Fellow Ice In Space members,
Firstly, thanks to Paul (1 Ponders), for his kind comments.
It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and we appreciated
your patient assistance with the pointing test.
Mai and I drove up from Sydney, a 2400km round trip.
We had a wonderful time.
Having attended Astrofest a few times before, including as
a guest speaker on a few occassions, we have been privileged to have
made so many great friends. For example, I remember the
first time I attended a few years back. I had flown to Brisbane and rented a car
and managed to take a wrong turn at Kilcoy. I was miles from
where I was suppose to be and was due to give a talk in the next
few minutes. I arrived without having had time to pick up provisions
for the stay. Peter Robbins shared his dinner with me and we have been
good friends ever since.
It was therefore great to see Peter so esctatic about his new 30" Dob.
And rightly so! What a beautiful instrument. Scope builder Peter Read
has done a fantastic job. Peter Robbins told me that his brief to Peter
Read was that he wanted "the Rolls Royce of telescopes". He certainly got it!
It is one of those scopes that is as good to look at as it is to look through.
Mai and I spent the evening with others going up and down the step ladder
looking at one fabulous object after the next. I have never seen the Veil
so bright nor seen NGC 253 in quite the same way before.
Ron Knight (astroron) was there like so many of the others, we think of them
all as our Queensland family - a brotherhood of observers.
In fact, some of the best times can be when you aren't observing at all,
but just sharing some chat with someone else, maybe over a coffee and biscuit.
The organizers have to be congratulated. Even the simple things
like a printed name being stuck on your bunk when you arrive make
Astrofest run like clockwork. Yet someone behind the scenes such
as Anne-Louise, Tony, Max or Pat are making these things happen.
Mai and I were humbled when the organizers presented us with an
"Award For Excellence" for Argo Navis. Thank you so much. We have always
been greatly appreciative of our Queensland supporters.
Congratulations also to Michael Horn who was drawn in the raffle and
picked the Argo Navis we donated. Michael said he was the last one
out of the Leyburn crowd to own one.
One of the great hilights of Astrofest this year was when amateur
astronomer and amateur radio enthusiast Renato Langersek
made contact with the International Space Station (ISS) as
it came up over the horizon early on Saturday morning.
Renato re-played the taped conversation to Astrofest
attendees at the dinner. Australian astronaut, Andy
Thomas, reported that the ISS was passing over the
Queensland border and he sent a special greeting to all
attendees at the Queensland Astrofest. This went over
extremely well, meeting with spontaneous applause. When
Renato asked whether there would be any possibility of
making contact again the following night, Andy indicated
that Space Shuttle Discovery would be leaving ISS tomorrow
and "would not be back for some time". Congratulations to
Renato for this great bit of DX'ing and thanks to Andy
Thomas for taking the time to talk to us.
Once again, it was great to meet some old friends and to make some new
ones. Mai and I thank you and we look forward to seeing you there at
Astrofest next year.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
20 Kilmory Place
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080
Australia
Phone +61-2-9457-9049
Fax +61-2-9457-9593
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
if anyone is interested in coming, that is the night of the New Moon. astroron 
