AstroCamp Spring 2015

Central London, where I live, is so heavily polluted with artificial light at night that observing most deep sky objects is close to impossible so I leave town for dark sky sites as much as  possible. This year I have been to the Isle of Wight Star Party in February, my base in the Canaries in April and each year I attend the biannual AstroCamps held at the Cwmdu campsite in the Brecon Beacons Park. This Spring AstroCamp was held May 09 - 11. A few days before my departure the weather forecasts for the area were not encouraging yet I was not put off as each small valley in the Brecons experiences its own meteorological conditions making for unreliable local forecasts.

Leaving Marylebone on Saturda, the 9th I arrived at my usual accommodation base, the only pub in the small village, the Farmers’ Arms. Quickly dropping off my overnight bag I popped along the lane the ⅓ miles to the campsite. This was the first AstroCamp where all the tent and motorhome pitches were sold out making for a crowded site when I arrived just before 3pm. 

photo by Terry Regan

Having ‘pegged my claim’ on the Common with my groundsheet I set up my equipment: for solar observing, my Lunt 60mm single stack with pressure tuner and B1200 blocking filter mounted on my AZ4 Alt-Az mount. This set up is entirely manual: no computer control, no alignment so I was able to set up and observe the chromosphere of the Sun within a few minutes.

photo by Fawzia Muradali Kane

For the dark nights I had planned to observe a few of the DSOs not visible in central London, particularly galaxies and had my eye on seeing M108, the elliptical galaxy in UMa which I had yet to view. At mag 10.7 it was a possible target at Cwmdu. I brought my trusted 3” refractor, the William Optics GT81, transported snugly in its own rigid backpack. I also set up my cheap SynScan Alt-Az GoTo mount and tripod, too lightweight to carry heavy scopes but sufficient to take the Lunt or GT81 if I wished to track any target.

In the Saturday late afternoon daylight I spent time observing in H-alpha the complex sunspot group making up AR2339. Not the best time of day for solar observing: I prefer the morning when the air is less turbulent. The group was a complex set of spots and observing them proved to be my highlight of the star-party.

Image by Dave Wilkinson

After dinner in the pub I viewed the evening skies: a light haze shrouded Venus and Jupiter as they appeared then only a few small patches of clear areas were spotted. During a frustrating session spent staring at low cloud I did manage to spend three quarters of an hour observing galaxies M81 and M82, globular cluster M92 and Saturn as it rose in the east, yet in the little time available M108 still eluded me. The clouds defeated me: I gave up and covered my scope at 01:30, walked to the pub and was in my room above the pub, my ‘Presidential Suite’, by 02:15.

Each Sunday morning of AstroCamp I host a solar observing and imaging session on the Common, from 10:00 until noon. But looking out of the pub windows while consuming my  generous cooked breakfast it was obvious the low grey cloud cover would prevent any solar observing that Sunday. So a gentle walk in neighbouring country lanes was the order of the early morning and I was pleased to be rewarded by hearing the call of a Cwmdu cuckoo. The rest of morning was spent in astro-talk and socialising with old and new AstroCampers. One topic of conversation I introduced was the current UK market for astronomers. How many amateur astronomers buying equipment are in the UK? And how much do they spend on a regular basis?

My neighbours on the Common formed an ad hoc team to compete in the astro-quizzes arranged for that afternoon at the nearby village hall. After much gentle ragging from the quiz organisers we triumphed in the ‘Masters of the Universe’ advanced astro quiz winning a box of bottled of beer. In the late afternoon and evening it was obvious the chances of clear dark skies that night were slim. But I remained on the Common staring at clouds until 01:30 when I repaired to warm bed.

