (same direction as going to camp from the General Store),
cross the bridge and turn into the 1st driveway on the right :)
You are now at the club site.

The Clubroom is the building right up the back :)
http://astronomycamps.bravehost.com/SVclubroom-1.jpg

About half way along the driveway there is about a 5 metre long rough bit because of the floods we had, so it's good to drive slow :)

Address: 825 Carngham-Linton Road (Main Road) Snake Valley

[barx1963]

Cool!:thumbsup:
Thanks Ken!

[The_bluester]

Hmmm, negotiating for a leave pass.

It is a bit of a trip for me from Kilmore but I may be able to manage it. I think we have something on during the day but I might be able to get away early enough in the afternoon to arrive in good time.

Edit, just looked at it, not sure now. I have to run a pony out at the Melbourne summer royal show which is on over the Australai day weekend, not sure which day I am on! I will have to find out.

I am also silly, I do not have the Friday off so I should be putting in leave for it.

[jamespierce]

Subject to good weather we'll pop out... our 16" lives just down the road in Invermay anyway so we can pick it up on the way. Will you guys be out Friday and Saturday nights ? or just the Friday ... I assume we could leave gear setup for the day if both nights ?

[ballaratdragons]

James, you can leave your gear set up for both nights if that is what you want to do.
I will be here.

But here's a tip. If you become a member of the SVAA you can come and go as often as you like and stay as long as you want.

Open Club nights are for members and general public once a month, but members come and go whenever they please :thumbsup:

[jamespierce]

My folks farm (SQM 21.1 on a good night) is where we tend to leave my big scope... it's close to home and makes for a lazy night. But, we love getting out with other folks, having a chat and all that as well from time to time. We head up to the ASV site at Heathcote sometimes and try and do a few star parties a year etc.

[mishku]

Hey Ken, am I going to need to buy a tent for this shindig??

[traveller]

Hey Mish if you want to borrow a tent and a sleeping mat, just PM me.
Bo

[ballaratdragons]

Shindig?

:lol: It's only the monthly Club Night, but yeah, bring a tent if you want to stay over :thumbsup:

[niko]

I think I'm a non-starter as I'm planning a trip to my block o' land for the weekend. If that falls through I'll be there.

niko

[mill]

Party pooper :P:P

[ballaratdragons]

Nick, someone stole your block of land. It was last seen hanging out of the back of a large trailer behind a blue Commodore heading up the Hume Highway!

Looks like you'll have plenty of time to come to Snake Valley now :D

:rofl:

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol:

[The_bluester]

Still hoping to get along on Friday night. Looks like I have managed two leave passes in seven days (I went to the Mt Burnett opening on Saturday night)

[ballaratdragons]

Excellent Paul. Hope you can make it :thumbsup:

Weather is looking good so far:

Mostly Sunny
Top of 29
Low of 12
Frost Risk - nil

:thumbsup:

[The_bluester]

Still hoping for tomorrow night. Do you have a sign out the front? I reckon I spotted it on google street view but a sign would be handy for first timers like me.

[ballaratdragons]

Funny you should ask that!
I have been away for 4 days up at Moama and only got back last night, and while I was away I realised the site really needs a sign.
My intention was to spend today painting one.
I am looking for something to paint it on, but can't find anything, then I come in here now and read your post about a sign :lol:

I'll have a second look even if I have to paint one on some cardboard just temporarily :thumbsup:
I'll put one up :)

EDIT: Temporary Sign Done :thumbsup:

it says: . . . ---------------->

SNAKE VALLEY
ASTRONOMICAL
OBSERVATORY

:)

[The_bluester]

Great. A mate and I are looking about 95% likely to come tomorrow night.

[danielsun]

Yep, not wrong Jen, need my Snake Valley fix after missing the last camp.;)


Yeah, Party pooper!:P


Great stuff Paul, looking forward to meeting and catching up with everyone.:thumbsup:

[mill]

Grasshopper it will be good to see you again :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

I agree!

The mystic invisible Daniel has made himself scarce :lol:

[barx1963]

Thanks for last night Ken.
At least the weather played fair a bit better than my last trip to Snake Valley. Good to meet some new folks and reconnect with some others.
Nice to meet Paul and Ken and have a look through a couple of SCTs.
Hope to see you all at the Camp in March.

