Queensland Astrofest 2012 - looking forward to this one

[OneCosmos]

Andrew, that was my thinking too but whilst the second one may look more unattractive it seems a shame not to reveal structure where it exists. This is not, by the way a finished processed image - I haven't yet applied curves or any saturation. I would like to alter the colour slightly too.

Chris

[mozzie]

great news about your computer chris :thumbsup::thumbsup:
don't want to go on about what has happened but i hope the police get involved as to deture any other thieft at any astro events within australia..

[DavidTrap]

Good to hear you laptop has been returned.

DT

[OneCosmos]

My laptop appears to be as it was - I don't think they re-installed it after all and both of my disks have been returned too, which really is great news. I only bought those disks a couple of weeks before and they costs a good $150 each and had my entire system backed up on them! I will travel to the Sunshine coast next week to collect.

In the interests of being fair - whilst there were two people at astrofest together I believe that only one of them actually took the laptop, possibly without the other person's knowledge - but that is only giving the benefit of the doubt - innocent until/unless proven guilty I suppose.

For me it will be the end of the matter but it is a lesson to us all and I'm sure it will mean the imposition of a little more security at Astrofest next year - a shame, but that is the way of the world these days.

Irrespective of the incident I had an absolutely glorious astrofest - I have so many great memories from this year and so much fun. Looking out of my 'warm room' with the door open at 01:00 as Scorpious was in full decent to the dark western horizon is a viewthat is etched in to my memory.

I have plenty of daytime shots of the field which I will post in due course.

Chris

[OneCosmos]

OK, I have re-processed M8 and M20 to produced the attached. I'm happier with it, but still think it is lacking something given that it is 10 hours of data.

Although I played with curves and saturation I didn't seem able to fundamentally change the colour in PI to get the nice purple David managed to get. Mine seems a little too red. Thoughts, good and bad welcome.

[OneCosmos]

Sorry this is better

[troypiggo]

Excellent news on the laptop. Best result all-round by the sounds.

Regarding your image processing questions, I reckon you'd be better off starting a specific thread in the appropriate part of the forum rather than the general AF thread here.

[firstlight]

Great to hear that that your laptop and disks have been recovered. In the 20 Astrofests that have been held I can only recall one other time that pilfering has occurred. It puts a dampener on the camp that we can do without, as I feel that the Queensland Astrofest reflects the relaxed and friendly attitude of Queenslanders in general.

Having said that pilfering is rare, Anne-Louise and I are somewhat amused and bemused that a section of one of the spreaders that was to support our tarp over "Casa de Surma-Hawes" was deemed to be needed elsewhere on the first morning of the camp. It has not been sighted since.:shrug:

[tornado33]

Good sunnage there mate, the other polarie shots look great too. Good to hear the weather was kind to you all.
Scott

[Louwai]

I was feeling the ghosts on Saturday night. Peter came & set up the 30" beside me on Saturday afternoon.
There I was just quietly checking my gear when my scope started to slew all by itself.... :eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:
It was slewing full speed & also heading up to Z. :shrug::shrug: :confused2::confused2::confused2:

I was crapping myself thinking that my electrics were in meltdown.

Turned out Peter's wireless remote was set at the same frequency as mine. So where ever he drove the 30", mine went as well. :help::help:

The controlls also worked the other way... So I got to drive the 30" :D:D:D:D

[Tandum]

Ohhh, Giant Binos :D

[h0ughy]

did you wait until he was on the ladder:P;) awesome views:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Just to let you know, I've started work on the Best of Fest Album. The first song "Meteorite" ( a duet with Dave and I) has now been uploaded to Youtube. It's rated M+ for profanity reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miKZON-d6_k&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okw93-ZEL3o&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFFT74UB-Lg&feature=youtu.be "Out of Alignment" A tearful rendition.
For more of these delightful ditties, just follow them on my Youtube channel. I'm adding more all the time now. :) I think we had 28 all up. LOL

[troypiggo]

Will the album be available for Christmas? Along with the usual Doug Walters, Tina Arena, David Campbell albums :)

[CometGuy]

Great stuff Houghy and jjj! I can see an appearance on "Australia's got Talent" in the future!

Terry

[strongmanmike]

:rofl: love'em :thumbsup:

Mike

[OneCosmos]

Fantastic stuff. What happend to "I've lost my settings oh ****"?

[Zubenel]

I too like the way this shot catches the dynamics of the Visual field. Good job :)

[h0ughy]

don't think there was too much talent around there Terry:rofl:

[jjjnettie]

Hopefully I'll get more uploaded this evening.
It's been pretty full on today. :)

[astroron]

No Threats to Lennon and MCcartny there :P
But funny all the same :lol::lol::lol:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

ok here are some happy snaps
Al Meehan
Tony Sampson
Linda McMahon
Tony And Anne Louise
not sure
linda and her hubby Chris
Al again

[h0ughy]

and a few more

Grady and JJJ
JJJ and Peter
Brendan in his natural environs
Peter, Grahame, Ron and greg
Terry Cuttle
my mount -
another view of the mount
An Escargo driver (know as Allan)

[h0ughy]

still more

Linda
a gathering of bods
Ron
JJj and groupies
Songify time with Chris and JJJ
the group
JJJ
Terry and Xavier

[h0ughy]

still more
Al Meehan
Andrew
Peter Marples hard at work
the eclipse talk
dobs
ron and dob
astrfest symbol
Pat pearl, Terry and Ron

[h0ughy]

and still more promise the last lot;)

gsathering around Peters 30"
Greg and crew
Xavier
Sarah Sweet and others
See Tony can count to 4
Al Grahame and Al
the dinner
the magpie that hung around

[jjjnettie]

:) You got some great pics there Dave.

