Salibury Plain Star Party
The Salisbury Plain Star Party was held at Sixpenny Handley, Dorset 23 - 30 October 2011.It was organised by Darren Kitson and all due thanks go to him and his team for the hard work needed to run it.
Peter's Blog
Sunday 23 October
This was my first star party so I loaded up the car with my scope, mount and all the miscellaneous gear for observing. Adding all my camping gear filled the car. This meant that clothes, sleaping bags and food proved to be quite a squeeze, but eventually I set off in a fully laden car.
I arrived a Sixpenny Handley campsite at 10.30 am and had my choice of pitch since only one other group had already arrived. It was fine and sunny with only a breeze blowing so I set about pitching my tent and getting everything set up. By 1.30 pm I was set up and retired to the 'Shed', the campsite restraunt for a Sunday roast lunch and a pint!
During the evening the skies cleared but the wind became strong and gusty making observation very difficult. I did try to image Jupiter but the wind shook the scope so much I could only record blurred images. I gave up by 10.45 BST and went to bed !
Monday 24 October
The afternoon was extremely wet and stormy with very strong winds. I decided to go to bed early at 9.00 pm with an alarm set for midnight. On waking and looking out the sky was clear, so I got dressed and went out only to find the sky cloud covered. Patchy cloud came and went. It didn't seem worth trying to set up the scope so I sat outside with a pair of binoculars. By 1.30 pm I gave up and decided to return to bed.
At 2.00 am I was woken by excited voices outside. After dressing I went out to a mainly clear sky and the tail end of an aurora display. Sadly no one photographed it but images taken in Scotland and also unusually far south in the USA were almost identical to those observed at Sixpenny Handley.
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Aurora seen in Scotland at the same time and appearing much the same as at the SSP. Photo by Auroraman2011 |
I spent the next couple of hours talking with others including Bob (Cloudbuster), grabbing vies of Jupiter and M31 through an 8" Dobsonian eventually returning to bed at 4.00 am.
Tuesday 25 October
A rainy afternoon but after dusk the sky cleared. I set up my scope and imaged Jupiter using a webcam on the scope.
I then spent quite a bit of time photographing M31 taking about 130 subs each of 30 seconds. The scope is driven but unguided so exposures must be fairly short.
Cloud spread across the sky just after midnight so I packed up and went to bed.
Wednesday 26 October
Rained all day and all night!
Thursday 27 October
It was a cloudy start to the evening so I went to bed until midnight. By then the sky was mainly clear but with patchy cloud drifting across. I did not get my scope out but joined other groups using Dobsonians. Once again Jupiter and M31 were favourites for viewing. Increased cloud forced me to bed at 1.30 am.
Friday 28 October
It was a sunny and warm day. The site filled up with campers sporting a magnificent array of scopes and astro gear. The weather weas perfect. I imaged a good sunspot group and also enjoyed viewing the sun through other peopl's PSTs. There was a real sense of anticipation as eveyone prepared for a night of observation.
Unfortunately, as the sun set cloud spread across the sky. I went to bed, and as before, got up at midnight. The sky was only partly clear. I managed to get my scope polar aligned in clear spells between significant clumps of drifting cloud. But, yet again I was forced by cloud to stop and so went to bed. I woke at 3.00 am and looked out the tent. The sky was clear. I dressed in layers to insulate myself from the cold night and went out....to a cloudy sky! I returned to bed.
At 5.30 am I was woken by someone going round the tents and vans saying the sky was clear. Again I dressed, went out and set up the scope on Orion to get it focussed before doing some imaging. I did grab a single shot of the Pliedes, however, before I completed the process the cloud returned again! I stayed up until 6.30 am but with little to see other than cloud I returned to my sleeping bag.
Saturday 29 October
The day was cloudy with occasional light rain. The weather forecast was for more cloud, so I packed away my scope ready for going home on Sunday.
I attended the series of excellent lectures including Nick Howes and Damian Peach. There was also an planetarium show. In the evening there was the hog roast, again in drizzle and a cool and cloudy night so no observation possible.
Sunday 30 October
Under dull grey skies with increasing drizzle, I broke camp and loaded a very wet tent into the car and returned home.
Conclusion
Despite some pretty poor weather I had a great week meeting lots of great folk and enjoying myself immensly.
Yes that's me! Photo by Michigander