Kelling Heath (Spring 2011) Chat Thread

[Adumbleton]

Can finally get to my KH star party packing after finishing off the April issue of the OAS Magazine. I'll be featuring the KH star party in the May issue, so I'll be taking plenty of pics whilst on site; including bored astro peeps on their wanderings about the site ;-)

[skywatcher1701]

The sun is shinning and the wind has died a little but there is still a lot of water vapour up there, but a least I got it set up and ready.

Will keep you posted if there is change

[Adumbleton]

Anyone posted images yet?

[rocketandroll]

Well, I'm here and waiting for a steak in the restaurant :-)

The wind has dropped right off now, the cloud is patchy... It's fairly mild still too.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good night still!

Ben

PS: I moved pitch, I was in a bunch of trees :-) now on red 332.

[andyclarke1978]

Hello I'm about 40miles from Kelling Heath, is it permitted to visit the site and not camp for say saturday afternoon untill early hours sunday morning?(WITH MY SCOPE).

Just bought my first telescope and to get into astronomy, would love to come and see how you guys/gals set up etc, get some tips.

Got all the gear but no idea!!

Wishing clear sky for you all. Been cloudy since i bought my scope.(sod's law)

_________________________

Skywatcher Explorer 150p on EQ3-2

Canon EOS 300D

[skywatcher1701]

Morning all, well the wind is back....here we go again trying to keep tents on the ground.

[rocketandroll]

It is indeed crazy windy again this morning... I'm staying in my tent to weight it down :-)

We got a good couple of hours of clear skies though last night!

I got to see a couple of clusters and Saturn + 2 moons through Kim's 12" dob (thanks!!) A few of us saw a spectacular copper meteor that looked like a green flare streaking across the eastern sky for a few seconds. I even did a short imaging run on M51 before the haze blew in.

Looking forward to another clear spell tonight all being well!

Ben

[CGolder]

blooming wind, its getting itself up again. i packed up early last night as the wind started picking up again... then my power pack died lol, never mind lots more nights ahead

[rocketandroll]

Everyone seems to have dissapeared out for the day...

Is there anyone left on-site who has a laptop with DSS or similar on it that I could borrow for an hour to stack my M51 data from last night?

Happy to pay in beer :-)

I'm on pitch red 332 with the cammo tent if anyone can help!!

Ben

[Celeste]

sorry gonna have to pull out... sucks

[brantuk]

Well folks - as Ben said - we had around 2hrs last night. We packed a few things into it: Saturn (of course) jigging around the ep with the spontaneous gusting, M3, M13, M81/82 all very very faint, M51 (barely) just with a tail. But nothing to write home about really due to conditions.

As far as imaging goes - forget it unless you have a rock solid mount and heavy scope. Lets hope it dies down in the early hours cos the stars are trying to peek through the haze right now. Astronomers have to be eternal optimists - it goes with the turf lol

[Celeste]

As far as imaging goes - forget it unless you have a rock solid mount and heavy scope. Lets hope it dies down in the early hours cos the stars are trying to peek through the haze right now. Astronomers have to be eternal optimists - it goes with the turf lol

Yeah I was hoping to have a bash at imaging, but it will have to wait now until I get another chance. Hope the weather improves for you all It's horrid here total cloud and gusty wind

[CGolder]

Very clear tonight, had some cracking views of bodes, had my first look at m51 though my scope, very happy :-)

Sent from my ZTE-RACER using Tapatalk

[CGolder]

Its great to see m13 again, seems like a long time since last viewed

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[skywatcher1701]

We'll that's it for tonight, after fighting with Phd for a while and the wind that never seems to die off, managed 2, 30 min sets of M100, 1 set at ISO800 then the other at ISO 1600, will play around with later, but it has been a great night with a lovely clear sky, just a little bit of haze starting to roll in now. Hope tomorrow night is as good.

