2026 SGL Star Party
What a great weekend!
April 17th - 19th saw the SGL 2026 StarParty being held again at Thorney Lakes Campsite. And what a great weekend it was!
The site is fantastic - close to Langport, but far enough away for there to be very little light pollution. I would estimate Bortle 3 for the sky quality. Sally and the team are very helpful, making sure lights are turned off on the toilet blocks, for example. The fishing closed are not open overnight, so no risk of anglers straying across the observing fields with their lights on.
Having left home on the Thursday afternoon, I hit the only real snag for the whole weekend… The M3 was closed in both directions due to an accident, so SatMav took me back up North, then on the A43, M40, A34, and then onto the A303. As usual the traffic was slow past Stone Henge, but otherwise OK. Arrived just before 7pm, quickly set the van up, and then out for dinner with Grant, James, Dave W and Rob - forgetting we had curry booked on Friday night, we had curry!!
It was cloudy Thursday night, so just an after dinner cup of tea, and an early-ish night for us all.
Friday
Friday saw most of the weekend attendees arrive during the course of the day. It was scudding clouds for most of it, and the forecast was to have a spell of rain early evening and then clear, so people were getting everything set up well in advance. We got the marquee set up with the tea and coffee station, set up the tables and chairs and unloaded all the boxes of astro gear from FLO.
Caught up with several people during the course of the day and generally enjoyed chatting astro-related stuff.
The Friday caterers arrived late afternoon - Ali and Fran from Spice & Rice, with their van full of delicious smells, and even better tasting food!
And then it was time for the SGL Star Party Quiz! As usual, hosted by the Quiz Master Michael Morris, several rounds of questions including a picture round. Great fun, especially as Michael’s rules are arbitrary and funny!
FLO kindly donated a red-light torch to each member of the winning team (Whizz Kids, Slow Adults) - well done guys!!
Friday evening
Just as the forecast predicated, the rain did arrive early evening, but didn’t last that long. Once the last of the clouds cleared out, we were treated to a full, clear night - albeit with some moisture in the air. The optics on the 12” dob dewed up after a couple of hours - I will need to invest in a secondary heater, and a heated bag for the eyepieces! But the imaging rig ran with no problem. I finished the plan on NGC7822, so now need to process that, and then started on the Iris Nebula NGC 7023.
Saturday
The morning dawned, cold but beautiful!
It was a very relaxed day - couple of arrivals during the day - but mostly spent chatting and relaxing!
Breakfast was supplied by Hog Boss - nothing smells better than bacon in the open air! And dinner was a Hog Roast - well, not quite a hog as there were not really enough people to cover that, but excellent roast pork none the less!
One of SGLs members (kiankz) gave us an interesting talk on being able to do some astrophysics with our RGB images, to determine the distance of star clusters. He’s going to write up the process so watch out on SGL for that to pop up.
Saturday evening
The forecast was for clear skies again on Saturday, and they were even better than Friday. The breeze during the day had cleared out a lot of moisture from the air, so this time, the optice on the dob lasted well past midnight before they succumbed to the dew.
Rob and I had a great time switching between the StellaLyra eyepieces, and the TeleVue Type 7’s on my 12” and the FLO 20”. Really interesting to compare views. I’m after a step-up from the basic eyepieces I have, and I think the StellaLyra’s are a great fit! They’ll get added to the Christmas wish list!!
The imaging rig ran perfectly again, capturing the data on Iris, and I’ll be continuing that project at home - the forecast shows some promise over the coming days..
All in all, a great weekend in the company of some great people! Roll on the next one!!
Sunday
And then all too soon, the weekend is over. Breakfast again supplied by Hog Boss, and then it was time to wind our way home. Some members decided to stay an extra night and were again treated to some clear skies! What a great way to finish the weekend!!
Objects observed
M81, M82, Jupiter, Betelguese, M101, M51, Leo Triplet, M13, Venus, Crescent Moon, Beehive cluster