The South Pacific Star Party: 13 - 15 April, 2007 - who's going?

[RB (Andrew)]

I was fortunate enough that things worked out for me in the end and was able to attend at least on the Saturday for an overnight stay.
As always it was a wonderful time to be with friends, sharing their company and the wonders of the night sky.
Thank you Rod for showing us the glorious views through your magnificent scope.
Also, I didn't feel like the odd man out any longer with my freezer suit on, my only regret is we failed to get a photo of all the "suits" together.

I was too excited to call it a night on Saturday so I stayed up till 4.30am Sunday, it felt like I was the only one awake at the time because it was so quiet on the field.
The clouds cleared after 2 or 3 am and I had a beautiful view of the Milky Way, so I just relaxed back on my beach chair with a few sustenances and enjoyed some lovely naked eye views of our universe.

Originally Posted by gary

At 16:09 in broad daylight, while driving along Wylds Rd in Arcadia,
we witnessed a spectacular meteor. It shone with a brllliant blue and
white 'arc light' and I could make out the black meteorite itself before it
appeared to vapourize. It is always difficult to estimate the distance and height
of these things, as there is no sense of scale. However, this one appeared
to be *very low* and coming in steep. It lasted about a second and a bit.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring Gai

Gary I saw it too !!!!!!!!!

I was driving along and saw exactly what you described, what a magnificent sight it was.
Excited about the spectical I asked my son if he saw it too but he wasn't looking ahead at that particular moment.
I'm so glad you verified the details because I was thinking that it was just my imagination, as I was concentrating on the road at the time.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Rocket Boy

Gary I saw it too !!!!!!!!!

I was driving along and saw exactly what you described, what a magnificent sight it was.
Excited about the spectical I asked my son if he saw it too but he wasn't looking ahead at that particular moment.
I'm so glad you verified the details because I was thinking that it was just my imagination, as I was concentrating on the road at the time.

Hi Andrew,

Wow! Really great to hear you got to see it as well. You weren't imagining it.
Where abouts roughly were you at the time?

Best Regards

Gary

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by gary

You weren't imagining it.
Where abouts roughly were you at the time?

Best Regards

Gary

I wish I was imaging because it was a dandy !

We were returning via Oberon, don't know what road we were on though.

[gary]

The 2007 Edition of the Alternate Universe, a publication that
drops through a small worm-hole situated behind the out houses at the
South Pacific Star Party, is now unofficially available at the
Astronomical Society of New South Wales web site by clicking here -
http://www.asnsw.com/alternate/AU9.pdf

The document is in PDF format which can be read by a free Adobe
viewer.

Special thanks to Tony Buckley and Lachlan MacDonald for retrieving
this year's Alternate Universe from said worm hole.

Enjoy!

Best regards

Gary Kopff
(Who has absolutely nothing to do with Alternate Universe but
is an avid reader).

[gary]

Originally Posted by Rocket Boy

I wish I was imaging because it was a dandy !

We were returning via Oberon, don't know what road we were on though.

Since we were so far apart, it means a lot of people could have
potentially seen it.

It was awesome.

Best Regards

Gary

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by gary

At 16:09 in broad daylight, while driving along Wylds Rd in Arcadia,
we witnessed a spectacular meteor. It shone with a brllliant blue and
white 'arc light' and I could make out the black meteorite itself before it
appeared to vapourize.

Amazing , Gary , I saw it too and was not far from you on Arcadia Rd , Arcadia My windscreen was a bit dusty, but I saw two strong flashes in quick succession and couldn't believe my eyes. I think that was my first naked eye daytime meteor.

***********************

I thoroughly enjoyed the SPSP. Great company as always. There is clearly resurgance of interest in SCT's due to the explosion of Digital astrophotograghy. I didn't get around much to look through many scopes as I was manning the 12" binos most of the time, but Peter Bobroffs 16" F4 was a marvel. You could lean on the tube/mount while viewing and get very comfortable without any image vibration.

