2010 Queensland Astrofest in review - Page 2

coldspace · #21 17-08-2010, 07:36 PM

$20 bucks a day is bloody cheap for a powered site. I have to spend at least $30 to $50 bucks a day when we take our van away for family holidays. Even unpowered national park sites are still $15 to $20 a day.

As for power, well if you are not happy with whats provided then bring 1 X 100amp deep cycle battery, one of these easily runs my LX200 scope, mulitple dew heaters,laptop via a puresinewave inverter,camera and this will easily last 12 hrs, then during the day plug ina 15 to 20 amp smart switch mode charger and the 100 amp battery is full in only 3-4 hrs. Easy fix. People have to remember that this site is not wired with 20 amp power points every 3 meters so voltage drop/earth leakage things will happen from time to time, large battery/good charger/inverter will cost less than some eyepieces that I have bought and will give you great flexibilty to where you set up.

Great Job Anne-louise and team, bargain for the excitement and its not easy to get evrything perfect, I was one happy camper.

Matt.

astroron (Ron) · #22 17-08-2010, 07:49 PM

I don't think it is to expensive,Having not long ago done a 17000km jurney to Perth and back, most caravan parks and National parks were charging $14-28 a night unpower'd sites, and that is for a single person, same price for a double.

North shore Noosa $21.00 a night just to park on the sand,Showers and toilets included.
Besides isn't the site and the company worth it

DavidTrap (David) · #23 17-08-2010, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coldspace

$20 bucks a day is bloody cheap for a powered site. I have to spend at least $30 to $50 bucks a day when we take our van away for family holidays. Even unpowered national park sites are still $15 to $20 a day.

Matt.

The Astrofest price is per person per night. Many camp sites housed two or more people - so the price is on par with commercial caravan parks (which are operating for profit).

Ultimately, I think Lions are doing quite well out of Astrofest.

DT

coldspace · #24 17-08-2010, 09:14 PM

Yep, and I hope they make some profit.
I bet that camp would be far from booked most of the time, and like many things in life, if they don't make an earn then they will close.
And then astrofest will be no more.

GrahamL · #25 17-08-2010, 10:59 PM

Best 40 bucks I've spent on accomadation

AFAIK most every Lions buisness arm is for turning a profit?
And the income is spent in the local comunities.
My experiance mirrors others O/N stuff is usually $20H not always with power, national parks are possibly cheaper but for my $10H I get no water, power,lighting of any kind,, the few pieces of high quality NP dunny paper I get out of the deal is more than offset by the ranger who sees the need to mow the bare patch of sand beside my tents open screen with the disscharge spraying sand all through it.

COSMOPARADISE (Nick) · #26 17-08-2010, 11:25 PM

I had the best time in a long time even if my ETX suddenly spawned gremlins. Thanks Bryan for the tour with the 20, the Veil in O-III was my favourite visual memory and winning the Bino's and ASTROSTACK software was a great treat too. Great meeting everyone and putting faces to names. Sure i'll be seeing most of you all again around. Not enough could be said about how great this event is and to all the organisers hats off to you all. What an amazing team!!
Hooked!!!

Louwai (Bryan) · #27 18-08-2010, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

Plus it wouldn't hurt for our gear, especially 240V leads and powerboards get a check now and then.

I'm sure someone on here that's local is a licenced electrician. someone who can test & tag.....

Maybe we should ask......

(that's regarding the gear that owned by AstroFest)

cybereye (Mario) · #28 18-08-2010, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kinetic

priceless IMHO...bring Astrofest to SA I say

I will put the beers on

Steve

As long as it's not Southwark!!!

Shnoz (Sophie) · #29 18-08-2010, 05:30 PM

Just like to say all of my friends and I had a great time at the Astrofest! The weather was great for the whole time we were there (we saw one cloud and it evaporated after a few minutes!

) and then we left as soon as it started raining! And the power was not an issue for us (luckily for me I moved to the northern observing field on Sunday night to do some 'manual' work) So we were very very lucky pretty much all the way through!

I've organised a few Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and I actually expected this trip to be a lot more expensive, so money-wise I think it was a bargain

So thanks muchly to Anne-Louise and Tony and everyone that helped organise the Astrofest for a really good time!

PattyP (Patrick) · #30 19-08-2010, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louwai

I'm sure someone on here that's local is a licenced electrician. someone who can test & tag.....

Maybe we should ask......

(that's regarding the gear that owned by AstroFest)

The electrical gear belonging to Astrofest is tested and tagged. We have over 30 leads and 30 power boards out on the field protected by 10 RCD safety switches. I can guarantee you that it is not the equipment owned by Astrofest that is causing the nuisance tripping.
Pat Pearl

DavidTrap (David) · #31 19-08-2010, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PattyP

The electrical gear belonging to Astrofest is tested and tagged. We have over 30 leads and 30 power boards out on the field protected by 10 RCD safety switches. I can guarantee you that it is not the equipment owned by Astrofest that is causing the nuisance tripping.
Pat Pearl

Hi Pat,

Are the powerboards (not the orange RCD protected ones, but the white ones) rated for outdoor use? It may be something that many of us are guilty of - expecting indoor stuff to work reliably outdoors?

DT

erick (Eric) · #32 19-08-2010, 03:51 PM

Yes, it probably is not designed to work outside. I always put a weatherproof cover around any 240V plug/socket - you can buy the standard HPM ones and others. I got a batch of cheap, but OK ones from ALDI one week. Also saves them being kicked apart.

I also put any power board into a plastic shopping bag or two to discourage moisture ingress.

earthlight (Anne-Louise) · #33 19-08-2010, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Ultimately, I think Lions are doing quite well out of Astrofest.
DT

That was why the prices were raised. They weren't.

Anne-Louise

mozzie (Peter) · #34 19-08-2010, 05:01 PM

i come up each year 4 nights 5 days nearly 8 hours both ways fuel,accomadation,food.costs around $500 bloody cheap holiday for me,try and spend that much in the cities for a week.

acropolite (Phil) · #35 19-08-2010, 10:48 PM

Just a thought, if the main switchboard already has an RCD then the use of additional RCD's downstream is not recommended and can cause tripping problems.

Tandum (Robin) · #36 20-08-2010, 02:02 AM

I believe all the power problems went away on the last night after a lot of people had packed up and turned off. Sounds like supply and demand to me.

Personally I run the show off an old car battery with a 6amp charger across it, just my mount had problems with power. It went northern hemisphere on me after an outage. I'll get a ups for the astro kit I think. It's pretty cheap really and it's best to be self reliant.

With lots of people connected, power trips. Live with it.

that_guy (Tony) · #37 21-08-2010, 12:55 AM

oh yeah, when do we get the group photos?? ive paid for them and all

acropolite (Phil) · #38 21-08-2010, 09:48 PM

Quote:

oh yeah, when do we get the group photos?? ive paid for them and all

Patience grashopper, they'll come.... in time...

h0ughy (David) · #39 25-10-2010, 09:16 AM

well got the group photo - thanks guys

Louwai (Bryan) · #40 25-10-2010, 01:34 PM

Typical Australia Post.

My group photo arrived in an A4 envelope with large stickers on BOTH side saying
PHOTO - DO NOT BEND

It was folded in half when I revceived it