[rocketandroll]

Yep, Friday night was another good one. Cleared up about 9:45 - 10 and stayed clear till I finished my imaging run and went to bed about 1:30.

It was breezy but... dunno if it's because my mount is staked down, or because I'm using a heavy 'frac... but I was doing 40sec subs on M51 and the wind didn't seem to be causing too many problems.

Anyway, have 1.5hrs of data on it from last night, better than the 30mins of out of focus data from Thurs night :-)

I'm off home this afternoon, will process it and see what I've got tomorrow I think.

Ben

[Andy79]

I hope everyone has a better night tonight..,seems good fun anyhow despite the weather.

Wishing everyone clear skys tionight!!!!!

[Dave]

Have fun up there folks.

Looking forward to the autumn event.

Dave

[Adumbleton]

Great night for visual stuff last night; not so good for imagers, as others have said due to wind gusts. Observed the Leo triplet and a number of galaxies in Virgo, plus M53, M64, M13 and M93. Tonight is cloudy so far though although if it does clear, hoping to combat the wind with a new astrotent I bought today and get some views with a Televue Nagler 16mm(also purchased today).

[Adumbleton]

Little or no wind last night but transparency was, well what can I say, it wasn't except for a few occasional patches. Got to use my new eyepiece though [Wow moments]. Sunny morning here at Kelling, so solar observing on the menu today.

[skywatcher1701]

well home now, what a first spring star party that was, the wind was blowing hard nearly all the time, but it was great to catch up with old friends and make some new ones, see you all in 5 months, as for the data that i got from friday night it is all no good, wind must have be blowing stronger than i thought, never mind, still was a nice few days away.

[rocketandroll]

Just a quick one to say thanks to everyone involved in organising the Kelling event.

I loved my first star party, enjoyed it a lot.

Also thanks to Carol, Mike and the rest of the guys who helped me out whilst I was there and made me feel welcome. Also thanks to Kim for his help and for the great views through his dob.

I got something on M51 from the session on Friday night... It isn't great, but I'm happy as a first attempt :-) see my thread under DSO imaging.

I'm booked for September & next April now, may well bring my wife and daughter to next April's event too.

cheers all, see you in Sept!!

Ben

[valefor]

just got back from the star party. had a great time. not the best conditions this time but still better than hertfordshire. had some great views. saturn was a great show when the cloud let it threw. but really enjoyed galaxy hunting. m81/82 always makes me smile. pics to come.

[E621Keith]

I just got back to from Kelling Heath. It was an amazing experience. The sky was very dark, much better than Southampton and probably better than where I used to go for dark sky in Kent. It was deep blue rather than orange. The weather was decent, I know a lot of people complained about the wind and haze, but it was still far better than down here. I went through 42 Messier objects in the first night (Friday), in an attempt to do a Messier half marathon. I didn't succeed but it was still a personal record for the largest number of Messier objects seen in one night. I probably could have done more if the Nexstar 6 SE didn't ran out of juice early on and I had to continue on with a 80mm.

The highlight of the event must be looking through Andrew's 24" dob. It showed so much details in various DSO despite the less than ideal conditions. Galaxies weren't fuzzy blobs, but well structured, showing spiral arms, dust lanes and some H2 regions. The globular M13 looked pretty much like what you see in photos, very bright and detailed. It was a incredible experience for someone who have never looked through a scope larger than 10".

P.S. Andrew if you're reading this, thanks again for letting us view thought your scope. Sorry, didn't get to meet you during the day. I think you were still asleep when I left and I didn't want to disturb you.

[Roy]

Hi all,

As you already know, Conditions at Kelling this year weren't great, but when has that ever stopped us having fun.

Myself and my mate Jess managed to view loads through his dob despite the windy conditions, thanks to his home made setting circles and a wixey, which made finding things a doddle.

All ready looking forward to September.

ps ....... Keith, the skies are usually much darker than they were this weekend, so you have even more to look forward to.