Over a year ago I was invited to attend the 'Solarsphere' astronomical and music festival in Builth Wells, Mid Wales. I agreed back then as it sounded like fun and it sure was. I've not seen anything like it in the UK before; a 3 day festival around the theme of astronomy and music, like it says on the tin...
20636642136_3b19993a39_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Crazy traffic on the friday meant we didn't get there till the evening so we settled in to do a bit of exploring; several hundred people - an eclectic mix of ages from children to the more mature. I've not appeared on the listing for something before, but on this was on with Justin Sullivan of the band 'New Model Army'.
20636656266_0b4d969a23_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
The weekend in general didn't offer particularly clear skies, this was the general theme, but it was warm and bright, and by upping the gain on the PGR camera could punch through the clouds so folks could get a view on the laptop screen.
20653715722_3c881f4917_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
I have to say this is one of the best places i've done outreach - Stephen would like it, there were absolutely no stuffy Brits (as he would call them!), everyone who I spoke to was friendly, pretty much most people were absolutely amazed you could observe the sun and then were even more gob smacked when they saw it through the scopes. I was using simple spectroscopes as part of my repertoire for the first time, and, have to say these were a great hands on aid in the whole outreach thing.
20653721312_46cdd1df72_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
20653717902_c50af2d1c3_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
20476192029_efa383138a_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
20474925740_0fd9bfc06b_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
20474924248_9299bf3d49_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
We had some great talks here too - Damian Peach, Dr Megan Argo, Will Gater, Lucie Green and Prof John Zarnecki. One of my highlights has to be having breakfast with John on the sunday morning and then him coming along and helping me with some outreach shortly after, in between talking to the festival goers he gave the outreach rig a thorough examination before chatting to me about the band pass of my filter systems and what (and why) I was using for ERFs(!). Mind you for a man that developed the faint object camera for Hubble, was involved in the Beagle 2 project and then was responsible for the Huygens probe that landed on Titan as part of the Cassini mission I guess etalons and ERFs are small talk.
Solarsphere is back on next year, on the 12th, 13th and 14th August, I shall be certainly going again, it was lots of fun. If you're able to you should go along, it's different and lighthearted.
Mark
Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
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Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
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Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
sounds fantastic!!! I was praying for good weather for you all weekend, we had a super clear night Saturday night, so I hope all the DSO hunters were happy too. I would have loved to have gone, but I don't think the Hubby could cope with longer than 4hrs of Astronomy
What was Lucie Green like
Alexandra
What was Lucie Green like
Alexandra
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Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
Thank you for the great work Mr. Townley!
Stephen W. Ramsden
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Founder/Director Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project
http://www.solarastronomy.org
Atlanta, GA USA
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http://www.solarastronomy.org
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Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
Absolutely awesome Mark.Considering I live basically in a festival site perhaps there is some outreach potential there.
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Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
Thanks folks, it was definitely lots of fun! Darren would have been fine Alexandra, Fiona was happy all weekend, there's loads to do there on site to keep you amused, and if you wanted loads of things around in the area to do and see - Red Kite centre etc, getting on and off site is no problem. The night sky was the darkest i've seen since northern Iceland a couple of years ago too, next year I will be taking a pair of binoculars with me. I didn't see any of the talks as I was outside with the scopes all the while, but from what people have said they went down very well indeed. A couple more pics...
20662896745_bc30220ac4_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
11900147_730535570408272_7234681877207709280_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
20662896745_bc30220ac4_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
11900147_730535570408272_7234681877207709280_o by Mark Townley, on Flickr
http://brierleyhillsolar.blogspot.co.uk/
Solar images, a collection of all the most up to date live solar data on the web, imaging & processing tutorials - please take a look!
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Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
Excellent, Mark. Looks fantastic. Maybe I'll attend next year.....
Great outreach......maybe some more solar converts??
Stu.
Great outreach......maybe some more solar converts??
Stu.
H-alpha, WL and Ca II K imaging kit for various image scales.
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
Fluxgate Magnetometers (1s and 150s Cadence).
Radio meteor detector.
More images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarcarbon60/
Re: Solarsphere Astronomy & Music Festival 14, 15, 16 August
SUNTASTIC event Mark some of these pic show a nice blue . A weekend thng as well...my wife would have to have some Art or music as well..thanks for sharing pic ....Clear Skies to you & Fiona :-)