The IceInSpace AstroCamp for 2013 was a great success!

We had 3 out of 3 beautiful clear nights, with only some slight high cloud on the Friday night, but still with lots of clear sky. The clouds added some depth to the timelapses and nightscapes so it wasn't all bad :) The days were warm, the nights were cool and clear, and there was no wind or rain. I really couldn't have asked for better weather.

IISAC2013 was the 7th IceInSpace AstroCamp! I can't believe I've been running these since we had our first one in 2006. I was just a young man then ;) Each one ages me a little more, but I also start to enjoy each one a little more, because routine sets in and I worry less about the camp itself.

Every camp has its problems, and this one was no different. We had two guest speakers that couldn't make it and no catering this year, but if you get amateur astronomers under clear and dark skies, the rest pales into insignificance and people will have a great time anyway.

I was a little worried about how many attendees we'd have, because a lot of the regulars (people I was used to seeing there each year) couldn't make it - but a great thing happened.... lots of first-timers came along!

Over the course of the 3 days, we had 118 attendees, and based on the survey so far, almost half of them were first timers! This is great news, and a great sign of things to come for future years. It was great catching up with familiar faces, but I met a lot of new people and made some new friends.

There's some great writeups and field/candid shots on the IISAC2013 thread on the forum here, and if you have a look through both the Nightscapes and Deep Space forums you'll see lots of images taken by people at IISAC2013.

The date for IISAC2014 isn't 100% finalised yet, but hoping for late-April 2014. Keep an eye out on the IISAC page for more info as the year unfolds.