So i got my tent and scope all setup then soon after Nigel arrived and said hello with his wife who were staying on the next field in their caravan.Later on in the afternoon Keith arrived and we helped him get setup.Keith had brought along the now Kelling tradition of a good chilli which certainly had a kick to it !!!!
The four of us the decided to head for the site clubhouse for a couple of pints while it was getting dark.Later on the skies were clear so it was time to start observing.The skies are very dark at Kelling and with so many more stars visable than the light polluted skies of Peterborough it took awhile to find my way about,but was soon viewing objects i'd have no chance of seeing from home.One thing that was absent from the skies were aircraft because of the volcano flight ban normally the skies there are very busy and full of contrails.
The one problem we all suffered from was the damp and in no time the telescope's were dripping with dew which later froze.Eventually as quick as i was clearing the dew from the secondary mirror in my telescope with my dew blaster it was fogged up again,so gave up observing around 2am and said goodnight to the rest of the guy's and went to bed happy after seeing an old friend again M104 the Sombero galaxy in Virgo.
Saturday morning i awoke early to the sound of birds singing (i forgot in a tent you can hear everything) so cooked some breakfast and put the kettle on for a cuppa.
We spent most of the day browsing the various trade stands that had come along for the weekend and also observing the Sun with my PST that i had brought along.
After enjoying a BBQ for tea we sat and enjoyed watching the sunset then got everything ready for a nights observing and imaging.
Saturday night was a lot drier than the Friday night i started off observing the Moon then Venus,Saturn,and Mars.I then went on spending the night observing a whole host of galaxies and globular clusters with Nigel.
Keith spent the night observing with his 12" dobsonian and taking wide field shots of the Milky way with his DSLR.
And Phil was imaging several deep sky objects and observing with us in between picking out his next target.
Well the lack of sleep Friday night finally got to me and again i called it a day at around 2am.
Sunday morning was the same i was woken early buy those dam birds signing so had breakfast then started to packup for the journey home and said goodbye to Keith.Phil was still fast asleep after being up nearly all night but he did get to see the ISS and shuttle pass over together.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend with a great group of chaps,good beer,good food,and loads of Astronomy.
Thanks Guys for a great weekend.
On Monday i checked my email inbox i got these images from Phil.They are simply STUNNING!!!!!
