Kelling Spring

[Fay]

Who is going to Kelling in April?

Fay

[MarkS]

Me

[Roy]

We are and it's now only 5 weeks away. Yippppeeeeee. We'll be arriving on Wednesday 6th and leaving Monday 11th April.

Roy and Sue

[Delphine]

Ian and I are.   We are looking forward to it and staying in a caravan this time!
Delphine

[doug]

Rose and I are going... but we have a static caravan type chalet thingy to stay in. We will be there from Sat 9th April until Sat 16th April ... one week. Hopefully Jean Clift is also coming with us.

[Carole]

I haven't booked, I tend not to go in the Spring.

Carole

[julian]

We are as well.
Thursday to Monday

Lorraine and Julian 

[Sue]

Just browsing the Norfolk geology site to discover that there is a guided walk next Thursday afternoon. I have sent an e-mail to book up for me and Roy (hoping still spaces)  so putting link here in case anyone else is interested too.

http://www.northfolk.org.uk/geology_walk_3.html

[Fay]

Thanks for that Sue. I wont be there until thursday and would not have the energy to do a challenging walk, but it does sound nice.

[RobertM]

Hmmm...  That's a yes or a no depending on what happens Monday.

[julian]

Thanks for that Sue. I wont be there until late Thursday.

[Fay]

weather not looking good from thursday.

Fay

[Delphine]

Oh no! Thank goodness we will be in a caravan!

[Sue]

We have fingers crossed for tomorrow night at least, netweather shows it may be ok on Sunday night too. The forecasts have been so changeable in the past week I think it is a case of wait and see on the day.

[RobertM]

It's alright for you lazy campers

Mind you I don't blame you

Robert

[MarkS]

Who's there already?  I'll be arriving Friday lunchtime.  Can't wait!

Mark

[doug]

Rose and I plus Jean are coming on the Saturday.

[The Thing]

I am really feeling astrocamp-sick with you lot getting together. I must try and get to a DSC soooon. Might try a French event this summer as well if I get my camping gear here from Beckenham.

[Carole]

Well as Ivor can't go to Cairds after all I have been toying with coming to Kelling (if you can't beat em - join them) but was having difficulty getting a decent pitch, was gutted to miss the clear sky last night.

Now suddenly Robert can't go and is selling me his pitch (315), so see you all later today (Thursday).  Where is every-one else?

Carole

[MarkS]

I'm pitch 312

[ApophisAstros]

i take it no signal at Kelling as no reports in.
  Roger

[MarkS]

Back home.  Friday night was cloudy and Saturday it rained most of the day.  The sky cleared this morning at 1:30am giving stupendous views and the darkest sky I have ever recorded: SQM 21.72.  Those few hours until dawn made the trip worthwhile.

Unfortunately my mount has a probable blown control board so I was unable to take advantage of the sky for imaging

Mark

[ApophisAstros]

Is it right that rain clears the atmosphere and it is better conditions afterwards?
Roger

[RobertM]

Sorry to hear about the control board Mark, at least you finally had some excellent sky.  The best sky I've ever seen was nearby (just south of Cromer) at this time of year after a brief snowstorm and that was incredible.

Robert

[Carole]

I too am back and Roger you are correct, no signal at all, couldn't even send a text. 

As Mark says last night's sky was fabulous even if we did have to wait up until about 1am for it to clear.

There are still some others there, Fay, Julian and Lorraine, Sue and Roy and Doug and Rose who are staying for a whole week. 

Carole

[MarkS]

Is it right that rain clears the atmosphere and it is better conditions afterwards?
Roger

Sometimes rain leaves behind horrible murky humid air with terrible transparency.  Other times it clears out the atmosphere leaving pristine skies.

Sorry to hear about the control board

I took a look and it appears I have shorted a component out - not sure how.  Luckily I have a spare board, so the mount is already back in operation.

Mark

[Carole]

Glad you got the mount sorted Mark, maybe it was that dangling cable with the metal bit on the end that caused it as you thought might have been the case.

Carole

[MarkS]

Glad you got the mount sorted Mark, maybe it was that dangling cable with the metal bit on the end that caused it as you thought might have been the case.

The dangling cable was the GPUSB cable for controlling the mount.  It was plugged into the mount and it is likely that the free end touched either the mount leg or a battery terminal

Never leave dangling cables!

Mark

[Fay]

My problem photo program, causing pink pictures was caused by the version being too old,  all sorted now

[MarkS]

My problem photo program, causing pink pictures was caused by the version being too old,  all sorted now

Glad it's sorted - it was a very weird problem.

Mark

[MarkS]

The dangling cable was the GPUSB cable for controlling the mount.  It was plugged into the mount and it is likely that the free end touched either the mount leg or a battery terminal

I've identified that the surface mounted component labelled L1 has been shorted out.  If I bridge it with a thin wire, the board works again. This L1 component, along with L2 are the most common components to short out and mine is consistent with a short through the handset connector.  I just need to find a source for surface mounted components.

Mark

[The Thing]

Old boards are good for this sort of thing. When my EQ6 board on 'Big Mick' went it was one of the stepper controller chips that burnt out, which is a bit more challenging to replace - 6 weeks and £100 for a new board. At least I have spares for the replacement now :{