Ok,
My synopsis of the camp is as follows ….. starting with the weather ….. whilst being patchy, far exceeded that from the last few camps. Friday night started out really good, with quite a few hours of great seeing before cloud rolled in mid morning. Similar seeing on Saturday night, although not quite as transparent as Friday night. Sunday was great – seeing came and went, but for a couple of us who stayed up till sunrise, this night was the best. During the early hours of Monday morning, there were periods of seeing that were brilliant. Not sure about Monday night as I had to go back home to work.
Dabbled with solar during the days, and both visual and imaging on each of the 3 nights, with the 3rd night being most successful for both. With the help of many in attendance at the camp, got my best ever polar alignment (thanks John G), my best ever Sync with Stellarium (thanks Alistair) and fluked a couple of good images of NGC253, Tarantula, M42, Horsehead & Flame and Eta Carina. John G’s tutoring at the last few camps, along with input from Martin, Doug, Daniel and Neal amongst others saw me kick a few goals. I had a few beginner chuckles as my imaging set-up worked flawlessly whilst a few other seasoned campaigners groaned and cursed a few expletives at technical issues they were having
Doug’s talk on Imaging on the Saturday was super informative, and input from others in the discussion was great. For novices like yours truly it was great to get some perspective on techniques, software, effort vs. reward, etc. Thanks Doug, John G, Daniel, Martin and the others that contributed to this discussed. p.s. Doug, I was awake …. just micro resting my eye lids
Entertainment provided during the days by the Snake Valley RC Club was a barrel of laughs …. Note to oneself ….. set-up an RC Spare Parts shop in Snake Valley before next camp
Great to see Jen and family drop in for a night on their way back home to Swan Hill from the Qld Solar Eclipse. Camp wouldn’t be the same without our Jen …. would be a lot quieter (joking Jen)
On the Sunday night the views with the CGEM1100 and a 24mm Panoptic were stunning. Alistair and I tried different targets, and different eyepieces including Naglers, ES 82’s and ES 100’s ….. but on the night the Panoptic was the sweet spot. The views of Tarantula, Eta Carina, NGC253, 47 Tuc were highlights and nothing short of spectacular ….. luv the dark skies of Snake Valley.
Great to see some of the “Imagers” come over and have a look through an eyepiece.
Once again Ken and Martin, you’ve put on a stellar Camp. Whilst always being fun and relaxed, you turned on some good weather as well this camp which was a bonus. Alway highly entertaining, at these camps everybody gets on well, is happy to lend a hand, share their experiences and just chill out
Can’t wait till the Mar 2013 camp, but in the mean time here’s a few more pics
