[okiscopey (Mike)]

As a newbie, it was great to meet some IIS people in person and put faces to names (or voices, in the case of those who arrived after dark). No doubt about it, the couple of dozen who attended were the most friendly and relaxed bunch I'd ever hope to meet under any circumstances.

The attached photos show the general idea for anyone who hasn't been to the Kulnura site or to this sort of get-together. There are no captions in case I get names and scope details wrong!

I was expecting a darker sky, but the site isn't far from the Central Coast and Sydney, and residual astro twilight and humidity in the air (apparently) adds to it. Despite this, it's a thousand time better than Sydney, and anyone who had spent their whole their life in a city would have to describe it as 'fantastic'. The seeing was pretty good too - I could use the 9mm in my ETX125 (x211) to better effect on Saturn than ever before.

You learn so much from those who've had lots of practical experience. I had to write down some of it as notes to back up my faulty memory. The first note reads: "bring a second pen in case the first one runs out".

It seems the observing field had been restricted in size from previous occasions (it's a paint-ball range during the day), resulting in the trees looming a bit larger. However, I don't think anyone found this to be a problem. The biggest drawback was non-astronomical - the area's ferocious ants took big chunks out of our ankles. Note number two: add Aerogard to kit.

'Stunning' is the word that can only be used to describe the view through the 18-inch Obsession, the 12-inch binocular telescope, the LX200R, the binoviewers on the ED80, and others. The three-dimensionality of Omega Centauri in the 12-in 'bino tel' just had to be seen to be believed. There was no doubt about it - the stars on our side of the globular definitely looked closer than those in the middle! Psychological I know, but still a remarkable effect.

No pictures of the bino-tel unfortunately, as it was set up after dark. Also, didn't manage a look through Sir Iceman's scope ... saw it in the back of his car when he arrived, then I took too long with the other devices. Next time I saw it, it was back in the car ready for the trip home!

The spectacular views through the big scopes wasn't the reason I packed up my now rather small-looking ETX125 early at 1am - it was absolutely dripping with dew, making further observations problematic.

All in all, a great night with friendly and knowledgeable people under a spectacular, slow-motion planetarium show. Many, many thanks to all who gave their time and experience to the newcomers.

And ... oh yes, my last note reads: "buy a dew heater and 12V hair dryer!"