Re: Australia Octobert 2009

  Thanks for the important information Paul. 

 Did you go on your own to Coonabarabran or with a group?  Did you take a scope or were they provided by the 3RF group (John Barnbury, Tony Buckley, Gary Kopff and others)? What were the weather conditions during your stay in October? Sounds like you had a great time. Would love to read any TAC post that you have on the trip if they're in the observing archives.

Thanks again,

Dennis

Paul <palsing@No-Spam> wrote:

From: Alsing, Paul <palsing@No-Spam>
Subject: Re: [TAC] Australia Octobert 2009
To: "TAC mailing list" <tac@No-Spam>
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 1:32 PM

Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 11:41 AM
To: TAC mailing list
Subject: Re: [TAC] Australia Octobert 2009

  Will check and see if Magellean Observatory is  available at that time.

  Were your there in October?  What was the weather like?

  Did you need to get a special international driver's license or is a California license good enough?

  Thanks again and good to hear from you.

  Dennis

--- On Tue, 6/30/09, Shneor Sherman <szsherm@No-Spam> wrote:

From: Shneor Sherman <szsherm@No-Spam>
Subject: Re: [TAC] Australia Octobert 2009
To: dbeckley94510@No-Spam, "TAC mailing list" <tac@No-Spamst.net>
Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 11:19 AM

Google Magellan Observatory and call or email the owner; see if his servo-catted 24" in a dome is available when you want to rent it. You only pay for decent observing nights, but you'll have to pay for every night at the guest house (which has a well-equipped kitchen).
I rented a car in Sydney and drive south, about 2/3 of the way to Canberra. You can also take a train to the nearest town and will be picked up. (There are a couple of supermarkets in the town, and you can stock up on provisions there). Driving, BTW, is on the "wrong" side of the road...That's as far as memory goes, though I may be able to find more detail in old email.
Clears,
Shneor

--- On Mon, 6/29/09, dbeckley94510@No-Spam <dbeckley94510@No-Spam> wrote:

From: dbeckley94510@No-Spam <dbeckley94510@No-Spam>
Subject: [TAC] Australia Octobert 2009
To: tac@No-Spam
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:05 PM

I need some group input on an observing trip to Australia that I'm planning on doing over the new moon period in October 2009.  The round trip non-stop airfare from SFO to Sidney is as low as $588 on expedia or $689 on Quantas.  If you have MegaStar or some similar planetarium software program input Sidney for your location and October 19th as the date and print out two charts - one at 10:00 pm and one at 3:00 am and you'll see why I'm so excited!

The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud regiions are very high and up all night. The eta Carinae regions arise very early in the morning. Just about every cool Souther Sky Object is there for the viewing!  Hard to imagine a better time to be there!

Normally the Obsession Group has a party going over and has big scopes set by the local Australian observers at Coonabrabran. However this year their big party was in March.

I know many TACO's have done the trip (Steve Gottlieb, Albert Highe, Bob Jardine, Shnear Sherman, Darrell Lee and others) and I'd like to know how they handled trips to Coonabrabran or the Magellan Observatory.  Like to know things about renting scopes over there, travel, lodging, the weather in October, all the little details so I can start making plans.

Although this may be a little off-topic observing in Australia and how to do it may be of general interest to the group. I can also be reached privately at dbeckley94510@No-Spam  The airfare to Australia has always been the limiting factor for two people but now, thanks to the economic downturn, Australia is much more affordable so no more excuses for me.

Thanks for all your input.

Dennis Beckley

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

June 28, 2009: TAC Web Page Updated http://observers.org/TAC.cgi/Announcements/
Star Party! CalStar: Sept 17-20: http://www.observers.org/CalStar
TAC mailing list - to join, manage, or leave: http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/tac

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

June 28, 2009: TAC Web Page Updated http://observers.org/TAC.cgi/Announcements/
Star Party! CalStar: Sept 17-20: http://www.observers.org/CalStar
TAC mailing list - to join, manage, or leave: http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/tac

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

---
June 28, 2009: TAC Web Page Updated http://observers.org/TAC.cgi/Announcements/
Star Party! CalStar: Sept 17-20: http://www.observers.org/CalStar
TAC mailing list - to join, manage, or leave: http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/tac


      

---
June 28, 2009: TAC Web Page Updated http://observers.org/TAC.cgi/Announcements/
Star Party! CalStar: Sept 17-20: http://www.observers.org/CalStar
TAC mailing list - to join, manage, or leave: http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/tac