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Salisbury star party chat


carastro

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Yes, thanks for the update.

The weather is supposed to horrendous on Thursday with heavy rain forecast. I planned to arrive midday, but I don't fancy erecting a tent in that so I may wait until Friday.:D

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Arrived at SSP today, pitched tent in nice weather, set scope up, chatted to some new people, cloud rolled in at 18:00, had burger & chips in “shed” at 19:00, rain started at 20:00, doesn’t sound like it is stopping. Nice and warm in tent with fan heater going, may go to bed soon…

Astronomy will have to wait until tomorrow….:D

Mick

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Pitched this afternoon in heavy rain, it's currently raining heavily. The forecast is that the rain will lighten tonight and possible clear sky early morning according to the BBC.

Glad the mobile wifi works :D

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possible clear sky early morning according to the BBC.

Well it was a great clear sky here in Poole early this morning hope it was good for you guys.

Just getting packed up now - will be over this afternoon.

Even though I didn't get in early enough to book an electric pitch can anyone there let me know if I have a good chance of "borrowing" an electric hookup for a heater?? I have a long cable :D

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Are we allowed to sell our pitch & hog-roast tickets?

It's been confirmed that we can sell this, so if anyone wants two nights (tonight and tomorrow) at the Salisbury Star Party you can have both nights for £35 total - including a pair of Hog Roast tickets for Saturday night.

The available pitch is for up to two adults and two children.

PM me if interested.

(if untaken today, then tomorrow I'll be offering the Saturday night pitch!)

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I got back from SSP last night.

Apart from Friday (clear until 1 hour before sunset), it was cloud, cloud and cloud - in that order. Thursday was just rain.

I managed to get a bit of solar observing done on Friday, but that was pretty much it. In the end I came home on Saturday evening because the forecast for Saturday night was rain.

I am afraid that after this experience, I won't be going to anymore October star parties.

Anyway, the talks on Saturday were great, the beer very good and, as usual, the company excellent. It was nice catch up with lots of familiar faces and to meet lots of new people. A big thanks to Stephen Green for the views through his truly stunning Lunt 60mm + 50mm double-stacked solar set up.

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Thank you to all those that I had a chat with on friday, much appreciation to Cassandra and whoever the kind gentleman was (sorry, I forgot your name,) for letting me look at Jupiter through their scopes. I could not make it back on saturday due to family matters. :icon_salut:

Did the sky clear any after I left? I got to the other side of Sturminster Newton and it was clear skies all the way to Sherborne then foggy when I got home, typical. I would love to see some of the pics cassandra took if at all possible. Hope to catch up with you another time. :D Daz.

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Hi Michael (Morris), was nice to meet you too, albeit only briefly. Now you know why I was packing up and going early, I had been there since Sunday.

I also think October is a bit dodgy for future Star parties, perhaps some consideration could be made for another month. Difficult I know with various other star parties, and late darkness in the summer, but wouldn't a late start and shorter night be better than rain, rain, rain. After all we don't have to get up for work the next day.

Not sure if I'll take the chance next year in October.

Carole

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just to clarify, we arrived on the 1st Sunday and had relatively clear skies for the first 3 nights and a little viewing on the 4th night, the highlight was of course seeing the Northern Lights at around 2am on the Monday, we just sat there mesmerized struggling to take it all in, yes clouds got in the way at times but it was later in the week when they put a complete stop to the stargazing. So 4 nights with some viewing, great company and an aural light show capped off what was a fantastic week for me.

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I also had a brilliant time, and have reinforced for myself why I always want to attend a star party for the full amount of time. Four nights with at the worst a little flit round with the dob, and at best 5 hours of solid observing plus some pretty meteors to boot. We met some old friends, made some new ones, had some fantastic company on the cloudy/rainy nights (not to mention in the daytime) and to cap it all the Aurora can now be crossed off my bucket list :icon_salut:

The talks were great and the planetarium was fun, even if it did make me feel travel-sick!

If anyone is interested here is a link to an american reporting of Monday night - the picture shows very close to what we saw. Shame none of us had a camera set up, but we were all to busy picking our chins up off the floor to go messing with equipment, we weren't sure how long the spectacle was going to last for.

Northern lights take unusual trip down south - Yahoo! News

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Hi Daz,

Cassandra here! Was nice to meet you too :icon_salut:

It clouded over again on Friday until about 5am when a lovely Scottish guy ran around waking everyone up and we got about an hour more clear skies before the mist arrived.

I've put some pics up (Salisbury Star Party - a set on Flickr) but just need to work out how to clean up a few of the star one before putting them up (actually got a couple surprisingly!)

As my first star party I just want to say that I had such a great time, even considering the lack of skies! Wanted to say a huge thank you to Tony, Paul, Jon, Allan, Steve and my transit van buddy David - and everyone else for being so friendly!

Also thanks to Darren for organising it and all the speakers which were just great on the Saturday!

:D

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WE MADE IT HOME AND THE VAN DIDN'T BREAK DOWN!!!!

Having broken down in both directions last year, and broken down on the way again this year (burst radiator hose just before we got to Salisbury), we were dreading the journey back. It was even worse when everybody wished us good luck for the journey this morning. We were afraid you would jinx us - but I guess your good wishes worked.

