Peak Star Party 2012

[NigelCampbell]

Back home now. Great to see everyone again. Got 1 good night in so that was good. Totally stoked that my 2 year old son won the under 16's bottle rocket competition. Thanks to James and all the guys for really putting in the work to make this event happen. Put me down for the same pitch for 2013!

[cotterless45]

Superb time, many thanks to all who made this event brilliant. It was great to meet folk again and show them some deep sky gems in the clear hours, neat,

Nick.

[KerryAnn23]

Last chance tonight to have a play with my newly acquired dob! Will it happen??? If not party I think to end a great long weekend, met loads of like minded people and been given loads of good advice! Wait till I go home and show my mum the new scope lol she will be having a fit hahahaaa want same pitch year please James :-)

[Marki]

Back home now. Just wanted to say what I great time I had, despite the weather! It was really great to meet some you lovely people in person; shame I couldn't have met up with all of you...there is always next year (and the weather is bound to be better then....) ! Got some great views (albeit briefly), saw some lovely scopes, received some excellent advice (including a helpful pitch from Shane which may have saved my bacon regarding proposed ep purchases ). Was kinda fun watching the Sky at Night crew at work too...wonder when that'll be broadcast?

Especially wanted to give a big vote of thanks to James and the team for arranging such a great event! Well done all and thank you :icon_salut: !

[NigelCampbell]

Here's a couple of pics from the lovely sunset on Friday evening. Red sky at night turned out to be astronomers delight.

[estwing]

yes well done James,here,here..

[nightfisher]

Im home, i was going to stay till tomorrow, but i have a rather nice scope to collect tomorrow! A big thanks to James and the marshals for making this event run very smoothly, already looking forward to next year!

Great to catch up with some old face`s, and put a face to some newer names, the night sky could have been a little better, but at least it did not rain, saturday night sunday- morning i ended up doing a Jupiter marathon.....looking at the planet through a good many kind people`s scopes

A great event and a pleasure to be there

[Jiggy 67]

Great weekend, really enjoyed it despite the observing conditions. Hats off to James for another extremely well organised event......Kerry. looking forward to find out how you get that Dob home

[Bellyeye]

Still here - decided to brave it out - after a very promising day weatherwise as soon as the sun went down - cloud!

Got some great views of the sun today though.

[estwing]

did you see that guy dragging that big dob up the driveway ...that was me

[cotterless45]

We thought that you were going to roll it!

Nick.

[Marki]

did you see that guy dragging that big dob up the driveway ...that was me

Hi - it was nice to meet you estwing! Def want a look through that telementor next time though - plus it'll be easier to get up the drive .

[Andymarrison]

Had a great time at my first star camp at PSP2012 this weekend, in spite of the weather! Thanks very much James, and the rest of the PSP crew, for organising everything - it must have taken a hell of a lot of effort. The talk by Prof. Morrison was particularly enjoyable (the sheep seemed to enjoy it, too). Great to meet Phil, Kenny and Steve, too. Hope everyone who's lucky enough to be staying tonight gets some decent weather.

[kenny k]

Had a great time last night,even tho the skies weren't great.milky way popped out a couple of times and managed to get some decent views of jupiter & Venus through moonshane's huge DOB & Andy's shmit cass when the mist cleared about 5am.

I managed to catch iss on dslr through some murky cloud earlier in evening & meet some new faces which is what starpartys are all about for me.

Huge thanks again to organisers and moonshane for tweaking my focuser,nice & smooth now.

I will definetly visit again next year and bring a tent next time.Didn't seem worth it for one night but it was quite cold in car waitin for mist to clear for two hours.

See you at Galloway Phil.

Kenny

[estwing]

Hi - it was nice to meet you estwing! Def want a look through that telementor next time though - plus it'll be easier to get up the drive .

..class bins them Marki,clear skies mate..

[jimieee]

Great weekend! I met lots of interesting, friendly, people - which I guess is what it is all about.

Winning the bottle rocket competition (for height) was a bonus

Well done to James and his team!

