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Belated personal report on Kielder star party

Andrew*

By Andrew*
in Star Parties & Astro Events

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Andrew*

Andrew*

Posted
Posted

Pretty late with this, but things have been very busy since Kielder.

I packed up everything I could think of into the car on Thursday night as I needed to be ready to leave next morning. Amazingly, I managed to get the Lightbridge tube assembly fully assembled in the back of the car, and the dob mount on the seat behind the driver. You had to see it to believe it!

Anyway, got off to a good start on Friday am, but took some wrong turnings on my way to Craig's (blinky), who was, with assistance from GPS, to lead me on the long winding road to dark Kielder.

We arrived there mid afternoon to a rather gloomy, muddy looking campsite. Beautiful :help: Mingled a bit, shook some hands with some folk I already knew, and some I didn't, before pitching the tent on the driest spot available. I got lucky with a spot that was only 2" deep in water. The scope also came out, but was quickly covered up before the rain set in.

An afternoon meeting up with the SGL members preceeded some good nosh in the Angler's Arms. We enjoyed a good old meal with a couple of pints to wash it down. Big mistake. Coming out of the pub to beautiful clear skies, but with intermittent clouds, nobody could really bring themselves to get up and running.

The entire campsite seemed to be a bit half-hearted about doing anything serious that night. A bit of binoculars here and there, or a couple of swings about with the big dob, or maybe simply some polar aligning. Still, I got some lovely views of the Veil nebula, M31 and Pleiades in my scope, and use of SteveL's fancy image stabilised binoculars. Quite cool.

The night culminated in quite a fitting epitome - watching an appallingly bad sci-fi film in Gary's caravan, accompanied by some tasty "Somethingorother (Harvey?) Headbanger". 15 minutes in to the film and I was dozing away. Woke up as the credits rolled up, just to stagger back to my tent and drift to sleep. Woke up several times in the night to some excitable chatter from a nearby tent.

When I woke up on Saturday morning I got chatting to my neighbour, called Mick. It turns out that I had missed quite a night, which explained the chatter I heard from his direction. Mick owns two very interesting and antique scopes - one 10" equatorial mounted newt with a DH mirror. I remember quite clearly a simply stunning view of NGC 4565 through this scope at the Spring event - absolutely mind-blowing for just 10".

It was a beautiful morning - frost covered everything and the rising sun burning the mist off the campsite made for some lovely photo opportunities:

Mick's 10" (left) and 5" refractor:

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The bridge

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Steve (Paxo, left) and Daz (right) enjoying the fresh morning

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(click to enlarge)

Met up with the other chaps for a good old full English in the Duke's Pantry in Kielder castle. Later I was seen to be browsing the trade stands at some gorgeous kit. (Un) Fortunately I didn't give way to temptation, but the WO98 looked stunning, and Pentax eyepieces always seem to get some drool on when I see them...

At the trade stands I met a lovely chap called Neil with his 12" OO scope + lots of goodies for a silly price. I was very tempted, but again, resisted it. I would have to sell both the 16" and 8" to justify it, and then I wasn't sure if the EQ6 would take it with the ED80...

Evening saw a similar group of SGLers in the Angler's, and another good meal, this time wisely washed down with a shandy instead.

The night was similar to last night unfortunately - poor seeing and intermittent transparency. Still, the difference was, I was full of energy and up for making the most of it. Met up with Mick and Neil and the big dob and talked observing, and did some too! Also put the 16" against Mick's 10" on the veil, and it turned out that my scope wasn't doing too badly. Still, that 10" is fantastic. M31 showed two dust lanes for the first time, and M45 showed glowing around some of the stars. Definitely nebulosity.

I later met up with Tom Yates and his amaazing 5" Tak. Also saw nebulosity in the Pleiades in his 31mm Nagler - OMG!! Just beautiful. Should have turned it to M31...

Paul and Ally gave me the challenge to observe an incredibly distant globular: intergalactic wanderer, but it had clouded out by the time it rose. I won't stop trying though!

I found Jamie and got him to take out his new 13mm Ethos - we wanted to give it a shot in the 16" on M42. Oh, my! What an eyepiece. Incredibly contrasty, HUGE FOV, and yet the field stop was comfortably visible. Just a pleasure to use, but a big mistake! And M42, in the worst part of the sky - low down, and right in the LP from Newcastle - was gorgeous.

Cloud was getting more annoying now, so I gave up on observing and took a stroll round the campsite - met the guys on the far end from me (too many to mention) who were attempting some imaging. Wasn't going so well with the clouds - it's easy enough with a dob to swing about and take in targets quickly. While them lot had spent most of the night faffing with electrical and mechanical connections, focusing and guiding bothers and all the rest of it, I had taken in a respectable handful of targets and had a lot of fun. Yep, I'm happy sticking with observing! :D (Sorry guys... Still, Craig managed one cracking sub!)

I even got into my tent at a repectable 1am and had a good night's sleep - can't say fairer...

Next morning it was time to pack up already. Didn’t take me that long and gave me a chance to have a bit of banter with a few other folk around the campsite – what a friendly hobby this is!

Got on the road by 12ish and was on target to get home for 4pm, but I couldn’t actually get in until 6 as there was a serious accident right at the bottom of my drive… :lol:

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend – it was fantastic to meet up with some old friends and put faces to names, and also to meet other astronomers from around Britain. Had some beautiful skies to boot.

Looking forward to Spring already! 8)

Andrew

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Beyond_Vision

Beyond_Vision

Posted
Posted

That sums up the weekend well Andrew. Nice to meet you and thanks for the look through the dob. I think you were right about it being best to stick to observing and not even attempt any imaging with the intermittent cloud cover we had. There were enough gaps to see quite a few objects but I never really got myself organised to take advantage of them. It was great to see the North American Nebula visually that was a first for me with a pair of 7x35mm binos.

Regards

Kevin

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