icpn

here

pity Musk was not on it

unfortunately blowing a howling, biting nor'easter at Kelling which has been an issue for the larger telewscopes when observing. Alos bitingly cold even with the sun out in the wind. we have rain forecast for much of the rest of the star party, although there was an all nighter for those that could take the cold on Wednesday

Really? I have been to all the autumn events and the amount of decent clear skies has descreased to almost zero. If you are an imager and shoot through high cloud or come from a city you may think it is OK but the transparency we used to get is almost gone. We have lost the south due to Holt and the east due to Sheringham and Kelling Heath itself.

Unfortunately as expected the forecast has detirieoated significantly from a few days ago with rain at the end of the week and the clear slots, if any, getting smaller.

there are usually 200-250 people there but probably not people from SGL

i expect the usual gales and driving rain 😞

time for Sky at Night to be put to bed I think and replaced with a half decent program

The dates for the autumn event are The dates for the Autumn event have been set and are Wednesday 8th to Wednesday 15th November 2023. New moon is on Monday 13th Nov.

your best bet maybe the Kelling Heath star parties in Norfolk. They are held twice a year, although the autumn one may be difficult to get a slot at, Otherwise I guess you are looking at the northern ones in Dalby forest in August and the two Keilder ones.

What is the point? It is too far north to have dark skies when the weather is suitable and then it will have the midge problem. The weather will kill it off in the winter when the skies are dark..

not really. the margins are small in the astronomy business. Unfortunately most people use social media now so that is where the people focus their efforts on advertising so those that choose not to go there are going to be disadvantaged. This is the way of the world now.

and you can't get a car across so how you are supposed to take equipment I don't know. I guess it is for the touchy feely wellness people, and of course being Wales it is probably cloudy most of the time.

It is important to reiterate that they are not banning access but wild camping which are two different things. If you followed the stories in the media about the destruction to wild places during and after the pandemic from the yobs that would normally go to Spain you would perhaps be more sympathetic to their cause. Somebody has to pick up the mess and the fouled land aftre these people and somebody has to be paid to do that. Unfortunately in the UK people are not taught to respect other peopels property, something I found when coming the the UK from Canada, although I suspect things are probably changing there now as well.

I have one and they are really quite nice and do many other things apart from cloud cover and temperature measurments. I need to compare the sky brightness readings with my SQM meter so see how clos ethey are.

I believe it is ASLEF, the train drivers, so pretty much every service on Friday will be off.

Usually 9

It is also probably worth noting that PAS is almost entirely an imaging show so if your interest is in visual astronomy it is probably not the place to be.

From talking with Martin at the last IAS (which was very poorly attended) the costs that the Stonleigh park venue are putting up makes it difficult for them to go back there and I believe they are researching another venue..

It would be best if S@N was finally put to bed.

and I think the Kelling Heath star party as well

They have a polar bear problem then at night so I would think that doing AP alone might be a really bad idea.

The only S@N issue I buy is the Jnauary one becauseit had a good moon calendar. The only copy I have seen for sale this year did not seem to have that. Have they stopped it or had it just fallen out? I must admit it is difficult to find anybody selling the S@N magazine anymore

I suspect not as the newsletter goes to socities who pay to be part of the FAS and as such should only go to members of those socities.

I would leave the BAA until you are into "scientifc amateur astronomy". Depending on your expeince the SPA is probably a better bet.