SPSP 14: March 31 - April 2 2006

Originally Posted by Greg Bryant

The ASNSW has looked into putting mains power at Wiruna. The cost estimates have been in the order of several tens of thousands of dollars just to get the power poles to the property.

Actually that cost can come down dramatically, if you put the power poles in yourself and run the wire at the correct height, or to the standard Country Enegy require. You only need them to hook it up. Still the wire is expensive and the poles you can get cheaper from a local mill

regards

[cventer]

My advice is go see for yourself what SPSP are about.

I have been driving up from Victoria for the last 3 years now and allways enjoy myself.

The scouts do a pretty good job of feeding people if you cant be bothered cooking like me. Sure the toilet / shower situation is not optimal and some portaloos may be the go, but I have not found it affected me. Showers are usually busy at peak times in morning and night, but I just avoid those times. I usually dont go to bed till close to sunrise on a clear night, so I just sleep in and then use bathrooms when I wake up which means they are then free

This is the 2nd year they have run the imaging comp and it was run much better than the year before and will no doubt improve next year.

As far as costs go I have never considered any star pary I have gone to be be too costly. Not too many places you can go for 3 - 5 days , have that much fund for that kind of money.

Maybe I dont have high expectations and am therefore allways happy with my SPSP experiences. Sounds like I need to get up to QLD one of these years though and check out Astrofest.

Best Regards
ChrisVenter

Are there cooking facilities there that people can use?

regards

[xstream (John)]

Originally Posted by xrekcor

Are there cooking facilities there that people can use?

regards

Yes there is a fairly large Kitchen there Rob. I can't tell you what it is like because we haven't had the need to use it, we take own basic gear for our needs but I'm sure some ASNSW member will be able to fill in the detail.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

It is interesting hearing people's comments and looking back at SPSP 05 now with some distance. Notwithstanding some criticisms I made at the time, I had a great time, and not only will I be there in 2006, but I expect to be there every year for many years to come.

It was a thrill for me as a newbie chatting to complete strangers about a common passion, and wandering around peeking through other peoples' scopes and EPs. I learnt heaps through talking to others (eg Xstream!), and I would recommend anyone new to the hobby to go to see what is possible. There are some very talented people who go, and some very BIG aperture freely available, so there is lots in it for the experienced amateur as well.

Sure, the facilities are rudimentary. Now that I know that, I have adjusted my expectations for 2006.

As for the "in-crowd" issue, that is just a fact of life...show me any human institution that is any different. And what some others have said is very true - there will be a big IIS contingent there - so there will be some very nice people to talk to anyway.......

It is remotely possible that I might drag my wife and kids along this time...is anyone else thinking of bringing family?

You will have to make the trip up to AstroFest QLD, there was no in crowd thing going on at all, and there was over 200+ folks there and probably easy that many scopes. It was a total family event and it didn't matter who you were. The organisers gave you a personal tour of the place so you knew where everything was, hell they had even put your name on your bedroom door. It nice to see people who own huge light buckets genuinely wanting to look through my lil 8" newt and commenting on it performance.

Still I agree with you star parties are a heap of fun, a great place to meet new folks and learn more stuff.

I'll be going to that event for years to come especially as long and Tony and Anne-Lousie are organising it.

regards

[iceman (Mike)]

Sure, the facilities are rudimentary. Now that I know that, I have adjusted my expectations for 2006

Agreed Rod, and it just means we'll be better prepared for the dust bowl, showers etc. As Chris said, just use them at non-peak times and you won't have to wait.

It is remotely possible that I might drag my wife and kids along this time...is anyone else thinking of bringing family?

Not sure, it's possible, but there's really not that much for the wife and kids to do during the day unless you go on day trips, mudgee etc. The place is very dusty and my wife hates dust! The kids will be very dirty after 5 minutes!

The only way the wife and kids would come is if we stayed off-site, but then half the fun of going to these things is camping on the field and being part of the whole experience.

We'll play it by ear, see how it goes at the Ballarat Star Camp in October, which I am taking my family to.

[astroron (Ron)]

Why does it cost about $30:00 to camp in a dusty field? what do you get for your money?, you can get a cheap motel for that price.
Doesn,t Sydney and districts have any dark sky sites that Astronomers can go to and meet others, because to me it seems that's what you are paying for, as for the price of Qld AstroFest the money goes to the Lions CLubs for their charety work.
We must be spoilt up here, astroron

Another thing that amazed me was the free stuff that was handed out on arival @ AstroFest 2005, which happen to contain a past issue of AS&T the _only_ one I didn't get this year... how did they do that???

On a more serious note is, if I go so does my son (that's just the way it is for me) and I worry how the dusty conditions will effect his asthma.

Still it's length of 2-3 days is what is stopping me making a commitment to be there, way too short for the distance I would have to travel. But then again it would be priced out of my buget if I were to stay any longer. Mind you I have been thinking of other places to stop along the way to make it a more worthwhile cause. Any thoughts on that? I did look at pulling into Siding Springs but they only operate during business hours or seeing if the Coonabarabran folks have any public events on.

regards

[xstream (John)]

Rob,
Anna and I went from the Thursday till the Monday and the cost was $116.00 including the spit roast dinner. Even though they quote $5 or $10 a night for the extra days we were not charged; I thought that was more than reasonable, next year we will probably even go a couple of extra nights.
As for the dust it was mainly confined to the observing field and was due to the amount of people and the weather. They were hot days up there for that time of year but extremely cool nights, which kept the dust down during the evening.

Originally Posted by xstream

Rob,
Anna and I went from the Thursday till the Monday and the cost was $116.00 including the spit roast dinner. Even though they quote $5 or $10 a night for the extra days we were not charged; I thought that was more than reasonable, next year we will probably even go a couple of extra nights.

Looks like they want to charge for my 4yr old son $20.00. Since he wont be doing any observing but sleeping that is a bit rich for me. At this stage I would have to say for me personally I'm not really interested.

I suppose we should stop comparing it to AstroFest QLD they are obviously two differently setup events.... I do wish all that do attend a fun weekend. Hopefully we can catch you guys up north next year or the NSW IceInSpace camp that is being planned.

kindest regards, CS

Rob

[iceman (Mike)]

So, this thread again..

Who else is coming?

Robby, are you going to come over again? Would love to catch up again.. bring mr Gary Beal with you too!