Kelling Heath

[The Thing]

Wasn't caused by a wing mirror on the road was it?

[Fay]

That wing mirror is going to cost £300!!!

[Mike]

Serves you right for trying to drive whilst applying mascara.

[Delphine]

Hope the people leaving today didn't get caught up in the massive delay on the M11 due to a 9 vehicle accident.

We came back with no problems - via Norwich - thanks to your timely message Mike.  The M11 between J8 & J10 was still closed according to the overhead message thingys.

Delphine

[Carole]

Hope the people leaving today didn't get caught up in the massive delay on the M11 due to a 9 vehicle accident

Delphine and Ian and Sue and Roy left today, I think it happened before they left, but could have caused a tailback.
(Ah, Delphine's post was typed as the same time as mine. 

Just Doug and Rose and me and Adrian here today.  Overcast, then windy again, then rain!!!

Tomorrow it will be just Doug and Rose.

Carole

[MarkS]

So ... did anyone manage any imaging at Kelling?

[Carole]

Last night (monday) was overcast, then all night it was raining with a howling gale (as bad as Thursday), not looking forward to packing up today.

Carole

[Delphine]

Sunday night was very clear after some rain.  I wished that I had hung onto the camera that Mike lent me as I actually managed to find a fuzzy with my simple telescope.  It turned out to be the M3.   I also got a clear view of Saturn and the Beehive Cluster.  Thanks to Doug's knowledge of the night sky I found out what I was looking at!

Delphine

[Carole]

Adrian (husband) tells me that Monday night was actually worse than Thursday night but as I had now bought, and was using some earplugs I could not hear the difference. 

Packing up was awful as the wind was so strong I thought my hatchback on the car was going to be blown off, so every time something was put in the car Adrian had to hold on to the hatch which slowed things down considerably.  (Not sure whether it would have blown the hatch off, but wasn't taking a chance).  Then Doug and Rose kindly hung around to help us get the tent down and it was a good job they did as even folding up the ground sheet we were like a ship in full sail.  We took down the inner tent first which is really a back to front way of doing it and despite removing all the poles, the tent was still standing up like a balloon due to the strong winds.

Finally got my DSC Mount working on Monday evening, but it was making a very strange noise when it slewed.  Tracking was not good and guiding was off the graph, so only managed to get some very short subs of M51.  The following day I got talking to some-one about it and a 3rd person offered to take a look at it (he runs an Astro business in Sheffield).  He said that the motor was loose and has now tightened it.

I took a gamble taking this untried Mount with me (did try to test it before I went but not had much chance to try it out with the weather etc), but did not want to remove my main mount from the Observatory which is nicely polar and drift aligned.

Back on Thursday, visiting friends in Norfolk.

Carole

[Rocket Pooch]

So ... did anyone manage any imaging at Kelling?

It should like a no apart from some wide field stuff.

[mickw]

I took a gamble taking this untried Mount with me

You've had that mount for ages and hadn't even tried it ?

Still at least you got someone to fix it for you

[Carole]

You've had that mount for ages and hadn't even tried it

I know, but there have been so few clear nights I didn't want to waste them on trying things out.  Also a bit of a chore having to set it all up from scratch after having it all "laid on" in the observatory.  Yes, Lazy I know and only myself to blame. 

I did actually give two evenings over to trying it out before Kelling, but clouds rolled in before I could complete the job.

Carole

[Fay]

AT least I got a sunset. Panorama of 3 Canon 350D. Came out better than I thought, being it is jpeg

[Delphine]

Stunning images Fay.  I must say it was a beautiful sunset.

Delphine

[Rick]

Impressive sunsets, even if they do illuminate an all together excessive amount of cloud.