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by gary

Since we were so far apart, it means a lot of people could have
potentially seen it.
Gary

Gary I think it might be a good idea if you start a thread in Observational Astronomy and see who else saw it too.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Mark Suchting

Amazing , Gary , I saw it too and was not far from you on Arcadia Rd , Arcadia My windscreen was a bit dusty, but I saw two strong flashes in quick succession and couldn't believe my eyes. I think that was my first naked eye daytime meteor.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the report!

You must have been just a minute or so ahead of us then.

A few years back we went to Narrabri for the Leonids and that was the
most amazing celestial event I had witnessed except for total solar eclipses.
During the Leonid shower, we stayed up all night and were still watching them
come in well after sunrise, at least one leaving a smoke trail that lasted half
an hour or more.

However, this one yesterday was one of the best I have ever seen and
certainly I have not been lucky enough to see one that late in the day before.

Can you imagine how bright it would have been at night?

One advantage of seeing it during the day was I could resolve the dark
meteor material itself before it completely vapourized.

Best Regards

Gary

[stringscope (Ian)]

Hi All,

We had a great time at the SPSP. Rod, I did have a couple of peeks though your new baby, fantastic and beautiful workmanship on Peter Reid's part. Have you named it yet?

Congratulations to all the Astrophotographers, absolutely amazing work. I have just acquired an old copy of "Hartung" for sentimental reasons, It is interesting to compare the astro images in this book - all from Mt Stromlo and I asume taken by full time professional astronomers - to those taken by Mike, Mike, Houghy, Steve Crouch and others, just amazing.

Cheers,

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Hi all

We have just arrived home and we are exhausted!

Excellent viewing, exceptional company and extraordinary goings on!!!

Photo's coming soon.

Cheers Petra

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Jenny and I made it home yesterday after 2 weeks of traveling around the state, culminating in SPSP. We still have some more to go, but SPSP will go down as a fabulous part of our break.

Thanks to Mike and Riley Sidonio as well as Mark Suchting for the great camping company. It seems that we always manage to hook up at star parties and have a great time with you guys. Too many laughs and conversations to count! Congrats on the imaging comp Mike(s)! As per Lostock, it was also fantastic to have a good amount of time on the dual 12" binoscope that mark brought along on behalf of Paul, its owner. I really can't wait to start on mine.

It was great to meet new (to me) faces such as Jack Child (ex JPL), George, Jim & his kids, Rob (rcmb), Peter Bobroff (and his fabulous aluminium dobs) and plenty of others too. It was great to catch up with Mike Salway and have a beverage and some nibblies with him.

Toys bought? Well, I purloined a William Optics ZenithStar 66ED Petzval (lovely manufacturing quality for the outlay) and a 2" SCT star diagonal to match as well as several books - the most precious being a portfolio of original JPL-printed images and type-written descriptions of the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune and its moons in 1988. Mind-boggling bit of history indeed. Thanks Jack.

I look forward to next year!

[33South (Chris)]

Originally Posted by stringscope

Hi All,

We had a great time at the SPSP. Rod, I did have a couple of peeks though your new baby, fantastic and beautiful workmanship on Peter Reid's part. Have you named it yet?

Must agree, based on the comments I heard I thought "Mother" would be an appropriate name

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

292 stayed another day and arrived home about 3-30 this arvo

absolutely stuffed and still having moments of dispair over the lightbridge

it was very cloudy on Sunday night early and there were a few spots of rain, so most went off to bed
i woke around 2am and enjoyed a look around till 5am, then went back to bed

all in all a good weekend - but not COLD enough for my liking


geoff

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

PS

i don't know whether to BURN or frame the ticket

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

Oh and Petra

i finally got him home - well to Blacktown anyway

[netwolf]

Ok I will bite because i missed out on all the fun, who the heck is 292?

Regards

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

Twas the Owl - unfortunately

[netwolf]

Geoff are you 292?

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

did i not just say that ?

now i spose you all want to know the significance of the number 292 ?

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Geoff's number was called as the winner of a 16" lightbridge, and he was not there to receive it. The rules stated that he had 30 seconds to claim the prize, then another number was called out. Consequently, Geoff missed out.

I feel for you, mate.