I guess it's time for my report!
Wow, what a great camp. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Beautiful warm days, not much wind, not much cloud, no rain.
The nights were spectacular.
Thursday night was 100% clear all night, with some reasonably heavy dew making dew control important!
Friday night had intermittent high cloud, but left large parts of the sky clear. The cloud added some great depth to the timelapses and nightscapes anyway
Saturday night was 100% clear all night again, with just a few minor passing clouds, and a slight breeze kept the dew away. Definitely the pick of the nights.
It was a shame that a lot of the 'regulars' weren't there, people I was used to seeing every year, but it was balanced nicely by the fact that there were so many first-timers! During the Saturday afternoon speech, I asked how many were first-timers, and about half the crowd put their hand up! We had about 118 attendees all up.
That's fantastic - and makes me feel great about the ongoing success of IISAC - that there'll always be people to come and enjoy their first star party!
It was certainly different in the evening, both due to lack of catering and no daylight savings. It got dark earlier, and with no catering it meant there was no reason for people to mingle around the marquee area. It seemed to lose a bit of the great spirit we had around dinner every time in previous years (for those that bought dinner).
Not sure what to do about that yet, maybe have a sausage sizzle one night to get people together - but nice and early so people can still get back to their scopes before dark. Will also try and get the catering back for next year but no guarantees.
On a personal note it was great to see so many people at my Nightscapes talk, and great to hear and see so many nightscape shots over the following nights. I received some great feedback and I'm glad I can do my part in helping to inspire people to get outside with their camera and tripod.
The camp itself went nice and smoothly, and thanks to the volunteers who helped me setup and pack away. I might miss one or two and if I do I'm sorry, but special mention to:
Al Sheehan, Anthony, Fred, Trevor and wife, Bronwyn, Al Meehan (for the shirts), Mark and David (Guest speakers) and anyone I've forgotten.
Thanks as always to the sponsors who supported IISAC2013 - Bintel, Wildcard Innovations and Knightware. I appreciate your ongoing support, it really means a lot.
Thanks as always to Andrew Murrell and Gary Kopff who as part of 3RF, gave night sky tours on the Friday and Saturday night. I heard lots of great feedback from those that took part in it.
Chris Turton's son Anthony brought along his quadcopter which was certainly something amazing. I want one! I've got some video of the group photo and a flight along the field to chuck up on YouTube soon.
I've also got GB's of nightscape images to process, including a timelapse or two I hope. It's going to take me forever!
Hopefully before IISAC2014
Anyway I'm sure I've forgotten something, but here's the group photo:
IISAC2013 Group Photo
And of course I'd love your feedback:
http://iisac2013.questionpro.com
I look forward to seeing you all next year in 2014 - definitely keen to keep it around the same time (April). Just have to check new moon dates, Easter dates, school holiday etc. A busy time of year but a lovely time of year for the night sky with so much to look at.