[h0ughy]

oh forgot here is the first day
Grady and Al
and again
Chris Landman and Tony Samson
Grady
campsite
Tany with deadly weapon and Dianne
No idea
JJJ and Al

[h0ughy]

and this

[RB]

Great collection of portraits and candids from AF, Houghy !!!

:)

[h0ughy]

thanks;) - had it covered from start to finish:rofl:

[strongmanmike]

Looks like a rather attractive affair...attended by all super models too...many with alcamahol in toe :lol:

Mike

[acropolite]

I really think you should be there next year Mike if only to conquer in the counterweight tossing.

[strongmanmike]

Ha ha, actually due to all the heavy shoulder work in the past and more recent heavy mouse use, my right shoulder is tight and sore, so tossing something rather light would not be too spectacular (maybe a rotation technique ala discus could work :question:) ...however if it was who could press a 12"SCT and forks overhead as many times as possible in 60 sec, I might be in with a chance :D...just need to find someone to volunteer their 12" SCT :question: :P

Mike

[OneCosmos]

I finally managed to get around to uploading a few daytime photos

[OneCosmos]

...a few more

[OneCosmos]

Finally - some 'pretties'. That might look like the sun, but it is of course the moon around 05:00 midweek.

[acropolite]

Good to see the happy snaps, I reckon we'll manage to make it next year, HRH should be retired by then,

so......

when is next years Astrofest?

[h0ughy]

they haven't said yet?:help::question:

[spacezebra]

Hey david

Can you put names to faces? I do recognise some but not all.

Cheers Petra d.:D

[h0ughy]

well there is Al.....;)

[spacezebra]

Thanks... got that one :rolleyes:

[firstlight]

The last set of minutes I have (from July last year) say that the next Queensland Astrofest will be from Friday 2nd to 11th August.

My understanding is that the date was pencilled in when Anne-Louise was Registrar, I expect that this is current, but we will need a confirmation from committee member.

I will ask someone.

[firstlight]

Here are the dates for the following two Astrofests, subject to confirmation.


2014 – July Thu 17th - Sun 27th (New moon 26th)
2015 – August Thu 6th - Sun 16th (New moon 14th)

[OneCosmos]

But to confirm, 2013 will be 2nd -11th August - right? If so I'll get my holidays booked in now :)

[LyraMoonstarer]

Yes, 2-11 August 2013 are the confirmed dates.

Also:
18-27 July 2014 and
7-16 August 2015.

[OneCosmos]

Just to let everyone know that I now have my laptop and two USB disks back. The CF card reader was not with the returned items though and nor was a DVD of 24 left in the drive. If the cultprits are reading this - perhaps you could find those and return them to the Police:question:

Unfortunately they did re-install the laptop replacing my copy of Server 2008 R2 with all my data and Hyper-V images for work with a copy of Windows 7 Home. That is quite a headache really as I now have to waste time re-installing everything. I have backups of most things but not some of the work docs which were only on the laptop.:mad2:

It does mean though that I now have the circumpolar star trail photo I took on the Tuesday night back - the only copy was on the laptop. It is a picture therefore to be celebrated;)

The whole episode is sad and means we all have to be a little more cautious in dealing with people we don't know so well. Sad day.

Chris

[RB]

Very nice star trail Chris.

RB

[COSMOPARADISE]

That sure is a special photo Chris.

[h0ughy]

ok i have added some information Petra - my memory is not good:rofl:

[spacezebra]

Thanks David.

Cheers Petra d.

[peter_4059]

Great people pics everyone. Good to hear you got your stuff back Chris. That startrails image is excellent.

[OneCosmos]

Thanks Pete. Your photos on astrobin are astounding - really; love them. I also didn't know about astrobin so I will create my own profile there :)

[boardriderz]

Hi Everyone!

I haven't been on here for a while and not since Astrofest, But I have to send out a bit thank you to everyone there for putting on an awesome event. I also have to send out an even bigger thanks to everyone who spent so much time helping me get my set-up together, I didn't get as far along as I wanted, but I made it al whole lot farther than I would have myself. The time people spent was priceless to me setting up ASCOM and EQMOD to drive my Atlas EQ-G so that I can continue on my own. Special mentions must go to Anthony, Peter, Graham, Tony and Chris for either advice, software, installing software and hardware..... and probably others I cant remember.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos from my time there, but hopefully those aren't to far away! all I can say is bring on QLD AStrofest 2013 (as long as I'm still in the country)

Regards

Jimmy Barrett

[OneCosmos]

I still haven't managed to get around to processing yet, but after a very long night that had gone foggy I was saddened to see that conditions had finally got the better of David 'H0ughy' - he had thrown himself on to his mount in the ultimate sacrifice :)

[jjjnettie]

:) Classic shot

[h0ughy]

that was indeed a looong night - but if you remember chris the fog came in very late in the night - about 4.30am.

Kept the gear cool ;) when the sun rose;)