More than 200 amateur astronomers have pitched their tents at the Kielder Star Camp in Northumberland, a twice-yearly gathering organised by the Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society. Armed with fleeces and flasks, and with an assortment of cameras, telescopes and tripods at the ready, they are spending five damp, chilly nights in the forest gazing at the night skies.
Viewing conditions are described as OK, but not brilliant, according to regular star camper, Martin Whipp. "We've had a couple of hours of clear skies on the first two nights. A fellow camper captured the Orion Nebula on his camera."
According to the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Kielder Water and Forest Park has the darkest skies in England, and on a moonless week like this the stargazers can also expect to see the Milky Way, shooting stars and nebulae, clouds of dust created by exploding stars. Jupiter is also high in the sky this week.
The camps are open to veterans and novices, as long as you abide by the "red light" rules so astronomers' night vision isn't affected – driving through camp at night with headlights on full beam will make you very unpopular. The campsite for the current camp is now fully booked, but day visitors are welcome to the main day, a series of talks at Kielder Castle this Saturday (free to everyone, from 11am to 4.30pm).
An NHS photographer by day, and secretary of the York Astronomers' society, Whipp has taken 90,000 images on his own camera in recent years. An estimated 3,000-4,000 of those, taken over three separate star camps in 2009 and 2010, were used to create this beautiful time-lapse video, which we came across on a blog by Julian Kay, another regular star camper.
As particle physicists Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw do the press rounds to promote their new book – The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen – in an attempt to explain scientific concepts most of us struggle to get our heads round (a tip: think of the Milky Way as an omelette), Whipp's video is a lovely reminder that you don't necessarily have to understand the secrets of the universe to marvel at its beauty.
