Hi All

Well another DUG is over and a big thanks should go tot he folks at E&S for putting on a great event.

Everyone here at Stardome is looking forward to hosting the 2011 DUG conference and planning has already begun to make it an experience you won’t forget. Keep an eye on this blog site and I will be making regular updates with information to help you with your planing and justification for travel.  We hope to have some training options available either pre or post conference to make the journey more worth while but that is yet to be arranged with the nice folks at E&S.

If you have any questions please feel to comment and communicate through this blog site, I will be regularly watching and updating it so I will respond to your comments quickly.

The fist step is to decide on the final date for the meeting, I will wait until the Phoenix date has been set then will use the same voting process they use so you can choose when you would like us to host the 2011 meeting.

Take care until we meet again in 2010 in Phoenix, look forward to seeing you all there again.

Oh, and to finish up, for those of you who missed it the New Zealand Prime Minister appeared on the David Letterman show a few nights ago to read out the top ten list (Top ten reasons to visit New Zealand).

Auckland’s Stardome Observatory is proud to put forward a proposal to host the 2011 Digistar Users Group Meeting.

This blog site has been created to support the stardome proposal and to encourage discussion about the venue and activities. There are a number of pages which will contain specific information on Auckland, Stardome and New Zealand as a whole.

As a taster take a look at this video to get a feeling for this country and what it has to offer.

Nestled in the South Pacific, New Zealand is known to locals as Aoteroa or the “Land of the Long White Cloud” and is considered to be the youngest country on earth – the last major landmass to be discovered. It has a rich and fascinating history, reflecting both our Maori and European heritage. Amazing Maori historic sites and taonga (treasures), some dating back almost a thousand years, are a contrast to many beautiful colonial buildings. A walk around any New Zealand city today shows what a culturally diverse and fascinating country we have become.

New Zealand’s spectacularly beautiful landscape includes vast mountain chains, steaming volcanoes, sweeping coastlines, deeply indented fiords and lush rainforests.

Comparable in size and/or shape to Great Britain, Colorado or Japan, New Zealand has a population of only 4 million – making it one of the world’s least crowded countries. It is a haven for those seeking peace, rejuvenation and relaxation as well as a playground for thrill seekers and adventurers. A temperate climate with relatively small seasonal variation makes it an ideal year-round holiday destination.

With vast open spaces filled with stunning rugged landscapes, gorgeous beaches, often spectacular geothermal and volcanic activity, a temperate climate and fascinating animal and plant life, and it is no surprise that New Zealand’s pure natural environment is so attractive to visitors from other countries. And the great advantage of New Zealand is there are many different landscapes, environments, and ecosystems so close to each other.