Well we've managed to borrow some Educationa Dept. acceess for a few minutes to send this update.
We've seen 2 night skies here so far, and that's 2 nights totally free of clouds!~
I am amazed again at just how dark it is here, and those who hadn't seen this sky before have been blown away by it. The detail in the dark lane running right across the sky through the body of the Milky Way is incredible ... and that was before the afterglow of sunset had even faded ffrom the sky - I kid you not.
We had a pretty good viewing of the Hubble last night, and we've been enjoying a smattering of meteors both nights. Jupiter has been so bright that it was actually bothering someone last night.
Alex and Robin have themselves all set up and were imaging away last night, and are busily processing some as I type this.
Tonight is the big night, everyone should be here by then and it will be great to meet and socialise some new friends. We still have lots of room on the observing field (it is a big field after all) and beds to spare, so if anyone is still interested grab your sleeping bags / clothes / food / astro gear and head up!
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 27-09-2008 at 11:00 AM.
Here's a quick smattering of some pics I've taken this morning, hurriedly resized for web consumption....... note the 2 16" scopes in the first image, one "Obsession" style, one 16" Lightbridge with a completely remanufactured rocker box. The 3rd 16", the solid tube Meade Starfinder, has just arrived while I've uploaded these pics.
I’m so glad you’ve all had great observing weather and good company for the camp – it sounds lovely indeed. Unfortunately, family sickness has prevented us attending but one day, I’m sure we’ll make it.
Have a great time and thanks for posting the photos – it looks like a beautiful place.
I got back to real life yesterday afternoon.. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed my time at barambah, And can safely say its HEAVEN from an imagers perspective... The skies were so dark and clear, Robin was able to spot NGC253 in his 50mm finder scope... I spotted the helix quite easily through mine...
Well it's early Friday morning, and this is my first chance to post here again since getting home late Wednesday afternoon.
Yep, we did very well weather wise - I was at Barambah for a total of 6 nights, the first 4 were literally 100% cloudless and the seeing was great, the 5th night (Monday) gave us something I couldn't have hoped for, the transparency and seeing were unbelievable! I'm not sure I've ever seen a night that good since I bought my first scope.
Sadly things deteoriated a bit later in the night when some high altitude moisture made it's presence known. Having said that, later on I was still able to positively identify and observe the asteroids Vesta (no challenge at mag 7), Pallas (still no challenge, slightly less bright), Ariadne (interesting at aroung mag 10) and eventually Juno.
The final night there was only 3 of us left: AstroRon, Randall aka Dr Morbius, and myself, and we had some drifting cloud patches around. Seeing came and went, but I had the brightest views of the Flame Nebula that I've ever seen in my 12", and for the first time I could see touches of pink in the wings of M42. All in all amazing viewing, and 6 nights of it!
Special thanks to Jakob for making the effort to attend as he is officially our furtherest travelled visitor, having travelled up from Sydney prior to the Camp. It was great to met you Jakob, just as it was great to meet a number of new faces : Robin, Barry, Noela, Colin, Peter & Tony, Wayne.
Old friends who made it to Barambah included Ron, Maureen, Terry, John, Alex, Jeanette and her son Tom, Shaun & his son Michael, Mike and Chris and Randall and his 2 sons Brendan and Jarrod!
(There's a pattern forming here! )
There's much more to tell, but I need to get some sleep - I do however want to thank everyone who came along to make the Barambah Dark Sky Camp what it was. We're not a huge Camp, and we probably never will be, but the Dark SKy Camp is all about friendship, having a great time during the day, and fantastic observing at night, and we had all of that in droves! A VERY large "Thank You" also to Randall, who took a large piece of the weight off my shoulders this time around by handling all the Registrar duties prior to Camp, and to Ron and Randall and John for being there to help with the set up and finishing up. Great stuff guys!!
Just a reminder for those who were imaging, we would love to be able to highlight some of your images on the Camp website (thanks Robin for already showcasing some of your great work!) so let us know what you've got that you'd be willing to share. (Jeanette we'd love to see your Horsehead image, John I am especially keen to see how your widefields came out, and I know Alex and Mike & Chris must have something special to share as well.)
I'll jump down now, I hope more of you who attended will share your experiences and stories from Barambah with us here.
Looking forward to seeing you all again next time - we'll start planning in the next week or 2, as soon as we come down from this camp!
Here's a couple of Photos to start with.
I have heaps of the goanna but will post the "best of" later.
Back row
Jakob, Robin, Peter, Terry, Tony, Alex, I can't remember off hand this gentlemans name, Shaun, Randal, Michael, Steve, John.
Front row
Brendan, Jarrod, Jeanette, Tom, Ron, Maureen and Noela
The photo was taken on the Saturday, more people turned up on Sunday and missed out on the group photo.
Nice group shot Jeanette. Any chance of some names to faces. There are a few people there I recognise and its good to see Randall with some hair again.
Nice group shot Jeanette. Any chance of some names to faces. There are a few people there I recognise and its good to see Randall with some hair again.
LOL and i notice Ron's hair is long as well. I havent seen some of those faces for a while.
It was a shame that you had to drop out at the last minute Les, would have been good to meet you face to face. Next time perhaps, if we don't meet up at one of Ron's gatherings first.
It would have been great to catch up with you again Dennis too, shame you couldn't make it. I know you'll make it up one day though, and we'll always have a spot for you. I hope the family is either fully recovered now or at least on the mend. Hopefully we'll get Paul along at the same time....
Jeanette the unnamed gent in the back row was Barry, a very amicable bloke who, along with his partner in crime Terry, made a pair of fun loving rogues that you had to keep your eyes on.
Alan our plan has been to run 2 camps a year, Spring and Autumn, so we can avoid the cold winter nights and the really hot summer days, and also avoid clashing with any other events up this way.
(We have asked if they can install a pool at Barambah for us to cool off during the day .... no such luck so far.... )
As you can see we get awesome skies without having to freeze our buns off in Winter, although I was surprised that the first few nights the obs field got down to around 4° anyway. The imaging guys up near the buildings tell us it was around 3-4° warmer there at any given time.
We will be starting planing for the next camp soon and will announce dates as soon as we have them, but it will most likely be new moon either next March or April (maybe May?) depending on school holiday dates, etc. We'd love to see you make it up sometime, all the better if you can drag h0ughy along with you.
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 03-10-2008 at 02:33 PM.
Enjoy your time Steve, we expect plenty more pics (including that zero gravity recliner setup). 
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