Just a quick note from me, I'm still on the road and won't be back on line seriously until the 21st, I had a ball, my lack of exerience and preparation did nothing to dull the experience. Fantastic, to meet (and reacquaint) with some of the IISers and others, Dave (h0ughy) was a lot quieter than his on site persona, [1ponders] should be renamed [1teaches](thanks for all the tips Paul). JJJ was jjjust as I imagined... warm and friendly, I recognised Gargoyle Steve from his Avatar. Ron (Astroron) was like an old friend from the first instance. drmorbius looks just as his name would suggest. Then there's Dennis....You can't miss Dennis, larger than life, almost as though he's popping out of another dimension, his commentary at the counterweight tossing was brilliant. Thanks to Peter and the others with the big dobs who gave us a glimpse of what it's like to have a 20- 30 inch monster. I wish I had more time to meet people, the 3 days went so quickly. Took a little while to settle in, particularly as HRH Liz felt a little uncomfortable at first with a crowd of strangers. On the first night, a stranger (John Smith) wandered up in the dark and started to chat, a bit like a friendly moth, flitting from scope to scope in the darkness, I suspect many at Astrofest met him. John Smith, a likely name you say. I shared a class at Launceston matriculation college with a John Smith in 1969, he was then a mature age student, the exact same fella... what a small world it is, we had a laugh and exchanged quite a few stories. I have some pics, nowhere near enough, I'll post them when I get back home.
Thanks to Anne-Louise (earthlight) and Tony (Firstlight) (did i see a couple of small flashlights there as well...) and the rest of the committee for organising such a great event and to Donna Burton and Fred Watson for sharing their experiences with us.
It was mentioned that Astrofest is going for 10 days next year, I think I'll be there for all of them.
