Kielder Star Party April 2008

Well I have seen it for myself, a view of the night sky from a dark sky site WOW

It has to be seen to be believed, not the usual 50 stars I see from Rastrick, not 500 or 5000 but more like millions, truly breathtaking, trouble was I had to ask some one to point out the Plough, just too many stars and they all seemed to be the same brightness.

From 7pm the sky was completely 100% clear. It was quite an eerie experience when it finally went completely dark at about 10pm, you could hear voices all around you but could see nothing except maybe a dull red light in the distance.

Hard to see deep sky objects were easily visible in the dark sky, M51 which is almost impossible to see from home leapt out from the eyepiece at Kielder with both interacting galaxies visible.

Gain was there with his 18" dobsonian and a set of steps to see in the eyepiece. (hope to have some more photos from him when he gets back.

I have learnt a lot from this experience, one thing that caught me out using a laptop with a Meade DSI flattens the battery in 45mins, I only managed to image M3 and the Eskimo Nebula

Dew was also a problem I had not encountered before all the equipment is covered in condensation within minutes once the sun sets.

The morning after YES that's ICE on the scope and tent, went down to about minus 6deg, but the previous nights spectacular views made it worth while.

During the evening up until about midnight a BBC film crew were on site with Maggie Philbin, interviewing astronomers including me and the wife about why we had turned out on a freezing night and what we expected to see. I believe the programme is to be about light pollution.

Paul Cook who had been there the previous 2 nights provided the photo of the new Kielder observatory.

The last word is if you have never seen a dark sky then you owe it to yourself just once to brave the cold, wet and damp to see what I can only describe has a sensational sight.

Weather for the weekend was mixed - we set off in a blizzard from Huddersfield but by the time we had got into North Yorkshire it was pretty much clear all the way up.

Saturday - got tents and equipment set up. By the time we went for a meal it had started to snow (8pm) but by 9.30pm is was clearing and 10pm saw a completely cloudless sky (apart from the occasional small cloud zipping across) - very still and good sky conditions - very stable.

I was imaging with my trusty Zenit from 10pm until 2am (when I ran out of film) - taking images of Leo and much more - hope to have the results in about 2 weeks time.

Gain was busy imaging until dawn - we did not see him for most of Sunday.

Sunday morning we had a walk upto the Observatory site - sadly the Observatory is far from finished (estd. completion now early May) - bad weather has caused the delays along with such unexpected things like the telescope pilars sinking by a few inches (yes I did say sinking!). I think they will certainly miss the 'Open Day' launch on the 25th-28th of April.

However everything is in hand and the next Kielder Sky camp will be on Halloween Weekend (~31st October) - me and Paul have thought about spending an extra night or two (before or after) at the Black Swan C&C site in Fearby, near Masham as well [Marcus has been there!].

Last night was almost a complete blot - we heard reports that it was clear between 1am and 2am but I was early to bed to ensure I was compos mentes for driving back (It's only 165 miles).

I did not see either Paul C or Mel though I know that Mel did come up on Friday/Saturday.

It was BL**DY COLD on Saturday night (probably down to -7) and Sunday night was around -5. We had a bout 50mm of snow this morning.

I should have my night time shots back in about 2 weeks - I may not be at the Meeting on Friday so once I've downloaded my DC pictures then I'll send them onto Stuart to be shown alongside Pauls Astronomical Visits slides - if he wants to that is!