Kelling Heath - September 2012

[Mike]

Well Petra and I arrived around 15:30. Fay, Carole, Julian and the Crayford guys were already here. So far it is cloudy but the forecast is for it to clear later.

My kit is all set up ready and waiting. Just about to cook some kebabs and pasta for dinner then it's a case of waiting till the clouds dissapear.

[MarkS]

I hope to arrive around lunchtime Friday ...

[RobertM]

The NEQ6 axes have been re-greased, worm bearings changed to decent SKF versions and paint removed from where it shouldn't have been.  I'm really looking forward to using it now.

Should hopefully be there mid afternoon as long as my job contract comes through otherwise who knows

Robert

[Mike]

The sky at the moment is clear and really nice. However its pretty gusty which is playing havoc with my guiding.

[Mike]

Well last night stayed clear till around 3am when the clouds started to roll in. But it was very windy all night long. Woke up to a short rain shower this morning. Right now it's still a bit windy but the sun is trying to come out.

[JohnP]

cool hopefully you got some good images -John

[Mike]

I had some weird issues that wasted an hour or so earlier in the night. For some reason Carte Du Ceil when syncing on a target, was thinking it was about 5 degrees above and to the left. The reticule kept appearing nowehere near the synced target. I've never had that before and it was really weird. Only a complete 'strat all over again from scratch' process fixed it.

After that I did a load of 5 minute subs of M33 then left the camera running capturing darks whilst I went to bed.

I'll process them later. Cooking a fry up right now.

[Carole]

Been a bit of a disaster for me so far.
1. Forget red torch, Fay found one to lend me.
2. Tried an idea which did not work, in putting up my tent.  thought I'd try pegging it out before putting in the rods.  Won't do that again!!!
3. Windy as previously said and at 4.30am ish (after getting some sleep went out to put it all to bed when not only did I see that most of the time it had been cloudy (why didn't PHD start beeping at me??) but my camping observatory had collapsed in the wind and was banging against the mount.  Spent half hour in the dark trying to dismantle it and had to move the mount as well which was standing on it, so lost polar alignment.  Obviously camping tent is not designed for this sort of weather!!!
4. Fridge packed up today. Julian kindly put new cigarette plug on it.
5. Came into tent around 4.30 this afternoon to find my camping kitchen had been knocked over by the wind (it was about a foot away from the walls), a kettle full of water on the floor, 13amp plug sitting in the water, luckily not plugged in or wet inside, fat from the frying pan all over the floor.  Camping kitchen is now 18 inches from walls.  Tent is getting smaller!!!

Fingers crossed this damn wind drops.
Did do some imaging last night, but guiding was affected.

Carole

[JohnP]

Blimey sounds like you are all having fun.. good luck for tonight.

[Rocket Pooch]

Well its clear and not windy here at all

[JohnP]

Same in Bromley..

[Tony G]

Same as everywhere..........except for Kelling, by the sounds of it.

Tony G

[Carole]

Wind has died down quite a bit thank goodness, but it's cloudy.  Clear skies are forecast so we're playing the waiting game.

Carole

[Mike]

Well now the wind has gone and the skies have cleared leaving a spectacular sky with a fantastic milky way. It's pretty difficult to spot what is what as there are so many stars.

I thnk this has occurred because Fay has packed up and gone to bed.

[doug]

Carole... sorry to hear about all your problems.  Solution:- put everything in a pile in the middle of the living area and move around it all. 

Mike..... I have fond memories of brilliant starry skies up there and in Northumberland.  Wish you lots of luck imaging.

Hope it all goes well for everybody ... looking forward to seeing the results on the Forum.

Doug.

[Carole]

Well what a difference in the last 24 hours.  The wind dropped and the sky cleared around late evening and was pristine all night.  Julian and I went to bed whoops I should make it clear we did not go to bed together, at around 5am, I think Mark was 4.30am not sure about the others.

Saturday, sunny and no wind, traders all here and we've all been window shopping

Looking forward to another clear night.

Carole

[Carole]

Another clear night, Mark got his best sky reading ever at 4.30am.

Forecast is clear tonight after midnight.

Carole

[Mike]

Another good night last night, but not as good as Friday night as there was some moisture in the air reducing trasparency. Hopefully everyone got some good images.

[MarkS]

I'm now home after spending Friday and Saturday nights at Kelling.

Apparently the Thursday night was clear but very windy - preventing much imaging and the wind buffeting the tents kept  some folk awake most of the night.
Friday was sunny almost all day (I arrived at 11am) and the night was clear after some initial cloud.  SQM readings were all around 21.29
Saturday was sunny all day and the night was clear but a bit full of moisture. SQM readings were around 21.10 to begin with but by 4am it had improved to an astonishing 21.38 with a slight wind.  This is the highest reading I have seen so far on my meter but then I've owned it less than one year.  The sky was really excellent.  (The previous best was 21.31 at March DSC at Rother Valley)

Spent both nights imaging until 4:30am - the Soul Nebula two nights running.

Mark

[JohnP]

Excellent mark looking forward to seeing image.

[MarkS]

This is 4 the rotor contraption that was buzzing the Kelling Heath campsite yesterday (Saturday) afternoon.



So what is it?

The image is a crop at full size - so I can't zoom in any closer into the picture.

Since we have not yet identified it, it is literally a UFO.

[Rick]

Presumably some breed of radio-controlled quadcopter...

[Carole]

I saw the UFO again today while I was packing up, there were a group of blokes about 150 yards away with a remote control.

Carole

[Mike]

Yeah I saw that as I was leaving. It had some kind of PTZ cradle underneath ad a camera attached. I guess he was doing aerial photography.

Petra and I also nearly ran over a Slow Worm on the road as we were about to go. I stopped and got some photos of it. I've never seen one before. I'll post a picture up later once i've downloaded my SD Card.

[Mike]

Here is a picture of the slow worm. It was a very beautiful creature.

[Carole]

Lots of nice nature at Kelling.  There are apparently adders in the Heath as well. 
Plus moles - see my separate thread on that!!!!

Not sure I've seen a slow worm before either but I've seen adders in The New Forest and also at Chartwell.

Carole

[Fay]

Bit windy at Kelling, beautiful skies, i really enjoyed it, had great company, done & received lots of visits. Laughing wore me out.

did not sleep the first night as I thought tent would blow away. too windy for imaging. next night did some Milky Way shots, new to me as used Canon, not looked at them yet, but not holding my breath. Next night was doing some good Elephant trunk, everything looked like to was ticking along but it seems power plug lost connection & so lights were on but nothing happening, kept calm & packed in........................... will add to this, at home.

Have a glut of sunset shots!

[mickw]

The Slow Worm is so cool, a bit like my my Grass Snake at newchurch except it's a Slow Worm and er alive