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Galloway Star Camp 2014


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Hi all just want to say thanks to everone for making myself and Dawn welcome at our first ever star party, allready booked up for next one in feb, cheers to Robert for the info on allignment and Mike for your help and cool mod ideas. Got some nice images for our first attempts last night, again thanks guys for all your help and advise.

jim&dawn

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Well I have to say that I was encouraged by the number of people that disregarded the gloomy weather forecasts and made their way to Galloway for the star party. I was only there from the Thursday until the Sunday and gathered that I had missed the better skies that those who arrived earlier in the week enjoyed. It is always a bit hit and miss when you go to a star party as you are so reliant on the skies being clear for a predetermined point in time. It was disappointing from an imaging / observing point of view , but as astronomy is normally a solitary pursuit I  find that  the social aspect that star parties provide is fantastic. OK, I almost got an image of some stars, I almost got some images of the sun, I didn't manage to get my dob out of the car and my mount, with cameras and scopes attached, blew over on the Friday BUT I did meet a lot of very friendly and entertaining like minded individuals. And that, i am very grateful for. I am not going to name names, they know who they are (can't remember all the names or which Avatar they have anyway) but their craic and generosity was faultless. That's what its all about, having a good time, regardless - and I certainly did!

I hope and look forward to seeing some of the images that people hopefully captured on the Sunday night, after I had departed - ya lucky b*ggers. I will certainly be returning next year, ever the optimist, for clearer skies. I would like to thank all the people that put time and effort into organising the event, without you it would not have happened.

Clear skies,

Ian

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Well i finally & reluctantly made it home...... set of from Galloway at 15:10 and arrived 23:40. Hour and a half of ridiculous roadworks add to the delays but other then that no dramas. All the big bits out of tha van

Big thank you to everyone but especially Mike & Kieran, will be deffo back for end of next year and will try to do feb as well.

I'll see over the next two days if i got any good data from Sunday night and hopefully get something posted soon

Great time, great event and looking foward to next year.

Cheers Guys

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Hi

I'll add my thanks to Lesley for the great hospitality and facilities once again.

So glad we stayed on for the Sunday night :smiley:

It was great to actually take away some data, although at the beginning of the night that looked in doubt.

Not sure which pile of gremlins struck but we certainly had "technical issues" to work through before we could do any kind of imaging.

Was great to have a look through different scopes, especially the solar ones on Sunday (thanks Ian and Robbie for that)

Glad I'm not back to work till tomorrow to try and get my body clock back in order.

Hope to see you all again next year.

Not really processed anything yet, but have an unusual image of M51 just as someone fired a red light laser. :rolleyes:

Cheers

Neil

M51_1

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Well our first Galloway star party certainly had a range of weather to it and had lots of positives to it.

1) My wife has agreed to coming back (to the star camp) in Feb 2015  :)

2) Lesley keeps an immaculate campsite with excellent facilities.

3) Nice to meet so many of you who made us welcome,  that was a real bonus though we may not remember all your names next time. 

4) I now know that I must not buy an EQ8 as my car is not big enough for the carrying case.

5) We know that he tent stays dryish and does not fall down in torrential rain or 25mph winds.

6) The site has a marvellous dark sky when there are no clouds.

7)  My equipment mostly worked though I had to abandon guiding through an OAG and fall back to a Lodestar in the finder scope.  Suspect that my problems were down to balance as I balanced the setup before focussing my Megrez.  Still the attached image shows promise.

Pleiades_160m_Megrez90_Borg_DG-L,Canon_50D_141125a_16b_1192x794.tif

Andy & Sandra

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Well like the rest of the comments thank to everyone for making this starcamp another success even if the weather didnt play ball, As usual these events let us newbies soak up the knowledge and fun of the hobby and let us meet interesting fellow astronomers and see new things, I managed to get a live view of some prominences on the sun thanks to Uplooker, and another thanks to  Andy on pitch 6 for his technical and engineering information, ( HitecAstro mount hub pro npw ordered)  and to Tom and Neil for sharing their imaging process with me and Dave. See you all next time round.

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A big thank you to every one who attended our largest Starcamp to date. :grin:

I would like to say a special thank you for Lesley and Ralphs` efforts to make the campsite as dark as you do,it is really appreciated. :grin:

Without the support of everyone it would make my job even harder,thank you Derek and Robbie for your informative talks,which were well attended ,and Annette and Janet`s help in our raffle,the proceeds of which will be used for next year.

Thanks to the inmates who helped in the van!!!! :eek:

See you all next year

Clear Skies.

Mike

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Hi Kieran

Yep that's a nice image. I'm still trying my hand at maxim and processing. One day maybe I'll post an image!!!

Derek

Thanks this first image with a CCD as used to DSLR I've pulled my hair out with getting my head round all the processing that's involved but finally managed a first image so onwards and upwards from here. [emoji276][emoji3]

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A sky full of stars in this 6 pane mosaic taken from Galloway Starcamp at Drumroamin Farm Campsite near Kirkinner on the Solway coast.
In this image planet Jupiter rises in the east within the zodiacal constellation Leo ahead of the back-to-front question mark asterism that is the sickle of Leo.
Cars on the A75 in the distance across the bay leave a trail of broken yellow lights along the coast road in this long exposure image while low cloud shrouds the summit of Cairnharrow.
Canon 60Da 
Nikon 50mm AIS lens at f5.6
Exp 300secs per 6 panes of this mosaic
iso 1600
PT Lens & PSCS6
18th/19th November 2014

15295242913_51e9c57fd1_o.jpgA Sky Full of Stars - Galloway Starcamp by mikeyscope, on Flickr

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Hi Mike,marvelous images,Lesley will be very interested in these ,they show the skies to their full potential!!! :grin:  :grin:  :grin:

What an advert for dark Galloway skies. :grin:

Glad you enjoyed yourself,hope to see you next year.have you got yer battery sorted yet?

Regards

Mike

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Thanks Mike

Battery is fine but think alternator has packed in ...we used two scope batteries to reach Kelso   :laugh:  plus the timing belt needs changed  :rolleyes2: get done after Christmas me thinks.

Posted to Drumroamin facebook page  :smiley:

Mike

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