Malcolm

[Nico13]

Well I ummed and aah'd and at the last minute chucked all the gear in the car and took the run up to the SVAA club night last night and very glad I did as it was a good chance to put some names to faces.
Trouble was because I mucked around deciding if I'd go or not it was getting dark when I arrived so those faces were already getting a bit shadowy, but that's ok as it was still good to meet all you guys and gals that normally frequent the club.:stargaze:
Thanks to Ken and the club for their hospitality and also for the help with power for the laptop as I'd left my extension lead home in the hurry to go.:thumbsup:
Fun and games when the generator ran out of juice half way through the evening though, I think it was Jen who volunteered some petrol from her car, not sure who the sucker was :D on the end of the hose used to syphon some out but I remember smelling this bucket full of petrol go past in the dark:eyepop:

So I think a good night was had by all until the cloud rolled in at around 2.00am so I decided to head off at that stage and that was when my car was voted the most Astro unfriendly of the night because when you open a door it lights up like the "Close Encounters" mother ship:ship1::eek: :eyepop::eyepop:.

So if you like to be seen in the dark get yourself a new Ford Focus Titanium wait until dark and then open a door:rofl:

There were Oooh's and Aaah's from the crowd and fingers being pointed:scared3: I guess it was just as well that the clouds had rolled in as I would have been in real trouble and had the car banned from the site :lol:

Speaking of close encounters, they breed some pretty big skippy's up your way Ken, and I had a very close encounter on the way home in the wee small hours, almost too close I tell you.

Anyway thanks again to the SVAA and nice to meet all those there.

Nico. (Ken)

[The_bluester]

Thanks from me as well Ken. A top night even if the weather turned muddy in the wee hours, at least we got plenty of time in before it went away on us.

I got a pretty decent list of targets in with a decent amount of time on each.

The moon
Jupiter
Mars
Saturn
Venus
M42
47 tuc
Tarantula neb
Sculptor galaxy
And a handful of double stars to boot.

Pretty happy with that nights viewing although borrowing a nice wide field ep means now I want one of my own even more! It literally did not come out of the diagonal for hours at a time.

Great to meet the crowd and be able to just have a chat while lying back, looking up.

[scagman]

I too want to thank Ken for a good night. It was good to put some faces/voices to the names on here, but as Ken(niko13) I didnt get down there till after dark either. Also like to thank everyone for letting me have a look thru their equipment. I had some good views thru some nice equipment. The only problem with looking thru bigger scopes than your own is that now I want one too,(or three or four).

[danielsun]

:lol: Well I finally magically re-appeared :lol: and what a great night it was!!
I'm still delirious from lack of sleep but boy did we have a laugh. Especially making the timelapse video of the night here. http://youtu.be/c7pYWsU81MM
It was great to meet Mish, Ken (nico13), John and many others, as well as catching up with the usual gang.:thumbsup:
Thanks for a top night Ken and can't wait to do it all again.:):thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[ballaratdragons]

That was a fantastic club night. :P

Great views, great people and far too many laughs :rofl:

Pity some folk had to leave (and some sleep), as Daniels video shows, it cleared up again to a magic sky about 3am :thumbsup:

Once daylight came we kept going, looking at Mars and Saturn (so much more detail in the daylight) and an easy splitting of Rigal Kentaurus.
Daylight stars and planet observations are fantastic. I encourage people to try it.

It was good to have some new visitors turn up. Especially considering the distances some of them came just for a club night!

Mish just laid back most of the night on a Tarp doing the Meteor and Satellite watch, and taking Milky Way widefields, Jen just trotted around making us laugh, Jake and Drew watched Two and a Half Men DVD's in the Clubroom most of the night :lol:
ByronPaul had both his scopes going, so while one was imaging we were ogling through the other.

Too many funny points, like me splitting my toe right open, Martin following me in the tripping game, observing terrific detail in a Dob with a completely filthy and corroded 12" mirror (see, no need to worry about cleaning those mirrors folks :lol: ), but fortunately Malcolm had a Clean version :lol:
The Generator running out of fuel halfway through the night, Martin unplugging a power cable to pack it away not knowing it was Daniels only source of power to his camera (half way through an image) etc etc :lol:

Daniel, top work on the video :clap:

See you all hopefully for next month's SVAA Club night February 24th :thumbsup:

Thanks to the club members that came and the other Committee members Martin and Angus for the quick meeting we rushed through so we could get out there and look at the sky instead of paperwork :lol:
The way it should be :)

P.S. Thanks Paul for syphoning the extra petrol out of your car so everyone could keep going :thumbsup:
Just don't breathe near any naked flames for at least 24 hours :rofl:

[barx1963]

Nice one Danielsun!

