Thanks Petra for the kind words, would love to have to chance to meet you and so many others up here sometime!
This is a very brief update (because I'm at work) but Ron Knight (Astroron) and myself did a overnight stay at Barambah last night to check out a bunch of minor details for the camp - wouldn't you know it but my 12" dob, eyepiece box, 12v power pack, stellar seat, cold weather gear, etc, etc - all found it's way along in the back of my 4WD.
The sky IS dark ... we had to wait until after midnight for a lot of high level cloud to vanish, after 1am for the moon to set, after 2am by the time it had dragged it's horrible glow entirely away ... and then it was dark!
Ron had a good look around the heavens with his very experienced eyes, and declared that the naked eye seeing was definitely beyond mag 6.5.
Just a quick update for those interested in attending:
Our website should be online very soon with maps, more images of the facility, pricing, registration information, etc etc. I'll be posting some images here tomorrow (Friday) including 360° views of and from the centre of the large observing field.
In the meantime if you have any specific questions please feel free to post here, otherwise send us an email at:
and we'll do our best to reply asap with all the answers. (Please keep in mind that virtually ouir entire committee will be away attending Astrofest from the 6th to the 12th of August)
I can assure you that everyone who attends this camp will discover that the Barambah Environmental Education Centre is a superb facility. Mark Cridland, Barambah's Principal, has expressed a definite enthusiasm for our Camp, and also a committment to assist us make the Dark Sky Camp a big success both in September and for future events. Mark has been a dedicated stargazer for many years and has an 8"(?) Celestron and a larger LX200GPS on site.
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 06-08-2007 at 12:22 AM.
Some of the photo's I took this week at the Barambah facility.... but first an aerial image (not mine captured from a large framed print in the dining hall).
You can see the camp facility itself located just above and left of centre of the image, and the enormous observing field across the track to the SE. It's the only "cleared" area in that area, shaped like a big sideways teardrop shape with an incursion of trees coming in from the north.
(click on the links here to open much larger versions of the thumbnail images below)
This is the main dishwashing area... http://www.users.on.net/~darklord/di...20overview.jpg
and yes that is a fully automatic machine in the LH corner that does a load in just a few minutes and uses only 3 litres of water. Very impressive unit! I'm someone who NEVER does dishes but if I had one of those
There was actually another 4 or 5 basins in the kitchen/dining area that I didn't take photos of - 3 of them with taps you activate by foot pressure.
Talk about heaven for obsessive-compulsives!
In the corner of the dining hall itself there is a double basin, an Instaboil urn, large capacity drink cooler (2 x 18 cup reservoirs) for water, cordial, etc. There's also another small (bar) fridge and so on. It has all been newly installed, and there are stainless steel basins, benchtops and food preparation areas as far as the eye can see.
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 29-07-2007 at 12:24 AM.
I did enquire as to whether or not there was a TV screen and DVD player on site, so we could play some astronomy or space related DVD's during the day - and I found this... http://www.users.on.net/~darklord/tv%20&%20dvd.jpg
If you look carefully you will see the pull down screen mounted on the wall - it's 2.4 by 2.4 metres when fully extended. You'll also notice the bracket and cabling for the ceiling mount video projector (which was stored away at time of photo) but what is not overly obvious is the LG 5.1 surround sound system.
Oh yeah - the video projector can also be used as a PC or laptop display again via the cables at the rear of the hall near the small TV, and being an education facility Austar gives them a small number of channels free - mostly boring, but it does include Discovery & Discovery Science I believe.
Those big green doors are the main entry to the dining hall.
There is a outdoor BBQ area under construction behind me where I was standing to take that photo, however it may not be finished in time for our camp, which is just 6 weeks away now.
Across towards the main entrance to the Camp is their "roll off roof" shed that previously served as astronomical viewing area. Sadly the roof is now apparently fixed in place. I bet a number of us wish we'd had a roll off shed this big! http://www.users.on.net/~darklord/ro...oof%20shed.jpg
Nearby is the facility's frog pond - the frogs set up a beautiful chorus right on dark. We were told that they have up to 18 species of frog in there, some apparently considered "rare"... http://www.users.on.net/~darklord/frog%20pond.jpg
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 29-07-2007 at 05:22 AM.
There is a great little amphitheatre area, complete with newly reconstructed firepit in the centre, that apparently gets used for chats, discussions, fireside talks at night, etc - but for us it would make a great place to hold afternoon workshop sessions and so forth...
That's about it for images from Barambah for now until I can finish stitching together the panoramic view of the observing field, but the following link will providea bit of a teaser: that's my car parked across there, it's sitting just beyond the middle of the field from this perspective - I'm at the southern edge looking north.
Please be aware that most if us will be away at Astrofest so there may be a delay in processing queries or registrations next week. Other than that all queries and registrations will be processed ASAP.
Look forward to hearing from you !
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 16-08-2007 at 10:39 PM.
Apologies Dennis, I had thought I'd sent you an answer on that.
Unfortunately there is no room or facilities within the grounds of the Barambah EEC for camping or caravanning of any sort.
The observing field immediately adjacent is technically not Education Dept land, but rather State Forrest, and as such we (the organisers) do not have authority to give you permission to 'camp' there.
We expect that once set up, people will leave telescopes and/or vehicles parked there during the period of the Camp.
Remember folks that as of tomorrow (Friday the 17th) there's only 3 weeks until the Barambah Dark Sky Camp 2007 begins, so register now and get your optics ready for some really dark skies!!!
Last edited by Gargoyle_Steve; 20-08-2007 at 11:41 AM.
OK - got my confirmation e-mail over the weekend - I am all booked. My first dark skies for a long time (last time was a sucker hole extravaganza at Ron's back in March or April), and this will only be my fourth outing with my scope this year - just hope I can remember where things are up there
I've received a pm from Dennis ("Dennis") from Brisbane to advise that he has had to shelve plans to attend our first Barambah camp unfortunately.
Dennis and I had talked about Barambah while at Duckadang and I know he was very keen to attend and to bring his wife along.
We'll miss you there Dennis but hope to see you next April instead for the first of our 2008 camps.
to the Barambah Dark Sky Camp !!
captured from a large framed print in the dining hall). 
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
- thought there would be more activity in this thread... maybe it is just me anxiously awaiting the dark skies!!! 
