Kelling Heath August 16th - 22nd

[Ant]

We just come back from a week at Kelling.

We had a nice large pitch at the top right of the Yellow Field.

We were quite lucky in that we had 5 clear nights out of 6 - which does seem to be quite typical of Norfolk at this time of year (or maybe I'm quite lucky).

One thing that surprised me was just how damn cold it gets in the evening - by 10pm is was absolutely freezing - down to below 10 degrees according to the car.

I think that some cold weather gear is going to be needed for September if August is anything to go on...

My brother came with us this year and we sat out after Jamie went to sleep and just watched the stars. Jupiter was very bright indeed, the milky way was visible very quickly after sunset. As you can tell it wasn't completely dark when I took this image.

The double cluster was a very easy naked eye object and M13 was also naked eye, but you had to know where to look (if you know what I mean).

As this was a family holiday scopes were banned , but I took the 300D, power lead and laptop. The plan was to get some nice star trails shots with meteors maybe...

But I forgot the lead that controls the 300D long exposures from the laptop - which was very annoying, I tried some shots where I held down the button, but they didn't come out very well. Then the canon power died and as I had forgotten the LX lead I really couldn't be bothered to power it from mains.

So I did something I haven't done for years - I sat back and just looked up. The stars were like diamonds against a very dark sky - not something that I'm used to from home. As I said several DSO were naked eye. The Milky Way was bright with dust lanes, there were numerous sattelites and an abnormally high number of meteors, from faint little ones to some nice mag -1 or -2 ones... A few had trains, most didn't. They were all white though, there was no colour in any of the meteors that I saw.

We were also visited by a ghostly apparition, who seemed to take a liking to Jamie

So, I strongly advise warm clothes and lots of them for September. I found Kelling quite windy this year - but that was pitch specific. The Red field was very windy indeed, but as soon as the sun went down the wind dropped completely and by morning dew was quite bad. But within a couple of hours of the sun coming up the wind had returned and the dew gone...

Ant

[Talitha]

It's a bummer that you couldn't bring a scope, but sometimes less is more. Just sitting back watching the sky roll past is so relaxing.. sounds like you had a great time anyway. Thanks for sharing the pics, they turned out great.

[ashenlight]

Sounds really relaxing ant and I am really pleased you got some clear skies - I had a glimpse of the Summer triangle through broken clouds last night but not had the scope out for a while now...

shame about the lack of scopes but it sounds like the naked eye views more than made up for it thanks for sharing

[callump]

A few years back (2004 i think), there was considerable wind at the spring camp. Tents being blown to bits, and a few scopes damaged too. Need to remember to take the tie-downs!

/callump

[Ant]

I seem to remember that, there was a load of Kendrik telescope tents that were totally destroyed.

The Red field, being so open, is really prone to wind. The Blue and Yellow fields, while not having such good horizons don't suffer anything like the red field.

Ant

[Whippy]

Sounds remarkably like the Spring party last year when the wind and subsequent snow over Saturday night made it a bit hairy. The last two Autumn parties however, have been great weather wise if slightly dewey!

Tony..

[SteveL]

remember that guys EQ mount that blew over onto the front of Kai's car and snapped the head clean off? sheesh...

[Whippy]

Ah yes, the 6" Evostar on the EQ5. That went down like a sack of potatoes .

Tony..

[Ant]

remember that guys EQ mount that blew over onto the front of Kai's car and snapped the head clean off? sheesh...

Really?

[SteveL]

yep, wind took the mount and tripod straight over, complete with attached OTAs, and landed on the bonnet of Kai's car. The impact left no mark on the car, but sheared/snapped a large chunk of the top plate clean off, including one side of the dovetail clamp section, and off came the OTAs.