Its minus 2 at Ninebanks Youth hostel this morning.... well not in the hostel - that, fortunately is a very toasty place, but outside its frosty with fabulous blue skies stretching as far as you can see across the valley.
Its that time of year again and we are mid star weekend at Orchard house, Ninebanks, tucked away in a most beautiful, empty, open part in the wilds of Northumberland. This hostel is really good, lots of space, comfy beds, ensuite bathrooms, well equipped kitchen and a roaring fire!!!
We have the usual crowd of curious and enthusiastic people taking part and the talks are very varied to be inclusive and informative without being too difficult to follow - after all this is supposed to be a fun weekend and bend brains a little but not too hard!!!
It was a fantastically clear night last night, affording the opportunity to be out observing the night skies from 5.00 through until past midnight.... it was cold - the temperature dropping to well below freezing. This dedicated lot of star weekend participants are KEEN! We punctuated the observing session with our evening meal, lots of warming hearty stew and apple crumbles dished up everytime it got too cold to move!
In the hostel we had a almost roaring fire going - (we kept having to relight it) but it did the job and all in all it was an excellent evening. Using the collection of telescopes and binoculars on hand we were able to view distant galaxies, star clusters, planets and nebula - its a long time since we have had such a magnificent view of the milky way up here in Allendale. Some really keen insomniacs got up ridiculously early to look for Leonids flying about the sky - a fairly impressive annual meteor shower seen every November providing the skies are clear and then watched Jupiter slowly ascend over the hill followed by the sun bringing glorious colour to the hills and valley.
Dr Fred is delivering interesting and informative talks to back up whats been observed and I find myself in that peculiar position of talking sciencey type things with people who think I know what I talking about.. ha ha.
More to the point there is lots of cake as always and I'm always amazed at how much food and cake hungry astronomers can put away in a weekend!!
Its that time of year again and we are mid star weekend at Orchard house, Ninebanks, tucked away in a most beautiful, empty, open part in the wilds of Northumberland. This hostel is really good, lots of space, comfy beds, ensuite bathrooms, well equipped kitchen and a roaring fire!!!
We have the usual crowd of curious and enthusiastic people taking part and the talks are very varied to be inclusive and informative without being too difficult to follow - after all this is supposed to be a fun weekend and bend brains a little but not too hard!!!
It was a fantastically clear night last night, affording the opportunity to be out observing the night skies from 5.00 through until past midnight.... it was cold - the temperature dropping to well below freezing. This dedicated lot of star weekend participants are KEEN! We punctuated the observing session with our evening meal, lots of warming hearty stew and apple crumbles dished up everytime it got too cold to move!
In the hostel we had a almost roaring fire going - (we kept having to relight it) but it did the job and all in all it was an excellent evening. Using the collection of telescopes and binoculars on hand we were able to view distant galaxies, star clusters, planets and nebula - its a long time since we have had such a magnificent view of the milky way up here in Allendale. Some really keen insomniacs got up ridiculously early to look for Leonids flying about the sky - a fairly impressive annual meteor shower seen every November providing the skies are clear and then watched Jupiter slowly ascend over the hill followed by the sun bringing glorious colour to the hills and valley.
Dr Fred is delivering interesting and informative talks to back up whats been observed and I find myself in that peculiar position of talking sciencey type things with people who think I know what I talking about.. ha ha.
More to the point there is lots of cake as always and I'm always amazed at how much food and cake hungry astronomers can put away in a weekend!!
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