Couldn't agree more on the weather... I've had a brand new bino-viewer to try for months and months with no joy... Really looking forward to Vic South, great dark site.
Hi, is this the Snake Valley start party or is ther another one in Vic-South?
Are there any details available?
I cannot go to Snake Valley but if the Vic-South is around Melbourne I would look into it.
Regards,
Peter
Night 1: A crappy forecast gave way to a still, not too cold evening with decent seeing. Heaps of locals here for the public viewing which is always good fun and more night than most people could handle. I bailed at about 1:30am with a clear sky and Orion etc starting to get quite nicely up into the sky. It's a fun time of year with lots of great stuff to see.
Night 2: Windy, lumpy clouds early and then solid clouds plus a gale drove everyone off the field like lemmings (all bobbing around with their red lights)... A mate of mine had come to visit, so we went back out later when it cleared a little but gave up quickly in the wind. Oh well ... I pity the folks who were in tent city last night - it's still howling this morning.
Forecast is to clear for 2 brilliant nights from here, hopefully the wind drops. Really beautiful location for a star party ... great field setup, great accom and facilities - food and so-on all sorted and a great little bar of an evening !
Night 3: Beautiful ... got pretty cold in the end but prefect observing conditions - 3/5 seeing. No light pollution, a clean horizon and little haze made for nice observing of many far north objects that are normally more of a challenge... Only the cold drive us all inside in the end.
Night 4: Another clear night, very still so more dew than night 3. I had to bail out at around 1:30am when the field was still a buzz with observers. It was nice to see some new faces even for the final night.
I can't recommend this event enough for future editions - great observing field, decent food, good company and great a comm options.
For the nerds - I had SQM readings of 21.8+ every night once Venus buggered off... about 21.7 before that. I observed a number of mag 13 and 14 galaxies in my 16" ... I'm calling that pretty good conditions !
Hopefully NO rain like last time or I'll be washed out! 
