VicSouth Desert Spring Star Party 2004

last updated 2005 July 28

About 80 people made it to this second VicSouth, and over 20 of them stayed for this year's optional third night. Which was just as well because the third night was the only really clear night! We've decided to make three nights the standard stay for 2005.
Also for the first time this year we had pre-booked the entire Lodge. This made it much easier to enforce light pollution control, and ensured that our nocturnal activities wouldn't bother other guests. Of course we will be pre-booking the entire Lodge again in future years.

Australian Sky and Telescope

A four page report of the 2004 VicSouth was published in the February 2005 Australian Sky and Telescope magazine; and we've got their permission to publish these medium-resolution page scans of the article. Click on each image to load a larger (and readable) version.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

The Lodge

The following images deliberately emphasise the Lodge and its surrounds. Hopefully this will answer a lot of the questions from the first-timers about accommodation, scenery, botany etc. For a hint of what a clear night sky is like there, set your favourite planetarium program to the Lodge's coordinates (36° 27.3' S 141° 40.1' E), early November, and a naked-eye limiting magnitude of 7.0 at zenith...

general view of Little Desert The name "Little Desert" was bestowed on the region because of its soils, and not for any low annual rainfall. There's enough rainfall here to support cereal crops and livestock. The real challenge for the local vegetation is a soil that's mostly 30 to 40 million year old ex- beach sands; whose lack of fertility imposes slow growth and the classic mallee habit in trees. The scenes shown in these two images are typical of locales that are not near one of the Desert's creeks or pools.

flowers

A mosaic image of the Lodge's smaller lawn, looking from west through to north. The left (west) side of the mosaic shows part of the camp ground. The left-most wooden building is one of the new wings of the Lodge motel. The central building is the older Lodge motel and dining hall; and the western side of the bunkroom wing is on the right. Click here or on the image for a larger version (in new window).

A mosaic image of the Lodge's main lawn, looking from west through to north; showing the eastern side of the bunkroom wing, dining hall and carpark. Click here or on the image for a larger version (in new window).

The Lodge campground, looking from west through to northeast, from about 150 metres west of the new motel wings of the Lodge. Overlaps with next mosaic. Click here or on the image for a larger version (in new window).

The Lodge campground, looking from north through to southeast, from about 150 metres west of the new motel wings of the Lodge buildings. Overlaps with previous mosaic. Click here or on the image for a larger version (in new window).

The Lodge, looking from northeast through to southeast, from the eastern side of the campgrounds. The new motel wings are on the left. The small lawn is centre left behind the trees, and the barbecue shed is on the right. Click here or on the image for a larger version (in new window).