I
was invited to give talks on two days of this year's Queensland
Astrofest, a 10 day dark sky astronomy camp held at Camp Duckadang,
120km NW of Brisbane. There's usually one talk scheduled each day of
the event during the afternoon, then observing and photography at
night. My mate Chris Cox was one of the organisers. He asked me
to photograph the night time activities to illustrate an article he was
going to write for 'Australian Sky and Telescope' Magazine. He
brought his 28 inch telescope called'Nocturne' up to the event. I couldn't resist featuring it in a number of photos.
A mirror full of stars
A starcano
Chris observing with his 28" monster scope
You will see reference
to the "observing field" and "astrophotography field." At
Astrofest this year, they were right next to each other due to boggy
grounds. They are usually separated by buildings.
The difference is the tolerance to indicator lights and displays coming
from equipment. The astrophotography field basically lights
itself, and just as well. There were more than 50 telescopes set up
over a large area. On the observing field, indicator lights
mustn't face towards other observers. I had to use a very faint
red flashlight to lightpaint the upper section of Chris Cox's
scope.
Don't look up!
Part of the astrophotography field.
Foggy Night at Astrofest. The upper Brisbane River runs in a big
bend surrounding the campground and neighbouring field. You can see
heavy fog in the river valley just
beyond the trees while a lighter fog was coming and going from the
field. I made a rapid fire seven panel panorama in between wafts of
thick fog spilling across this landscape.
Entry to the astrophotography field. Testar, a supplier of high end gear were a major sponsor of the event. The trail of red light was made by someone
serendiptiously walking in
front of my camera and into the field. If I had orchestrated this, it
could not have worked out better. Sometimes, you just
have to have faith and let the magic unfold in front of you. As the old photojournalist saying goes, "F8 and be there!"
There is a three section
astrophotography competition run during the event. This
astrophotography competition was created in 2006 in memory of Erwin van der Velden,
a keen astrophotographer and Astrofest regular. The competition is open
to all registrants to the Queensland Astrofest. One section is for
pictures taken without a telescope, one with a telescope or lens longer
than 400mm focal length. These photos can be taken at the previous
Astrofest or anytime during the year elapsed since and have to be
submitted before the event begins. The third section is called 'Best of
the fest' for photos taken during the event and submitted by the second
last day of the event. This year, I won all three competition
sections.
