Star Party at Wimbleball Lake, 10th Nov?

[JamesF]

It is alleged that Exmoor Stargazers are organising a star party at Wimbleball next weekend, but I can find no information about it. Anyone else know anything?

James

[scoobee]

Hi

You are right about the star party

link below

http://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/events/3415

matt

[JamesF]

Excellent. Thank you.

James

[scoobee]

No worries, I would come up for the bash but work and timings not on my side, fingers cross for good seeings

[ronin]

Is there anything being done by one of the local astronomy groups?

As the one word absent in the SWLakes article is "telescope", and no mention that a local astronomy group will be present.

Tiverton AS appear to have disappeared and North Devon AS are now under a different website to that in Fedastro however they still appear active.

(If anyone from North Devon AS is reading then please update Fedastro. You could be losing members as the link is old and it appears as if you have also folded.)

[JamesF]

Is there anything being done by one of the local astronomy groups?

As the one word absent in the SWLakes article is "telescope", and no mention that a local astronomy group will be present.

Would be nice to know if there's anything like that happening.

Tiverton AS appear to have disappeared and North Devon AS are now under a different website to that in Fedastro however they still appear active.

(If anyone from North Devon AS is reading then please update Fedastro. You could be losing members as the link is old and it appears as if you have also folded.)

Tiverton AS's domain name registration appears to have expired at the start of last month. Unfortunately it's under a personal name, rather than the name of the organisation so if that person is no longer contactable they may well be unable to renew it. That said, I'd expect them to have registered a new domain and got everything back up using that. I managed to grab the IP address of their site and it still exists and has planned events for the remainder of 2012 and 2013 including one next Friday, though no mention of the Wimbleball Lake event.

James

[the rev]

I heard a rumour it had been cancelled, anyone know if it is going ahead?

[ronin]

Reread the SWLakes site and nothing says it is cancelled, checked the News as well and nothing there.

However an email to someone may be useful.

As said I would have expected some mention of telescopes somewhere, which was why the question about the local astronomy clubs. However if this is as stated the first then it may take a while for it to become established. It could well be a trial to see how it goes.

Also helpful if it was easy/obvious to know how to get to the place it is being held. All I see is Star Party at Wimbleball Lake, I am guessing get to Upton but maybe not. Google just sticks a pin smack in the middle of the lake.

[ronin]

According to SWLakes Trust it is still on, although a slightly smaller then they had intended.

I assume it is at the main boat place on the West edge.

Could be a good nights viewing and I suspect if anyone from SGL turns up with some knowledge they would be put to good use if they didn't mind. If there is an Exmoor Stargazers group this might be an oppertunity to help and perhaps get somewhere to have a regular observing site to meet up at. Worth a thought

[billybob]

i would be interested in this as a newbie

[JamesF]

I do feel that they've probably missed a trick by not partnering up with one of the local astro clubs.

James

[ronin]

Not sure who they could have partnered up with.

Tiverton appear to have gone, Barnstable is a fair trip as is Sidmouth.

Doesn't appear to be anything in Taunton or even Bridgewater.

They are in one of the rare dark sky sites in the UK, someone there is willing to put on an astro evening and it looks as if they have no, or little, chance of support from the astro community. Seems it did nearly get cancelled.

As said here is a chance to get involved, how many posts are there of where can I go to observe? Well here may be the chance for a good one. Although I think that many could end up lost on Exmoor. One thing is for sure if it gets no support it will disappear.

[JamesF]

I'd have thought Exmoor Stargazers would be the obvious choice as they're based in Dulverton, barely three miles from the lake itself. I thought they had at least one active member on SGL, though their website is still advertising October's events. There's also South Somerset Astro Soc, which meets in Taunton.

I agree that there's little sign of support from the astro community, but equally if they'd got some involvement from one of the local astro groups early on they'd probably be able to have rather more on offer. To me, reading the blurb on their website doesn't exactly make a compelling case for going to the "average man in the street" whereas perhaps if they could say there would be people there with telescopes able to show them Jupiter and various different galaxies and nebulae then it might. They don't even say what the talks and presentations are going to be about, and if they'd like people to turn up with telescopes neither do they suggest that there'll be room available and set aside for doing that.

That aside, the lack of astro groups in the area is a shame, but I think it's partly due to the inland areas around Exmoor being some of the least populous in the UK. It's quite hard to get a "critical mass" who can keep things rolling. I'd even be quite happy to offer here as a potential club dark site if I knew of enough people locally who might be interested.

James

[astromerlin]

That aside, the lack of astro groups in the area is a shame, but I think it's partly due to the inland areas around Exmoor being some of the least populous in the UK. It's quite hard to get a "critical mass" who can keep things rolling. I'd even be quite happy to offer here as a potential club dark site if I knew of enough people locally who might be interested.

James

Also Wimbleball Lake is a pain to get to unless you approach from the north-east side.

That aside if anyone is up for orgainsing a meet, I'm happy to show up.

It would be nice if we could have a sticky on the forum for astro events at Wimbleball.

Hate to lose it as a dark sky reserve.

[DanMcDan]

I would go up from Torbaydos if there would be a few older wiser heads than mine

Dan