[Argonavis (William)]

I would first like to thank Steve and Randall and the rest of the organising committee for their hard work and dedication to making this astrocamp a success. Everything was superbly organised. On the drive up I meet Steve and Randall who were putting up direction signs, such is their attention to detail. The direction signs from Jimna were needed, as the area is a confusion of tracks and turnoffs that can easily confuse. I know.

I arrived about 5 which did not leave me a lot of time to set up before dark. Friday night was clear with a few clouds coming and going. Unfortunately with both increasing cloud and the seeing deteoriated during the night was such that I gave it away by 12. I checked the sky again at 5am at it was crystal clear.

Saturday dawned fine and the morning saw most of the group go for a 3 hour walk, returning all hot and sweaty. The sensible ones relaxed in the shade.

Saturday night the seeing was much better, but still dogged by clouds. C/2007W1 Boattini was bright and obvious and with a hint of a faint tail to the SE.

Unfortunately I had a power problem (flat battery) early in the night that put me mostly out of action. Time to check out Steve's binocular chair, which is a very cool piece of kit.

This time of year is ideal, as the temperatures are pleasant, the weather usually co-operative and the southern milky way still visible and rising. These nights are a chance to view both the objects in the Orion arm and southern milky way, as well as the Sagittarius arm and the centre of the Galaxy, which rises later in the evening.

As an aside, I was asked about the visibility of stars in M31. My understanding is that through most amateur scopes individual stars in M31 would not be visible, although with big scopes many of the globulars in M31 and M33 can be seen. However, Don Pensack (a US amateur visual observer) claims that the brightest stars in M31 are luminous blue supergiant stars between magnitude 16.5 and 17, in the NGC206 star cloud. This should make them visual telescopically. He claims to have seen at least one or two of these stars in a 12.5".

The facilities at the Barambah EEC are first rate, with a full commercial kitchen, power, separate bunk houses and well maintained grounds. The centre itself was lit up with lots of red lights, whatever the neighbours would be thinking. There was about 11 on the Friday night, and a few more on Saturday night. The facilities are ideal, as the observing field is well away from the centre itself, and is family friendly. Dr Who on the big screen projector on Sunday appeared to be a hit, as was ping pong.

I am giving it 5 stars, and I am looking forward to the next one, hopefully in September/October.