Star Parties

[The Grices]

Hello all

Has anyone been to a star party? I'm particularly interested in the astrophotography part of one. Are they held regularly around Australia?

I know there will be one held in Albury/Wodonga in early August, and we've thought about going to it - but it is a fair way away and was wondering if the benefits would be worth the trip.

Radar - would it be beyond the realms of possibility to think about organising a big one for all the people on MAS to get together for one to celebrate the first year's anniversary of the site? It would take a lot of planning etc, but if there was enough interest it might be something to think about?

Trish

[Radar]

Hi Trish,

Star Parties are very helpful for someone such as yourself. They are also a good way for you to see equipment being used and decide what gadgets and gizmos are good for you.

As far as M.A.S.com having a star party. This is on the cards, though probably not for a while though.

Does anyone have any good ideas for a convenient location somewhere in Australia for a star party?

Cheers

Ray

[Draig]

Hi Ray,

How about Woomera.

Whilst not exactly "Central" Asutralia, it is almost half way. And it's conection with Asutralia's space and rocket industry could be a good draw card as well.

Think about it, exploring the stars at night and during the day explore the rocket range or hunting for metorites in the desert. :Chessy_Smile:


Cheers Colin

[Radar]

Woomera is a good idea Col. Hmm :hmm:

[The Grices]

Hi All

Woomera is an interesting place to visit - in a past life I worked for an organisation where one of the things I did was run a national competition for school students where they had to design a payload experiment, and we took the winners to Woomera on the long weekend in October and their payloads were launched on a Zuni Rocket. I did this for 6 years! Fantastic stuff. It's a different world there - and watching the launches were pretty exciting - although Zunis are pretty small rockets (relatively speaking) and jump off the pad really quickly - if you blink you miss it.

You have to have permission to go into the restricted area where all the interesting stuff is - although I still have a few contacts and something like this could be organised. Not sure of the phase of the moon over the long weekend in October - but ASRI (Australian Space Research Institute) still launch their rockets on that weekend I think, and perhaps the two could be tied together.

The Eldo Hotel in Woomera is comfortable, and I hear has had a recent upgrade - it has lots of rooms and used to be fairly cheap, there's also a caravan park. The downside is that Woomera is a fair way from anywhere, so getting there isn't that easy. It's around a 5 or 6 hour drive from Adelaide, so for most people - those from the eastern or western states, it would mean an airfare to Adelaide, or a couple of day's drive, and then a long drive to Woomera.

Still - might have some potential - but wouldn't be a cheap weekend unless you were from Adelaide or SA.

Trish