so who survived the SPSP16 this year

[h0ughy (David)]

yes there should be some happy campers back home by now, come on where are the pics, the stories and the gossip?????

[iceman (Mike)]

Home and unpacked now, though my eyes feel very gritty after last night..

Did an imaging all-nighter, though got an hour or two sleep in the car while the exposures were being taken between 3am and 6am.

Was another great event, with pretty good conditions - though a bit windy. Was weird during the day - hot in the sun but cold in the shade. Was hard to know what to wear and where to sit.

Not sure if they'll bother with the 2 extra showers next time - no-one really used them that I saw, they just seemed to small with nowhere to put your stuff (and keep it dry). Having said that, there was very little lineup for the 2 main showers - not sure there was as many people as last year? There was more lineup for the toilets than the showers in general.

I'm sure some stories will come out soon.. I've got a few that'll go in the article for AS&T, i'm sure they'll come out here in one form or another too.

Shame you couldn't make it Dave, we missed you. Was great to see some NAS guys there though, including Ghul, Dennis, Eddie and George to name a few.

Star parties are always great fun, not just for the observing but for the company. That's always the main highlight for me - catching up with friends that you might only see 1-3 times per year.. drinks, nibbles and chat all day and night

[iceman (Mike)]

Here's a pic of my setup for the weekend.. taken before the wind blew my $20 gazebo over and bent some poles

Should be salvageable

[h0ughy (David)]

ah so you set up near the main shed, so is that where all the imagers were banished to?? So that white scope - is that one of the orion 80mmm short refractors that bintell were selling?? DID you have 240V all night long??

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

I survived the there and back too!

It was great to see everyone...even though the skies were not "the best I've ever seen", it was still heaps better than my backyard and an enjoyable time.

I finally got to see my updated scope in action...parracor, sliding weight, telrad dew heater, Argo Navis stalk and "springy"power cable. It all worked a treat and I was able to work through my entire viewing list.

I was also able to test a new product from work...a battery operated "personal insecticide" eminator...it looked like a science fiction watch/transporter/communicator...

I can not rave enough about the parracor in my f5 Discovery Truss Dob reflector it did noticably tighten up the stars...in combination with either the the 16 T5 or the 13 T6 Naglers it was great. I really enjoyed the views through my scope.

I looked thorugh a number of different scopes and scope combination and had a nice time just catching up with people.

There was really only two things that were annoying...

#1 I was a complete lightweight going to bed around midnight both nights...work has been keeping me busy and I just found myself too tired to go all night...

#2 The other thing I found annoying was having Rod's wonderful scope so near mine... it is amazing what a big mirror can pull in.

Okay, so it was really just one annoying thing.

Cheers All!

[okiscopey (Mike)]

Congratulations are due to to Mike S. who was perhaps too modest to mention that he 'blitzed the field' in the solar system and wide-field categories of the SPSP astro-imaging competition!

[Jen]

awsome sounds like a nice weekend cant wait to see some pics

[C.A.L.]

Hi all,

First SPSP for me, and I loved it. The organisation was great and the skies were clear… and while the nights might have been cold, the company was certainly warm. And I have to thank some of the lovely IceInSpace people I met for all their help and advice, which saved me no end of frustration and certainly went a long way toward levelling out my towering learning curve.

There were some great scopes to look through, too, and I really enjoyed having that opportunity. The views through the 25” dobsonians were fantastic, but all that trekking up and down ladders to reach the eyepiece is (almost) enough to put me off owning one…

I need sleep now!

Cheers,
Cathi