[Greg Bryant]

Mike,

A Central Coast Star Party sounds great. Its proximity to the population bases of Sydney, Newcastle, and the Central Coast make it very appealing (proximity to the Hunter Valley for day trips is also nice...).

Timing: these events need plenty of advance publicity if you want to attract attendees beyond the IceInSpace community. For example, if you were planning to hold one in early October over the Long Weekend this year, we'd certainly advertise it in the October issue of Australian Sky & Telescope (we're at the printers in under a fortnight), but it doesn't come out until early September, so the broad amateur community would only get a few weeks notice.

Should it be held at the time another major star party is on? Ideally not - but then, even if it was one month earlier/later, how many people are going to undertake Star Party trips twice in 4 weeks? (OK...some of you might!)

Such an event could start off as a two-nighter (Friday and Saturday) and grow as its popularity (and number of volunteers) increases.

I note that you're holding monthly observing nights at Kulnura (and I'll get there one month). That's very much how the South Pacific Star Party began. The ASNSW had held monthly observing weekends there since 1987. In 1991, a group of us decided to launch the South Pacific Star Party. We had a 2 year planning period because of the circumstances in which the Star Party came about, but you really only need about 1/10th of that time to kick off a preliminary event.