Astrocamp - Brecon Beacons - 7th to 10th Sept.

[Fay]

Oh my God Carole!! what a nightmare! you sure you are not affected buy hitting your head on the counterweights? how bad to not feel very well and have to drive home

[Carole]

how bad to not feel very well and have to drive home

Yes it was pretty awful, I managed to sort of overcome it to a certain extent whilst driving but as soon as I stopped at a service station for the loo and got out of the warm car into the colder air, I felt dreadful, not really well enough to drive, but had no choice. 

The car is still packed and won't get unpacked until I am feeling a bit better, spending a lot of today in bed.

Carole

[MarkS]

I commiserate. 

I missed the recent transit of Venus for similar reasons.  I was driving back through France overnight with all my imaging gear to an area in the North which had a good weather forecast for the morning.  Had a terrible cold and pulled over in a service station because I was shattered and it would be unsafe to continue.  Fell asleep and never made it to the North and consequently missed the transit it because it was cloudy where I was.

Get well soon!

[Carole]

Thanks Mark.

Incidentally I heard a piece of information which I was gobsmacked at.

There was a guy at Astrocamp who lives somewhere in the London area, who came laden with a huge backpack and 2 cases on wheels - including his camping gear and astronomy kit which apparently wasn't a small scope.

He got a taxi to a railway station in London, caught a train to Abergavenney and then a taxi to the camp site from there.  What determination!!!!  I saw him as he departed with huge backpack in place.

Apparently the taxi driver had a shock when he picked up the luggage.

Carole

[MarkS]

That's real dedication!

[Kylee]

What a wonderful time I had...and more importantly made wonderful memories with my Mum. Especially on the last night we just sat together watching the meteors shooting overhead. Used my scope for visual which was fantastic and took my first few images of the Milky Way which I am pleased with. All in all a fantastic experience.

[Carole]

Received this info from Spaceweather.com today:

METEOR NEWS: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from an unknown comet or asteroid.  It happens every year around this time and produces a minor shower known as the "September epsilon Perseids."  This year, Earth ran into an unusually dense patch of meteoroids, which produced an outburst of meteors over Europe near midnight on Sept. 9-10.

Must account for the number of meteors and fireballs we saw on Monday evening, some in colour.

Carole

[Mike]

There was quite a lot that night.

[MarkS]

I also, was quite surprised by the number of meteors I saw that night.  It seemed too many to be random.  Interesting to know there was definite cause.

[Carole]

Now I have managed to empty the car I have retrieved my camera, and here are some photos from Astrocamp:

My view from my tent which was opposite Mike and you can see the lovely rolling hills behind, they were in a westerly direction.



Lucie Green and soundman talking to a young girl at the camp


A talk on planetary imaging.  The screen was too bright for the detailed stuff so groups of us hovered around a laptop afterwards.


The Sky at Night Team during the filmed Q&A session/Space Surgery

[Mike]

Carole is this an IR modded camera as these photos have a very weird colour cast?

[Kylee]

Liked this one 


Astrocamp Cwmdu Sep 2013 by kylee40, on Flickr

[Kylee]

Iridium Flare on the 9th September at Astrocamp.


Iridium Flare over Cwmdu by kylee40, on Flickr

[Carole]

is this an IR modded camera

Yeah, I forgot until after I had posted them. 

Carole 

[Mike]

There are a few clips up on the S@N website.

At the end of CLIP 1 you can briefly see Petra and I.
(BTW, when they were filming that segment with Chris and Pete it was 100% clouded over)

Lucie Green is using my mount with the OAS Coronado on it in CLIP 2.