Stargazing Live 2012 Dorset

[RobH]

Hello all.

I had a meeting yesterday with the national trust to finalise details of the above event.

It'll be held at an iron age hill fort near Wimborne, Badbury Rings, on the 21st January....lets get a decent SGL Dorset contingent down there ....I'll be taking a 12 inch dob and possibly a celestron Edge 11 HD.

BBC - Things To Do: Soup & Stars

Cheers

Rob

[RobH]

So.....anybody else going to be there from SGL, or is it just me, Mrs H and our trusty hound?

[Nexus 6]

well if I lived nearby I would be attending Rob, I'd like the chance to look through an HD, good luck with it

[iturner2]

I am interested, I live in Verwood, I have a modest astromaster 130

[Rob L]

I emailed the organiser last week, it's fully booked. I saw Rob's post a few weeks back so it's my fault for not checking sooner.

[Rob L]

Ian, Wessex Astronomy have organised an event at Moors Valley on the Friday

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I am interested, I live in Verwood, I have a modest astromaster 130

I live in verwood too!

[RobH]

I emailed the organiser last week, it's fully booked. I saw Rob's post a few weeks back so it's my fault for not checking sooner.

Had another meeting today....it's fine to just turn up

The site is wonderful....a very large iron age hill fort with a wooded centre and great views.

Cheers

Rob

[iturner2]

I live in verwood too!

I found the moors valley event and I will go there, as it is next door. Jimmy from Verwood, maybe I will see you there.

[BinocularSky]

Look forward to seeing you at MVCP and/or Badbury Rings -- I'll be the one with the big binoculars on the parallelogram mount at both, and also trying to guide you round the sky with a green laser at the beginning of the Badbury event (Bob Mizon has that honour at MVCP).

[BinocularSky]

The NT had limited this to 40 members of the public; I think most, if not all, turned up.

After welcome and soup in the Shepherd's Hut, we decamped to the observing area, where I gave a short introduction and invited the other astronomers present to introduce themselves. The sky was essentially overcast with a few transient gaps, through which we made fleeting glimpses of Venus, Jupiter and Sirius, and even more fleeting glimpses of the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. We did our best to entertain and inform the members of public; the feedback was positive.

By 20:30, all but three members of public had left, so we packed up. Not entirely unsurprisingly, the sky cleared once we had all teh kit packed into cars, so I grabbed a 10x50 binocular and managed to show a few people the Pleiades, Orion Nebula and Perseus Double Cluster, before the clouds began to roll in again.

The NT staff, Rob Greenhalgh and Julie Mackenzie, who initiated this event, did their utmost to respond to our requests with respect to site set-up, and this helped to make it, from our perspective, an almost seamless event. They are keen to involve us in future events, and I am equally keen that we support this. Badbury Rings is not an ideal observing site (WAS used to have regular sessions there a dozen or so years ago) with the skyglow of Poole to the east, but has an atmosphere which is conducive to astronomy.

Thanks to Rob Hodgkinson (from Weymouth AC), Bruce Longstaff, Colin Taylor, Ian Galpin, Len Telford, Richard, & Rob Hatch (all Wessex AS), who supported this event.

[BinocularSky]

PS -- Should have added to the above that RobH co-organised this event. (Sorry, Rob)

[RobH]

PS -- Should have added to the above that RobH co-organised this event. (Sorry, Rob)

You're forgiven Stephen

[BinocularSky]

You're forgiven Stephen

Phew!