Kielder Spring 2016

[Dixie]

Well all be back at Kielder for the spring starcamp from 2 to 6 March. You are very welcome to join us. Bookings now open and coming in fast. All the details can be found at kielderforeststarcamp.org

[miguel87]

Booked in for the first time and very excited! See you there.

Mike

[Physopto]

Good to see another one coming to Kielder Star Camp. With luck it will be a good one. On a good night it gives some of the best viewing anywhere in the world I'm sure. We are a very friendly bunch. There is lots of different equipment about to give any newcomer and older alike, new ideas. With luck it will be clear and cold. So make sure you are well equipped for the worst. The new warm room is well appointed and equipped to help stave off the worst.

Derek

[robbieince]

Won't be long now but I hope we get some clear nights before then......

[The Head Gardener]

Hello, first post.  About time I stopped lurking and signed up to SGL  . . .

Hope you all thoroughly enjoyed yourselves last week at Kielder.  It was a pleasure to meet Derek, Robbie and many others last October at our first ever Star Camp.  We had a brilliant time and learnt a great deal.

Quite gutted because we were booked in for the Spring Star Camp and had to cancel at the 11th hour;  Max had an absolutely awful cold/flu (as opposed to the well-known condition, Man Flu), and after reading Stuart's account on his blog I was even more depressed.  We were due to stay until Monday and would have been there for the aurora. 

And to rub salt into the wound, I didn't get to my computer on Tuesday morning and by the time I'd responded to Lynn after lunch all the pitches were booked for the autumn meet and we're on a wait list.

Hey ho, First World problems

Jayne

[Dixie]

Hello Jayne 

Sorry you couldn't make it - the aurora was very powerful, much more so than the one I saw in March last year.  Hope a pitch becomes free (which is very possible between now and then), but to clarify it's the hook ups that are currently oversubscribed. We still have none electrics.  

Clear skies

[The Head Gardener]

Thanks.  I'm in touch with Lynn by email and am on her waiting list for anything which comes available, EHU or non-LX.

Jayne 

[Physopto]

Hi Jayne,

I hope Max's cold is now better. Shame you both missed the Star Camp. We had a couple of good nights, the Wednesday was good and the Saturday.  The aurora was spectacular. Best I have ever seen. I missed imaging on probably the best two nights, as they were Sunday and Monday nights. I had to pack up on the Sunday as had to be away early Monday. But the Camp was still a good one. 

How is the caravan coming along? Are you feeling better about using it now. I take my hat off to you arriving on your own last year. Not many people would have done that as a novice,  jumping in at the deep end like that. I hope a spot comes up for you next autumn, be nice to see you both again. 

Glad you took the plunge and joined SGL.

Derek

[The Head Gardener]

Cheers Derek,

He's much better thanks, it will take longer to recover from the irritation of missing the Sunday aurora show!  Everything is great with caravan thanks, absolutely love being in our little Wendy House on Wheels   I do find towing very tiring, but I realised it is because I am concentrating so hard.  I guess the only way around that is to just do much more of it . . . 

thanks for the welcome,

Jayne

[The Head Gardener]

Sorry Derek, meant to ask - I read somewhere else that when you arrived early at Kielder you saw a couple of strangers wandering around.  Did that problem go away or get resolved?

Jayne

[robbieince]

Another great Kielder starcamp, topped off by a beautifully strong aurora. Thanks again to all the organisers who work so hard behind the scenes to make this event so successful. Here's my aurora timelapse from the Sunday night.

 

 

 

[Physopto]

3 hours ago, The Head Gardener said:

Sorry Derek, meant to ask - I read somewhere else that when you arrived early at Kielder you saw a couple of strangers wandering around.  Did that problem go away or get resolved?

Jayne

Never saw them again. But I do not trust good gear being left out when asleep and only me there. I had been expecting others there at the same time. Still nice holiday. Good to renew friendships too. I find the Star Parties to have great atmospheres.

The towing gets much easier as you get in the practice. In the end you almost forget that the caravan is there. You just automatically allow for extra space for turns etc. It will come with practice.

Did you get  Max a scope yet?

Annette sends regards.

Be well.

Derek

[The Head Gardener]

It's a very sad thing Derek, but with increasing publicity/knowledge of events like Kielder the likelihood of "uninvited visitors" must be an increasing risk. 

Thanks for the towing encouragement :-}

Max on the verge of ordering a Celestron Nexstar 102SLT (as recommended to him by Rob).  Not quite sure why he hasn't done so yet, but I haven't ordered my Solar scope either, so I guess we're just creaking along at our own speed!

Do you ever bring the van over this side of the country for an observing holiday?  Plenty of good skies . . .

Jayne

[The Head Gardener]

1 hour ago, robbieince said:

Another great Kielder starcamp, topped off by a beautifully strong aurora. Thanks again to all the organisers who work so hard behind the scenes to make this event so successful. Here's my aurora timelapse from the Sunday night.

