Possible star party in Dorset

[kev100]

Hi all, 

Over the past few months I've been in discussion with all involved parties (land owners, business owners and locals) about holding a star party in the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas.

Anyway, things have moved on, finally, and it's penciled in for the first weekend in September.

It's to be based at the Cerne Abbas Brewery ( https://www.cerneabbasbrewery.com/ ), with camping in the adjacent fields, and an area set aside for setting up telescopes/observing.

Details are as follows: 

Dates - 6, 7, 8 September

Facilities - basic, no electric hookups (sorry) but there'll be battery charging facilities, portaloos, a chips and burgers outlet/pizza van

Events - talks and a quiz in the taproom (tbc)

Setting- idyllic, with lots to do and explore locally, village shop and pubs, plus it's at a brewery!

Skies - class 4/good

Weather - good (usually)

Cost - a nominal fee to include entrance, camping and to cover costs (portaloos, mainly) ... Tbc but in the region of £40 for the weekend

This would be the first such event here, but could grow into a regular thing, with electric and less basic facilities if there's the interest. 

So, what I'm looking for here is some indication of numbers/the level of interest... Plus ideas/things I haven't thought of....

I've got a meeting arranged for next week, so any input would be welcome beforehand....

Cheers, 

Kev.

Edited May 17 by kev100

[Peter Drew]

Good luck, hope it all works out.     🙂

[cajen2]

Plus there's a certain giant with a very big.....telescope! 😂

I'd certainly be interested, though early September will mean rather short periods of astronomical darkness.

[kev100]

8 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Plus there's a certain giant with a very big.....telescope! 😂

I'd certainly be interested, though early September will mean rather short periods of astronomical darkness.

True, on both counts, but it's warm 🙂

[Phil Fargaze]

39 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

I'd certainly be interested, though early September will mean rather short periods of astronomical darkness

Thinking about it, those dates in September give at least six hours of astro darkness which I would be happy with for doing visual observing.  These days I just  go for it and get what chance I can. I took the large dob to Suffolk last weekend knowing I only had just over two hours of astro darkness and ended up seeing the amazing aurora on Friday night and I also managed to get a good number of  galaxies and globular clusters observed on the Saturday night. A weekend I will never forget! 

[lunator]

I might pop down. I am only 30mins away. 

Cheers 

Ian

[Gfamily]

Sadly we're away, otherwise it would be definitely a draw.

Hope it goes well, Kevin.

See you at Astrocamp later in the month perhaps. 

[kev100]

13 hours ago, Gfamily said:

See you at Astrocamp later in the month perhaps

 definitely👍🏻

[reddoss]

Hi Kevin,

             Yes I am interested.  Will PM you on Messenger later.

 

Cheers,

           Justyn

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

If I can convince the missus to come on a 5+ hour drive and presumably not shower for at least two days I'll come. 😁

Otherwise I find very long solo drives massively boring. Around 3hrs is my limit. 🫣

Good luck either way. The place looks lovely and the beer selection is magnificent. 😄

Edited May 26 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[kev100]

There is now a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560006209961

[JOC]

Sooner or later it will dawn on folks that there are many of us enlightened enough to NOT do Facebook!

[kev100]

Update:

I'm really pleased to say that FLO has agreed to provide some prizes for the Astro quiz. Also, any 'profits' left over after costs are paid will go to Parkinson's UK👍🏻