[Hitchhiker]

My 2c from the Lostock camp.

Thanks Mike, Houghy and all the other organisers for a great Astrocamp. The Gresford Fire Brigade boys and girls did a great job of feeding us in the evenings while Mike Boggan educated our palates with his sausages at lunchtime (Mike has spoiled us now - no other sausages can ever live up to his standard). Special thanks to myAstroShop for sponsoring the Vixen LV 6mm eyepiece I was lucky enough to win in the Lucky Door raffle - thanks not only for supporting the Astrocamp and IIS but for your ongoing support of the wider Amateur Astronomy community.

This was my first astrocamp even though I've been into astronomy (and had a telescope) for over 20 years. Not only did I learn heaps but I met some great people. Here's a bit of a detailed description of my three days so that those who haven't experienced an astrocamp can get a feel for the goings on.

On Day 1, I set up my gear near to Chris (33South) and Vincent (sorry Vincent, don't know your IIS name). First plus from the camp was when I was discussing mounting my DSI to my 'scope with 33South - I wanted to use my electric focusser with my DSI but didn't have the right adapter. Out comes the adapter from Chris's toolbox - 'this is what you need'. Second learning was when I looked in Chris' eyepiece case and saw all his gear neatly nestled in tidy little niches in 'pluckable' foam (I'd read about this stuff on IIS, but until I'd actually seen it and touched it I didn't realise what a great solution this is) The first night I just observed visually with a list of objects I had generated before the camp. I wanted to really observe a smaller number of objects by spending more time with each object and by sketching. The transparency was great - just right for seeing some faint fuzzies. Finished up by observing Saturn at 250x - lashings of detail observed including the Cassini Division, the C ring, bands on the disk and dim moons nicely arrayed around the ringed one - there was more detail than I could sketch or describe. Finished up at about 2:30 am as I thought I'd better pace myself over the whole three nights.

Observing on night 2 started with some imaging with my DSI - thanks 33South for lending me your adaptor. My first time out with my DSI mounted properly. Imaged 47 Tuc, Tarantula, and M42 - all badly! - but my intention was to test that my new F3.3 reducer and DSI worked properly together. I was a bit lazy with my focus and a little bit of experimenting will be needed to get the colour right but I was happy with the result (if I converted to grayscale and reduced the images by 50%!!). The rest of the night was a more collaborative effort for Vincent, 33South and myself. We had a look at various objects in each scope - some were a little easier to find in my LX200GPS eg NGC 1566 (Spanish Dancer) and NGC 1365 (Fornax barred spiral) because of the GoTo, but some objects were better observed in an 8" Dob with a wider field eg Leo Triplet where we could get all the galaxies in one FOV where I could only get two. For some objects, it was just interesting to compare views in each telescope eg Eskimo Nebula. This was really enjoyable and time just flew. Again I finished off the evening's observing with Saturn. Again, finished up about 2:30 am.

On night 3, I was determined to check out some other scopes, especially the big Dobs. I had a look through Alan Meehan's 10" Schmidt Newtonian and really enjoyed the crisp wide field but the 20" was calling me! Got some spectacular views through Andrew Murrels 20". Some objects observed included the usual suspects - 47 Tuc, Eta Carinae, Omega Centauri, NGC 5128 plus some more obscure ones like NGC 1566, NGC 1365, and Thor's Helmet. I've got to hand it to Andrew, he is a great guide to the sky. And no, Mike, I will not be getting rid of my SCT and buying a Dob anytime soon! Then headed back to my own scope for a look at a couple of objects including another nice triplet of galaxies in Leo around M105. Finished up again on Saturn but the seeing was not as good as the previous two nights. I tried my new 6mm eyepiece on Saturn but the seeing was nowhere near good enough to do it justice. Finished up a little earlier this night (about 1:00 am) as I thought it would be a good idea to go back to civilisation with a little more sleep under my belt!

The workshops during the day were very helpful - thanks to Leesa, tornado33, Itchy, Bird, and Gary for sharing your knowledge and experience. Not only did these people give up there time to tell us about there specialities but they were more than happy to answer any questions at any time during the camp.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the camp was going around and discussing different bits of gear with people, gear that they had bought or built themselves. During the day there was plenty to do - attending workshops, talking to other astronomers, and watching various images being processed. I must confess I didn't really know what I would be doing during the day at astrocamp, besides attending some workshops, but I found that there was always something to do or someone to talk to.
Once again, thanks to Mike, Houghy and all the organisers for a great camp - I'll definitely be back next year. Also, thanks to Mike and all the Moderators for all the fine work they do on the forum 365 days of the year - I, for one, really appreciate the work they do to make Ice In Space the great community that it is.