DSC No.1 - Report from the mists of time

[Whitters]

Found this report on my PC , DSC No.1 October 2003...



OAS Deep Sky Camp

Deep Sky Camp began on Friday 24th October, when Jeff, Miriam, Jim, Paul, Mike and Cris set up tents in good time to get in a full evening of astronomy. There was very little cloud about and although conditions were not perfect, due to the wetness of the air, they were far better than we have become accustomed to in light polluted Orpington. To this end, one of the aspects we concentrated on was limiting magnitude, successfully obtaining a figure for each of our three evenings at the camp.
32 Andromedæ, at magnitude 5.3, could comfortably be seen with the naked eye, as could M31, the Andromeda spiral, above it, so we had to move on to our more detailed auxiliary list of comparison stars. We had already exhausted the one for use from our back gardens! 9 Cygni, at 5.38, 82 Ursæ Majoris, at 5.40, and HD 4222 in Cassiopeia, at 5.42, were all visible, so on we went, in tenths of a magnitude, to our next level of benchmark stars. Satisfied that HD 100203 in Ursa Major and HD 31539 in Taurus, both at 5.48, Epsilon Trianguli, at 5.50, and HD 24640 in Perseus, at 5.51, could all be glimpsed at, we carried on. HD 5408 in Cassiopeia, at 5.57, HD 4853 in Cepheus, at 5.59, 81 Ursæ Majoris, at 5.60 and 93 Ceti, at 5.61, all remained tantalisingly out of sight, so we settled on a limiting magnitude, for that evening, of 5.5.

Meanwhile, we had visitors. Penny and Johann, our hosts, had come to the field to see what we were up to. We were able to show them Mars and later Saturn through the telescopes, as well as Alcor, far apart from the double Mizar, giving them some idea of how much our images were being magnified. They were also impressed by the beautiful double Albeiro and who could resist from showing them a close up view of the Pleiades. There were plenty of meteors whizzing about, as if we did not have enough to look at, but close doubles were difficult to resolve, especially through the 2½" Zeiss, which failed to separate either Gamma Arietis or the Trapezium, two objects entirely able to be seen under better conditions. Then, as midnight approached, the viewing improved.
Mike and Jeff began to be able to discern more than the six stars that can usually be seen unaided in the Pleiades, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth, is that that a tenth, or are we imagining it? In fact we saw eleven, not having counted HD 23753, even though it is only half a degree below eta and 27. For those who want to try it themselves, the six were :- 17, 19, 20, 23, Eta and 27 Tauri plus BU, 16, 18 and 21/22 which, at only 2½ minutes apart, looks to be, to all intents and purposes, a single star. I recommend that you take up the challenge of how many you can see at our next Deep Sky Camp.

Miriam was not going to stay Friday night so she went home and with just enough time for her to think about bed poor Jeff felt unwell, so Miriam returned to Headcorn from Orpington and took an ailing Jeff home. With the ground cold and crunchy beneath our feet, an impressive layer of ice on Jim's telescope tube and fog rolling in we retired to our tents. Only to be woken by a mad unzipping, zipping and mild profanities aimed at the temperature from Paul who woke at 5 am wishing he had brought that duvet after all.


Saturday dawned with blue skies, all present enjoyed a communally cooked breakfast. Penny came out to check that we had all made It through the night and to point out the rather large pile of firewood available to us. Not needing to be told twice and like all good pyromaniacs we soon had a roaring fire. The scopes were out again this time to look at the two huge sunspots that were visible to the naked eye, using a suitable filter of course. Mike and Cris popped home to feed a most unimpressed cat, leaving Jim and Paul as fire monitors. Later Jim went to his boat on the Medway and sensibly retrieved some extra bedding.

Greg, Rachel and the kids arrived on the Saturday afternoon with a recovered Jeff and Miriam, this time Miriam was staying in the farmhouse. After seeing one poor sole tucking into a pot noodle, Penny felt sorry for the OAS crowd and made two huge steaming pans of soup. By dusk, we were all sitting around a hearty campfire devouring the soup. Skies dutifully cleared, as they had done the night before, and we were able to establish that the limiting magnitude was the same as it had been the previous evening. This meant that we could, once again, enjoy looking at the Milky Way and be able to see the double cluster in the sword handle of Perseus. Chris brought Karen along to see us, perhaps they could not quite believe that we would all be there. Soon after, the sky clouded over and we were back huddled around the campfire, until a hint of drizzle in the air encouraged us to turn in for the night. By midnight, it was raining hard, but that meant no frost and at least we had the extra hour to look forward to.


We awoke to the sounds of the country, a blackbird clucking indignantly at a passing kestrel, as we continued to settle into the easygoing nature of life under canvas in the middle of a field. A target was found for the bow and arrow that Sebastian had so thoughtfully brought along for the adults to play with, until the trusty shaft shattered, after finding its mark once too often. The wheelbarrow that had been provided for collection of firewood proved equally as useful for giving Imogene a lift and seeing how high she could be propelled into the air when encountering an obstacle at speed.

