Astrophotography Workshop - thoughts?

Hi everyone,

The offer to use Gonzaga in Ranelagh in Dublin for the astrophotography workshop is still open. The school has had major building work done and there is a full size lecture theatre seating 300 people available too. Gonzaga is very close to the Dundrum LUAS line, beside Ranelagh village, and well serviced by buses being only a couple of kms from the City Centre on the south side.

Drop me a line at my work or home e-mail address Dave and I can liaise with the school if you like. Might see you at the Burren Star Party also ... I'll be down on the Saturday morning.

Talk to you later,

John

I'd be up for it.

All things considered i.e. the location of the replies around the country so far, this might be worth expanding a bit more Dave Mac. It seems maybe there's a platform to offer an Astrophotography Webinar of the event. Off the top of my head, a Friday evening or a Saturday anytime would be a good choice, Gonzaga seems like a logical choice simply because of cost and logistics. I know that Gonzaga would not suit those of you from further afield, but I for one would gladly put up 2 or 3 people on an overnight stay in my gaff (Daingean, Tullamore) and carpool to Ranelagh for the event. It can be broadcast live on the web via e.g. Skype, or some other means for those who can't make it, and advertised online. I know broadband bandwidth is not a tight issue in Dublin, so the potential for lots of traffic hits could be accommodated.

Some extra change thrown in,

Seanie.

skynotes wrote:

Hi everyone,

The offer to use Gonzaga in Ranelagh in Dublin for the astrophotography workshop is still open. The school has had major building work done and there is a full size lecture theatre seating 300 people available too. Gonzaga is very close to the Dundrum LUAS line, beside Ranelagh village, and well serviced by buses being only a couple of kms from the City Centre on the south side.

Drop me a line at my work or home e-mail address Dave and I can liaise with the school if you like. Might see you at the Burren Star Party also ... I'll be down on the Saturday morning.

Talk to you later,

John

Hi John,

That's great but we'll have to see how big the demand is for something like this is. I can have a chat with a few people and get a promotion going.I have some friends that work for major newspapers I can ask them for a plug. The thing is how big or small do you want this to be.

Carl

I think it should be a hands-on workshop rather than a lecture, true the numbers would be small but I think you would learn a lot more with individual attention.

They could be held a few times a year if the teacher is up for it!

Ok this tread has gone very quiet Does anyone have an openion or any thoughts or will we just forget the whole thing.

So far, so good - this is good feedback.

Myself and Michael went over to the UK a couple of years back to an excellent workshop. We then tried to do the same here but found that getting the lads over from the UK was difficult and expensive - so we canned it.

This time round, we beilieve we have the "in-house" expertise to do this. That'll make it both easier and cheaper to organise and the cost of attending would be very good value for money.

So, we're currently working the programme, speakers etc *and* taking all this feedback on board. So here's some thoughts and further feedback.

1. A workshop is the basic idea, not a series of lectures. That said, I'm not sure exactly what precisely the "hands-on" part would be. Would we bring in a few imaging setups and talk through them? Would we try some daylight imaging? Or would it be limited to a bit of processing shown via overhead projector? What would you like?

2. I think the audience is going to be limited to probably 20 at most. Any more than that and quality would suffer to the detriment of the participants

3. Given the geographical diversity of astronomers around the country, there are a few choices available that would make sure it was as available as possible to all:

a) Have it in a central location (Athlone)
b) Have it in or close to Dublin (good public transport)
c) Run it in two or even three major cities (Dublin, Galway, Cork, Belfast - take your pick)
d) Run it anywhere we like and do a Webcast/Webinar (what a horrible word...)
e) Have it a Seanie's house (I'll be unavailable - tied to a balloon )

Each has advantages/disadvantages that would need to be detailed in order to make a final decision but we can thrash that out as we progress the basic idea.

4. The duration be a day. Sure, multiple events would be nice but its hard for folks to commit to multiple dates, especially when working. The best choice would be a Saturday - people are free from work (mostly) and you can get better deals on rooms (no business meeting etc)

5. Venue - Hotels are desperate to fill rooms. You can get good deals at the moment. Even the tea and coffee is cheap as chips... If its a school/college, that saves a lot of money and car parking is free. But its a bit harder to find such an establishment that's on a major transport route. There are other options that I can explore with some of my contacts. But for now, let's keep the feedback coming. And thanks for the offer John! It'd be a worthy consideration.

6. As regards doing actual imaging, we'd be at the mercy of the weather. With such a (potentially) complicated workshop I think it should focus on classroom based practicals. If it just so happened there was a clear sky (day or night) that would be a bonus. Of course, it would also depend on the venue - some hotels mightn;t like the idea from a safety point of view etc.

7. For the actual running order, I think we need to have a much bigger poll (there are only six respondees so far) of what people want. But Carl's list covers most of the typical items - though I would rather not include sketching. No offense to the sketchers, that's another workshop in its own right. Perhaps others on these boards would like to promulgate the idea of a sketching workshop? The one in Galway went down a bomb.

8. I think the fundamental subjects that need to be covered would be:

a) Mount and optics
b) Imaging devices
c) Calibration
d) Webcams, solar and planetary imaging
e) DSO imaging
f) DSLR imaging - including non-telescope imaging

I think that'll do for now.

Let me know what ye all think.

Cheers
Dave