Scenic Rim Star Party 2019

Scenic Rim Star Party 2019

The Scenic Rim Astronomy Association held their 2019 Star Party are their Laravale facility, just south of Beaudesert, in early June. As usual the event organisation was fantastic. SRAA pulled out all the stops to make this a major regional event and the largest public astronomy event in Queensland. They attracted a host of excellent speakers ranging from academic researchers to highly accomplished amateur astronomers and niche-topic specialists. Talks were running almost continuously through the afternoon and into the evening. There were plenty of food and drink options on offer from food trucks and local astro-equipment vendors also setup pop-up shops.

A big “thank you” to all the BAS members who attended and brought their telescopes along for the public observing evening. The skies looked hopeful until the sun started to set, but the clouds drifted in and dashed everyone’s hopes. The local rocketeers tried to punch a few holes in the clouds for us, but to no avail. Let’s hope 2020 from SRAA, and all of us, some better skies.

Congratulations again to SRAA for another wonderful public astronomy event.

SRAA President, Greg Campbell, explaining the range of astronomical equipment available for the public observing session.

Tripod Astrophotography

Tripod Astrophotography

At our June 2019 monthly meeting, Mark Culley, professional photographer and highly accomplished astrophotographer www.astro-photography.com.au , captured everyone’s attention with his stunning wide-field astro-photos and tutorial talk. Mark’s talk focused on tripod dslr astrophotography using tracked and untracked approaches. His tracked photos utilised the amazing Skywatcher Star Adventurer mount and his untracked photos just relied on a sturdy tripod and Rule of 500 https://bit.ly/2AYLB2b . Mark has scouted the Scenic Rim region, south-west of Brisbane, to locate many locations that can bring landscape and night sky together to stunning effect. You might almost say his photos are “out of this world”. Mark ended his talk with an offer to organise an evening, perhaps near Moogerah Dam, for BAS members to learn from the master. Thank you, Mark. All we need now is for the clouds to clear.

Mark Culley explaining one of his stunning astro-photos.