I have had the pleasure of attending this fantastic star party twice, both with friends of whom I introduced to the hobby. Both are not active astronomers now, but do the occasional dabble in amateur astronomy. John Zhu, a close friend of mine observes with his 6" f/5 EQ 3-2 newtonian, and my other friend Yeh Yixin observes with a 76mm f/9 alt-az newtonian. Both prefer solar system objects.
My first trip to this wonderful starparty happened in 2005. John came along for the ride, as did his new (at that time) his 6" f/5 EQ. John too started off like I did, with a 76mm f/9 alt-az newtonian, but quickly traded that in (in a week!) for his 6" f/5 EQ. He never looked back. My second second trip happened in 2007. This time Yixin came along. He used my Orion 4.5" StarBlast dob extensively that night as it was just so easy to use. For the 2005 session, I had with me my Synta 102mm f/5 refractor, and in 2007, I brought along my Celestron/Vixen 6" f/5 and my Orion 4.5" StarBlast. The GS 10" f/5 never made it to the Astrofest as I had guest traveling with me and there was just not enough room in the Hyundai Excel hatchback.
QLD Astrofest attracts some really well know speakers. Some of the more well known include the late John Dobson, Fred Watson, Gary Kopff, David Malin and comet discoverers Rev Bob Evans, Bill Bradfield and Rob McNaught.
Without furthur ado, here are images from Astrofest 2005 and 2007. Pictures speak a thousand words.
Queensland Astrofest 2005 in picture-icy frost cold
My first Astrofest and boy was it cold, as in negative numbers cold. Everything was covered in frost the next morning. My fave part of the whole Astrofest was looking through Pete Robbins 30" SDM. Now I have looked through Pete's scope from SAS's dark sky site at Leyburn, but what is a good star party without looking through a giant scope? Scary being on top of that tall ladder with a slight breeze blowing but the views through the 31T5 Nagler's blew everything else away. I was glad I left that till later. My impression of the skies at Linville were good, but not nearly as dark as from Leyburn.
"Imaging field and we were smack in the middle of it. Well it was close to the dorms we stayed in. Astrofest 2005"
"John's 6" f/5 EQ in the middle of the field and my Synta 102 f/5 to the right of the field. The guesthouse with food is to the right of the picture and the office to the left. Astrofest 2005"
"Me and my Synta 102mm f/5 on EQ in Alt-Az mode. Nice wide field but horrible chromatic abberation. No contest between my 6" f/5 and this scope. Astrofest 2005"
"No pic with Pete (Robbins), but I have one with his amazing scope...the behemoth SDM 30!!!!! The dust lane in NGC 5128 was wide enough to drive a dump truck through....and there was mottling in the dust lane!!!!!! The pillars of creation in M16, the Eagle Nebula were plain as day and the central star in M57, the Ring Nebula was easy with direct vision.
The only drawback was the long line and the very tall ladder!. Astrofest 2005"
The only drawback was the long line and the very tall ladder!. Astrofest 2005"
Queensland Astrofest 2007 in pictures-hot and dry
My second Astrofest. This year we opted to buy the super cool Astrofest T's. Collected them on our way in. It has a cool milky way logo and this message : "QLD Astrofest, perfect one night, supernova the next!". We stayed in the same bunkhouse as the last time (not that we slept much as we observed throughout the night). It had double decked beds and This time round it was much warmer, despite me being fully decked out in Ugg boots etc etc. Well as they say better to stay warm than freeze. We had a bit of a problem this year with smokers in the observing field. It was kind of annoying. The things I remember from this Astrofest, Pete Robbin's 30" SDM was out of commission that night we were there as the hot weather melted the encoders on his Argo Navis GOTO system. Most memorable thing for me was winning something at the raffle during dinner (I won a Patrick Moore signed Sky at Night magazine...cool or what!).
"In the daytime we amuse ourselves with events such as the counterweight throwing event!!!!!!! Astrofest 2007"
"In the middle of a very bad drought.....if I remember correctly we were on level 7 water restriction that year. Astrofest 2007"
"Still pretty despite the bad drought. Its nice walking around the grounds in the daytime. Astrofest 2007"
"The advent of cheap, large, mass produced scopes. Me and a spanking new 16" Meade Lightbridge...someday it will be mine.........Astrofest 2007"
"While walking around, we came upon an 8" Mag1 Portaball, an Astroscan on steroids. Astrofest 2007"
"In 2007, I had with me my trusty most used scope, the Celestron/Vixen C6 (6" f/5) on my EQ in alt-az mode, and my Orion StarBlast 4.5" mini dob. Again as I had a friend travel with me in my lil' Hyundai Excel hatchback, the 10" did not make the trip. Astrofest 2007"
"As in 2005, we were once again smack bang in the middle of the imaging field.....look at all those hi tech gear!!! Astrofest 2007"
So if I were still living in Brisbane, a place I still hold dear to my heart, and a place I will always call home, I would not bat an eyelid and make the QLD Astrofest my premier and one and only star party. Check out the QLD Astrofest.
