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Galloway Spring Gathering 2018

Demon Barber

By Demon Barber
in Star Parties & Astro Events

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks

Have arrived safe and sound after leaving Watford at the crack of dawn.

The conditions here are at present are:

Partially cloudy with good views to the South  and West.  Sirius and Orion

Very windy and cooooold

A bite too windy to put the scope up

Planning on setting up a small

scope if the wind dies down a bit later

Finished dinner with Mike in the static van

Given that Ireland won the Grand Slam today, some Irish Whiskey later will be in order

Its a bottle of Pogues (the Irish pop group) will keep a share for Ian......

Mike has just returned to the van with a big smile on his face, there is an explosion of stars to the South at present.

I am on my way out to see the beautiful clear cold windy skies

I maybe a little time!!!!!!

Cheers 

Adrian

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Dai, Ian and Phil

Mike and myself have spent the best part of 2 hours enjoying the views

The sky is very clear when the clouds disappear 

It is starting to snow while the stars are still shining. Never seen that before

The strong wind and cold are a deadly combination, keeping a camera tripod steady is entertaining 

I am feeling very tired so heating my tent up before retiring for thre night

Left my bottle of Irish Whiskey with Mike

so it’s time to revert to a bottle of Highland Park........ Life is wonderful?! 

All the Best

Cheers 

Adrian

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks

Morning has broken......

Well it was very windy overnight

The ground is frozen with a light frost

Julian has informed me that :

the water tap is frozen, being smart I filled the kettle last night, he will sort it out his morning;

the wind is due drop back a bit;

snow predicted for 10:00am this Sunday morning;

and most importantly Monday night will be by and large clear and the wind will be dying away.

Taken Lesley’s dog Bud for a walk in the local woods at 09:00 am. 

I am not wearing my shorts!  Just in case any of you thought I was stupid enough

Don’t forget to bring  heater, plenty of warm clothing and that bottle of Live (whiskey to you)

Cheers

Adrian

 

 

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jamie56

jamie56

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Stu said:

You are a brave man Adrian! Glad your fortitude is being rewarded with some great views.

Congrats to Ireland!! Well deserved.

Hi Adrian

Glad the skies are behaving, the cold would kill me off just now getting over a virus, hope you guys get some decent views mind post the images hopefully see you all Nov time

Jim

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Stuart,

Glad you are alive and kicking, are you camping in the suburbs of Hereford?

Trust Tracey is bearing up are the humiliation of yesterday!!!!!!

Yes, the weather here is very cold and windy, with traces of white rain.

It is meant to lead into better weather later tonight and tomorrow, the skies last night were great, odd clouds for a few minutes, but too windy with gusts of 40mph to attempt to put our scopes up.

I will look at meeting up in October.

Best wishes to both of you.

Cheers

Adrian

 

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Jim and Dawn,

I was sorry to hear that you have been ill.

Whilst we miss you for the odd quiet drink, this weather is not appropriate for people recovering from a chest infection.

I am thinking of recording the wind noise, the tent movement and entering the recording to the Tate Gallery as an inspirational piece.... could even win the Turner Prize!

Hope see both of you fit and well in the Autumn.

Cheers from sunny Drumroanin.

Cheers

Adrian

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jamie56

jamie56

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Adrian Condon said:

Hi Jim and Dawn,

I was sorry to hear that you have been ill.

Whilst we miss you for the odd quiet drink, this weather is not appropriate for people recovering from a chest infection.

I am thinking of recording the wind noise, the tent movement and entering the recording to the Tate Gallery as an inspirational piece.... could even win the Turner Prize!

Hope see both of you fit and well in the Autumn.

Cheers from sunny Drumroanin.

Cheers

Adrian

Sounds a tad blowy, mind peg the tent down well, congrats on the 6 nations,  am sure the irish golden stuff is being enjoyed in moderation of course. Take it easy down there, see you all autumn.

Jim n Dawn.

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks

It has been an eventful day 

Will do a bigger  explanation tomorrow 

We have had about 3 hours viewing night both clear and partial 

Completely cloud cover at the moment 

Planning an early night must find the Highland Park for a wee refreshing dram

Cheers

Adrian

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Physopto

Physopto

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, jamie56 said:

It's an auld age thing Derek,???

Tell me about it ! Even small cuts take an age to heal. Hope Dawn is looking after you. She will have to bring another bottle of Jura for us ta drink ?

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DeepSkyBagger

DeepSkyBagger

Posted
Posted

A quick heads-up for those at Galloway: BAA Aurora Bulletin received this afternoon.

  

A coronal hole has been impacting the earth for the last 2 days. This afternoon the field went negative and 
started a G2 class storm.

I have clear skies and Aurora above the to 15dg high and 120dg wide (18/19 March 2018@ 21.00UT Moray coast). 
I have also sighted STEVE off to the west with patches to the overhead from 21.30 to 22.30. It is showing on 
Cliff Cam 3 | Shetland Webcams<https://www.shetlandwebcams.com/cliff-cam-3/>   All indications are that this 
could be visible in northern England but could go further.