We'll post more later after we've unpacked the van and checked out our photos to see if any of them are worth sharing.

Dana and Marion

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Hi Daz,

Cassandra here! Was nice to meet you too :icon_salut:

It clouded over again on Friday until about 5am when a lovely Scottish guy ran around waking everyone up and we got about an hour more clear skies before the mist arrived.

I've put some pics up (Salisbury Star Party - a set on Flickr) but just need to work out how to clean up a few of the star one before putting them up (actually got a couple surprisingly!)

As my first star party I just want to say that I had such a great time, even considering the lack of skies! Wanted to say a huge thank you to Tony, Paul, Jon, Allan, Steve and my transit van buddy David - and everyone else for being so friendly!

Also thanks to Darren for organising it and all the speakers which were just great on the Saturday!

:D

Hi Cassandra

I'm glad you had a good time, and it was lovely meeting you. I also enjoyed the friendly atmosphere with the impromptu natters at each others pitch.

Just taken a peep at your images, well done especially the light scrolls.

Yes a big thanks to Darren and others for organising the event.

I hope to see you next year at the SGL7 Cassandra.

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WE MADE IT HOME AND THE VAN DIDN'T BREAK DOWN!!!!

Having broken down in both directions last year, and broken down on the way again this year (burst radiator hose just before we got to Salisbury), we were dreading the journey back. It was even worse when everybody wished us good luck for the journey this morning. We were afraid you would jinx us - but I guess your good wishes worked.

We'll post more later after we've unpacked the van and checked out our photos to see if any of them are worth sharing.

Dana and Marion

Hi Dana and Marion, great to make your acquaintance!

Robin & Hilary :icon_salut:

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I also had a brilliant time, and have reinforced for myself why I always want to attend a star party for the full amount of time. Four nights with at the worst a little flit round with the dob, and at best 5 hours of solid observing plus some pretty meteors to boot. We met some old friends, made some new ones, had some fantastic company on the cloudy/rainy nights (not to mention in the daytime) and to cap it all the Aurora can now be crossed off my bucket list :icon_salut:

The talks were great and the planetarium was fun, even if it did make me feel travel-sick!

If anyone is interested here is a link to an american reporting of Monday night - the picture shows very close to what we saw. Shame none of us had a camera set up, but we were all to busy picking our chins up off the floor to go messing with equipment, we weren't sure how long the spectacle was going to last for.

Northern lights take unusual trip down south - Yahoo! News

Hi Steph, great to meet you! Hilary is sooooo jealous, great picture from the States.

Robin & Hilary

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More thanks to Daz :icon_salut: (goes without saying really). Had a really good time - managed to get in some observing at a ridiculous time on Saturday morning (I'm not a morning person so I'm used to burning the candle at the other end).

Really enjoyed the talks & planetarium show

Met a few old faces from elsewhere and made plenty of new friends. It was my 1st SSP but certainly won't be my last (especially if it's earlier next year).

All in all couldn't fault anything (well maybe more clear skies and being able to put the tent away dry :D)

Jo & Fiona... I hope you feel a little better now (don't blame the hogroast! :))

Paul

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I also had a brilliant time, and have reinforced for myself why I always want to attend a star party for the full amount of time. Four nights with at the worst a little flit round with the dob, and at best 5 hours of solid observing plus some pretty meteors to boot. We met some old friends, made some new ones, had some fantastic company on the cloudy/rainy nights (not to mention in the daytime) and to cap it all the Aurora can now be crossed off my bucket list :icon_salut:

The talks were great and the planetarium was fun, even if it did make me feel travel-sick!

If anyone is interested here is a link to an american reporting of Monday night - the picture shows very close to what we saw. Shame none of us had a camera set up, but we were all to busy picking our chins up off the floor to go messing with equipment, we weren't sure how long the spectacle was going to last for.

Northern lights take unusual trip down south - Yahoo! News

Thanks for that link Steph, I just showed Neil so he could see what he missed - you snooze you lose!! ;-)

Nice to see the old friendly faces & a lot of new ones too. Hope everyone had a safe trip home.

All the best

Claire

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Hi Daz,

Cassandra here! Was nice to meet you too :icon_salut:

It clouded over again on Friday until about 5am when a lovely Scottish guy ran around waking everyone up and we got about an hour more clear skies before the mist arrived.

I've put some pics up (Salisbury Star Party - a set on Flickr) but just need to work out how to clean up a few of the star one before putting them up (actually got a couple surprisingly!)

As my first star party I just want to say that I had such a great time, even considering the lack of skies! Wanted to say a huge thank you to Tony, Paul, Jon, Allan, Steve and my transit van buddy David - and everyone else for being so friendly!

Also thanks to Darren for organising it and all the speakers which were just great on the Saturday!

:D

Hi,

Great photos, thanks for sharing. Shame the skies weren't better but nevermind.

I notice the glow from our tent makes it looks like we had a couple of heaters on :) (someone quite rightly described one of them as a rotisserie! ;-)

Nice to meet you

Claire

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