Pictures from Spain

[Carole]

Just got back early hours this morning.  I thought I'd post up a few shots to show you where we were and my portable astro kit.

This the the view of Gibraltar from our friend's terrace which backs straight onto the beach:
Gibraltar is the middle Rock, Mainland Spain is on the right and Morocco is the land mass on the left, so we are looking pretty much at the Strait of Gibraltar.
Views from the plane were amazing.


Earth's shadow showed up very well just before sunset.  Also you can see the horrid beach pathway lights I had to contend with.


....and this is my portable kit set up on the terrace.  Ioptron Skytracker and my Atik460EX attached to a Geoptik adapter and Nifty 50 camera lens and both attached to a ball head.  I used this for the Antares Region with a Luminance filter, and then I substituted my DSLR and Stock lens for the milky way shot.

To the right of the Skytracker you can see the bright Beach path lights I had to mask out on the milky way evening.  It was lucky on the Antares night they were switched off because of some maintenance work.

So on the MW night I had to move the entire set up further away from the wall to erect a screen sitting on top of two patio chairs to mask the lights and ram some flower pot tubs up against the screen to keep it from falling over.  But that meant the trellis on the left obstructed the view of the MW for ages and in any case I had to hang a beach towel on that screen to mask out the beach lights further along the path.  So then I had to move the whole lot further to the right which then meant polaris was almost behind their huge patio parasol with a "ton weight" base, so not easy to move.

Bit of a juggling act but where there is a will - we will give it a try:

[NoelC]

Looks really sunny and warm!
Very nice Carole;
I didn't realise your Antares image was unguided, really good.
The beach looks wonderful (even with the path lights).

Noel

[Carole]

Thanks Noel, yes pretty good for unguided, can't quite believe it myself.

The beach here is not great, it is more rocky than anything, but it does mean it's not inundated with people.  There are better beaches further along right and left of their beach front, so most people go there.

I put the tripod, spreader 12V adapter and and laptop cables in the suitcase.  The cameras, and skytracker went in a cabin sized suitcase on wheels - well padded (which I bought specially for the purpose)  as I though it was all a bit too heavy to lug.  The laptop went in a rucksack as there was no more room in the cabin case.  Cabin case labelled fragile in case some idiot decided to move my case. 

Carole

[doug]

What about your clothes or did you leave them behind ?

[Carole]

What about your clothes or did you leave them behind ?

Lol, there was space for clothes as well, we were only there for one week.

Carole

[Hugh]

Some good efforts there Carole.

When I've gone abroad I take the original tripod for the TeleVue 85 which I can break down into small parts and put in the hold luggage.  The scope and lens and bits go in a cabin case I've adapted ~ you will have seen it at Outreach.

The amazing thing is that in all the times I have gone through the X-ray scanners at the airports I have only ever been asked to open it once (it must look like a small shell on the x-ray) and when I opened the case, it then generated quite a few minutes chat about the scope and what I had been looking at, which caused a queue as it was a small provincial Italian airport ~ a little bit of 'airport outreach'!

Best to all.

Hugh

[Carole]

The amazing thing is that in all the times I have gone through the X-ray scanners at the airports I have only ever been asked to open it once (it must look like a small shell on the x-ray) and when I opened the case, it then generated quite a few minutes chat about the scope and what I had been looking at, which caused a queue as it was a small provincial Italian airport ~ a little bit of 'airport outreach'!

I must admit I was wondering whether they might ask me to open my case because the head of the Skytracker and my Cooled CCD camera would not look like anything that non astronomers would recognise.  I wondered whether they would even believe my Cooled CCD camera was actually a camera.  Red item in 3rd picture above. 

Funny when we came home, passing through Gatwick customs, I was not paying attention looking elsewhere, and at the last moment said to Adrian "which way do we go" and the Customs Officer at "Nothing to Declare" said "this way", to which I replied "But how do you know that?" (and then regretted saying it).  But he just replied "Just a hunch".  We must have looked honest people.

Carole

[Hugh]

Just loved that Customs Officer story Carole ~ really laughed out loud.  I guess you and Adrian were outside the profile of a drug mule!

A few years ago we were in the USA and Elaine got pulled to one side at customs and searched for Explosives!  As he was going through a very perfunctory search I said to her, "Don't worry, you are just the random token white older female".  The customs guy gave me a real look but that is what it clearly was as he didn't deny it.

Hugh

[Carole]

white older female

I'm amazed you got out of there alive. 

I had an even funnier episode a few years ago.  Adrian smokes a pipe and uses matches as using a cigarette lighter you tend to burn your fingers trying to light a pipe.  We were in Tobago and he had suffered for days using a cigarette lighter. 

We were then flying across to Trinidad, and while we had time to kill at the airport we were wandering around the shops nearby and he found a shop that sold matches.  Absolutely elated he bought about 6 boxes to last him the rest of the holiday.

Then as we passed through the security check about 15 minutes later they got confiscated.  Adrian's face and reaction was a picture, and me and our friend Ian (who was on holiday with us) fell about laughing.  In fact we were laughing so much even the security people started laughing.

Carole

[ApophisAstros]

Just loved that Customs Officer story Carole ~ really laughed out loud.  I guess you and Adrian were outside the profile of a drug mule!

Its not just drugs as criminal gangs now pay dishonest pensioners to bring in duty free cigarettes , hoping customs wont target them , saw it once on a irish border customs Tv program, they had over 20,000 fags on them and no luggage!!!
They usually monitor travellers electronically ie journeys taken , previous history, length of journey, before they have landed and then target anyone suspicious.
Roger

[Carole]

Actually this was the first plane flight I have been on for about 20 years when I forgot to put padlocks on the cases. 

I always do that in case some-one tries to slip something into my case which I have heard can happen, I started doing this after booking a holiday in Thailand many years ago.  Had the padlocks in my handbag and just forgot to put them on for the return journey.

Carole

[ApophisAstros]

Actually this was the first plane flight I have been on for about 20 years when I forgot to put padlocks on the cases. 

I always do that in case some-one tries to slip something into my case which I have heard can happen, I started doing this after booking a holiday in Thailand many years ago.  Had the padlocks in my handbag and just forgot to put them on for the return journey.

Carole

Key locks can be picked , so better to have combination locks.
Roger