We baked bread in the clay oven, potatoes by the open fire and inspected the Medicine Wheel in the next field, as a glorious rainbow coloured the horizon. With dusk approaching and food supplies running low, a trip the chippy was in order. Suitably fortified against the elements, another night of astronomy ensued. The sky was clear virtually down to the horizon by sunset and Greg managed to find us Venus through binoculars, though the slender crescent Moon remained elusive. We then found Uranus with binoculars as easily as we had done on the first night, but our attempts at locating Neptune were fruitless, we must have seen it, but seeing and identifying are two different matters. Conditions never returned to how they had been after midnight on Friday, when Mike was able to point out M36 and M37, two star clusters in Auriga, with the naked eye, but our mid-evening survey of limiting magnitude produced a result of 5.5, as it had done on the two previous evenings.
Our hosts came to visit us once more and we found new objects for them to see, the Coat hanger and M13 with binoculars and M15, another globular cluster, through Paul's 8" reflector. Jeff had located R Corona Borealis, having a bright interlude before it gets "sooted up" once more and disappears from view, with binoculars, then found it for them in the 2½" Zeiss. Paul found us M33, the Triangulum galaxy, and M27, the Dumbbell nebula. Next was M57, the Ring nebula and, by the time Nigel and Chris arrived, with his telescope on this occasion, Saturn was up above the horizon, with Titan nicely placed. Paul had a superb image of the California nebula in Perseus imaged on his screen. Good though conditions were, Jeff could not see M74 with the Zeiss 2½", but both M42 and NGC 1977, the nebulae of Orion's sword, were splendid sights through it.
The camp had progressively emptied during the evening and, by the time Jeff and Miriam left, the fire was down to embers and Paul was left alone to get on with his photography, an example of which can be seen on the website.

Unfortunately not soon after everyone else had left the clouds rolled in and the rain started. The clouds cleared at around 3am, Paul stuck his head out of the tent flap to see a gloriously clear sky, but the lightweight went back to bed to dream of duvets and central heating.

[Rocket Pooch]

Cool

[Mike]

That brings back memories

[MarkS]

Sounds great - I wish I'd been around in those early days.
One of the best reports I've ever read of a DSC.

Mike and Cris popped home to feed a most unimpressed cat

Some things definitely never change!

[doug]

Perhaps that article could be inserted into the next issue of ToasT... I`m sure a lot of the newer members (and older members) would be interested to read it.  Who wrote it?

Doug.

[Rick]

Curiously, it's been on the website since... 2003. With added pictures.

[doug]

Well, Rick, we didn`t join the OAS until ....... and I forget when we did. Let me know..... I think it was about 2005.  But a lot of the members will not  go that far back on the website, soooooo   perhaps my idea isn`t such a bad one after all. 

Doug.

[MarkS]

Perhaps that article could be inserted into the next issue of ToasT... I`m sure a lot of the newer members (and older members) would be interested to read it. 

Maybe next year would be more appropriate - the 10th anniversary of the first DSC.
It was written by Greg.

[Rick]

To be honest, I'd much rather see new reports of recent events submitted both to TOAST and to the website.

The old reports are out there for folks to read. All folks have to do is look for them. Point them out by all means, but they don't need repeating.

The new reports aren't there because nobody is writing them. (Ok, a very few reports do get written...)

It was written by Greg.

It's credited to Greg on the website because he produced the original webpage. He may well have collected contributions from others who were at the event.

[Mike]

If I remember rightly most of the information was gathered from Paul, Jeff, Jim and I as Greg arrived on Day 2 and didn't stay up late.

Don't forget you can also get a bit of DSC Nostalgia by watching some videos of past DSC activities:

Deep Sky Camp - Feb 2009

The Black Sheep

Sharp Shooters

DIY Science Abuse

Khoom Fay

Exploding Tomatoes

Deep Sky Camp - Summer 2005

[Rick]

Attribution tweaked slightly.

[Whitters]

I also have one from the February DSC from 2004 when a suckling pig was on the menu... Oh yes the suckling pig that transmuted into a very thin rabbit by the time it arrived at DSC, a few of the more fool hardy tucked in anyway... It was also a very cold and very drunken DSC if I remember correctly.

[Whitters]

I agree with Rick that I would like to see reports of activities and observations made at DSC and observing sessions, though sometimes you need to be reminded of what we have done as a society and it is easy to forget that the history pages are there.

[Rick]

I also have one from the February DSC from 2004 when a suckling pig was on the menu... Oh yes the suckling pig that transmuted into a very thin rabbit by the time it arrived at DSC, a few of the more fool hardy tucked in anyway... It was also a very cold and very drunken DSC if I remember correctly.

An edited version of that's on the main website too. Check http://www.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/events2004.html

[Mike]

Looking back over the last few years we seem to be failing to report on just about every event. I will try to remember to do a report after this coming DSC.