Face to face with 'The Ark'

[+Bino-viewer]

I was back again at Stoneleigh Park for another visit to this years 'International Astronomy Show'. I think this was my 5th or 6th visit.

This years venue, while at the same place, was over on another part of the complex.

I was impressed with it, and although i only spent 4 hours there, i enjoyed my visit very much. I will be back next year.....

 

Plenty of kit to look over, and there were more exhibitors there this year which is nice to see.

There was a good atmosphere, and it reminded me and had the same sort of feel to it, as the PAS show in Kettering, held in March.

 

I only attended the one lecture (Peter Jenkins' astrophotography talk was excellent) and spent most of my time looking around the exhibits and chatting to the vendors.

It was nice to bump into @Derbyshire Dave and have a chat and check what astro goodies he might have in mind.

 

I myself purchased one or two things......

 

This year Rother Valley had their own room, with plenty of space to show off their vast array of scopes and accessories.

And one of the highlights was the late Sir Patrick Moores old 1956 Ford Prefect, which they had restored to it's former glory. It looked great !

 

A few photo's......

 

 

 

 

Rowan Astronomy's new AZ100 Alt-az mount looked very impressive.

 

 

 

I spent a bit of time at the 'Astrograph' stand, and chatted with Rupert Smith and bought a couple of bits.

I'm a good customer of Ruperts, having purchased my TEC refractor from him earlier in the year.

Also there, from Australia, was Serge Antonov, head of 'Astro Devices'. It was nice to meet him and have a chat.

 

 

This last photo is something i treated myself to.

Yes, its a meteorite, not some leftover cake ! 😀

I'm purchased my first 'spacerock' 3 years ago, and thought it was about time i added to my collection.

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Bino-viewer

[Allan the Plumber]

Looking forward to see Sir Patrick’s old Prefect tomorrow plus collect my broken 460ex from Atik yeaaa

 

[+RonC]

I remember my dad having one of these but of coarse it was black!

[+Streetbob]

Thanks for the review. I’m going today and looking forward to it. 

9 hours ago, Allan the Plumber said:

Looking forward to see Sir Patrick’s old Prefect tomorrow plus collect my broken 460ex from Atik yeaaa

 

I’ll keep an eye out for you Alan.

[Doc]

What's inside the lump of rock Rob?

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Yeah good show Rob, and good to see you too. 

 

As well as the Peter Jenkins talk, I also went to the Cosmic Dawn talk and the talk on Gaia. All three talks were to a really good standard. The one thing that really stuck was that the Gaia satellite has the resolution to measure the width of a human hair from 500 Kilometres away. WOW.

 

Have a great day today guys. Disappointed that the Patrick Gilliland Talk was cancelled today, otherwise I would have gone back down

[+Bino-viewer]

3 hours ago, Doc said:

What's inside the lump of rock Rob?

You mean the 'sparkly bits'  ?

 

Various metals i assume ?

I brought it under the guidance of a good friend, Graham Ensor who like me is former DDAS member.

Graham is a meteorite expert, and owns one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the country.

This specimen is a NWA stone type (North west Africa where is was found) and weighs 432g

 

[+Bino-viewer]

5 hours ago, Ron Clarke said:

I remember my dad having one of these but of coarse it was black!

Being a classic car enthusiast Ron, it was a treat to see it. RVO have made a really nice job of restoring it.

Patrick owned the car from new (it cost £140) and drove it for over 40 years and covered more than 750,000 miles in it.