Stargazing Walk
Should have been
Tuesday 25th April 2017
Now TBA
Sands: 6.30pm
Tonight (Tues 25th) is about as bad a night as you could get for a telescope on the hills, so we will have to postpone it. Just to make it very clear, it will be necessary, as I have mentioned in the original notice, for anyone who is really interested to contact me by email or phone for the latest info. What I am proposing to do is to wait for a more settled spell of weather, with the promise of a clear night, and then contact those who are interested and make appropriate arrangements. It will be fairly short notice, but to go up at night and have no view at all would be very disappointing. I think that the best way to approach it would be to wait for a good clear night with a partial moon (not a full one - that would be hopeless) and have an introductory walk in the Pennines (easy paths and a lot less light) where we could have a good look at the craters on the Moon and probably - for the next few weeks anyway - a good look at Jupiter, with its four main moons plus the Red Spot (a vast storm, with winds about 700 / 800mph, which has been going since the 1600's). A lot of the more spectacular sights tend to be reserved for the winter months and while that can be very cold, it can also be stunningly spectacular. What we could do if anyone was really interested would be to have an easy walk up the hillside above where Lauren and I live, set up the telescope and have about 3/4 hour (any more and the cold would do you a mischief) looking at features like the Andromeda Galaxy, Orion's belt (a star in the making), Saturn (a morning star at the moment) and its rings, Mars, and whatever else is around.appointing. Also, it has to be still so that the telescope itself is steady. Apologies for tonight, but until we control the weather, we will need to rely on what turns up.
Peter Flynn
Stargazing Walk
Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club
affiliated to hfholidays
