Kielderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr '08

[beamish]

I returned safely from Glastonbury Kielder yesterday afternoon, very tired but strangely immensely pleased !! (hot bath !!!)

I've said it already but I'll say it again,

Steve(Paxo), Mrs Paxo and little Maggie, thanks for your warm welcome and company and your "Good morning" calls whilst I was fixing brekky, Steve for sorting me out with a spare lead and power. SteveL and Daz for your software skills. Blinky for his kind gift , Gary1968 for an eyeopening experience thru his 40mm EP :shock: .Simon for his 12V adapter

It's always nice to put faces to names so I'd just want to thank Kevin(Beyondvision), Jamie and the RAS crew,Angler's Arms, Ian(Starflyer), Martin (Dogfish), Craig(Blinky),Gary, Paul (Gizmo),Andrew,Kevin(Moonplodger)and Lynne and Gary and everyone else I met who helped in making this year's Autumn SP a great experience !! Inspite of the freezing conds. and the deep mud and all the problems that prevented me from imaging, the fact that all these individuals helped in allowing me to at least get some viewing done and have a alot of fun, it will certainly be one for the record books.

A BIG THANK YOU :salute: :hello1: :hello1:

Karlo

[Andrew*]

Nice to have met you, Karlo.

So tell us - what did you see through Gary's scope??

Andrew

[beamish]

Clusters in Auriga, Persius double and a few others. The point being I'd overlooked the use of my 30* 2inch EP thru the Cape, having got sidetracked by imaging and planetary and lunar, getting closer as opposed to moving out to get a wider view

So will probably be hoping to get a better widefield 2" ep in the future.

:? pah more money

Karlo

[daz]

Just spent the day in the bath myself!! Two (Rubbish) sleeping bags and one (duff) airbed consigned to the bin!! There's camping, and then there's camping in Kielder! :shock:

Temperature was causing havoc with the laptop, so need to find some sort of enclosure/case for it - so again, no imaging. Mind you, the breaks in the clouds were not making it easy anyway!!

Friday's view of the milky way naked eye was simply amazing. Constellations jumped out (whole constellations - not just one or two of the main stars) as did old favourites like Andromeda (huge even with EyeBall Mark I)!!

In true Kielder fashion, everyone just helped out everyone else - whether it was making tea, providing a warm room, pulling cars from the mud, helping out with software/hardware glitches - whatever the problem, someone generally had a solution!

Good to meet some new faces as well as some old ones as well - looking forward to next year already!!

Thanks to Richard Darn, who was really under the cosh trying to accomodate everyone in the boggy conditions, SteveL for invaluable assistance on the imaging hiccups, Mike and his wife for the warm room on arrival, AndyH for being way to generous, The Anglers Arms for some damned fine food (which I ate too much of on Saturday!!) and everyone else for making it great fun!!

:)

[jb1970]

Hi all,

Despite the constantly changing and very muddy conditions I still managed to get more observing time in this year than last year. Friday night (especially from about 3am onwards) was the best.

The things that I will remember from this year (other than mud and ducks) are M31 and M101 through a 16" lightbridge (thanks very much Andrew), the veil nebula, NGC 7331 and Stephans quartet, all in a 10" dob and M37 looking 3D through binoviewers (thanks to Mick who's helped me out 2 years running). Shame it's back to an orange sky and small scope on the balcony again, but I am even more fired up now to get out and see what I can find.

All the best

Jack

[Astroscot2]

A very enjoyable star party. big thanks to the organisers who made it all possible. was good putting faces to Avatars and saying hello.

Friday night was enjoyable - did not start getting set up for imaging till 2AM, had some great views through some scopes and binos - totally knackered when I got back home Sunday.

BTW was it clear Sunday night for those who stayed ? usually is .

[narrowbandpaul]

unfortunately not mark...gain lee saw the forecast, so we headed to the wauchope forest to see the incoming weather...saw it was clear north past edinburgh, so we went home and got some widefield orion stuff....

[beamish]

BTW was it clear Sunday night for those who stayed ? usually is .

Yeah, kinda guessed it would be, looked like a nice clear day whilst packing away. Agree with you about the organisers- Big thanks. I know Richard Darn was pushed due to the conds. and people turning up so Well Done Richard

Leccy Hobbit Hutches for nxt yr :)

[AndyH]

In a perverse way, the conditions perhaps contributed, even more, to the stunningly friendly, helpful, attitudes of EVERYONE I met. I've never had so much fun in ankle deep mud and sub zero temps.

