[Octane (Humayun)]

That was easily the best camp I've been to. I've never been so productive at an astro camp before guaged purely by the fact that I saw 3 sunrises out of 4 days! I spent so much time under the sun during the day that I've come home with a bit of a tan, lol.

The company was wonderful with everyone willing to help each other out. It was great to meet and hang with people I knew and to make new friends.

I was mesmerised by Shane Gilbert's guitar playing during the entertainment session and could quite easily have sat their and watched him play well into the dark!

I'm still baffled by two things, though:

1. the bizarre bright (magnitude -1 to -2?) object (which I initially thought was the ISS) sailing/undulating across the early morning sky, and;
2. the stationary flashing light(s) amongst the star field. I can only think that they're geostationary satellites. Otherwise, I, for one, welcome our new overlords.

The drive home was uneventful, but, quite long. Still, pleasant, though. I saw a nice sight as I was heading towards Bacchus Marsh (I think it was). On the fairly steep decline, I saw an enormous eagle hovering/soaring/flying and being attacked by some other kind of black-coloured birds. I thought they may have been crows at first, but, they just seemed like too many. Maybe they were contesting the eagle on some food? As I got towards Gundagai I witnessed an amazing sunset. There was a bit of haze in the atmosphere and the light was pink! Yes, pink! I thought many times about pulling over and getting the camera out but decided against it. There was no-one else on the road and so the rest of the trip home was just overtaking trucks. I think it took 9 hours to get home.

Thank you, Ken, and everyone else for making it a wonderful camp. If I have any leave left over in November, I'll be there.

H