A few readers here may have also used IceInSpace from time to time, so this message is for you.

As IceInSpace continues to grow, it’s important for us to learn more about our great community – to see what makes you tick. We want to find out more about your interest in astronomy, the type of equipment you use and how often you use it, where and how you do your observing or imaging, and more.

We’re also very keen to learn more about how you use IceInSpace – how long you’ve been visiting, how often you visit, what sections you use the most, and what you want to see more of at IceInSpace.

We want to make sure we’re providing you with the right content, the right features and functionality, and ensure we provide you with what you need to get the most of our your IceInSpace experience.

To do all this, we’re undertaking our first major market research of our community – in the form of the IceInSpace Community Survey 2010. Your responses will help us make IceInSpace even better and continue to grow even stronger over the next 5 years.

The survey is 4 pages long, consists of 27 questions and should take you about 10 minutes to complete. Your participation in this research is completely voluntary - all questions are optional and you can withdraw from the survey at any point.

Your survey responses will be strictly confidential and data from this research will be reported only in the aggregate. Your information will be coded and will remain confidential.

If you have questions at any time about the survey, please Contact Us at IceInSpace. You can also post any thoughts or discussion about the survey in this thread on the IceInSpace Forum.

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey now by clicking on the link below:

IceInSpace Community Survey 2010

Over 500 people have already completed the survey – so please add your weight to the market research so we can make IceInSpace even better.

Thanks

Hi all

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had any news or images to post – sorry about that. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks both at work and at home.

Work has been flat out, as I’ve taken on new responsibilities since a colleague resigned, and trying to come up to speed with all the work he was doing and managing new staff has been very time consuming.

And at home, it’s been a very mixed bag. Unfortunately my Nan passed away last week (she was 82), and we had her funeral on Friday. So it was a very sad week.

My Nan on her wedding day (centre)

My Nan about 2 years ago

Dealing with all of that has meant I just haven’t been in the right head-space for astronomy. My motivation is at an almost all-time low at the moment. The last 3 weeks has seen fairly reasonable weather, probably with 10 or more clear nights, but I haven’t been outside once.

The consistent terrible seeing from earlier in the year has tainted me and I just have no confidence that seeing conditions will be good. I need to find some enjoyment in astronomy again, getting together with friends and just having fun.

Hopefully IISAC2009 will be a turning point. Only 5 weeks to go, so not long to wait! I need to finish organising it!

Thanks for being patient – hopefully I’ll have some new images to post soon.

Astronomy Calendar 2010 (front)

The Astronomy Calendar 2010 by Astrovisuals features 12 great images and provides a nightly guide to what’s visible in the sky, including moon phase, planetary positions, eclipses, lunar occultations, conjunctions and meteor showers. Includes summary of the year indicating best time to view the planets. Maps best for 25° to 45° south latitude.

Other Features

• Additional Star Maps show the planets in the pre-dawn and post-sunset sky, especially showing interesting conjunctions of the planets.
• Summary of the year indicating best time to view the planets and other events.
• Daily reminders of eclipses, conjunctions, and meteor showers.
• Designed for use in Australia and NZ. Maps useable in South Africa.

New for 2010: The calendar is 20% bigger this year (23 x 33cm, opens to 46 x 33cm) and features more images by some of Australia’s leading Astrophotographers.

To place your order, follow the instructions on the Astronomy Calendar 2010 Info Page.

2 of my photographs appear in the 2010 Calendar (Mr February and Mr August! :)) I use the calendar to help me plan for upcoming celestial events so I can get out there and take some beautiful photographs of conjunctions etc.

Astronomy Calendar 2010 (back)

Through IceInSpace, I’ve organised a bulk order of the Astronomy Calendar 2010, and you can now order your copy online for only $18 each which includes postage to your door (within Australia). You will receive a 10% discount if you order 2 or 3 calendars in the same order.

The Astronomy Calendar makes a great christmas gift! The benefits of getting your calendar through an IceInSpace bulk order are:

1. Low cost (10% discount if you buy 2 or 3 in the same order)
2. Delivery to your door (within Australia)
3. You support IceInSpace!
4. Three IceInSpace Stickers included free! (while stocks last)

To place your order, follow the instructions on the Astronomy Calendar 2010 Info Page.

Bellingen and Dorrigo have had some incredible rain lately, being flooded and blocked off both in February and April.

My mum lives in Bellingen and works in Coffs Harbour and sent me these pictures. I’m not sure who took them but they are just incredible so I thought I’m share them here.

Anyone who has driven from Bellingen up the mountain road to Dorrigo know what a drive it is. Both scary and amazing. A very windy road, very narrow in parts, but also beautiful – what a view and some great waterfalls along the way too.

Not sure how beautiful it would be to see this on your way up!

