A quick Kielder Star Camp report

[Jamie]

Well i just got back from Kielder this afternoon.

The weather was up to its usual tricks with more rain than not.

I arrived at Kielder on Wednesday midday the weather was sunny and everything was looking good (or so i thought)

Later that evening things turned a little sour weather wise as we only had about 1 hour of a late night clear spell.

I had already decided to do some observing before i tried any imaging so thats what i did (some of the best sights i have seen through a scope)

There was only one other chance to do any observing which was Saturday night but the seeing was bad/misty but by the time that happened i had too much beer to drink and was seeing double (i had the good sense to not touch my scope in that condition)

There was the usual upside to going to an event such as this and that was the people that we met some for the first time

some i had met before.

I met up with most of the guys from here that said they were going CHEWY/RADIOACTIVE/MOONPLODGER/BLINKY/THE MIGHTY KONG/GORDON G/ to name but a few.

I bumped into loads of the guys from UKAI and a cool bunch of guys from Sunderland AS this made the event more worth while.

All in all i think it was worth while me going as i did some observing/drank loadsa beer and was able to put some faces to names.

It was a blast!

A big thanks to Richard Darn and all the Sunderland AS guys for organising this event. WELL DONE FOLKS!!! See ya in March 2007

[Caz]

Beer and good company does it everytime, glad you enjoyed it Jamie!!

Caz

[OXO]

Nice one Jamie wish i could of been there to join in with the fun

Recovered yet?

James

[Jamie]

Recovered yet?

James

Not really mate thats why i have been so quiet on SGL tonight.

[Albireo380]

Yeah Jamie, Bob Bower said you very enjoynig yourself. Bob then joined Mac and me and we drank 3 bottles of wine - then the weather cleared a bit. Never mind, it wasn't really imaging weather. But the Orionids were nice.

Luckily we stopped drinking just in time, and got a couple of hours observing in - although the 'scope didn't seem to focus as easily as usual - or was it me? Felt a bit "fragile" on Sunday morning.

Tom

[Gordon G]

Thank you Mr Sharky

[Jamie]

Thank you Mr Sharky

Mr Sharky says "it was my pleasure".<a href="http://plugin.smileycentral.com/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.smileycentral.com%252F%253Fpartner%253DZSzeb008%255FZNxmk696YYGB%2526i%253D16%252F16%255F5%255F44%2526feat%253Dprof/page.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_5_44.gif" alt="SmileyCentral.com" border="0">

[Jamie]

I did manage to do some observing through the WO 105 and i am

so glad i did.

As i say the seeing was not at its best so when i looked through the 105 at M31

and was able to determine the dust lanes i was gob :shock: smacked.

I had never before seen M31 so defined before(even in bigger scopes) that in this session M31 was all i looked at

through a scope anything else was observed through binoculars.

[TheMightyKong]

Hi all,

It was good to meet so many people from here. Have to say what a friendly and helpfull bunch of people you lot are. Of the (2) starparties I've been to, Keilder is the frendliest , and thanks from me too for mr sharkey.

[chewy]

Nothing more need to be said

dink THANKS Mr SHARKEY

[blinky]

Well I am glad I left on Friday night and did not hang around. A big THANKS! to everybody who materialised out of the darkness to push me out of the mud I did manage to stop about 15minutes along the road and caught a brief glimpse of clear sky,OMG I see why Kielder attracts Stargazers, I have never seen so many stars!

Chewy, the new scope is Fantastic, not managed to find anything else other that the 7 sisters but I have only had one night of clear skies so far

Was good to meet a few folks, shame it was too dark for me to put names to most faces. I am thinking of getting myself a small tent and coming down next March.