[Patbloke]

Congratulations and many thanks to James and the team for arranging such a brilliant event... I shall never forget the early hours of Saturday morning with Nick Lee and Paulo looking a the wonders of the night sky and my first true 'clear' observation of the great red spot on Jupiter... then watching the dawn break and withdrawing to the comfort of my weapons grade sleeping bag and quilt...

And for the first time I saw more than two meteors in one evening... at last a meteor shower observed!!! This is the kick start to hopefully a clear dark season of viewing

Thanks and well done again, your efforts are much appreciated

[haitch]

That was my 4th star party and I have to say the organisation was unsurpassed. Had a great time and met some great people.

[Moonshane]

great to see everyone again and what a superb bunch of people. got a good night in on Friday between about 2am-6am with lots of objects seen although as soon as my body realised it was 6am it started to remind me how tired I was. highlights for me were the Orion Nebula with M43 and the Running Man, the Double Cluster with huge star numbers and background peppering, M35 and it's NGC companion, Eskimo Nebula, Crab Nebula and M33. Also managed to see comet 168P/Hergenrother and great detail on Jupiter at about 5am with the GRS particularly clean.

if they do air the bit with me you'll almost certainly see that I was not completely compus mentus! had a good chat with them after the cameras stopped (much more my scene) and it's great that they are down to earth astronomers just like us who are managing to 'live the dream' and earn a living from something they truly enjoy.

made a big list of items to have a look at on Saturday but unfortunately the weather beat us then although I managed another look at Jupiter with some stunning detail at around 6am and possibly the best views of Venus I have had, showing a nice gibbous phase.

Thanks as always to James et al for organising such a great event - see you next year

[nightfisher]

Just sorted a couple of pictures from the star party, a widefield of the camping field before it filled up, a pic of my tal 100rs and i took a pic of shanes huge dob through the tal from the opposite side of the field, it still looks huge at a distance!

[cotterless45]

Just a few scopes that folk enjoyed viewing through.

Nick and LeeB.

[KerryAnn23]

All home, squeezed everything in the car...just!!! Lol mum still in bed so she hasn't seen the scope yet :-) gonna clean the base and get it upstairs out of the way for now so I can get everything else washed and tidied and put away hopefully. Great weekend, obviously shame about the weather but learnt a lot and met a lot of friends..... Linden also enjoyed it all so that's an even better plus :-)))

[Rustmonkey]

Just back home from what was this morning a rather wet camp site.

had a great weekend all be it that the stargazing was limited. Met some great people and had a laugh with Kerry and Linden who are now the proud owners of a new if not rather large baby (10 1/4 Dob). Chester was happy to play with anyone who would show him attention.

so, the weather wasn't brilliant but on a social level it was a great way to meet new ppl, to put faces to names and to stand around in the cold, fog at silly times in the morning. Managed, even during fog to get some viewing of a few DSOs and to let a few ppl to see their first real look at some of the wonders up in the sky. Thank also to Shane for giving his time up to let so many ppl look through his monster Dob and a big shout out to James and all the volunteers who put together a really well run weekend.

you speak to so many ppl and usually don't get their names, so I apologise if I don't recognise you on here but know that you are all a great bunch of ppl who all helped to make my first star party a fun experience.

I'll have my same pitch for next year please James. Touring pitch 13.

regards.

Craig.......the one with the combat jacket and the dodgy MOVEMBER [removed word] star Moustache.

[KerryAnn23]

I miss Chester already!! He was my adoptive baby for the weekend and loved the sloppy,muddy kisses lol. Mum still hasn't seen the scope but she was going on about the base saying what the blumming hell is that so just wait till she sees the cannon in my room hahahaaa. Wish it was a more frequent event as I met like minded people and it was fab to feel so relaxed albeit a bit cold. Roll on next year!!!!!!!

[Paul G. Abel]

It was a great event, thanks to James and co for putting it together, and thanks also to everyone who allowed us to interview them! I think this will be part of a Sky at Night program that's going out in January 2013, and even though it was largely cloudy (and foggy!) we still got some good stuff! I have still to develop a like for camping however!

Best wishes,

-Paul.