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KELLING SPRING STAR PARTY APRIL 17TH TO 24TH, SOME GREAT OBSERVING AND MUCH BESIDES.


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I attended the event with Andy from The Astronomy Centre nr Todmorden, leaving on 23rd to avoid some impending heavy rain - not good conditions for stowing away Andy's massive tent!

We had three good sessions on Tue/Wed, Wed/Thursday and Sat/Sunday. Some very transparent seeing and some hazy conditions.  Good for solar on many of the days, very cold at night if you didn't have heating in your tent.  Remember this if you're  planning to go next year when it starts on March 5th, around six weeks earlier! 🥶.

I took the Celestron Starsense Explorer 8inch Dob, and Andy brought a C5 (also with a SS facility)  and a 71mm refractor  for HA observations.

The SSE facility enabled me to make good use of the available observing time, and I actually achieved my main objectives in observing as many galaxies as I could in  Coma, Virgo, Leo and Ursa Major. Including all the Messier objects in these constellations  and other NGC targets.

As usual (when observing from Kelling), I had the best views of the year I will get of these objects.  Particularly impressive were the views of M81/M82, M51, and M66/M65.

However, the most impressive group I observed were those in Markarians Chain, a group of galaxies that form part of the Virgo Cluster.  From earth they appear along a curved line, with M84 and M86 at one end.  It was an absolute treat to work along the line of galaxies with my 17.5mm Morpheus in the 8inch.  Simply stunning.  Even better in larger scopes.  Worth the trip on its own!  

I also had superb views of NGC 4565, the Needle Galaxy, a beautiful bright edge on galaxy.  At  m9.6 and 16'x3" it rather puts NGC 891 in the shade and is a much easier object to see.

Kelling is much more than the observing though, and I met up with many old friends and chatted with many more - as well as sharing views with our scopes.

Below are a few pics, the one of Markarians Chain is not one of mine 🤣.

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