Kielder Spring 2008 - a personal view.

[Andrew*]

Thanks to Mike's thoroughly entertaining report on kelling I was enthused into writing one for Kielder.

Spent the evening before making sure I had everything. Packed my whole set-up into the car, a surprisingly long and difficult task to make sure it all fits and is safe and secure. At that point I was dreading coming back and having to unload it all, maybe even unused. Anyway, got off at 8am on the Friday morning and made excellent time, getting to Craig's (blinky) house at 10ish. We were off a whiley later, him and his GPS ahead and me behind. Again, we made excellent time and we got to Kielder for 1ish. 'Twas raining all journey, and still raining when we got there. Great, I thought - it's going to be a long and cold weekend...

Soon we met Gary(1968), Jamie, and lots of unknown faces about the place, one of which said "Talk at quarter to 5". The sky brightened, and a patch of blue sky revealed itself, so we decided to set up the scopes and leave them under the two telegizmo covers I had, one of which now belongs to Craig. It was fantastic having the peace of mind to leave them under there, but ready to go should the sky clear.

Also met up with some SGL members, moonplodger, Paxo, Starflyer, Dogfish (any others?). The Astrosource man (name? ) had bought Jamie's modded PST and set it up. We got a look at a magnificent prominence through that, which was an awesome sight - superb entry into Ha solar viewing! Anyway, time for the talk, from Peter *Vasey* about basic astrophotography. It was an entertaining and well executed talk.

Steak pie all round (Jamie's recommendation) in the Angler's Arms for dinner, with Craig, Gary, Ian (starflyer) and Martin (dogfish, Ian's brother). Yum!

Walking back to the campsite, it was the beginning of dusk, and still mostly clear, but already quite cold. Scopes out and ready for the night. The straggling clouds soon left the sky, and *ping!* - Sirius! --- *ping!* - Betelgeuse! --- *ping!* Saturn. Thus the stars pinged out left right and centre, and as the night fell, the sky filled with sparkling diamonds until there were more stars than I'd ever seen in my life! Absolutely mesmerising! Perseus double cluster naked eye! I started off with a quick polar align as soon as polaris was naked eye, but I swear I got the wrong star, leading to trails in my images Craig, Gary and I had an enjoyable first part of the evening with some imaging, and a little observing. I centered M51, focused and left some 45 sec exposures running. The BBC (Maggie whatsits?) were hanging around, looking at the images spurting out of the 2-HS and learning about galaxies and light pollution.

It was great fun. I decided to change targets and once that was running we went to see what others were up to. First we visited the enormous set-up just near to ours - a 10" LX200 - quite an impressive set-up. M51 through that was superb! Then further into the dark roamed we. Out of the deep (red) darkness loomed a big black machine. A monster. 'Twas an 18" dobsonian - the biggest scope at the party, and a great crowd around, just waiting to see the magestic views it afforded. We talked to the folk in the darkness (whoever they were, unfortunately we never knew!) about astronomy and had some great views through the beast.

My imaging needed tending to, so I went back and saw how things were going. After this I gave up on the imaging and just had a look around the sky naked eye, with binos, and through the scope. I can't remember what I saw, but I don't really need to. The sky was superb, if rather poor seeing, and the views were magnificent.

Now it was beginning to get late and cold, so we all called it a night. Up till now, 5 hours in the night, my clothing had kept me quite comfy, but the feet were the weakest link and they dictated that it was time for bed. Gary was kind enough to offer me a space in his caravan and I slept cosy and warm - thanks a lot, mate!

Morning revealed snow and rain. A gorgeous breakfast, also courtesy of Gary, and we were up. Processed last night's images and had a chilled out morning.

I had a walk (to the PO for cash!) and up to the castle to see the trade stands. Astrosource had a very full stand with some smashing kit that was all too tempting. Miraculously, the cash stayed in the wallet despite all those temptations! Excellent talk on telescopes (quite a general beginners guide) at around 2pm, from Jurgen ... (?), who was very entertaining, amusing, and full of knowledge. Though it was mainly the basics, I learnt a lot from him and had a good laugh on the way.

Later in the day was another fascinating talk on distant galaxies, from Gain Lee - a great man, packed with knowledge and clearly a very experienced observer. It inspired me to do some galaxy hunting at the next opportunity. Walking to the pub for our dinner, such an activity seemed highly unlikely. Snow fell while we ate our lamb curry, but we ate, drank and were merry. We were going to stay, but some were keen to take down the scopes while it was still light out, and also have a fiddle with Craig's HEQ5 with the help from Jurgen.

We went back and did these things, and as darkness fell, the snow stopped, and suddenly all the clouds decided to rush off somewhere. Wonderful! Two nights running. Tonight was for observing. We had a superb night. I saw more stars, more clusters, more galaxies, more satellites than I'd ever seen in my life. I can't count how many satellites I saw naked eye and in the scope.