The sun was out on the third morning and good solar observing was had by many on the Common. White filters over objectives, hydrogen alpha Lunt and Coronado ‘scopes and Daystar Quark filters were put to good use to observe and record that interesting multiple sunspot group AR2339. I did witness a degree of flaring at a couple of places between the spots at each side of the group. In addition a prominence on the following solar limb developed beautifully throughout the morning. I did enjoy showing the chromosphere features to those who had never viewed through a H-alpha ‘scope before.

photo by John Liggins

I broke off my viewing for the traditional communal High Tea on the Common which is held at the early time of 2pm. Everyone attends and contributes a little food and drink to this well established AstroCamp event. I quitted observing the Sun soon after the Tea to take exercise walking in Cwmdu lanes as clouds again arrived to ruin prospects of any dark skies on the last night. On the Common we persisted in hoping for gaps in the low  clouds to appear but for hours were frustrated: I can claim we present on the Common did see Venus with our unaided eyes. Such was our frustration with the clouds that we cheered whenever the planet popped into view for less than a minute as it set behind the western hills. At midnight I walked back to the pub and my bed.

The arrival of early dew during a night session had been a problem at past AstroCamps. At the previous meeting last September a session under clear night skies had been cut short for me by dripping moisture appearing on the objective, eyepieces and red dot finder of my 81mm refractor. Application of gentle heat from a neighbour’s camping hairdryer only removed the moisture for a short time: the dew quickly reappeared making further observing impossible. This time, in anticipation of Cwmdu dew, I had purchased a Kendrick dew controller and suitable heat band. Not needed at my sessions in the Canaries, the system was to be debuted at AstroCamp yet still unused.

On the Tuesday morning, collecting my kit from the Common, I said my farewells and motored back to Marylebone. I shall return to Cwmdu next September

Astronomy and Me: How I Started...Stopped...and Restarted.

It started for me with Apollo 8 and Patrick Moore.

Christmas 1968: your pre-teen author watching the BBC coverage of Apollo 8. On the screen was this strange looking man talking rapidly explaining why the mission was so important.

His words, still potent when seen and heard today, helped arouse the child’s interest in space and astronomy. I collected newspaper cuttings of the Apollo missions, glued them into a long-lost scrapbook and devoured all the astronomy books available from my local library, many written by Patrick. I well remember reading his 5^th edition of Amateur Astronomy.

My parents encouraged my interest: the first astronomy book I owned, received as Christmas present in late 1960s was Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy, a paperback edition in 1966. It was, effectively, a text-book of what was known in the mid 1960s, with emphasis on the Moon, planets and stellar composition.

I received another present from my parents, a small telescope with a table tripod: a cheap refractor. A toy in essence, but through it I could enjoy for the first time the splendour of the craters of the Moon; Saturn and its rings; and Jupiter and its moons.  A toy microscope was also purchased for me. Both presents and other educational toys triggered a life-long interest in sciences (little did the boy realise he would later spend a third a century looking at diamonds and precious stones through a rather different microscope: but that’s another story).

But I can’t recall watching the Sky at Night on a regular basis and as the public awareness of the Apollo programme diminished so did my curiosity in astronomy. ‘O’-levels, three science ‘A’-levels and an honours degree at King’s, London passed without much thoughts of astronomy. A subsequent career with precious stones in Hatton Garden, London eclipsed any interest I had for the heavens – perhaps I was too preoccupied with gems to bother with stars.

However the embers of astronomical interest smouldered occasionally; I recall staring at the many large (to me) telescopes seen through the large window of Telescope House in Farringdon Road, close to Hatton Garden, and casual glances at the Sky This Month diagrams and notes published monthly in national newspapers but certainly no observing since the time of the now long abandoned toy ‘scope. But I do remember being impressed by comet Hale-Bopp seen with my naked eyes hanging in the heavens when on business trip to Basel in April 1997 and explaining what a comet is to Swiss contacts.

After moving to Marylebone in the late 1990s, I would walk past a shop off Baker Street, 

glimpsing telescopes in the window and form a fancy of buying a ‘scope in the future for the time, if and when, I retired abroad. Little did I know then...

Perhaps you, too, do not think you share the so-called ‘passion’ evident in the amateurs you read about on-line, meet at astro-events or follow on social media. Take heart, a greater interest in astronomy can be reignited. For me, it happened on a walk in April 2011 when a curious incident in Regent’s Park occurred - I saw a poster on a notice-board.

On the spot, I decided to investigate...