Dunfermline Astronomical Society

Well here I am back home after visiting Galloway Star Camp for 4 days last week. I arrived at 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning and could not remember the road to the camp in the dark so I parked up behind a farm building and decided to get some shut eye until daybreak. I turned off the car headlights and everything just went pitch black!. I looked up to the heavens and was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted my eyes. Stars, stars and more stars!
The Milky Way was magnificent and I could see the double cluster in Perseus with the naked eye, M31 and a host of DSO's I decided to get out of the car and get my binoculars from the back, it was then I realised I had parked in a pool of mud or something else  so I resigned myself to some shut eye.

I awoke to find 3 farmers looking round the car and decided to beat a hasty retreat to the camp. After checking in I chose my usual spot (pitch No5) and set up my tent and screens. I set up my mount for the LX200 and waited for darkness to polar align. After some chow I was surprised by torrential rain so I got in the tent and went to sleep. The wind and rain kept me waking up at regular intervals and by early morning I realised the tent was letting in water. That morning was spent drying out the sleeping bag and the tent but as the rain persisted I did an Apollo 13 and moved into the Lunar module (my Car) where I slept/ate for the rest of the week. That day (Thursday) it rained all day but as I was climbing the wall I decided to go for a walk about 6 kilometres and on arriving back I was wet through and went for a nice hot shower and change of clothing. At 4 p.m. I asked some of the other attendees if they would like to watch a DVD ( In the shadow of the Moon by Ron Howard Excellent choice!) by the time it finished it was dark. That night was cold damp and an hour or so gap in the clouds gave me the chance to do a spot of binocular observing.

"Camp DASOC at Galloway Star Camp"

Friday morning was dry and after a hearty breakfast (al fresco) I decided to set up the scope ready for the evening as we were told it would be clear. How right they were! perfect clear skies from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m. and it gave me chance to put my auto-guider to the test. One hour later and the batteries packed up for the synguider DISASTER!!! I realised I hadn't put the spares in my case. I wandered around asking if anyone had a spare 12volt PSU but to no avail. It was some time later that someone suggested I seek out John from Stay Focused who carried lots of stock with him to the camp. Upon finding said John I was in possession of a nice new multi voltage adaptor (thank you John!) back in business at last but I had wasted several hours precious imaging time so the rest of the night was spent trying to get used to guiding and locating things without using goto. A most enjoyable night and I managed to put both my DSLR's to the test. My new canon 1000D unmodified and a Canon 300D Hutech modded.

What a truly amazing evening and I crawled into the LM at 5 a.m.

Saturday I awoke after 2 hours sleep to get ready for the day of Lectures at Wigtown and took a Taxi to Wigtown with a friend from last years Star Camp another John and his good lady. If I'm honest the lectures were not as good as last year nor were the catering facilities at the show (a small criticism Steve, but a valid one I hope) I stayed for two of the lectures and got a lift back to Wigtown from a couple who were parked next to me at the Camp. I did call in at the trade stands and purchased a new 4 port dew controller and a 12 inch dew band and a 4 inch dew band for the guide scope as dew was a big problem the night before.

On returning to the Camp we readied the scopes for the night's observing but just our luck the rain descended and it was very heavy all night. I was thoroughly Pi**ed off and went to bed. I awoke at midnight and looked outside and it was cloudy but something made me get up and out of the car. I'm glad I did. I could see some stars poking through the clouds and took a chance and uncovered the scope. By 1 a.m. the skies cleared and only a handful of us were out. Everyone else was sleeping.

What a great sky it was too and I imaged M42 in Orion as I have never imaged it before (see below). And that was it I stayed up all night and left at 10 A.m to come home. Was it all worth it? Well yes! even for this one image it was worth all the trials and tribulations and will I book for next year? You bet ! A great week and as write this I wish I was back there already.

Many thanks to the host Lesley at Drumroamin Farm. The facilities are excellent and a neat little touch were the piles of six by six plywood squares with holes drilled in to stop the tripod legs sinking in the soft grassy fields (a a nice touch Lesley) and it shows that Lesley and the organisers are intending to make this yearly  event one of the best Star Camps in the UK. A big thanks also to organisers Steve Foy and Mike Alexander for taking the time to make it all possible.

M42 Orion Canon 1000D 6 minutes at ISO1600 Lx200 10" and f6.3 reducer.

This one was taken with the Hutech modded EOS 300D

The Dust lanes in M31 Andromeda 4mins at ISO 1600 Canon 1000D