Southern Astronomical Society QLD Astrofest

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QUEENSLAND ASTROFEST 2008 CAMP DUCKADANG

QUEENSLAND ASTROFEST 2006 CAMP DUCKADANG

Information for the photographs:
1) Group photo of participants in the QLD Astrofest for 2006
2) Members of the Southern Astronomical Society Astrofest 2006
3) Julian West from SAS wins 1st prize, many thanks to Lex Nielsen from Star Optics Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast.
4) The winner of the inaugural Erwin van der Velden Trophy for Astrophotography was Geoff Johnston with his image of NGC 3372 - The Eta Carina Nebula. The perpetual trophy and certificate was presented to Geoff by Ilse Anker-van der Velden (Erwin's sister), who travelled to the Queensland Astrofest from the Netherlands, Ilse is also a member of the Southern Astronomical Society in Australia.

QUEENSLAND ASTROFEST 2005 CAMP DUCKADANG

'Queensland Astrofest 2005'

What another exciting Astrofest we've had this year. SAS member Peter Robbins had his new 30" telescope on show and what an amazing astronomical instrument. Peter spent many hours every night showing the beauty our night sky to the many people game enough to climb the ladder to the eyepiece. A new meaning to a stairway to heaven…..what a fantastic view of our universe!

Congratulations to Renato Langersek who achieved a once in a lifetime moment in contacting Australian astronaut Andy Thomas on the International Space Station. Andy then proceeded to send us all a greeting at our Astrofest event, which was wonderful to hear. You can hear the whole transcript on the SAS web page at http://www.sas.org.au/renato/ISS_qso_with_KD5CHF.mp3

It was very exciting being beside Julian West in the field, as he took some absolutely stunning images of the Helix Nebula & Swan Nebula with his Starlight Xpress MX5C camera and 10 inch LX200 telescope. Please see some of these images and more on his photo page at http://www.sas.org.au/julian%20West/Julian%20West.htm

Many thanks to all the QLD Astrofest committee, for doing a terrific job again this year, especially Tony & Anne-Louise Surma-Hawes & Pat Pearl. Many thanks also to all the sponsors for the incredible prizes that were donated for the raffles.

SAS took the lion's share of the prizes with Peter Marples taking out the two top prizes of telescopes. Peter kindly donated the Dobsonian telescope to me, for the students of the 'Pimpama Junior Astronomy Club' at Pimpama State School here on the Gold Coast. It was very much appreciated by the students and their principal Craig Larden. Thank you Peter, we're going to have a lot of fun with it!

Please find some of my photographs from this years 'Queensland Astrofest 2005 at Camp Duckadang'. It's so wonderful to meet so many people who all share the same passion for astronomy and space as I do, see everybody again next year for Astrofest 2006.

Many kind regards
Noeleen Lowndes

Peter Robbins & Phil Pidgeon Peter & his 30" Dob
Colin & George Solar Viewing Eddie Tremarchi's Milky Way
Julian West Colin & April Chris Wheeler & Richard
I Won! Peter Marples & Blair Renato talks to Andy Thomas in the ISS

QUEENSLAND ASTROFEST 2004 CAMP DUCKADANG

The weather on Friday & Saturday night was just perfect with magnificent dark skies and spectacular views of our beautiful Milky Way.

Many many thanks to the wonderful job the committee did in organising another fantastic astrocamp. On Saturday many astro goodies were on display by the vendors and yes I took the bait and brought some great fun items....the green laser is fantastic!

The prizes for this years raffles were incredible, telescopes, binoculars, DVD's, green laser pointers and lots more! To our amazement most of the prizes were won by 'SAS' members! Thank you to the vendors for such terrific prizes.

'Looking forward to Astrofest 2005'
Noeleen Lowndes :

Photos by Noeleen Lowndes