Next Kulnura observing night

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Anthony,

Is the smoke likely to be an issue at Kulnurra ? I am about 15kms north of Gosford and the smoke around Gosford and the ridge is very heavy.

CS-John B

[atalas]

Guy's If there's bush fires around the skies will be crap ! have to think about this one ?

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

I dont see any smoke at all at the moment John
beautiful clear (****** hot) blue skies.

[frogman (Anthony Lord)]

i dont think youll be able to get to us Lou
the F3 and the old Pacific were blocked ! dont know if they still are !
but clear skies

[iceman (Mike)]

The fires at Woy Woy/Umina area look pretty bad.

The southerly is not due in Sydney until 9 or 10pm, so we should get clear skies at Kulnura until at least 10:30/11pm, hopefully.

[iceman (Mike)]

oh i'm guessing Hector (Andrew), Gary and Louie won't be there due to the fires.

Andrew lives at Umina - I hope his house and family are safe!

[iceman (Mike)]

Just heard the F3 is now re-opened.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Guys,

What time did we finish yesterday?

I just got home, and it's a quarter past 4 in the morning. I think I've just driven 5 hours.

I started driving on that road after Pete's Ridge Road, and a policeman was trying to redirect me to Gosford. He said the F3 was blocked.

I asked if there was any way back to Sydney, and he said I could go up to Cessnock, find Putty Road, go through Windsor and Colo Heights.

I took his advice. I performed a U-turn, filled up at the twin Caltex and away I went. However, I avoided Cessnock and went straight to Maitland, headed towards Singleton, and then took the Golden Highway/Putty Road to Windsor. Then, finally back to Rooty Hill.

Thank God for my Navman GPS.

It was so awesome to meet you guys. You're all a very helpful and friendly bunch. Muchly appreciated.

Regards,
Humayun

[iceman (Mike)]

lol oh my H, what a marathon drive home! I left at 11pm, and heard on the news that the freeway was blocked from Ourimbah to Hornsby. I wondered how you'd get home. When I got off the freeway at Ourimbah there were loads of cars pulled up on the side of the road waiting it out.

Great to meet you too, H..

All in all, the night was fairly good (although hot) until 10:30pm when it started clouding over thanks to the Southerly. Anthony scared everyone into packup mode telling us that the dark patch above the trees was rain coming! Never seen people pack up so fast

Of course it wasn't rain! Darn you Froggy!

I didn't do a lot of observing, did some comparisons of the UO Ortho HD 7mm to Louie's 7.5mm Tak LE, but spent most of the night playing cameras with RocketBoy. That 20da is AWESOME! Can't wait to see the results of the widefield shots you took.

I'll process the ones I took in the next few days and post 'em up too.

Great to meet everyone again, see you in Lostock in less than 4 weeks!

[RB (Andrew)]

Glad you got home safely H, we were worried about you.
It was nice to meet you.

Ice-Dude-man your plateform Rocks..... .....pardon the pun.

[ving (David)]

glad to hear it wasnt called off.
sounds like you guys stiil had a good time.... wasnt that southerly great!!!