Dorrigo Mountain Road Cut Off

Continue reading to see all 8 photos. Read the rest of this entry »

On the 25th January, my son Jacob and I went to watch our first A-League football (soccer) match between the Central Coast Mariners and the Melbourne Victory at the Central Coast Bluetongue Stadium. We’d never been to see a live game before so we were both excited!

The result of the game wasn’t really going to change the shape of the finals series as both teams had already guaranteed their spot in the final 4. Still, it was a great game to watch although the Central Coast went down 1-0, with Melbourne scoring a goal in about the 79th minute.

I took my camera along to record some photos of the game. Hopefully they portray the mood and atmosphere of the event. All shots taken with the Canon 20D. Wide shots were captured with the Sigma 17-70mm lens and close-ups were with the stock 75-300mm lens.

Central Coast Stadium

Please continue reading to see more photos from the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well so far today hasn’t gotten off to the best start.

The Titan Transit occurred this morning – a very rare event which I was planning and hoping to capture, but after days of clear and hot skies, the southerly change came literally about 1 hour before the transit begun. So it was completely obscured by clouds. I haven’t seen any other reports or images yet but I’ll post here when I do.

Nevermind, can’t control the weather. I’ll try again at the next opportunity on February 24th.

Also this morning I attempted to upgrade my version of WordPress to 2.7 (the latest version), which has some cool new features such as threaded comments and a new admin interface – but unfortunately the upgrade failed. I started debugging through several files but gave up when the files became too large and too complex.

So I had to roll back and restore from the backups. The only positive news there, is that the backup/restore process has been tested and works fine! (phew!)

I’ll attempt another upgrade using a different process maybe tomorrow morning.. wish me luck!

One thing that didn’t fail was on Saturday – the Wedding Shoot! All went to plan, we had a great day. I’ll post more news about that and some pictures in the next few days or weeks. I took about 650 shots and have whittled them down to about 300 now, and will need to go through another round of culling before I attempt to process them!

I hope my luck for the rest of the day improves! Thanks for reading.

Well today (5th February) is my birthday, and I’ve turned 34 years old. I guess getting close to mid-30’s should feel pretty old, but actually I’m feeling pretty good about it. So far I haven’t really felt bad about getting older. That’s not to say I haven’t noticed changes. My metabolism changed when I hit 30 and I just couldn’t eat whatever I wanted and still stay thin like I used to be able to do. I had to actually work at it and watch what I ate a bit more (I do love my food).

However since starting Karate at Black Belt Martial Arts about 2 years ago, the training alone has definitely helped keep me fit and keep me thin. I haven’t really had to do any extra exercise except the karate classes to maintain my weight. My wife Kate has been a great help and inspiration though too. She started doing some serious exercise (mainly on the treadmill at home) last year and lost a lot of weight in the year. Along with that we’re both eating better, eating healthier and staying off the junk food (well, mostly!).

Please continue reading as I ramble some more and talk about some upcoming Karate tournaments I plan to enter.

Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: Results of my First Wedding Shoot – Tanya and Marvin.

I’ve never really done much people photography. The odd family photo here and there but my main interest and passion has been landscape photography and of course astrophotography.

So you can imagine it came as quite a shock to me when a few weeks ago, Tanya (a friend and ex-work colleague at Ericsson Managed Services) asked me to photograph their upcoming wedding! My first reaction was a combination of shock, fright, nervousness, denial, interest and excitement.

Sydney Harbour Wedding Practise

But pictured here you can see a practise shot of the location! You may be saying “You’re crazy man! Leave it to the professionals!”. And you’d be 100% right. So what influenced my decision? 

Continue reading to see how I got myself into this, how I’m preparing for the event, and to see some more of the practise shots.

Read the rest of this entry »

Does anyone set themselves New Years Resolutions? It’s always about this time of the new year where the New Years Resolutions get set, or maybe, the plans you’d set have been broken already.

I’ve never been a big fan of setting New Years Resolutions and hadn’t set myself any for 2009. However last night while at Karate, Kyoshi Mahler (Master Instructor) mentioned how she had set her 2009 goals during the day – and how the goals need to balance in your life, and how you can use them to achieve what you want in the various aspects of your life.

Categorising your goals, as Kyoshi Mahler did, seems a good way of breaking them up and hopefully making them achievable. Setting goals for the year, as opposed to a New Years Resolution, made more sense to me so I sat down last night and worked on mine.

Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies for the lack of updates recently – it’s been a pretty crazy week at work. It started with the horrible news that half of my team are to be made redundant, which took place last Tuesday, and ended with a work conference and christmas party on Friday.

Mike with dancers in the background

Read on to read more and to see more pictures from the xmas party!

Read the rest of this entry »