My little Diary from Kielder Spring 2008 event

[radioactive]

My Diary of the Kielder Spring Star Camp

Got picked up by Mike Devaney on the Thursday at about 10-ish Went to his home got the fold away caravan ready to be transported then waited for Gordon G. to arrive a little later on. The journey with us as rear gunner position was pretty uneventful most of the way relying on Tom Tom to show the way however close to Bellingham it sent Mike and I in a slightly different route from which Gordon was going in the car and as a coal wagon and another car was

etween us we had already lost sight of each other.Anyway Mike and myself arrived there with no further mishap. But alas No Gordon to be seen and as Kielder

is a mobile phone dead spot we could not contact him the landline pay phone was out of order too No one was in at the site office either So after siting and erecting the caravan Mike thought the best thing to do was to go and see if he could find Gordon. He had it seemed thought we had broken down somewhere as we were no longer in convoy I stayed behind at this stage and put my little tent up. A while later Gordon showed up at the campsite. After a few greetings I asked have you seen the Discovery with Mike in it?

Yes I saw Mike I flashed my Headlights at him as we went passed each other"I think he saw me"!

At about this time Steve (Paxo) came over to say Hello to me Which in itself lifted the atmosphere somewhat Good timing Steve.

Some time Later as NO Mike appeared back on site Gordon thought it best now to get out into some network coverage to try a mobile contact with Mike

Eventually he did indeed achieve said contact and returned once more to camp

An Hour or so Later Mike appeared back too and looking decidedly a little on the grubby side he had only had a blowout in the Disco

We managed to laugh it off in no time as at least we were all safe and ready for action well almost a slight matter of unloading the Landrover of mine and Mikes gear and then putting the awning up as well.

It did not take too long to get us ship shape and Bristol Fashion. A New Kielder experience now firmly underway

We were camped very close to Tom and Dianne Yates who in turn were next to all the lads from Paisley AS. Inc our very own "Jamie" who had among other things

brought his highly modified Solar Scope along. Which had been commented on by Albert as the best of its kind he had ever seen in his entire life Quite an accolade in itself but then proceeded in negotiating a buy price from Jamie. I think it ended in smiles all around.

The other side of our pitches was the man himself Richard Darn Most people know him not only as a very capable astronomer,he is also the the main press

relations officer for the Forestry commission too (think that's his title more or less) Anyway he is the chap who shows all the big names around including at this event Maggie Fillbin from the BBC Who were making a programme about dark skies or lack of them in our great Island Nation Among those interviewed in

our group was Tom Yates Whom in his time at this Kielder Event was responseable for at least 3 miracles.He out of the blue predicted the winner of the Grand National also predicted the exact time it would stop snowing around us and also which round Amir Khan would win his boxing match. Needless to say he has now known as a local God by all us underlings!

Thanks again "Oh Great One!"

As already written by others Thursday evening brought no great surprises giving us all time to get to know one another Again and have a few laughs in the process

The Next couple of nights were certainly the best two nights on the trot I have ever seen in my life It was truly truly amazing skies seeing objects just using my own eyes such as the Beehive, The Double cluster, M13,shows just how good the seeing was at times I got the most fantastic view of M51 through a 10" a 14" and a 16" all very impressive in their own right my personal favourite was through the C14 we even had the bridge showing well at that stage and to view the interaction through an eyepiece is something you only really dream about at your home local! I had great joys of viewing through some bins targets most remembered from so many include Pliedies the Double Cluster, and the Beehive. I know I am missing out mentioning so many other great targets also including a stunning Saturn to mention just one instance. All in All I can say is its more than enough to bring me back to Kielder at every opportunity I may have in the future Its going to take a very long time indeed to lose those brilliant mental pictures I have from this Star Camp Cheers Guys from Sunderland AS. for another amazing event

We went home on the Sunday in the end due to are running out of gas, we had another bottle but not the correct kind of adaptor for that one so we toddled off about 4.30pm when the snow had eased somewhat and by then it was very sloppy underfoot

"Roll on Kielder Autumn Event"

[daz]

Nice report Martyn!!

Will have to try and get back next year.....

[Beyond_Vision]

Reading your report really made me feel like going back there again. I had a great laugh on the last autumn event with the Renfrewshire boys and Jamie.

Regards

Kevin