Book me up for next springs event !!

Only managed to bump into Daz as he was hanging about the toilets with Jamie......mmmmm......make of that what you will.....Wahahahahahahaha.

The Saturday was the only time I had a chance to have a wonder about and have a peek and touch of the various goodies on the site.

For example:

I found another bloke with a Tal 2M mount which was nice. He even had the Vega controller. I had actually only wandered over there to view those lovely Arc shack dwellings. Now they'd be a good idea down in the boggy places...hint, hint. Prob costly buggers to build/buy(not to rent tho. What was it, 20, 30 squid??) Sadly I think I woke his missus inside, cause I was slapping the side extolling the splendid build quality. :oops:

The chap with the beautiful but scaredy cat doberman, who let me look at some his pics and let me touch and slew(sp?) his Tak mount. Ooooohhhh such quality. Gotta love that Tak green paintjob too.

Gain Lee (and better half, Adele), for his general insanity and loverly 5" Tak frac, quality pics and.......did I mention his contagious madness?

Mick and son, Adam, for being drinking buddies and all round decent good blokes. But, blumming hell, they don't half like pool Did they ever sit down??

The chaps and chapessess in the warm room, saturday night. But that blumming match quiz thing...... please god, no more.

Kev and Lynn, for being massively top notch folks. ps:Never leave an expensive camera setup on his table, unless you wish to see it's inards .

Richard, for the pre Kielder email explaining all, and his general friendliness at all hours.

The Kielder mud, that let my red megane escape the quagmire on Sunday, without a push !!

Andrew P's ginormous 16" lightbridge. That's a beast.

To anyone I've left out, thanks for making me 'n' Allison feel so welcome.

Andy

[beamish]

Sorry I missed you Andy ! I think Richard D is hoping that they'll be more of the Hobbit Hutches nxt yr with leccy too. Given the conds. I can't really see mesen camping up there again-tent's trashed :shock:

[gary1968]

Yeah, huge thanks to all the organisers of this event, without them there would be no Kielder Star Camp.... :hello1: Richard and Lynn do a great job wandering round making sure everyone was getting settled in OK.

I am really looking forward to the spring event despite the possible adverse weather conditons, it is good to meet up with like minded loonies.........

I may even try to venture further south next year for the 1 or 2 of the other starcamps, but that will ultimately be down to SWMBO.

Anyway, see you in the spring folks....

Gary

[Dixie]

It goes without saying that the biggest thanks goes to all the folk who come along and make the star camp so special, despite midges, mud and ice over the years. Clear skies to everybody, sorry for the awful ground conditions. And no the tent below never did flood!

(click to enlarge)

Richard

[beamish]

Richard, you and the crew were STARS !! :hello1: :hello1: Thanks for a whopping good time !

Hobbit Hutches, Hobbit Hutches, Hobbit Hutches, Hobbit Hutches, Hobbit Hutches, Hobbit Hutches ,

The trench foot has recovered TA !!

Karlo

[Beyond_Vision]

It was great to meet you Karlo and few new faces and also to see the Renfrewshire boys again thanks for the burgers Jamie I owe you a pint or two .
The mud was just unbelievable and I got covered from head to toe. The views of the Milkyway were awesome even visible through the clouds. It's a shame I didn't get to use my scope for imaging but I did wake up early Saturday morning to find it clear and broke out the Astrotrac until dawn

Regards

Kevin

[beamish]

Good to meet you too Kevin

[PhillyDee]

Id like to say hello to the 2-3 people I met on the 2 nights I was there. As promised, I cant remember who . . . .

Somehow Lynn knew that I was a fellow sanddancer and said hello as we packed the car up on Friday. Its a shame I never booked the whole weekend, but I think My lass wouldnt appreciate getting rid of me for 5 days (No idea why though . . . ).

[Tinkerbell]

Lo Phill

That somehow would have been Me. :oops: I recognised a Sandancer twang in the air and warned her that there might be some of her family about Shame we didn't get to meet but I had to go back to work on the Friday, next time though.

[G1ZmO]

Thanks Richard,

I was in the tent pictured above with Ian and his son and it was rather squishy underfoot but it was dry at least

Still had a great time and look forward to the next one

Cheers

Paul