Any reports please to - sandra-b@hotmail.co.uk<mailto:sandra-b@hotmail.co.uk>

Good luck!

 

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Folks,

Well the wind has dropped to a mere 20mph from the 44mph of Sunday morning.

Secondly, the temperature will get up to 7 c today, so I am wearing my shorts again!

When Dai from snowy South Wales arrived, I volunteered (as one does! ) to erect his tent. We managed to get the tent half up when there was an almighty gust of wind, which lifted the tent and carried it across the campsite, over the little middle hedge, over the bigger boundary hedge and across the field to the stone wall a distance of some 300 yards..... Dai being considerably quicker than me, got there first and did a beautiful Welsh rugby tackle on his tent and prevented it from getting over the wall!  (glad he was not playing for Wales when Ireland were scoring tries...)

Well we carried the tent back across the field and on putting it down we noticed that one of the poles was missing........as Derek would say   "argh......." .

We fetched Julian who is an expert in fixing tents etc to help.....I went looking for the missing pole sections and found 10 pieces scattered across the site.

The three of us then managed to get the tent up.   A task that should have taken 20 to 30 minutes, finally took over 2 hours, who says daytime can be dull at Scotland's Premier Star Party!!!!

We had good views of the skies once it got dark, with odd clouds moving at speed across, Orion looked absolutely brilliant, but it clouded over around 22:00 and had not cleared up by 23:00 so Mike and myself spent the next hour in his static van practicing focusing and drinking the Pogues Irish Whiskey....

Those coming are strongly advised to bring warm clothing, a heater, wind breaks, a bottle or two of whiskey and if you have room some astro gear!

Cheers

Adrian

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jamie56

jamie56

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, Adrian Condon said:

Hi Folks,

Well the wind has dropped to a mere 20mph from the 44mph of Sunday morning.

Secondly, the temperature will get up to 7 c today, so I am wearing my shorts again!

When Dai from snowy South Wales arrived, I volunteered (as one does! ) to erect his tent. We managed to get the tent half up when there was an almighty gust of wind, which lifted the tent and carried it across the campsite, over the little middle hedge, over the bigger boundary hedge and across the field to the stone wall a distance of some 300 yards..... Dai being considerably quicker than me, got there first and did a beautiful Welsh rugby tackle on his tent and prevented it from getting over the wall!  (glad he was not playing for Wales when Ireland were scoring tries...)

Well we carried the tent back across the field and on putting it down we noticed that one of the poles was missing........as Derek would say   "argh......." .

We fetched Julian who is an expert in fixing tents etc to help.....I went looking for the missing pole sections and found 10 pieces scattered across the site.

The three of us then managed to get the tent up.   A task that should have taken 20 to 30 minutes, finally took over 2 hours, who says daytime can be dull at Scotland's Premier Star Party!!!!

We had good views of the skies once it got dark, with odd clouds moving at speed across, Orion looked absolutely brilliant, but it clouded over around 22:00 and had not cleared up by 23:00 so Mike and myself spent the next hour in his static van practicing focusing and drinking the Pogues Irish Whiskey....

Those coming are strongly advised to bring warm clothing, a heater, wind breaks, a bottle or two of whiskey and if you have room some astro gear!

Cheers

Adrian

Sounds as if your having fun, still the skies are the main attraction hope they stay kind to you, 

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Carole and Jim,

I agree, the weather could be better, it is lovely and sunny here in Scotland at the moment, if it was not for the icy cold wind, I would have spent the morning sunbathing!

The geese are flying in great numbers around the Nature Reserve.

Carole, as Jim already knows,  if you want dark skies, quite a lot darker than SGL in Lucsall, Drumroamin campsite in Kirkinner near Newton Stewart will take some beating! Some of us who were regulars at Lucsall now travel 800 to 900 miles round trip to see the Milky Way etc in all its splendour, gaze delightfully here. We have had two clear nights  out of two (3 to 4 hours so far each night with odd clouds moving speedily across the dark Scottish Sky) and  to boot it was clear from 04:00am this morning.

So not a failure. Tonight, Monday will be brilliant if the Scope Nights app on my iPhone is correct, clear skies from 18:00 till 06:00am Tuesday, with the temperature from +4c to -2c at 03:00am and the wind dropping to 4mph...... life could not get better!

Hope meet up again.

Cheers

Adrian

 

 

 

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Adrian Condon

Adrian Condon

Posted
Posted

Hi Carole,

It is a shame you live around 450+ miles away. It is a friendly event just like the SGL Party at Lucsall. It took me this time about seven and half hours, average speed of around 55 to 60mph.

I only stop for toilet breaks and fuel. Hadyn does it from the Island of Man and has an overnight break on the way.

Trust you get some clear nights, we are preparing for a really great night here, the Sun is sinking slowly in the west, the wind is a light cool breeze, going for dinner and still in my shorts, will change before 19:30.

Clear Skies....

Adrian

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