Stunning, wonderful, glorious, awe-inspiring, insert-favourite-superlative!     Thanks Rob.

Jayne

[Physopto]

7 minutes ago, The Head Gardener said:

It's a very sad thing Derek, but with increasing publicity/knowledge of events like Kielder the likelihood of "uninvited visitors" must be an increasing risk. 

Thanks for the towing encouragement :-}

Max on the verge of ordering a Celestron Nexstar 102SLT (as recommended to him by Rob).  Not quite sure why he hasn't done so yet, but I haven't ordered my Solar scope either, so I guess we're just creaking along at our own speed!

Do you ever bring the van over this side of the country for an observing holiday?  Plenty of good skies . . .

Jayne

Galloway!

It is time and costs that prevent more.

Gear costs money you know!

The Celestron is nice for visual use but no good for imaging. I think you will need a German Equatorial for that. Some one may correct me on that one. Have a look at CCD Calc. You can get it off the web free. It will give you views for each scope and camera combination. You can see what the field of view is. Also look at FLOs calculator for viewing with eyepeices and scope combinations. That will give you what view to expect in the night sky for each target. That way you will not be disappointed with too small a view of what you want to look at.

Derek

 

[Dixie]

We always keep our eyes open at all star camps for unwelcome visitors, but they are pretty safe affairs.  The only think that's been stolen at Kielder since 2003 is a pair of boots over two nights and the culprit was a fox.  Great vid by the way Rob.

[The Head Gardener]

52 minutes ago, Physopto said:

The Celestron is nice for visual use but no good for imaging. I think you will need a German Equatorial for that. Some one may correct me on that one. Have a look at CCD Calc. You can get it off the web free. It will give you views for each scope and camera combination. You can see what the field of view is. Also look at FLOs calculator for viewing with eyepeices and scope combinations. That will give you what view to expect in the night sky for each target. That way you will not be disappointed with too small a view of what you want to look at

Thanks Derek,

I've passed your info on to him.  The scope is (probably) mainly going to be used for planetary and lunar which are his main interests.  For imaging Milky Way, M42 or M31 (his other interests) then he has his beady eyes on my Canon DSLR set-up which includes a couple of big lenses (normally used for birding).  Saying that, if we need more aperture later then we can continue to support the economy - trying really hard this time not to succumb to aperture fever (explained in my intro post in Welcome).

Jayne

PS: he already as an iOptron SkyGuider for DSLR imaging and I have my beady eye on it for my Lunt (when I can make up my mind which one to order) :-}

[Physopto]

9 minutes ago, Dixie said:

We always keep our eyes open at all star camps for unwelcome visitors, but they are pretty safe affairs.  The only think that's been stolen at Kielder since 2003 is a pair of boots over two nights and the culprit was a fox.  Great vid by the way Rob.

Actually that is not true. Steve told me that before we arrived they had had a break in and the culprits smashed through doors and into the office, the toilets and the store. A Strimmer was taken but left at the gate. Possibly because being disturbed.

I don't think anything has been stolen when a Star Camp has been taking place.

BUT IT ONLY HAS TO HAPPEN ONCE!

We all have a lot of gear there and do go to sleep. But there is safety in numbers! Usually there are people about and we do watch out for each other. We just need to be aware that bad things can happen.

Forewarned is forearmed! I don't want to put off anyone from coming to Kielder it is a safe and very friendly Camp with fantastic views.

Did anyone catch the "Fox Thief"? 

Derek

 

[Physopto]

5 minutes ago, The Head Gardener said:

Thanks Derek,

I've passed your info on to him.  The scope is (probably) mainly going to be used for planetary and lunar which are his main interests.  For imaging Milky Way, M42 or M31 (his other interests) then he has his beady eyes on my Canon DSLR set-up which includes a couple of big lenses (normally used for birding).  Saying that, if we need more aperture later then we can continue to support the economy - trying really hard this time not to succumb to aperture fever (explained in my intro post in Welcome).

Jayne

PS: he already as an iOptron SkyGuider for DSLR imaging and I have my beady eye on it for my Lunt (when I can make up my mind which one to order) :-}

Large apertures are not helpful for M42,M31. I have just moved down in aperture for that very reason. anything from 70mm up to 110 is more appropriate. Above that will probably require a field reducer. M101 needs a large field of view. Try out CCD Calc or FLOs program on line you will get the idea.

You need a mount capable of rotation to match that of the sky to take long exposures to get the details in the Messier objects in general. Hence the GE type mounts. I am not sure if the Celestron Nexstar 102SLT has a wedge for accurate polar alignment. Be sure before you part with cash. Check and thjen check again!

Derek

[Dixie]

Well I only know about star camps - as always we rely on each other to keep things safe.  Mind you the Fox got off with it.  Not even a community sentence.

[Physopto]

Well as the saying goes "sly fox"

I was there and didn't see a thing!