south pacific star party report

[qld]

hello photon chasers, the SPSP was once again a great success ,three great clear nights !!!lots of big stuff on exhibition and great astro images in the comp,but all congratulations go to Alex Massey(Mental) for winning both catergories in the inaugural Scott Mellish Astro-sketching competition !!well done done Alex
the sketching event was well received by all who attended and the mood for sketching took a new turn with a new section being opened up to the children who attended the star party,great prizes ..and everone had a top time.....well done ASNSW
qld

[multiweb]

It was great despite the gloomy weather forecast. The nights were amazing. Three in a row is unheard of especially at a star party. Great speakers too. The talks were really interesting. Had a great time. :thumbsup:

[leon]

Sounds good guys, I have been twice myself earlier in the piece and they do have some awesome skis, nice going, three in a row hmmm.

Leon

[gary]

What was the more remarkable with regards the weather was that Ilford was fog free.
By comparison, great parts of Sydney, the Blue Mountains and some areas as close as
12 km away from Ilford experienced fog.

Dew was a problem at times but the clear skies were welcome indeed.

The level, volume and scope of contributions to this year's astrophotography
competition was extraordinary.

Fabulous to catch up with everyone again and to meet some new people too!

Great to spend some time with Tony, Lach, Mai, Alan, Renata, Rob and
his wife Renée on the 18" Obsession.

Our team, "Google, Wildcard, 3RF" also managed to get the highest score
on the Saturday night trivia competition. The "Google" in the name does not
mean we used Google to get the answers! They all came out of our heads.
One of our team members, Rob, is one of the world's most eminent computer
scientists and happens to work at Google. :lol:

[daine042]

the fog was really bad in Singleton Saturday morning wish i could have made it was planning on heading out there but had to work :(

[Satchmo]

I had two fantastic nights observing in mild conditions. Days were sunny - shorts and t-shirt weather. A little worse for wear after getting to bed at 4am two nights running.

Spent much time with the late Scott Mellish's superb 22" F5 Dobsonian kitted out with Argo Navis and Servo Cat, which ASNSW core observers had set up for the first time since Scott passed away.

It was great to look over the observing field and see all the red LED lighting and a positive excited hum of voices as people shared experience under a spectacular starry sky. This is what star parties are all about.

One particular highlight were the daytime views of a massive 3 dimensional Solar prominance through binoviewer equipped single and double stacked Lunt 80mm Ha solar telescopes owned by Ted and Geoff.

As usual the ASNSW ran the event like a well oiled machine. Great talks , great company, and blessed with superb viewing. The open air kitchen is a great place to warm in front of superb flued open fire with a glass of wine and conversation. The seeing conditions were generally good too. At 2am Sunday morning I 'd say I had my best ever view of Saturn through the Mellish 22" with a rock steady image.

Darwin'ites Allen Cairncross and Clayton Cairns traveled a whopping 4000km by road with their 20" and 22" 'scopes to attend SPSP !

I look forward to attending my 21st SPSP again next year.

[gary]

Hi Mark,

I had an opportunity to chat with Clay and Allen and indeed it was a fabulous
effort on their part to make the trip. Whilst wandering around the field during the
day, I had a quick look at Allen's home-built Dob and was delighted to later witness
it win an award in the telescope making competition.

With regards the weather again, I think we were all delighted to find how relatively
mild the temperatures were compared to the same time of the year on most
other years.

When the skies were as good as what they were, it always is a buzz if you have
gone into the meeting hall for a coffee break to then walk back outside and look
up again. The sky is so magnificent that no matter how many times you have
seen it, it is like seeing it for the first time.

[Irish stargazer]

Only managed to get there for the Saturday but what a night it was. Darkest skies I have seen for a long time. Worth the 3 hour trip.

[multiweb]

Here's a couple of small shots from the zillions of subs I got. Still doing videos and trails.

These were taken at the house facing S/SE Thursday night and early Friday morning. The milkyway shot is from approx 11:30pm before it fogged up and cleared again at 1:00am so all the red is all the imagers scrambling around covering their gear from the dew.

It got so wet the house battery shorted out and tripped at 4:45am when my timelapse got rudely interrupted.

Here's the first timelapse (https://vimeo.com/40984927)from Thursday arvo to Friday morning.

[anthony.tony]

Hello Has anybody got any Figures on the Number of people That attended the event - Tony.

[multiweb]

I heard there were about 230 on the ground as of Saturday morning. I don't know the final figure.

[acairnx]

Hi all,
This was the first SPSP that either Clayton or I have attended. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. The interaction between the attendees was great and I have learned a thing or two.
I was extremely happy to win the award for my 22" folded Newtonian "Climacophobia". I have been building telescopes for 60 years and this is the first time I have won an award. Maybe it will inspire some more people who aren't so keen on climbing up ladders.
At this stage Clayton and myself plan on returning next year but probably by air.

Regards to all, Alan.