[barx1963]

Having had a bit more rest, Iwould like to make some additional comments.
I think we in Vic have slot to thank Ken and the crew at SVAA for. Here is a dark sky site within fairly easy reach of Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat (and luckily for me Colac!) that welcomes all comers to their club nights, has 2 of the best astronomer camps each year. You can join the association for $25 a year and get access to the observing field year round. It is all relaxed, easy going and fun, just turn up, plonked down your scope and enjoy the skies!

long may it continue.

Malcolm

[The_bluester]

And thank you Malcolm for the loan of the 34mm ep, it allowed me to see how much wider true field could be had from my scope, the views of M42 and the sculptor galaxy were really much improved over my lowest power ep.

[barx1963]

No worries Paul. That ep is not available any longer, but they are a clone of the Panoptic, so if you wanted to go wide, the Pan is a great option.

Malcolm

[erick]

There are some stills in that timelapse I just have to see. Perhaps you can feed them to us slowly, Daniel, and keep us chuckling!

Glad to see all having the usual good time. :)

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: yes Eric, there are some very weird stills in there :P

Notice how we looked after the 'Eric Kingston Observing Slab' :thumbsup:
but I tripped over your bricks and split my toe open (quite badly actually) :(

:lol:

[scagman]

Hi Daniel,

This is a question coming from a total novice, but in the still photo you posted there are light trails, I'm asuming left by people wondering around with their little lights on, but how come the people carring the lights aren't captured in the image leaving a big black splodge across the image. Looks to me like the lights are flying around on their own.

[Nico13]

I think I can help with that one,
It's due to not enough reflected light on the people themselves, mostly in darker clothes and not standing still for long enough to be captured.
You do see them in some frames where they were standing still for long enough to be captured from the available light and when a light was shone on them.

By the way Daniel great timelapse there and Ken sorry to hear you knocked your toe open so badly,:mad2: I did see a couple of people trip on those bricks

Nico (Ken)

[scagman]

Thanks Nico(Ken) for that. Makes sense now.

[traveller]

Sounds like everyone had fun :thumbsup:
Ken, can book the same weather (minus the clouds at 2am) for The
March camp :lol:
Bo

[danielsun]

Thanks guys glad you liked it. Yeah, it was a total crack up doing that. We had a ball.
Eric, I originally did the timelapse at std 1/24 sec but slowed it right down to 1/12 sec but still seems a little quick. There sure are some creative frames in there so I will have a seek a few out. ;)

Hey Ken, I sure hope your toe is o.k. That looked painful!
Hope Jen, Mish, Marty and everyone else got back ok.
Some did travel quite far to get there.

[erick]

My bricks? If they ever were, I donated them to the Club, so please claim on the club insurance. I admit no liability :D

No-one seemed to be using the in-slab power cable - that would have taken the bricks out of the picture?

I really miss that slab :sadeyes: It was exactly the dimensions I needed to operate on, and with power coming up under the scope - brilliant! I could observe for ages without getting off my wheelie chair.

[ballaratdragons]

It's quite funny actually.
After an awkward night a few weeks back of not be able to see the edge of the slabs with Logan (logiberra) here, (we both tripped on the slab, and fell off it too) I painted a white line around the edge of all the concrete sections (you can see the edge lines in Daniels pic HERE (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108292) ) but didn't think to paint the bricks (the ones off the slab at the corner). They are the ones I tripped on :lol:
The only bit I didn't mark! :P

[byronpaul]

Hi all,

thanks for a great night. After the poor weather from last camp, the sky was great for all but a few hours mid morning ...... but once it cleared it was true Snake Valley!!!!!! The clouds gave the crew some time to kick back and become movie stars in Daniel's timelapse. A few laughs from all here .... especially trying to find Martin's glasses in the grass, not once but twice after he dropped them whilst doing his version on the Lombarda or what every it was he was doing.

Had my first all nighter!!!! I usually wrap up around 3am but once the sky clear it was just too good to miss.

And a big that's to JohnG from last SV Camp. I finally got a chance to put his drift alignment technique to work and could not believe how easy it is once it all makes sense. Had tried this a few times at home with absolutely no success. There were either trees, houses, clouds or my lack on understanding in the way of getting polar aligned. But with clear skys horizon to horizon, and a few tips from Martin, Ken and Daniel I accomplished it:jump2:

Massive thanks to Martin for making all of technical imaging stuff come together. Your help on the night was great. I can't believe how good some of the images are that I took. All of the dabbling from the past year or so has been far exceeded by what I accomplished on the night.

Loved the idea of having the 2 scopes set-up. Was able to do visual whilst my images were being taken.

