Kielder Spring SP 2011

[MG1]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. The Kielder crowd are certainly some of the most welcoming folk Jen and I have met....we've book for Autumn too so hope to see you there. (I'm not sure exactly who I managed to meet in the dark but there we lots of mikes, Steves and daves! )

Thumbs up to SAS and extras and of course the lovely Yvonne at the Dukes and Sue (of amazing stacks fame) at the Anglers.

I'm just gutted we're missing out on the Sunday night revelry!

Thanks for a great week guys....only 7.5 mnths till we return!

[Dame]

Big thumbs up tp Lynn and Kev for organising the Spring Camp and thanks to all at SAS for a great three days with two excellent talks on Saturday. Pity I must have been the Jonah who brought the cloud.... sorry....... am now scuttling off into the corner.

[RobSay]

For anyone still left at Kielder, I was feeling a little sorry for you as the last few nights have been less than brilliant ...but tonight's the night ... I'm twenty miles dues south and it's magic

Oh and I do feel sorry for anyone who's left!

[Tinkerbell]

That is good news for the remaining gang

[MG1]

For anyone still left at Kielder, I was feeling a little sorry for you as the last few nights have been less than brilliant ...but tonight's the night ... I'm twenty miles dues south and it's magic

Oh and I do feel sorry for anyone who's left!

Oh, don't feel sorry...they'll be partaking of some ales and banter and having a great time....last autumn Sunday was without doubt the best evening of the week!

Still, we've stopped off at the inlaws on the way and I'm currently getting some subs of the black-eye....not sure I'd have managed that if I had stayed back.

[astroimpulse]

Had a great time considering the madness of timings. Left today and only got to meet about 10 people due to the dark time I settled on Friday and again on Saturday (long story).

Many thanks to Kev and Lynn who I briefly met and to Richard and Dave who were near me and allowed me to bend their ears. Richard stuck a couple of his TeleVue EPs in my scope so that's one thing I can tick off the 'must do' sheet Both him and Dave were very helpful. Massive thanks guys.

Weather was pants but Sunday night allowed me to get a little observing in and then messing around with the imaging. Got nothing but the experience was essential. PHD let me down so I need to investigate. I think it was the camera other than anything else.

Thanks to Simon for the loan of the plastic sheet. One of the things I forgot but you saved my bacon bud . I need to get that back to you as you were gone when I got up on Monday morning

Also met Paul, Mike and Neil (hope I have the names correct) and a few others who I should remember All of who were great to talk to.

Got to look through a PST for the first time which was outstanding. Truly incredible sight.

Oh, and I'm well happy with my gear. The little bit of observing was breath taking. Even considering all of my EPs are clones of some sort.

MG1: I didn't get a chance to see you and I wanted to as our posts often cross on these forums. Staring at red illuminated feet is not the best way to introduce myself. Next time though

All in all a great experience and now I have my first star party under my belt... I know what to expect and can plan even better.

10/10

[Tarazed]

Hi everyone! We got back from a fantastic time at Kielder about midday today, glad we stayed the final night as really enjoyed the views up to midnight before it clouded over.

Big thank you to Lynn and Kev for organising the event and the Saturday talks both of which were really interesting.

Great to see you all again and equally good to meet newcomers, we hope to see you all again in the autumn, if not before (Kelling spring and Galloway in September).

Have eaten too much fantastic food over the past few days, salad for the rest of the week for us!

Neill and Karen

[James]

Another round of thanks to Kev and Lynn. Sadly they couldn't arrange clear skies for me but they held off the rain and the freezing temperatures that made my first visit to Kielder a bit of an endurance event...

Good to see old faces and meet some new, thanks for the food Steve (Paxo) and I feel satisfied that I've done my bit for the local economy by clearing out the Pantry's food supplies. I can't make the autumn one but am working on my wife or permission for next spring...

James

[robbieince]

Just got back myself - so glad we (Robbie Antoinette and loui the labrador) stayed Sunday night as it was a cracker until the cloud came around 12 30 am. 2 clear nights out of 5 and no rain but -8 on wed night!

Another superb kielder - thanks to all involved in the organisation - Lynn, keV, Dave, Richard and all the others - you are the reason this camp just works.

And the observatory kit is already reinstalled - that's a first!

See you all again next time.

[davew]

Well, that went rather quickly ! All over for another Spring.

Tuesday and Wednesday were cloud free but with a little mist. Wednesday's mist cleared at around 1.00am. Sunday was clear but with a small amount of mist / high cloud. Monday I've just heard was clear again.

It's a real shame the weekenders didn't get to see much. The lowest temp I heard of this year was only -8*C.

The biggest surprise of the camp was when two hardy Astronomers WALKED into camp carrying all their worldly goods on their backs. Crazy For those that don't know Kielder it's remote to say the least.

It was great meeting old friends and making a few new ones. Astroimpulse ( Sy ) had an electrical engineers dream set up. For those who didn't see it, ask for some pictures of the battery box !

Glad you made it Solarwallace ( Steve ). It was worth it eh ? How did the images turn out ?

Thanks to all who made the Spring camp such a joy to attend. Lynn and Kev......... you did it again

Dave.

[solarwallace]

Glad you made it Solarwallace ( Steve ). It was worth it eh ?

Certainly was. Booked for autumn already

[lulu]

Well sounds like you all had a good time! I know we most certainly did. I think I managed to have a chat with most people but I know I didn't get to meet everyone. So for those of you who managed to avoid me - I'll be back!

MG1, in reply to your lots of Steves, Mikes and Daves - well being the geeky little thing I am (and those of you who visited the caravan will know all about my penchant for spreadsheets) I counted up the number of names we had...and the scores on the doors were:

Stephen/Steven/Steve - 6

Michael/Mike/Mick - 4 (would have been 6 but we had two cancellations)

David/Dave - 4

We did have lots of other duplicate and triplicate names but I won't bore you any more (Jarralad - I can hear you snoring already!)

Anyway point of this post was to thank you all for making Star Camp what it is. It really is down to you all that Kielder gets its well deserved reputation for being a really, very, extremely friendly star camp.

Huge thanks to Kev and Dave W - you all know the work they put in.

Lynn

X

[MG1]

standard deviations and distributions please....

must be a graph in there somewhere

[Tinkerbell]

Lo Michael

Would You believe She tried to plot a graph in PHD just for You

standard deviations and distributions please....

must be a graph in there somewhere

[MG1]

respect!

[jarralad]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,eh,what.oh another spreadsheet,this will be intereszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[dweebostar]

was another great camp to be sure. cheers to the admin gang. and great campers too.

cheers steve

[Tinkerbell]

Tuesday night in Geeks corner

Camera Model: Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL

Shooting Date/Time: 01/03/2011 22:24:04

Owner's Name: Kev Baxter

Shooting Mode: Manual Exposure

Tv( Shutter Speed ): 47 x 49

Av( Aperture Value ): 4.0

Metering Mode: Evaluative Metering

ISO Speed: 1600

Lens: EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Focal Length: 17.0mm

[davew]

A nice reminder of the top field. Thanks Kev. With all those red lights it actually looks warm.

You should post this in the Imaging - widefield section.

Dave.

[jarralad]

yep and also the time lapse,very nice indeed.

[Tinkerbell]

Cheers Chaps

Don't know if You can upload videos onto the forum