anyone been to astrofest

[red dwalf]

just wondering if anyone had been to the astrofest today ?

how was it, and are there any bargains

[kniclander]

er, I went today. I had a bit of a spasm and some money flew out of my pocket and I accidentally bought something for twice my budget that doesn't work:rolleyes:. more will be posted later in the "help a huge d*&%head" section....

didn't see any real bargains (unless you count ancient copies of astronomy now) - mostly 10% off a few things

[Capricorn]

Went down, underground out of action for the easy route, Hammersmith/Circle line.

Have to say a little disappointed:(

Seemed to be less people then the Friday last year and not really the "buzz" of last year. Expected more as last year it was said that people didn't go owing to the snow that we had at the time.

No where near the same number of scopes around, nor the number of small groups/organisations on the lower floor.

One large stand was simply showing what they had but selling nothing. One person wanted a CCD they had but it was for looking at but not for selling.

Not sure if I will bother with it next year.

[ngc2403]

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh sounds bad though i remember someone saying the circle line would be off, plus i think the snow this year has been worse than last and Telescopes House are not there really so ....

not so fused i didn't go

[skye at night]

NO

[Deneb]

I was going to go, but too many commitments this year ! Buying astro gear

Cheers

Nadeem.

[Rob]

Russ and I went yesterday.. great day out I have to say. Could of spent loads!!

[russ]

As Rob said, we went yesterday. My first visit to Astrofest. I enjoyed it i have to say. Lots of shiny kit to look at and play with. No there wasn't any massive bargains, only the odd 5% or 10% here and there. That was a little disappointing i have to say. I went up with the view to buy either a pair 15x70's or an ST80. Sadly there wasn't a single ST80 at the show....seemed a little odd. And i could get a better discount on the bins from Telescope House with their 10% day.

I spent £23 on nic nacs, mainly adapters, dust plugs and a cheap barlow for the kids.

Thoroughly enjoyable day none the less.....thanks Rob! And nice to meet to MartinB and Helen. Missed NickH though? Thought he was going to be on the Solarscope stand but he didn't show.

Russ

[Helen]

Had a good day out! Nice to chat to MikeP, Ian, Martin, Robin, Michael, Rob and Russ. And I've just fitted my new crayford to the back of the SCT - Sooooooo smoooooth It was £20 cheaper than on-line so I thought that was good. Its a chunky bit of kit and I must admit my shoulders are aching rather today after carrying it around all afternoon and back to the train.

Helen

[michaelmorris]

Had a great day. Met loads of nice SGL folks and some very good talks. Alan Chapman was brilliant as usual.

Loads of superb bargains.

I got: a Meade off-axis guider for £25 (from the BC&F stand); 2 x Meade 6.4mm 4000 series plossls for each £5, a Meade #56 green filter for £5, AE Meade wedge deluxe latitude adjuster for £5 (all from SCS Astro); and a Williams Optics carbon fibre dielectric 1.25" diagonal for £50 from the nice people at Ian King Imaging.

Well chuffed!

[Space Bat]

Yes - and spent way tooooo much, spoke to a couple of people viewing the widescreen stand - one recently bought a 150p I think and had his first light the other day...I was telling him how good my 13mm nagler was.....should have left it there and moved on, but the urge got me and I ended up spending on a william optics 2" star diag and a 20mm Nagler T5

Please see my add in the for sale as I am offering my missus here before I put her on ebay....she was the tall blonde with a white puffa looking at me with a he's off his trolly look

Also I chatted for a bit to Lee from GreenWitch - on the way home she asked how comes he recognised you as I don't remember him when we went to them I remember the other guy.....

'Oh he was there he popped into the showroom a few times while we were chatting with Neil' I manage to salvage.... hopefully she is still blissfully ignorant of subsequent visits to GW

Chris

[JimBobs63]

I took an extended lunch break from work yesterday and went along.

Can't comment on Astrofest compared to another other events - it was my first!! I did enjoy my time there looking at some of the very serious kit on display......

Didn't see much that seemed a real bargain compared to web/shop prices - as has been written above just the odd 5-10% off. Still, I did get a red-dot finder (Orion EZ Deluxe) to replace the SW 6x30 on my 150P - I haven't been doing particularly well with it so thought I'd try a red-dot instead.

[Beyond_Vision]

I had a really great day there with my wife and it was nice to meet the SGL crew. We both enjoyed the lectures especially Dr Brian May and Sir Patrick Moore. We also got to speak to Dr Alan Chapman but sadly missed his lecture which was on Friday.

I couldn't resist and the wallet was twitching too much so I came away with a nice 8" F4 Astrograph Newt from Altair Astro

Sorry it will be cloudy for the next few weeks

Regards

Kevin

[JCJC]

We went today and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The only bargain we bought were 8 back issues of Astronomy Now for £2.

Well worth the effort just to wonder round all the dream scopes.

Jordan.

[red dwalf]

went today, set of at 7 am with DOC, & RUSTY STRINGS, had a day out in the big smoke, had the plastic out a couple of times before telling myself i don`t need it and managed to get it back in the wallet before any damage done !

picked up a polar finder for my cg5 gt mount for a reasonable £20, hopefully i can now get it aligned alittle better, have installed it but to tired to read all the instructions, after the astrofest went onthe the science museam and had a good few hours looking around there, all in all a good day out.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Travelled down with the wife on Friday and spent the night at a £19 Travelodge at Park Royal.

I attend Astrofest every year and enjoyed this one as well. Met a number of SGL members which was great. Sorry Doc didn't see you.

Checked out a 12" Flextube and split it to see how heavy the OTA was in comparison to my 10" just incase I decide to upgrade this year. Well it is quite a bit heavier so its food for thought. Also checked out the display copy of the Cambridge new double star atlas - very good but they were sold out. Amazon here I come.

Finally decided to buy a 2" O111 filter as it was on offer.

So an enjoyable Astrofest.

Mark

[Doc]

I did look for you Mark but alas our paths did not cross. We will catch up with each other at SGL5.

And good luck with the O111, let me know how you get on with it.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Yes Mick I was sorry I missed you. I think we should have carried a SGL badge showing our user name - although I met Barkis, Mike P, Daz etc I must have missed a number of others. Perhaps next year we can arrange a formal get together.

Drove home past the Lucksall site - it looks very good with a few caravans on site. Not long to April!!

Mark

[mike chadwick]

i went

saturday morning did not spend much and enjoyed the lectures by tom boles.

and spm and brian may.spent the afternoon with wife and eldest son taking in the

sights of london great day out .

have been going since it started and will be back next year touch wood

[Gy Stargazer]

Hey all been a while since i've been on here.

I went to the Astrofest for the 2nd day on Saturday.

Took me longer than i thought to get there as i got lost in South Kensington when all along i needed to be in Kensington. lol.

Afew good bargains managed to steady my wallet but that's cause my gf was holding onto it. lol.

Did manage to see, meet and get autographs by Sir Patrick, Brian May and Chris Lintott though which made the whole getting lost part worth it.

Everyone was friendly there as well.

Hope to go again eventually.

[S.A.M]

I went and brought a Solarscope SV-60, got to hide from the wife's eyes

[red dwalf]

you lucky so and so, i looked at these, amazing scopes but almost fell over when the chap told me the price, and he said it with a stright face, and that was with £400 off the rrp.

if you fancy lending it out one summers day i`d be more than happy to look after it for you for a while, i also looked at the Lunt 35mm solar scopes, not certain that the filter are as good but alot cheeper at around £380