Star party in Cerne Abbas, Dorset

[Stu]

If it looks vaguely sunny then I’ll try to bring the 150mm PST mod with me 👍

[kev100]

27 minutes ago, Stu said:

If it looks vaguely sunny then I’ll try to bring the 150mm PST mod with me 👍

Cool. I'm sure there'll be one or two white light setups on site ...

[Xsubmariner]

Is the site for camping only or are motorhomes etc permitted?

[kev100]

40 minutes ago, Xsubmariner said:

Is the site for camping only or are motorhomes etc permitted?

Motorhomes will be fine 👍🏻

[kev100]

Friday evening’s talk will be How the Celts tracked the seasons and what this tells us about the Cerne Giant - by Dr Richard Miles.

Hear how newly discovered alignments of sunrises and sunsets with local monuments near Cerne Abbas during the Bronze and Iron Ages appear to coincide with solstice days, equinoxes and important Celtic festivals. The exception is the Cerne Giant, the eye-catching design of which has both cultural and astronomical significance, and shows where to stand, where to look, and probably what to look for to know the day of summer solstices around the time it was created shortly after the end of the Roman Occupation of Britain.

Dr Richard Miles is a retired research scientist who served as President of the British Astronomical Association in 2005‒7, and pursues research on comets, asteroids and many other areas of Astronomy.

[kev100]

Saturday evening’s talk 😲 …

6-8pm - Fuzzy Blobs: A Guide for the Perplexed - by Steve Tonkin

For millennia people have wondered about the misty patches in the night sky, which became called "nebulas" - clouds - and the advent of the telescope merely increased the number we could see without greatly adding to our knowledge of what they are. The true nature of these enigmatic "fuzzy blobs" has only been known for a century or so, and they reveal a tremendous amount of information about the life and death of stars, the structure of the Milky Way galaxy, and the nature of the Universe itself.

Steve Tonkin FRAS isthe Dark Skies Advisor to both the Federation of Astronomical Societies and the International Dark Sky Reserve on the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, and splits his time between this and doing astronomical outreach. He is a popular speaker on the UK astronomy society circuit and has a monthly column in BBC Sky at Night Magazine, for which he also writes "how to" articles and equipment reviews.

[CraigT82]

Is it ok to bring along some unused Astro stuff to sell at the star party? Got some eyepieces and a scope to shift, was going to put them up on here but might just bring them along, hopefully save on posting! 

[kev100]

7 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Is it ok to bring along some unused Astro stuff to sell at the star party? Got some eyepieces and a scope to shift, was going to put them up on here but might just bring them along, hopefully save on posting! 

Sure, that’s fine 👍