IISAC2015 - IceInSpace AstroCamp 2015: 19th-21st March 2015 (important info)

[madwayne (Wayne)]

After a stinking hot Thursday we were treated with a clear sky all night. I got through around 50 of my planned 72 Messier objects but called it a night at 1:30.

Woke up Friday morning to a repeat of Thursday only hotter. As I'd left the hose from my gas bottle to stove at home I went off on an adventure and ended up at Rutherford via Singleton and back to Lostock. Great excuse to drive an air conditioned car for quite a few hours. Around 18:00 the heat was replaced with a cool change. Unfortunately the change bought in cloud by the sky load.

And after some showers overnight and most of the day I ended up packing up and heading for home as did quite a few others.

Great to meet Allan, Scott and Jen (my closest neighbours) and also Rob and many others. Special mention to Bill our TEC160 wielding American friend. Many great chats with everybody and thank you for your company. Also a big note of thanks to Allan for the work he did confirming my collimation and most importantly on my primary. It went rattle free the whole way home.

Mike - another great star party. I don't know how you do it, juggling work, family and astronomy/photography, but sincerely thank you!

Wayne

[LightningNZ (Cam)]

It was really great to meet so many wonderful people at IISAC. Mary-Anne and I had a really lovely time and are looking forward to coming back next year.

Thank you to Mike, Alex, the BBQ helpers, Trevor and everyone else there who turned a simple gathering into a fun and friendly occasion.

All the best,
Cam

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks to those who came for another IISAC, the 9th!

The weather on Thursday was brilliant - a hot day, but clear all night long and a slight breeze to keep the dew at bay. I had a great time capturing nightscapes in some new locations, and ended up heading to bed after 1:30am. I wished I stayed up later given the next 2 nights

Friday was hot! and then a change came through about 6pm which cooled it down, bringing clouds and later, rain. Saturday was a complete washout too.

Unfortunate about the weather, but at least Thursday was great. A lot of attendees who only came for the Friday and/or Saturday were no doubt disappointed. Certainly one of the cloudier, wetter camps we've had.

We were way down in numbers - just over half the number of last year. The weather forecast certainly would've affected that. Maybe it was the lack of guest speakers or lucky door prize? I suspect it was the weather more than the latter, but without clear skies it's impossible to know

Anyway for the people that did come, I hope they had a relaxing time even though it wasn't doing what they had hoped. The swimming hole was magnificent on Thursday and Friday.

Thanks as always to Al and Lyn for their help and support, and thanks to Alex and Gondwana Telescopes for the 2 workshops.

Might do something different again next year - otherwise I'm just not inclined to do it again at this stage. I've got some ideas.

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Mike, thanks for hosting the IISAC space camp again. Your efforts are greatly appreciated by us all and despite the poor weather, I still enjoyed getting away and catching up with people I now usually see once a year.

The one clear night we did have was a gem, little windy at times but dark and clear.

Here's some quick shots from camp on Thursday, Thursday night and Friday night. I thought I'd have some fun with the clouds . I've also got some images to process and post in the Nightscape and Deep space threads shortly.

Cheers

Rod

[peterl]

Another good camp at Lostock.
All kinds of weather conditions made this one interesting.
Thanks again Mike and helpers for running this weekend.
Thanks to Alex Massey for the two workshops on Friday and Saturday.
Sausage sizzle worked well because of the cool rain outside.
Mark, a visitor from Texas in the U.S. was interesting to talk to.
Was going home to his 28 inch f 2.8 dob.
Thanks to Mark Suchting for showing us some virtual reality goggles
from Samsung.blew us all away!!
some images of Al, Mike and Lyn cooking, Alex with his excellent
sketches of the moon and other objects.

Peter and Sue Langdown.

[skullmurphy]

Hi all,

To say the camp days were eventful was really an understatement.....

My intentions were with Jenny to make an early start and drive to Elderslie (near Branxton) by 11am Thursday to our friends Blue and Sandee who were originally going to Lostock with us.

Fate stepped in and Blue took very ill and our first port of call was John Hunter Hospital to see Blue instead..... Sandee and Blue ordered us to go to Lostock eventually with us arriving at 5pm as Blue was going to be a hospital guest for a few days. We wish him a speedy recovery.

On arrival after fighting with the tent and putting up the gazebo in the heat, I put the scope together and proceeded to meet up with the neighbours madwayne, Jim and Wendy (jayemay). Then along the way Rob (absolut), with his solar setup, Alan with his collimation help and Bill our Texan friend we had a great Thursday night of viewing. The Jewelbox and Tarantula were outstanding.

Friday was very hot but we met up with a mate from last year Darren (otis quakes) who I went to Gresford for some supplies with and we just had to have a cold beer at the Gresford pub.

We got back in time for Alex talk on Telescope Maintenance and then a great swim to cool off in the river.

A cool change then came through but thats when the weather went feral and put an end to observations for the rest of the camp. Thankfully we cooked up a steamboat dinner which had other fellow campers eating prawns, squid, chicken, beef and noodles in a rather stop start affair with Ulrich (uwahl) bringing some wine to fortify the party.

We then moved to Jim and Wendy's camp fire and ate red frogs and maltesers along with more campers including our English friend Laura arriving late to join the yarns ranging from astronomy, accents, hercules planes, gun laws amongst other subjects. A truly memorable night despite the rain.

We packed up Saturday our wet tentage, telescope and other gear and managed to fit it all back in the Hilux ute and had a couple of sausages at the sausage sizzle before heading for home but knowing we will be back for other camps....

Thanks Mike for the camp and everyone for being so hospitable and friendly which made it so memorable.......

Scott and Jenny

[uwahl (Ulrich)]

Last year I booked for the three days, became ill just before the camp and spent the three days in bed. This year I booked for three days, found a gas leak in the caravan the day before departure and missed the first night despite some shameless begging to a local gas fitter trying to have my job bumped to the to of the list.

Even though my two nights at Lostock were rained out I still had a great time meeting people and learning about scope maintenance.

At least I made it to the site this year - will try again next year. Maybe this time i will make it for the whole three days!

[charsiubau]

Hi Mike
Ken and I were sorry to miss this year's IISAC due to health reasons. We would have come regardless of the weather forecast, but I think for people who live closer, the weather would have been the major factor in them not turning up, not the lack of lucky door prizes or speakers. We really appreciate your efforts in putting on this star party.