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SGL5 Our first star party


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SGL5 was our very first star party and it was a great success. It was nice to meet you all and to put faces to some of the members of the forum who have offered encouragement and advice.

Martin (Baz-senior) was an excellent neighbour and my wife and I really enjoyed his and Chris's company.

Many thanks to Mike_P for the excellent organisation, he did a first rate job and we certainly have no complaints. We are actually looking forward to the next star party now.

Thursday night was mostly cloudy but with broken spells that teased you into trying to polar align, however, Polaris was playing hide and seek!

Friday night lived up to expectations and was beautiful and clear so I aligned and found my first targets, unfortunately at 02:00 I went to bed for a couple of hours and left my kit running. When I woke up at 4:00 and checked on everything I discovered that someone had replaced my torch with a red light saber!!! Mist had descended and everything was covered in dew!!!:(

Saturday night was also excellent and I had a good run at M81, however, this time when I went to bed for a couple of hours windows decided to throw a fit half way through my imaging run!!!:(

Still I really enjoyed it and learnt my lesson, don't go to bed:D

Attached you can find some pictures that I have taken during our time at Lucksall, I hope as usual that you like them. Some more will be posted as soon as I have finished playing with them. I still have a lot to learn regarding image processing as I still feel that I'm fighting with some of the programs...:(:);)

Regards

Neil, Andrea & Daniel

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It was good to meet you and your wife Neil and to see your wonderful scope and mount.

Thanks for posting the pics - they bring back nice memories.

Hope to meet you both again sometime ;)

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Really nice to meet you and your wife, thanks for explaining all that lovely kit,,, drool,,,drool. I really enjoyed your company and your account of the trip up Mt Fuji, hope you had a safe journey home, I too hope to see you and the family at the Salisbury Star Party in August...

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Well guys I really expected a boring weekend in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nerds!!!! BUT.....sorry to say I couldn`t have been more wrong :( well the middle of nowhere was correct.

When Neil asked if I wanted to come back to the UK with him to a stargazers weekend in Hereford I had my doubts. Not in the coming home part but spending the weekend camping and with a field full of people just like Neil....or at least people who like to sit out all night in the cold.

I will gladly admit that I had such a wonderful weekend (Daniel and Neil as well) and it was all down to the fact that there was good weather and very good company!!!

Like I told you all I don`t normally do camping...but this was great. Daniel was off playing with the rest of the kids as soon as we had parked up, everyone were helpful and friendly. I thought I had died and gone to Jaffa cake heaven.....even though the almond slices were to die for.

I did think I`d made a big mistake on the first night as it was sooooo cold in our tent so on the second night I made sure I was well prepared by sleeping in at least 50 layers of clothing:D

I can fully appreciate now why star or sun gazing is so infectious and addictive. I still can`t get used to sitting out all night in the cold but the sun binocular thingy (sorry Jamie....need to pay more attention to you) seems a good alternative. Neil is trying to convince me that he is going to build a telescope for the sun for a few quid???? Thanks to the guy on the corner opposite our tent (Thanks NickH :() I might just let him have his spot in the garden for "our" observatory??

The whole weekend was superbly planned and co-ordinated. The site was lovely and clean and the place was beautiful. We didn`t plan on the weather being so good, therefore the red faces and t shirt arms when we arrived back in Holland (didn`t think about packing suntan lotion ;), thermals yes!). The BBQ was a great idea and so were the meals on wheels. The whole weekend you felt that you were part of a big family. I just wish I had made more of an effort to try and get to know more of you guys...there were a lot of you. Good excuse to come back again.

I hope we haven`t created a bad image with you all........someone planted all the empty wine bottles by our tent as we were packing up??!!?? I blame the Northerners...well from the other side of the Pennines than us anyway.....Squid!!! He must have drunk them all with Martin (Bas Snr) while we weren`t looking. Hope you`ve got your batteries on charge for the next time squid....and I mean for your camera and telescope....your mouth never seemed to run down...only joking :(

Sorry if I have forgotten/missed names but to name just a few.....Martin (Bas Snr) and his lovely wife who helped us put our tent up when we arrived just before sunset, AllanJ and Nardia, Jamie (with his sun binoculars??), Dark Knight and his family (and dog) and the exploding air bed, the Doctor (Doc), Mike_P, Squid (Neil will take you to Japan once we get our stuff back) :), and the maker of the almond slices.....

Daniel wants to say a big hello to Reece and Dylan and the brothers, Josh and James. Thanks to Hugh (the thing) for showing him how to play War Hammer 40,000.

When`s the next party as I`ll have to get booking the ferry!!!

Till next time, Andrea (Neil (Bill Clinton)`s better half) and Daniel x

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You'll have your own scope by the time of the next one Andrea, I can see it happening,,,,,,,Glad you all had a great stay and if you felt part of a large family then the Star Party was a huge success, MikeP did a terrific job....

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Daniel, Dylan and Reece where all a real credit - so nicely behaved and very knowledgable about Warhammer 40k. Daniel picked it up much quicker than me - in about 2 mins!

Nice to meet you all and look forward to seeing you at tne next star party!

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Glad you had a great time! Yup my gob motors never run out of steam!

Was great meeting you both and your Noob son who I will PWN on any game he chooses to name as long as it's on PS3 or PC and 360's are for the GIRLS...It's only a step up from the Wii and we all know what that's like! Hopefully the scarlet fever story will get you out of any trouble at school....my heads peeling as I type :)

And blaming me and BAZ for the pair of you's obvious drinking problem is terrible...admitting you have a problem is only a step away from the cure! ;)

Anyway..it's off to workies for me now! Love your piccies! I've truely been bitten by the imaging bug now!

Hope to see you all again sometime!

love

El Squid (The housewifes favourite since 1972)

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Neil

I am glad you and your family had a good time both socially and astronomically.

It was great to finally meet up with you and share some time at the scope/binos. And yes i do have the most comfortable eyepieces going...;)

Hope to see you and the family at SGL6....

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It was great wasn't it! Krys has suffered this week for it, but doesn't regret it at all. Nice M81, I'll keep my eye open for more images.

Hope Daniel didn't get too much of a rollocking from school for being off ill! You letting him fall asleep in the Sun like that, I hope it was sunny in Holland or the games up.

And blaming us for your bottles, tut tut. Where did you put the other six? lol.

Keep in touch. The eyepiece is amazing Neil, Thanks mate!

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