The milky way from the grounds of the Arkinglas Estate, Loch Fyne
I had another great time hosting outdoor astronomy and stargazing workshops at this years Scapa festival, held on 3-5th May near the shores of Loch Fyne at the Arkinglas Estate.
It was very busy, especially Friday evening when clear skies brought many folk streaming down into the gardens in anticipation of stargazing close to the shoreline.
As it happened we hit some cloud just as I was about to kick off, prompting a quick jump over to my backup projector and screen. I was then able to deliver a 30 minute talk with Q&A, discussing things like the colour, temperature, distance of stars, the Milky Way, other galaxies, shooting stars and large impactors. As ever the questions were fascinating.
A passing satellite
Just as the talk wrapped up skies cleared and we were stargazing from the estate grounds. Plenty of constellations and bright stars began appearing, and conditions improved further when a second group arrived to join in.
Similar conditions prevailed on the Saturday, when skies once again cleared up after my talk, allowing us to observe with the large case of binoculars I always bring to star parties.
Later on I was able to photograph some lovely shots of the Milky Way from the estate grounds, with the band of our galaxy sitting low and clear on the northern horizon.
Feedback has been great on the guiding so far, and I’m looking forward to getting involved again next year.
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