Salisbury star party chat

[dark knight]

From experience I would not rely on the long term weather forecast, Sixpenny Handley has a habit of producing some great skies even when the Met Office et al say otherwise. This location seems to reside in its own micro climate.

[cloudbuster]

lets just keep our fingers crossed for some good skies....by the way, i'll be the one with a sniff and a bark.....with a face to match! Follow the micra for a beer!

[astrokat]

Last year weather was **** every day and cleared up nearly every night fingers crossed for the same

[jabberwocky]

I'm arriving on Wednesday and promptly going again as I may have to pop Home wed night, I'm only 45 min away so may to and fro a bit. I'll be the bleary eyed one arriving straight from a 12 hr night shift, and no idea what I'm doing, swearing and muttering whilst attempting to erect my tent.

Other than sleep what do people do during the daylight hours? Pub?

[stargazer1980]

Eat, drink, be merry and drink some more and play guitar. Have a bit of a sing song and then back onto the drink again and when its clear.........we do the same and then feebly attempt to play with our scopes

[stargazer1980]

The website states "daily talks" or I'm looking at the wrong info? Also will there be any trade stands in attendance? Also is the website info up to date or will you be adding additional speakers etc?

Cheers,

Matt.

Hi Matt,

Apologies, but that was an error on the website which I have now corrected. A bit late I know so apologies for that.

We did try to get additional speakers but some were off filming or unavailable, so its all up to date now.

Thanks

Darren

[Big_Daz]

Hi all, would it be ok to crash your party on sat 29th for the evening just to have a look around/chat/view ect. I am a complete beginner to stargazing however have always been fascinated with the night sky, I do not own a scope yet but would like to get an idea of what I could expect to see through different scopes.

I have been on your website so will observe the required etiquette. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks. Daz.

[michigander]

Hi all, would it be ok to crash your party on sat 29th for the evening just to have a look around/chat/view ect. I am a complete beginner to stargazing however have always been fascinated with the night sky, I do not own a scope yet but would like to get an idea of what I could expect to see through different scopes.

I have been on your website so will observe the required etiquette. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks. Daz.

Seems like Darren is busy with last minute preps, so I'll answer for him.

Of course it is OK to drop by. We'll be at Church Farm campsite in Sixpenny Handley. Look it up on Google maps - the campsite is up a little lane which turns off the main (only?) road as it turns a bend right in front of the church. If you're coming from Shaftesbury direction look for the 'Recycling Centre' sign on your left, from Salisbury the signboard for the campsite is pretty prominent on your right.

Marion

[stargazer1980]

What the man above said. Yes of course its fine.

Busy getting everything sorted now so see you all there and have a safe journey

Darren

[Steve]

Have a great time everybody and hats off to Darren and his team for pulling it all together

Would have liked to be there again this year but need to be home over half-term. Hopefully next year.

[vegaandarctures]

I'll be arriving on the Saturday please feel free to come over and say hello.

[NickK]

Jealous of you folks sitting in the sun..

This weekend I've moved the gf into my place, ~20hour polish trip this week and then I get to sit back and relax

Looking forward to it - even if it means sitting inside in the rain!

[GarethA]

Well it's clearing up nicely in Poole so looks good for tonight!

I'll be up there with the family - for our first star party - on Friday and Saturday nights.

Cheers

Gareth

[NickK]

Any pics yet?

[wolf359]

I'm booked for all nights and plan to drive down Tuesday and stay for as long as weather permits.

It's my first star party and I'm looking forward to some decent conditions away from the light pollution of London.

Thanks again to Darren.

Best regards, Nick.

[dobserver]

We've had two cracking nights so far, visually at least. Last night was amazing, at about 2pm we were treated to a beautiful display courtesy of the Northern Lights. Those of us lucky enough to still be up saw an amazing red-orange glow with straight shafts of light slowly moving along the red patch. I really can't do it justice with words, shame nobody had their camera set up at the time! They are all set up ready for tonight just in case we could be that lucky two night on the trot.

[carastro]

The sky might have been fabulous last night after midnight ish but the weather that went before it was foul, driving wind and rain I was ready to pack up and go home, everything was wet, even the tent roof was leaking and others had the same problem.

But having given up in despair at the weather and gone to bed I missed the aurora last night and now the wind and the worst of the rain seems to have gone, I am stopping on.

I think every-one has now declared their wish to be woken up if the aurora appears again.

Hint Hint!!

Carole

[SlipperySquid]

It's going to be clear tonight...all night! But don't know about the rest of the week!

[adamsp123]

I have decided to chicken out ... cluck cluck.. the weather is better here than down south ... amazing that. My tent would never have held up... nor me.

Good luck everyone, hope you get some good clear spells.

[jabberwocky]

northern lights in southern england! i know the sun is ramping up in activity but thats amazing, gutted im not there until wednesday night

[jabberwocky]

According to the met office Wednesday night is the only remaining potentially clear night for the rest of the week, but you just never know, I was out and about all night last night and all I could see was rain and clouds yet you guys had good skies, eventually. See you tomorrow.

[James]

Unfortunately I couldn't make this one (having been to most of the previous ones)) as half-term and a house move have gotten in the way but, for those who are uncertain about the weather the SSP in my experience has provided the most clear nights per night attended of any of the star parties (just three nights out of ten attended have been cloudy).

Hopefully you all have a good time and some clear skies

[JonH]

Wow, Northern Lights, that would've been amazing. It was crystal clear here over Somerset around 4am this morning but I didn't notice anything unusual in the northern sky.

Looking forward to seeing you all there tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed for clear skies (and crossing everything else for dry weather:icon_eek:).

Cheers,

Jon

[Freff]

Keep the info coming folks. I'm arriving on Thursday and don't want to be put off by poor Met forecasts and miss anything.

[dobserver]

We had three good hours last night in between the pounding rain and the misty dew that saturated everything. But out of three nights here we've had three nights viewing, so I'm happy as a pig in muck. Tonight is supposed to be a cracking sky too...