Astrocamp day 1, a summary of sorts

Well, I arrived yesterday, got the tent set up with the help of a friend, and soon got down to meeting up with people I haven't seen since last camp. It's amazing but it seems like only 5 minutes since I packed up and left the site last autumn. Anyway, the weather ... High winds …

Trip to Wales’ Bannau Brycheiniog well worth it for an amazing display of the Northern Lights

First published in the May 2023 edition of the West Dorset Magazine Nearly every Spring since 2014 I’ve been making the journey to Wales’ Brecon Beacons (or, more correctly, Bannau Brycheiniog) for Awesome Astronomy’s Astrocamp star party: an immensely fun gathering of stargazers from all over the country under the dark skies of the International …

Star parties and public stargazing sessions

First published in the West Dorset Magazine, issue 19, October 2022. Something that gets overlooked rather a lot in discussions about stargazing and astronomy is the social aspect. It’s often regarded as a rather solitary pursuit … However, I've been very lucky recently in this respect, having taken part in a public stargazing session in …

10 years of AstroCamp – a brief tribute

I don't believe that many UK-based outdoors events would be so long-lasting, or so successful, if the weather cut short whatever it was you went along to do. Yet, despite the vagaries of the British weather, Awesome Astronomy's twice-yearly AstroCamp, held in South Wales' Brecon Beacons, is always a triumph, regardless of how much actual …

Spring Astrocamp 2022

Wow! What a fantastic event and weekend! Before I get into this, though, I have to say a big thank you to the organisers at Awesome Astronomy (in no particular order): Paul, Ralph, Jen, Damien and John. I've been coming to these events since 2014, and this one was definitely one of the best. It's …

Do you know the names of the Seven Sisters?

Whilst at a recent star party (Awesome Astronomy’s autumn Astrocamp) I spent a couple of evenings just using my Celestron SkyMaster 20*80 binoculars. I’d used the scope on one of the evenings, and a great night it was too, but with the ever present threat of rain, I felt a ‘grab and go’ option might …

Astro Camp, May 2015 …

I have now just about recovered from Astro Camp (though still tired and quite sunburnt) – a fantastic weekend-long star party in South Wales' Brecon Beacons. It's a relatively small affair, though this one it did seem busier than previous events, but it was absolutely brilliant! The observing was somewhat spoiled by cloud cover, but that really didn't dampen …