The course was reformatted this year. It starts with 4 x 1hr sessions conducted via zoom over a few weeks.
This past weekend, and for the first time since my move, 8 course participants and a former student who volunteered to come and help run the course came up here to my dark sky retreat and stayed for the weekend. The skies mostly cooperated.
It was clear all Friday night while my volunteer, Paul, and I went out and did a dry run of the field trip.
Most of the group arrived Saturday. Three of the eight fell sick and didn't come at short notice. As luck would have it, the three that didn't come were the three that had all the special dietary requirements, gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian. So all the no food sensitivity, no food restriction people enjoyed the dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian meal I prepared while sitting around the outdoor fire pit during twilight. We got ready straight after dinner and hit the road
The first half of Saturday night, the time when the Milky Way was near the horizon, was clear and cloudless from the end of twilight at 720pm until around 1130pm when the Milky Way starts getting too high in the sky to combine with landscapes anyway. Then the cloud came in and we came back to the house for a cup of tea and a piece of apple crumble.
It was predicted to clear again at 3am but everybody agreed that they'd had such a good night and with the Milky Way high in the sky at 3am they'd rather sleep and wake refreshed in the morning for the drive home.
More photos coming soon!
regards
Joe Cali