Went to the RTMC Star Party at Riverside in 2011 and that was a lot of fun, although really windy (I swallowed a lot of dirt, even inside my tent, at night). Did a lot of socializing and there were a lot of events, but didn't get much actual stargazing done.
ReplyDeleteThe Arizona Star Party in 2012 had not much people - brought my NexStar102GT and had trouble setting up the GOTO.
I'd like to go to the Grand Canyon Star Party this June, weather permitting.
It'll be very interesting to see how 2014 turns out.
I did heaps of socializing and observing at the QLD Astrofest. It was awesome.......
ReplyDeleteThis year has been crap in terms of weather so far. I miss the southern hemisphere and its treasures. One of the things I want to do is go to Hawaii if possible this year to reacquaint myself with the southern gems...been reading my Kindle copy of O'Meara's latest book Southern Gem's. Decided not to get a hard copy as most of the objects are also in the Caldwell Objects book....
I had thoughts of going to Chile either in the summer or in December to get a better look at the southern hemisphere objects (Australia/New Zealand too expensive). In the meantime, I've been trying to pick up as many southern objects as possible from Solstice Canyon the past 3 yrs.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten off to a slow start in terms of observing so far this year. Last year, I picked up 61 new objects in the month of January alone. My best month so far in my short observing career...
Jan 2014 was just all around bad. So far Feb has been pretty bad too. Been spending heaps of time doing other things besides observing. Been writing blogs, reading and basically doing heaps of grant related stuff at work....
ReplyDeleteMainly testing my Celestron Astromaster 130 and C90 Mak scopes from home so far this year, and practicing using an EQ mount. Planets look good through the C90, saw a tiny oval within one of Jupiter's cloud bands for the first time (ever!) at 138X.
ReplyDeleteYup weather is just bad all around. I think the drier air is making my hayfever act up too. Had three attacks now since January when i did not have any problems the previous years....
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound good - I used to be susceptible to colds in the winter time, but no more the last couple of years since I started eating apples and oranges/grapefruits for breakfast at work.
ReplyDeleteClear night tonight, will practice using an EQ mount with the Astromaster 130. Just center-spotted it, but haven't gotten good views through it yet because of poor seeing conditions. Hopefully tonight will be better and I'll get a good view of Jupiter and Mars tonight.
Might also head out tonight and see if I can get the Orion StarShoot to image planets. Having withdrawal symptoms due to the skies misbehaving......
ReplyDeleteStill having problems getting good views on stars and planets with the Astromaster 130EQ. Now starting to think that it's with the scope rather than seeing conditions, but I'll have to get out my Powerseeker 114 out to check and see. BTW, I've not gotten good views of the planets the few times I've used the PW114 on solar system objects.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, we'll soon find out. Good luck tonight with imaging the planets if you do go out.
I though the Astromaster 130EQ had a parabolic mirror? What is the problem with the mirror? Also shouldn't the Powerseeker 114 have sharp views of planets seeing that it has a long focal length?
ReplyDeleteThe PW114 has given me good views of Saturn (Cassini Division easily visible at powers of 100X and above), but I have yet to get a good view of Jupiter the few times I looked. But then I use this scope exclusively on DSO's away from home, rarely point it at the planets.
ReplyDeleteRe: the Astromaster not getting a good sharp focus on stars/planets, I loosened the screws on the rubber clips holding the mirror to the rear assembly to see if pinched optics is the cause. .Although I see more or less a circular shape when I defocus on a bright star. Or I could have been stuck with a poor primary mirror - there have been other complaints about this scope in this regard.
That sounds bad. Might be a problem with the mirror. You have not had the best of luck with scopes. Its always bad mirrors, pinched objectives and faulty handsets. I guess its too late to return it?
ReplyDeleteI'll need to fiddle around with it a little more before I can conclude it's a problem with the mirror. In the meantime, I have a good functioning EQ mount.
ReplyDeleteIf the problem is indeed with the mirror (I'm crossing my fingers that it's not), this will be the first time I've had a faulty mirror. Yes, too late to return.
