Kelling Heath

Reports and pictures from Kelling Heath Autumn Equinox Party

Report from Linton

For the second year running there were clear skies for the Autumn Star party! Numbers have increased steadily since the move from Thetford to Kelling, this year around 400 pitches were filled with all sorts of telescopes both large and small.

There was a very heavy dew on the Friday night but excellent seeing conditions, Saturday was less transparent but far drier, I gather Thursday and part of Sunday nights were also clear. Sadly Friday’s dew did cause problems for the electronics of some telescopes manufactured in sunnier climes, I hope they will be up and running again soon.

Most of the nights were spent looking at old favourites but from a much darker site than normal. The Cats Eye Nebula, the Galaxy NGC 7331 and the dust lanes in M31 were particular favourites but Globular clusters too looked amazing against the dark sky. Darren came over to see us very excited that his new imaging camera was working correctly and that he had the beginnings of a good M57 shot in the can.

Dave, despite his frustrations with his main scope, was busy taking some excellent wide field shots of the Milky Way with his DSLR. Hopefully both these images will be on the web site.

It is great to wander around and chat to other enthusiasts. This year we spent some time with a group from Norwich who are lucky enough to use Kelling several times during the year.

Several present and former BAS members were in attendance including in no particular order:

Peter Drew, who used to live locally and built telescopes in Luton and who now runs the Astronomy Centre came over for a chat. Peter helped both Gordon and Phil Stone in their early years of interest. Two other ex BAS members made themselves known, now observing from other parts of the country.

As we left pitches for 2009 were almost fully booked which speaks volumes for the success of the event. The organisers may release an extra area for Astronomers next year and it may well be worth checking the web site over the coming months.

Linton

Sunset at Kelling Running Repeairs

Report from Darren

For some reason, this year’s Equinox Star Camp was highly anticipated by many people. Perhaps the lack of clear nights over the last few months had something to do with it! As the date approached, I started watching the long range forecasts – normally associated with feelings of despondency – however, this year seemed to be different. Predications were for some sunshine and clear nights! As we got nearer the date, the forecast just got better and better! Obviously something wrong at the Met Office, so remember to pack the waterproofs!!

Thursday 25th dawned with some sunshine and warm temperatures, and we eagerly set off. With the obligatory stop at Walkers Café on the A11, the journey took an uneventful 3 hours, and we arrived as planned, just after 12pm.

I was camping with a group of friends (15 pitches in total) in the blue field, with four pitches that we reserved for the scopes to live on. This arrangement worked out very well, and by tea-time, the place was a hive of activity of scopes and tents being erected.

The forecast did indeed ring true, and we were treated to some of the clearest skies in a long time on Thursday night. The one downside was the amount of dew, so dew-zappers and hair dryers were in abundance across the whole of the site!

The Milky Way was a glorious site as it arched overhead, some real structure visible in the silvery cloud. Objects that are hard to see at home became naked eye as the night wore on – M31 and Double Cluster are two obvious ones, M36, M37 and M38 were some other notables.

Many people stayed up to watch for Orion rising in the early hours, and were not disappointed with the views. Some had waited specifically to start imaging the nebula, horse-head and flame nebula.

6 o’clock and it was time for a last cup of tea while I packed some of the cameras and laptop away – another night of frustration with my auto-guiding had resulted in a grand total of zero images! Ho hum.

Friday dawned another bright and warm day, and after the treat of a cooked breakfast, we wandered around the site, talking to other astronomers, taking pictures of other telescopes, and generally relaxing.

Friday night was promised to be another clear night, and again, the forecasters got it spot on. More dew than Thursday, and the traders had obviously done a good bit of business on the sale of dew systems. I think the local Argos had also sold out of hair-dryers!!

M31 is always a popular object, but with the clarity of the skies, it was even more so. I had the opportunity to observe it through Linton’s 20” Obsession reflector and it was simply magnificent. This was the first time I had actually seen the dust lanes with my eyes, and was astounded at how well defined they were, almost like they appear in images!

I also saw M57, M27, M80, M81, M51, M15, M13, NGC7331 and a host of others that I neglected to note. For the record, I again did not manage to image anything. Getting annoying now, but was up until 5am, just observing. Lovely!

Saturday started a little grey and damp, but by mid afternoon, the sun had burned off the fog, and we were promised a third clear night. A friend (Steve Loughran) and I spent some time going through my set up and tried to diagnose why I could not get auto-guiding working. We decided to change the method of connection to the mount and see how that would work. So, I spent a couple of hours rewiring, resetting and reconfiguring, ready for the evening.

Saturday night was dryer than the Thursday and Friday, but the seeing was not quite as good. We concluded that the moisture was still present, but perhaps slightly higher up than previously. Still, this did not stop the sea of red laptop lights from switching on and start their imagine runs.

You will be pleased to know that I finally got auto-guiding to work! A great relief I can tell you – and I celebrated by imaging M57. It’s big and fairly bright and I wouldn’t have to hunt around for it! The attached image is the result of 20 x 3 minute exposures stacked together. Flat field subtractions were taken, but no darks or bias frames.

By 3am, I was falling asleep – we had had a patch of cloud for about ½ hour, and I was struggling to keep focussed (no pun intended!!). So, as I was away for work on Sunday night, thought it best to get a few hours of sleep!

The group of friends I was with had much better success than I and managed to image:

You’ll be able to see the images at October’s members evening!!

Did we get any rain? Well, yes, actually – just as I was packing the tent away – but all in all it was a great weekend.
Daytime pictures can be seen here

Darren Jehan, Sept 2008

M57

Pictures from Dave Eagle

Cygnus Cygnus Perseus

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