Astrocamp November 2018 sunset
Last weekend ASWA Astrocamp (our bi-annual star party) was held at the Tammin Observatory in the Western Australia Wheatbelt and the weather forecast was scary.
On Friday night we had a major storm in the northern sky and scopes were packed away. On Saturday, many people left, some people arrived and left before nightfall and many never left home.
As the Saturday sunset approached, the sky was fully clouded with a thin band of clear sky at the horizon—perfect. The whole sky blazed with colour and in the north, the lightning continued abated. For the first hour of night the faithful were unsettled, but that thin band of clear sky moved east and at 9pm—CLEAR SKIES.
All the big scopes came out to play, including the society 17″ dobby. Stumps for the night were drawn at 3am after a glorious night of clear skies and many targets. All the favourite clusters, nebula, galaxies and the latest comet 46P/Wirtanen were found!!!
Apart from the astronomy, there was good social banter, a bit of maintenance, mayhem when a strong wind gust bashed our camp, lots of extra BBQ food, we met the local vixen and heard her cubs calling out and a good time was had by all.
NEVER GIVE UP!
Phil (ASWA President)
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