The Three Rivers Foundation at Cooka Near Parkes

[anthony.tony]

On Monday the 3rd of march Fred Koch and the 3RF. group visited Parkes the set up at the CWAS observing site at COOKAMIDGERA,East of Parkes.We had John Trudgeon form Canowindra with his 20inch SDM dob . The 3RF had 3 18 inch Obsessions.there were 25x150mm Fujinion.on Parallelogram mount.the Starchair.Paul Shopis and Mark Sutching travelled from Sydney and set up the 12 inch Binoscope.Ther were also smaller Am scopes set up.we had between 50 and 60 people turn up.The seeing was perfect plus not a Cloud to be seen.The night finished about 11.45pm.The next day the 3RF group were given a tour through the Parkes Telescope by John Sarkissian .I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

[anthony.tony]

Some more pics of the night.

[h0ughy (David)]

looks like you had perfect conditions and a great night.

[Rodstar (Rod)]

I like the look of those binoculars, and the stand it goes on!

[Satchmo]

It was a great night. Excellent to meet Fred Koch and the visiting 3RF crowd and great hospitality of the CWAS members. Local member Clive even put us up for the night on his 2200 acre property adjacent to the observing field.

Paul Shopis and I were in binocular heaven with the 12" bino and 3RF motorised bino chair ( 16 X 70 Fujinons) and 25 X 150 Fujinons on huge mount. Interesting to note that the 12" binos probably weighed less than the 6" Fujis and mount. We observed until 2AM or so. There must have been have been 40 people in attendence , great for a Monday night.

I beleive Lachlan McDonald measured the zenith sky brightness and it was similar to Coonabarabran. The sky had a transparency due to the dry air that I haven't seen for a long time.

[gary]

Hi Tony & Mark,

Thanks for the Parkes report and great to hear of the good turn out.

On the night in question, I stayed behind in Coona with US and Canadian visitors
who decided to stay put rather than make the trip to Parkes. Using an array of
Argo Navis/ServoCAT equipped Obsessions we experienced a similarly perfect
night's observing until shortly after moon rise. With the total lack of cloud, it
certainly felt as if these conditions extended over a vast area and so it was
heartening to hear that it was also a good night down there.

After standing on the ground for a few hours, going all the way back in the
Starchair to the zenith is quite therapeutic.

Special thanks to CWAS and John Sarkissian for helping look after our visitors.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty Ltd