Big thanks to Ken and his boys for their usual hospitality and to all those that came along on the night. Having the clubroom there was excellent .... just a few steps to grab a coffee or have a twinckle ....

Drive home was a challenge after being up all night. Stopped a few times for a quick break, but made it home in one piece.

Good to meet a few new people, and catch-up with the usual ones.

Can't wait for March Camp.

[mill]

As usual it was a great night with great company and lots of fun :thumbsup:
Met new people and the usual bunch of nutters :rofl:
The clouds brought the craziness out of people and the YouTube time lapse grasshopper made shows it all (luckily it is almost impossible to recognize who the crazies were).
A big thank you to everyone who showed up and i hope you all come again, either to the meetings or camps :thanx:

[mishku]

Oh, I had the best time EVER at SV on Friday! Thankyou so very much to Ken and the SVAA for providing the facilities which allowed me to visit, and a very big thanks to Jen and Drew for being such awesome road trip buddies!

Had a fabulous time, and that spectacular Milky Way was a sight for sore city eyes - Ken was right, I spent more than my fair share of time just lying on the ground, looking up and taking widefields. Had lots of fun taking startrail images (thanks for the tips, Danielsun!!) until Marty decided I needed an image of the rosette nebula, but it was fine, because I got my revenge :D (there will be a monthly payment required for me NOT to release that photo, Marty!) Sorry if I ruined your images with my revenge, Paul! :)

The boys (Ken and Marty) were EXTREMELY entertaining while they tried to ... enhance Danielsun's timelapse, and as we all keep saying ad nauseum, sometimes those clouded-over times can be the funniest!

Very nice to see some of the regulars, and to meet some new faces/voices. Look forward to seeing you all at next camp! Ken, hope your toe is on the mend, and that Cheryl didn't get mad at you for traipsing blood all through the house!

.... Is it March yet???????? :party:

[Cloudyagain]

Sorry I didn't make it on Friday night, couldn't get anyone to do on call for me :(

Sounds like everyone had a real hoot. Martin, from what I think I can see in that video your shoulder must be on the improve;)

Hope to see everyone again soon,

Neale.

[danielsun]

Ok guys, I have redone the video at a much slower speed.
BTW all credit to this... um....interesting and creative video must go to Ken and Martin though Jen, Mishku, and myself helped with some minor madness.:lol:

http://youtu.be/NdvNWg8IQu0


Eric, here are a few stills from it and we certainly missed you there.
Neale, look forward to catching up with you at the next one.

[danielsun]

And a few more.
I like pic no 3 here with the six Kens. I mean one ken is bad enough:D:lol: but the effect was clever.

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: excellent Daniel!

Where's the POO one? :P :rofl:

[danielsun]

Doh!! of course!!:D:lol:

[ballaratdragons]

:rofl:

[mill]

That was not Ken :), that was "The six monkeys" a follow up from"The twelve monkeys" :rofl::rofl:
And pic 5 in the second set was me as Casper the cunning ghost :scared::scared::nerd:
A nice set of shots there Daniel :thanx:

[ballaratdragons]

What is even funnier is that the sky cleared up and we were mucking around so much that we didn't notice it for quite a while :rofl:

Watch Daniels video and you can see when the sky clears up, and yet we keep on goofing off oblivious :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdvNWg8IQu0&feature=youtu.be

[erick]

Thanks Daniel. What a bunch of silly buggers! :D

[niko]

you crazy kids! :rofl:

I'll definitely make the next one as I love a time lapse spolier!

niko

[ballaratdragons]

We did actually do some Astronomy during the night.
It may not sound like it, or even look like it, but quite a lot of visual observing and some imaging was achieved :lol:

[Jen]

Buahahahahhahahahha :rofl::rofl::rofl: i had to watch that timelapse about 5 times hehehe the funniest part is seeing the sky clear up and we didnt even notice due to being too busy skipping around all over the field with torches hahahahaha:rofl::rofl:

Once again Snake Valley did not dissapoint all though all i set up was a tripod for my camera and that was as far as i got :lol: was too busy looking through other scopes and meeting new peeps and having a good catch up with the regulars :thumbsup:

I had a great time with only an hour sleep :P but Mish kept me awake chin wagging all the way back home ;) thanks Mish :thumbsup:

Thanks again Ken and the SVAA i wish i lived much closer as i would never miss these nights cheers :D

IS IT MARCH YET :question:

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: not yet, but it's only 23 more nights until the next Club night :thumbsup:

then only about another 29 nights after that until March camp :lol: