1st Kielder Forest Star Party. 23rd - 26th October 2003
This was the first Star Party of it's kind, located near the Scottish boarder on Kielder Waters, Northumberland. Location position 55:13:58 north and +2:35:32 west.
The trip from London was simple (hmnnnn?!?!!?), get to the A1 at Hendon, continue to Darlington, join the A68, then A69, then to Bellingham (pronounced Bellin-jam....as I was repremanded by a local after asking for directions), then to C200 to Kielder. Simple, yet took a total of seven hours driving.
I departed on Wednesday evening at 20.00Hrs after a full day at work and I promised my wife I'd shop for provisions at a supermarket close by then drive untill midnight. I did exactly as I promised. Parked in a layby somewere south of Darlington for five hour of intermittent sleep, but nevertheless, rested.
The layby was used as a lorry park, and when the lorries began to depart at 05.00Hrs, so did I. The drive was uneventful apart from the rain, yet supperb counryside, and as the morning approached dawn I started to wind down the air temperature in the car. Its no good arriving at a site knowing it is going to be cold and stepping out of a car at +20 degrees, only to start shivering.
Good job I did. On arrival at the site, they had a frost of -3 degrees over night, the ground was covered in a thick layer of frost, but was greeted by the organizer and the sponsor astronomy club with a welcome smile and a cup of coffee. Very welcome indeed.
Forty minutes later I had my tent up, my car unpacked, the telescope in place and time to adjust my setup.
Solar work took up the rest of the day. My SolarMax and Daystar showed impressive views of the sun. I then took my SolarMax over to the organizer's position to use it as an initiation to newcomers arriving at the site. This proved a very successful move throughout the day.
Many people arrived through the day. The site was already fully booked, tents and caravans were set up in two adjoining fields. And by Friday evening it was packed.
A number of people I knew from different Star Parties were among the early birds, notably Owen Brazell (he goes to all the major events anyway!), Brian Brooks of AstroParts (he had his newly designed superwedge with him), and the Ibbotson crew who run their own dome planetarium business out of Sheffield.
The weather was not good over the whole event, but good, clear, pristine spells were available on all nights. Every night had an Aurora but as I was imaging inside the tent, I missed every one of them....not like Thetford where someone would shout across the field that something was happening....only got the news the following morning....but not surprising with the activity of the sun and the large central group of sunspots. (Must make a note to look out of my tent every thirty minutes or so next time)
The site had all the facilities you would want at an event like this. It seems that the Forestry Commission had staffed it with volunteer's as the site had shut down a few weeks earlier to this event. The toilet block was well managed apart from the last day when it ran out of toilet paper (don't know why I mention this item...maybe a reminder to the organizers), the local pub offered first class home cooked food, a good range of wines and pump beers along with the standard gas pressure-fed brews. There were a number of other venues within fifteen minutes drive, but nobody took up the offer.
The Saturday was a well attended public day along with a number of comercial interests and a series of lectures covering aspects of webcam workshops, observing techneques, photography and the way forward within astronomy as a hobby. All this was held in Kielder Castle (strange artwork within the entrance??!"). A BBQ was on offer within the grounds for the Friday and Saturday.
That Saturday night and the early morning of Sunday was first class, prestine sparking skies after midnight. The Milky Way was glorious through Cassiopia and Cygnus and M objects abounded.
Then came Sunday midday, the departure time of 15.00Hrs, way too short for the event. (Bristish Summer time changed over the same period, recommended to change settings on the LX200 to GMT and zero hours offset before the event).. I would have liked a day early and a day late. But overall it was a fantastic event, well organised, plenty of facilities and personaly I'm looking forward to next year.
To the left, the level of ground frost.
To the right, the dew heaters required to keep the frost at bay, and there's even one on the inside of the LX200 dew shield.
Not shown, one each for the eyepieces.
Kielder Castle. The main venue for the lectures, trade stands and the all important BBQ.
There was some very strange art in the Castle forcourt??!!, home for the trade stands.
A good night's viewing ahead of us.
An aurora event occured every night.
The long shadows of early morning.
A first class venue with matching facilities.
Looking forward to the next one. 73's
Please use the following link for the Official Report from Richard Darn, one of the organisers of the Kielder Forest Event:- http://www.richarddarn.demon.co.uk/starcamp/ There is also a report from one of the local newspapers.