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Kelling Report (late - apologies!) ** Pics Added **

daz

By daz
in Official SGL Announcements and Events

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daz

daz

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I arrived on Friday 22nd, later than I wanted to but I had family commitments in the early afternoon. Consequently setting up my tent was a rushed affair which resulted in two broken poles and gave the tent a bit of a lean - nothing major and easily repaired!

Having driven through plenty of rain, I was not hopeful that the skies would clear, even though the forecast had predicted small, bright twinkly things. Well, they were spot on. At around 9pm the skies cleared to the most amazing view. The milky way arced overhead and at first I thought it was cloud streaking across the skies, but once your eyes become fully dark-adapted, it was breath taking. The structure was clearly visible - in fact, it looked like the wide-field shots that many people take as photos!!!

I had forgotten seeing similar skies in Wales, consequently, I was not prepared for the sheer amount of stars you can see through the eyepiece. Everywhere you looked, the FOV was simply full of pinpricks of light, pinpricks you have no hope of seeing at home (well, I don't anyway).

Although the skies were very clear, they were also very damp, and the dew quickly got going. Still, with the amount of rain and the warm weather, this was no surprise really. The dew heaters were fired up for the EP's and finder and they soon did their job. While they were warming up, I switched to the binos and spent a good hour sweeping up and down the milky way. Clusters like M23, M25, M71 were really nice to look at, and even though not huge in the binos, made nice targets none the less. M51 and M101 were my first targets back at the scope, as they are too dim from home. These were still feint, but easily visible in the EP. I also revisited some familiar objects, mainly to see the difference - the double cluster for example was simply staggering.

I am a little ashamed to say that I have no idea of the magnitude of the skies, and I neglected to make estimates of seeing and transparancy, so busy was I with looking at stuff and talking to people. A poor astronomer I make!! I had also decided to do visual on the Friday night and imaging on subsequent nights. Well, as it turned out, Friday was the only clear night so I have no images to submit I'm afraid.

I hit the sack at about 1:30, just for an hour or so, and got out again at just after 3 to be greeted with Orion standing majestically over the eastern horizon. Wow, what a view that was!! I spent ages just staring at the constellation and looking forward to when he'll be out at a decent hour! Back to bed just after 4, having forgotten that Saturn would be an early morning view!!

Saturday was spent walking round, talking to others, admiring gear, looking at the trade stands, fighting to keep my credit card in my wallet!!! Williams Optics was very popular - nearly everyone had something be it a scope or EP's. I also looked through a Solarscope filter (he used to work with/for Coronado and helped develop their solarscopes). I was absolutley blown away by the detail visible. Just stunning. You could see the surface 'orange peel' with such clarity, I felt I could reach out and touch it! This was a 50mm (show price of £2,200) version and was like nothing I have seen before. He is planning a 100mm version (he currently does 50,70,90) - now that would be seomthing to lok through!!!

Sunday was much the same, except with less people as many headed off during the day. I went to the talks in the afternoon; one on observing tips and tricks (using a webcam to examine the diffraction rings for example - good idea!!; averted vision, etc) and one on some basic webcam and CCD imaging. This one had three laptops and, to be honest, needed more practice to get it flow smoothly. By the time they had changed over and got the technology working, you'd forgotten what they were talking about! Still, I did manage to pick up a couple of bits of useful info! The forecast for Sunday night was split - one set of people said it would be good, the others took a more pessimistic view. I put a foot in both camps! I partially packed, leaving the tent and scope thinking if it did go grotty, I could be packed and on the way home in 1/2 hour. At about 9:30, I started packing :wink:

Conclusion - An excellent weekend, met up with some SGL members, met new people, saw plenty of kit to aspire to, and didn't drink nearly enough beer!!! I was annoyed at myself for being so dis-organised, and regretted not doing the imaging on the Friday. Still, always Kielder (imaging only!!)

Name-Checks: Met Ambermile (Arthur) who has some interesting cameras in development ( :shock: How big is that chip??? ), Moon Plodger (Kevin) and his pals Graham (talking at Kielder) and Albert (more nice kit there), Dixie, Bern (who was doing a brisk trade by the look if it), and I made a few contacts for my local AS as well.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend. Next year, I think will be the full 10/14 days though!

Some daytime piccies to follow, once I get 'em uploaded!!

PST on my camera tripod

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Revelation 80 on my HEQ5

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Winner of the Innovation award

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A 25" Dob, remote control and tracking-enabled!!

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Arthurs Baby!

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A couple of admirers (Arthur is the one polishing the base!!)

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A view down the Solarscope filter

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One of my AS members, with his wares

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Now that's a pair of bino's!!

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Th Eagle has landed!!

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Getting ready to catch the raindrops!!

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daz

daz

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A sheepish thanks - I am still annoyed at myself. Ah well. Lessons learnt!!

Phil - It is a huge site with a fitness centre and pool, cycle hire and nature trails. The statics are all tucked away in little nooks in the trees, all very nice I must say. You have Cromer and Sherringham just down the road, both have good selections of restaurants and the beaches are very good too. I would certainly recommend it as a holiday base.

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Ant

Ant

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I stayed in a static called Heron2, a little close to the main square... but the area outside the static gave fairly good overall view of the sky - not as good as being in the field but not bad...

If you have kids and go there for your hols, then is a place called Dinosaur land not far away - which is very good. Thay also have several places that do takeaway food, AND I beleive that there are also local chinese / indian takeaways that delivery onto site. I'm sure that I saw a delivery being made...

Shame that we went there June 21st Week. Stayed up till 12:30 on a couple of night and it was still dark... :wink:

Great Pic's Daz!

Ant

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daz

daz

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Some nice Pics there Daz 8) how did it compare with breakon(forget how it's spelt) for the skies?

I would say they are very similar James.

Well???? What have you got to say for yourself Daz?:wink::grin::lol:

I know, I'm sorry for being a bit of a wimp! But I did get up again - doesn't that count......?

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