ReplyDeleteBut the mount and the OTA rings will be perfect for my 130/650mm Bushnell Ares 5 if the Astromaster 130 mirror turns out to be a dud. Got the scope on a Costco Christmas sale online ($40 rebate) for less than the retail price of the mount alone.
Sell the OTA for parts lol on e bay or Astromart. That's what I did with my bird jones 150mm. I really need to get another mount.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's something to consider - but not sure anybody would want an Astromaster 130 OTA if it has a subpar mirror. In the meantime, still holding out that it's due to poor seeing, despite the clear nights we've been having lately. I'm getting concentric circles when I defocus on a bright star, so no problem there. Or maybe it's just the thick spider vanes holding the secondary. Will get in touch with others who have used the scope.
ReplyDeleteAgain, recommend the Vixen Mini-Porta if its for your small scope (load capacity is about 7.5 lbs). I used it mainly for my Starblast 4.5, but also for the ST80 and SkyScanner as well. It could also work for my Astromaster 76 OTA if I feel the CG2 mount doesn't work for that scope, since there are no rings to rotate the scope to get it to a comfortable viewing position.
Yup you should test further and see if there is something you can do. Otherwise just use the mount I guess.
ReplyDeleteI have been considering the Mini Porta since I like my Porta so much, but then again I have been thinking of getting a small EQ mount. Oh well will see how we go.
If the weather report holds, I am planning to go to Malibu either this Friday or Saturday.
Yes, I checked out the weather report for this coming weekend as well - will go if it holds. Never used an EQ mount at Malibu.
ReplyDeleteSo you will be using EQs at Malibu? Which one will you be using with your 114 Powerseeker? I hope to bag a couple of galaxies with the 102GT and DSI and maybe try out the Orion SSDSI II again.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get the Powerseeker 114 OTA to balance on the CG3, believe it or not (originally it came with an EQ1 mount). Not sure - I might go to my storeroom and pick up the Starblast 4.5 with EQ1 mount, but we'll see.
ReplyDeleteI think it is the torque from the long tube more so than the weight since it is pretty light. You need a shorter tube to go with the smaller mounts. All your EQ's are EQ1 equivalents. For the 114 Powerseeker you probably need a EQ2 equivalent! The latest weather reports looks dismal. Damnabit! Btw selling my Orion StarShoort DSI II as I found a used Meade DSI II C (same specs as the Orion and it has a bigger chip than my current DSI.....the advantage is that I already have the software installed and can run both camera's simultaneously and I am used to the software...hurrah!)
ReplyDeleteActually the CG3 is an EQ2 equivalent (the CG2 is EQ1 equivalent) and comes with two counterweights. I'll try fiddling around with it again, but it seemed like one counterweight was not enough and two was too much. As an example, the Astromaster 90 also came with a CG3 mount, but only one weight was required, while the Astromaster 130 requires two.
ReplyDeleteCrossing my fingers it'll change for the better - if not, I'll just observe from home (e.g. planets, EQ mount target practice).
Great - looking forward to seeing the pics from the 2nd generation DSI.
Using the counterweight from the EQ1 on the CG3 mount should balance the PW 114, I think.
ReplyDeleteTry it as see if it does....
ReplyDeleteYes... Also need to try the C90 Mak on the CG2 mount that came with the Astromaster 76. The problem with this scope is that the dovetail is screwed on directly to the OTA, no rings. So there's no way to adjust the focuser to a comfortable eye level when your slewing the scope around. No rings on the C90Mak either, but all you need to do is rotate the star diagonal to a comfortable eye level.
ReplyDeleteThe finder is going to be in an weird position, just like on my Travelscope 70 when mounted on either the Porta Mount or the NexStar mount as it has the dovetail screwed onto the OTA.
ReplyDeleteYes, the finder will be in a weird position on the C90Mak if I use it on an EQ mount. Best thing to do is buy rings and a dovetail bar for it, if I'm serious about using it for astronomy. Even for alt-azimuthal viewing, this is essential for mounts such as the Orion VersaGo II or Vixen Mini-Porta (the Astromaster alt-az isn't really suitable for astronomy).
ReplyDeleteThe counterweight from the EQ1 mount balances the PW 114 on the CG3 mount perfectly, because it's about 1-1.5 lbs. heavier than either of the two counterweights that come with the CG3.
I once again feel the urge to get an EQ mount lol
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you finally got your EQ1. I've got two of 'em - need to start using them on my Starblast 4.5EQ and Short Tube 80A, both of which came with tube rings. I'm also thinking about getting 3" tube rings for my Astromaster 76EQ - it came with a CG2 mount (equivalent of an EQ1) but no tube rings (a dovetail is screwed directly onto the OTA), which is not good.
ReplyDelete