Isle of Wight Imaging star Party

[Carole]

As some of you know I am at an unofficial Imaging Star party at the Isle of wight.  
I wanted to try this venue out with  view to coming here for the official star party in March.

As usual the weather hasn't played ball, but as I had paid for accommodation in a chalet including breakfast and also my ferry ticket I decided to come anyway, if only to have a few days away with like minded people and a break from the problems with my mum but to also suss the place out.  

We are right on the Sea front with views straight over the channel, so low lying objects could be a possibility if only the sky was clear.

What I can report is that it is VERY dark here and not having to bring all the camping gear and set it up and down is a real bonus.  
Not confident of getting any clear skies but I think it has made my mind up that I will definitely book for the spring.

I'll take a few photos for any-one interested.
Carole

[RobertM]

How much was the Ferry ?

[MarkS]

A couple of weekends ago it cost me £16 return - just me on a bicycle.

[Mac]

What I can report is that it is VERY dark here

Err, what about that very large town close by called Portsmouth?

That must produce a huge amount of light pollution.

Mac.

[mickw]

Two possibilities -
South coast with view South or it's only VERY dark if Carole's eyes are closed and she's asleep on the sofa

[Carole]

The ferry was £52 return.
We're on the opposite side of the island to Portsmouth facing the channel didn't see any light haze from anywhere.

Carole

[Tony G]

What I can report is that it is VERY dark here

Err, what about that very large town close by called Portsmouth?

That must produce a huge amount of light pollution.

Mac.

Mac,

Wouldn't Portsmouth be to the north of IOW, and so the southern sky wouldn't be effected.

Tony G

[Carole]

Got about 1 1/2 hours clear sky tonight except it was in several "goes" star were playing "now you see me now you don't" but at least it gave us a chance to polar align and the forecast is looking a bit more hopeful for tomorrow night.  Having covered the scopes up twice we decided enough was enough and spent the remainder of clearish sky doing observing.  Got the best view of the Orion Nebula I've ever seen tonight through an Ed80 (but some-one else's). 

Carole

[Mac]

Wouldn't Portsmouth be to the north of IOW, and so the southern sky wouldn't be effected.

hmmmmm, I'd like to see a long exposure though without any LP filters before i make any further commitments.

Mac.

[Carole]

Unfortunately the skies only cleared for two short periods and so no imaging got done.  But we all had a great time and did a lot of processing demos during the day and learnt off each other.  Very sociable gathering. 

Will definitely be going back.

Carole

[Carole]

A few photos:

Our chalet



The view from our chalet (that's not my camping observatory by the way):



As it was a a bit windy when we set up I decided to pitch around the back of our block where there were chalets on 3 sides and it was less windy (after my experiences at Kelling), this is my observatory tent on the left which stood up to the slight wind on the first night and also the rain, and survived my repairs, there were 4 observatory tents in all, 2 like mine and 2 Kendricks.

[Carole]

Some-one in the party has just posted up another photo, this time with both Kendricks in the picture and I think I am standing in my Obsy chatting to some-one outside it.

[Carole]

Meant to say that we were invaded by money spiders.  Inside the camping obsy there were hundreds of them and every-one was getting them on their kit - I can cope with money spiders, but not if they are much larger.  They were also flying money spiders as they seemed to be floating in the wind probably on a gossamer thread.

Carole