Galway Starparty 2012 U-turn

R Newman wrote: ,MAC-now holders of Ireland's only offical Starparty.

Am, hello.. The Burren Starparty!?!
:laugh:

Can I just say one thing here, no disrespect to anyone,
and it's about the term 'Starparty'.
from Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_party

''A star party is a gathering of amateur astronomers for the purpose of observing the sky. ''

Now don't get me wrong, obviously talks and workshops etc blah are
part of BIGGER events, usually in the US or UK
BUT first and foremost those 'Starpartys' are basically group observing events.
Don't raise the issue of our weather.. Even in the UK people have to deal with it.
There are conferences such as London Astrofest and NEAF but these can't be called 'starparties'


So lets get realistic here.
We held a starparty this year in the Burren,
One of the last truly amazingly dark places in Europe!
(please don't say the burren is to out-of-the-way for people
a - that's the point &
b - it's 20min from Ennis - not exactly death valley)


We got a great turnout but you could have counted on two hands the
IFAS club people that attended (which makes no odds to us really)
but it proves that all people in IFAS clubs really want to go to is a conference.

Which is totally fine!

But like Dave said
I'm into astronomy to look through telescopes, take images
occasionally go to lectures...
I'm not into astronomy to be an 'events manager' for an astronomy conference.

I'd love love love to see an IFAS starparty.
No matter where it'd be held..

Hi Frank

Sorry about that, no disrespect intended, totally for got about the BSP

But going by your post was the WSP not part of these "BIG" events, ye had workshops, so all said was it not just an "Group Observing event"?

Ronan

I'm not quite understanding the question.

I think we've gone a little off track by trying to define what a star party is I'm sure we'd all agree that when we all get the chance to meet up we'd probably all prefer to observe more than listen to lectures but the reality of Irish weather which cycles from, mostly cloudy -> wall-to-wall cloud -> rain -> heavy rain -> biblical amount of rain -> back to mostly cloudy (almost 365 days a year, or so it feels), means that the lecture part of any conference/star party tends to be a lot bigger than it should be.

The big issue here is not "Which format is best" but who will organise and run the proposed event. Anyone I've ever spoken to (and form my own experience) has said its a massive undertaking which requires lots of work and organisation. I don't think many, if any, individual clubs have the ability to run a national IFAS event such as proposed. We all know that within the clubs there is a small core of people that take an active role in the organisation and administration of club activities and not many of those people would have the time to continue these normal club duties AND take on the additional duties required to run such a national event.

Ultimately such an event (IMHO) would have to be organised at the IFAS level by putting together a working group composed of ideally one member from each club but chaired by an IFAS committee member (IFAS Chairman?). I don't think it would be fair to expect the IFAS reps to step up to this role as thats not they signed up for but it could be incorporated into their role in the future. In this day and age of remote working, online conferencing etc. there is no reason why such a group can't be formed and successfully organise an event like this via the interwebs thingie. It would require a lot of work and regular online progress meetings to keep this on track but as the saying goes "many hands makes light work", and as long as those that volunteer for the position have their jobs clearly defined and they are active towards this goal then it can be done.

For what its worth, personally I think a national event such as this is not only achievable but also desirable. Just think of what we could achieve at such an event if we pooled our resources.

• A large national event which rotated around the country every year raising the interest in astronomy and allowing new members to filter back into their local clubs
• Reduce the level of "burn-out" of committee members from the various clubs which do/did run star parties or thinking of running club star parties
• Raise the profile of IFAS. Sorry but if you warn't in a club there is very little chance you'll know about IFAS

All of this though depends on an organised and committed group of people (in more ways than one) from a number of clubs willing to share the work evenly... of course we also need money to pay for all this but if those grants Dave talked about are available I see no reason why an event for 2012 is not possible.

I'll shut up now and go back to lurking on the site, sorry for the interruption.

Loads of feedback in this thread in only a few days, the most active the boards have been in months!

Ronan,
as I said to you you already it is a shame to see GSP be resigned. I would hope that if the opportunity presents itself to take it up again, that the club should do so.

Frank,
I smiled when I saw your suggestion for an IFAS-led event and chuckled when I saw your follow-up! It is a good idea, one that has been talked about before )prior to WSP being shelved and then thereafter too) but as has been pointed out, it is both a huge undertaking and there are other IFAS-tied events (Cosmos, SolarFest to name two) that are ongoing.

There is a total lack of national Winter time events in Ireland, that could be an opportunity. Whether a new event should be conference versus observing, I'd still vouch for both together myself. The problem we have had in Ireland for the past 4 years is weather dependability - there is none! It's not unlike our American friends who get to have almost a guarantee of clear skies (depending on location) for their events. We have to make do with what we got.

Seanie.

Oh I agree, I'd prefer both also.
It's just a niggle I have calling something
that's basically a conference with (maybe) some
(probably light polluted) observing thrown in
a starparty.
Nothing more - a semantic niggle - read no more into it.

Seanie, you're right, there was actually a moment of
"Oh christ what have I suggested here!?"
but to be fair to myself it was a brain fart
and I said I'd just let it off.

John, your bang on with all that
but all I'd say is from past experience
organising one event in the same place
each year is one thing, taking it on the road
is another.
Just on tge IFAS reps getting an
added responsibility of being event hands.
Maybe the clubs don't want to be part of it,
you cant force them to organise something
they didnt want in the first place.
To be honest, it's tough enough for us in SAC
to get people to sign up to be an IFAS rep,
even when we explain they have to really
do naff all, they still hum and haw.

We even went down the route
acouple of years ago of having a
WSP "sub committee" it was a total disaster.

It's great to see so many chatting about this.
Only thing is from again my experience
of not just SAC but of another club I was in
is that someone may spout a goid idea,
plenty will blow a lot of hot air but when it comes
down to the nitty gritty of people
agreeing to take responsibilitys the room
gos quiet.
I'd love to see it happen but as I said above
I've waaay too much on as it is..
remember guys..
it is a big undertaking.
Ask any of us that has ran one!!