ASWA Astro Camp

[centroid (Dave)]

I visited the ASWA astro camp on Saturday, which was held out at the Dryandra Woodland, about 168km SE of Perth.

Although it had rained heavily on the Friday night, Saturday dawned, dry and bright, but with a lot of cloud.

I arrived at the camp at lunch time. As the afternoon progressed, the cloud was clearing, and by late afternoon, the sky was clear .

As a visitor from UK, seeing the Southern night sky, from a dark location, was a fantastic experience. There was a degree of light pollution, and the source was Venus . Once Venus had set, we were then into a seriously dark sky.

I enjoyed a great evening with a great bunch of people, and had the opportunity to see many southern sky DSOs, through a variety of scopes, up to 17.5".

Thanks to all those members of ASWA who were attending the astro camp, for making a visiting amateur astronomer from the Northern Hemisphere, feel so welcome, showing me around the southern night sky, and letting me use their scopes.

A memorable experience!!

Dave

[erick (Eric)]

Dave.

So what did you see? What was really really good?

I set up Saturday night at dark sky site..........and looked at horizon to horizon cloud cover for about 4 hours before packing up and going home. next time.

Eric

[centroid (Dave)]

Hi Eric

Well, the list was extensive, but to name but a few:

The Tarantula, Triffid, Lagoon, Swan, and 47 Tuc .................etc

All objects that I can't see from back home.

Dave

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Good to hear you enjoyed it, Dave. Next time you'll be one of the crowd, not a stranger! Always good to put a face to a name.

Eric, I would have called the seeing 'average' for our part of the world. But it was enough to have a good poke around at some favourites.

[centroid (Dave)]

Hi Jacquie

I can assure you that I felt far from being a stranger, and actually felt like I was 'one of the crowd'.

Having been along to a couple of club meetings prior to Dryandra, many of you I'd already met.

As I said, a great afternoon/evening, with great bunch of people.

See you all again in Feb 2010.

Dave