Border Stargaze 2011

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Arrived safely home 40mins ago after a 6 hour drive. Just finished unpacking.

THanks to all the ASAW crew for a fantastic first time at BSG. Great weather, great site, lots of things to do, all arounf a fantastic weekend.

Highlights for me
- locating and viewing my first Palomar object (Pal13)
- locating and viewing my first ESO Galaxies ( E240-10 and E240-11)
- showing Omega Cent to David Malin through my scope, apparently he had never seen it through a telescope before.
- having the chance to upgrade the EP collection
- run of clear weather, between BSG and home I have only missed one night since last Sunday!
- many other things that will come to mind over the next few days

Malcolm

[astro_nutt]

Just arrived home an hour ago, tired but still on a high!! A big big thank you to Dave and Petra, Brownie and co, and everyone else for doing a wonderful job. This year was my family's first and were amazed with everything!! They will be back next year!!!
Cheers!

[Paddy (Patrick)]

What a great BSG that was! Great people, great presenters, great skies, great venue, great food. It was so good to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. I learned heaps from the presenters and on the field with and from fellow observers. I really enjoyed an informal joint observing program with Malcolm, some deep sky philosophising over a 4" Tasco with Rob and some good laughs with Doug, John and Darren. So little sleep, so much fun.

Observing highlight was comet Garradd scraping by M71, but some good views of northern objects normally less than ideal from home were real delights. Stunning views of M27 and Veil nebula, bagging the Corona Borealis galaxy cluster - Abell 2065 - at 1 billion lights years, and Stefan's Quintet were more than a tad exciting.

Many thanks to the ASAW crew for putting on such a great event. No photos as there was no time to take any.

[Rob_K]

Back home now after a most enjoyable Saturday night at BSG. Top event, good guest speakers, activities etc. Full kudos to the organising team from ASAW, especially for the school's program that ran through the preceding week. Their outreach efforts are first class and commendable. Thanks guys!

Cheers -

[desler]

Safely home and finally a decent nap! Just too much to do over the last few days at BSG...

My first, great organisers, great company, food to match, and all held in an encouraging, educational and fun environment. Highlights for me were imaging my first comet, much appreciation to Rob for the heads up and John and Doug for their fantastic help.

Eating dinner with new and old friends and managing to actually eat between laughs! All in all a great few days.

Darren

[Jen]

awsome guys sounds like you all had a great time so jealous LOL clear skies every night i bet there are a very few tired fellas that will be going to bed early tonight hahaha Looking forward to some pics

[erick (Eric)]

Great news guys! I'm glad to hear that a wonderful time was had and that the weather excelled! You'd better get some sleep now?

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi all

Thank you for the great posts, I look forward to hearing more and seeing your pics. I have a few to post and will put them up in the next few days.

"Albert" got a great workout, he could have kept going, however the operator was a bit tired.

We have almost finished the packup , only a few more things to go.

Thank you to all the guests for making this such a great event! We could not do this without you. Thank you to the guests that became volunteers - great to see so many pitching in to help.

We were extremely fortunate to have such great weather - its just added icing to the cake.


Cheers Petra d.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi all

Just a few pics from both observing fields



What! big dobs on the Astrophotography field! Alex's and my scope!





Cheers Petra d.

[RB (Andrew)]

Great to hear that it was a complete success Petra.
Well done to all involved.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Thanks Andrew :-)

Cheers Petra d.

[The Unbeliever]

Hi All

What an unbelievable bonus to have 5 consecutive nights of clear skies. I am ecstatic that the patience of Border Stargaze guests has finally paid off in such a huge way and in our 5th Year. The most common complaint this year was that we needed one cloudy night so that everyone could get some sorely needed sleep.

My personal thanks to all of our guests and to the suppoprt they all provided for our outreach program. While we didn't get the general public numbers we anticipated everyone without exception joined in by welcoming those that did come out.

A huge thanks to the visual observers who were blinded by the Prime News camera for 30 seconds while Astro_nutt was interviewed, and to Greg, Doug and the astrophotographers that provided advice to the cameraman for how to shoot the milky way. The story aired tonight on Prime local news and it was awesome.

Our guest speakers where simply the best with Paul Francis, David Malin, John Wilkinson and Alex Cherney delivering the best series of professional presentations at one event.

To cap off a great event Nicole baked a 5th anniversary cake for Border Stargaze which was not only a suprise but a tremendous gesture for which we thank 'Catering Outback'. Edek suggested we have the oldest and youngest cut the cake and with that Bob Price (80) and Kieran Scott (approx 80 days) with plastic knife completed the perfect picture.

As in previous years the prize draw was a great deal of fun with Melanie (9) drawing the winners. The number of children winning is only coincidental and has no bearing on Melanie's age. Dave Rolfe added to the fun with his attempt at being a number of different people, it would have been only through tiredness had we fallen for it. Congratulations to John Thompson for winning the Saxon telescope generously donated by Ozscopes.

Thank you to everyone ASAW members, Wymah Staff (Aspen Parks), our sponsors, guest speakers and you our guests for making this the most memorable of events all of whom we could not do this without.

Thank you

Cheers

Dave

Check out this link for our sponsors http://www.asaw.org.au/index.php?page=38

and this for the Prime video http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/v1/video/.../good-heavens/

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi all

http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/v1/video/.../good-heavens/

Cheers Petra d.

[Octane (Humayun)]

I am totally spewin' that I didn't get to make it this time, David and Petra.

Perhaps, next year?

H

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi H

It was awesome H. We missed you big time. Hopefully next year.

Originally Posted by Octane

I am totally spewin' that I didn't get to make it this time, David and Petra.

Perhaps, next year?

H

Cheers Petra d.

[astro_nutt]

Prime video did a fantastic job for the BSG event. Showing the scope moving with the Milky Way in all it's glory was truely stunning!! Dave and Dave summed up the event beautifully. This will surely spark an interest in Astronomy!
Cheers!

[Hagar (Doug)]

I have finally caught up on my missed sleep. What an event, every night with stunning skies, great people, fantastic organising, great food.
Lots more I could say but hey, those who were there know what I mean.

Thanks must go to David, David, Petra and all the organising crew who make this event the best in the South.
Brownie, our great caterer, as usual your food was the highlight of each day but I think I need a gym membership to be included in the registration to return my already bulging weight back to it's normal bulge.

Bloody terrific.
Thanks everyone.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Originally Posted by spacezebra

Hi all

http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/v1/video/.../good-heavens/

Cheers Petra d.

awesome!

[Octane (Humayun)]

That was a great little video.

H

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Excellent video Petra. Every states' news team should do a segment on their local star parties when they occur.

Same here Humayun - wish I could have gone!