Got several new messiers on my list - 3, 53, 64, 84, 86, 92, 94, 101, plus at least 7 more in the M86 region which I didn't get the names of. This gave me a massive sense of achievement, and such enthusiasm, which will stay with me for some time. Needless to say the wonderment of seeing some of these objects, particularly the globs and the galaxy clusters, was quite overwhelming at times. We took a wander over to the big dob again (turned out to be Gain's) which was at the time showing a mesmerising M13. So bright and sharp was the image it almost resembled an open cluster. The Leo triplet through the monster was also something special - real structure in all three coming out. Also looked through a very old 10" newt that was next to Gains and saw NGC4565 - absolutely mind blowing. Looked just like the pics!! That view will never leave me...

My mind was becoming saturated with all these astounding views, my feet were really starting to ice up, as was the rest of me, and I was very tired. The conditions were too harsh and I have to admit I gave up on that stunning sky and went to bed. Things didn't improve in my tent. I had a sleeping bag, which says "comfort zone: -5 to -22 celsius". Balls. I had 2 pairs of socks and that sleeping bag and I froze all night. The tent roof was rigid in the morning from all the frost. So was my nose! I have rarely been colder. Reports say it was -6 out there, but I can't believe it wasn't colder.

Got up, disorientated by the uncomfy night and lack of sleep, and tried taking down the set-up. I was shivering and my fingers weren't doing too well, but Craig came to the rescue and by 10 am everything was packed into the car again, nice and snug, and we were off home, after a very quick breakfast. Just out of Kielder it started snowing again - seriously, this time. This slowed our progress home but by 2 I was in Kirkaldy. This diversion was due to a mount upgrade. There I met George Smith and exchanged a fat wad of cash for a lovely new EQ6

Home by 4, unpacked the car by 6 and that was me. Exhausted, but content with astronomical memories to last a lifetime, and a new mount to boot. Must give out a big hand to Gary and Craig for their generosity, company and help. Made my weekend, guys! Must also mention it was great to meet David (psychobabbler) there and have a banter.

Sorry my report was so long and rather clumsily written. All who were there, please feel free to correct me, add your own experiences, etc. etc.

Cheers

Andrew

[Beyond_Vision]

Nice report Andrew looks like you had much better skies than we had at Kelling. The -6 deg C and camping doesnt sound a good combination

Regards

Kevin

[FLO]

Interesting report Andrew

We had cold weather at Kelling but it sounds like you had it worse!

[Andrew*]

believe me - we had it much better

Thanks for the comments!

Andrew

[barkis]

Great account Andrew. The extreme cold wasn't enough to kill the enthusiasm, and it's obvious you have brought back some pleasing and lasting memories. One of the nicest aspects of these meets, is the new and lasting friendships that are forged.

The views in the 18" are something you won't forget in a hurry I'll bet.

I am just pleased that some astronomy was possible at Kielder, as I don't think the Kelling event was lucky in that department.

I hope your new mount does the business for you, but there is no reason why it shouldn't.

Cheers, and thanks for the write up.

Ron.

[FLO]

Certainly does sound like you had the better skies

[thing]

Great report, all the enthusiasm shines through like a neighbours security light...........

[blinky]

Nice report Andrew, better than my clumsy attempt 5 minutes after I arrived home!

BTW we were lovely and warm in the Caravan, Gary kindly left the heating on all night

[dogfish]

Well written report Andrew. It was very cold, so cold that the only thing I didn't wear to bed was my coat (yes, I kept my hat and gloves on) and that was still over my sleeping bag and yes I was still cold. And I foolishly had given up my caravan berth to PB :error:. But worth it for those skies. I meant to take a systematic measure of the naked eye limiting magnitude, but forgot. Easily in the +6.?s.

Good to meet and chat with everyone.

Cheers, Martin

[jgs001]

Nice report Andrew. Sounds like everyone had a great time

[daz]

Excellent report Andrew!!!

Steak Pie at the Anglers - fond memories! Slurp!!!

[Whippy]

Treacle pud.......

Great report Andrew .

Tony..

[MikeP]

Nice report Andrew. While we were sitting around at Kelling, we wondered how you guys were doing. We know now.

Glad to hear you have finally arrived at the promised land of an EQ6. Do have a look at EQMOD, it is so much easier to use a laptop planetarium program to control the mount than using the handset.

Thanks again for such an enjoyable account of your weekend at Kielder.

Mike

[gary1968]

Good report Andrew, and pretty much sums it up for me as well, the skies were the most amazing I think I have seen in my life, and 2 nights running.

I am booked up for the October event already so hope to see you and all the others I met there.

Gary