Unusually for Folk Week it didn’t rain every single day, in fact Wednesday (Egton show day) was the only bad day... and it was bad, and dark, very dark, sort of total eclipse dark with apocalyptic rain for several hours.  Prospects for the evening star party therefore looked encouraging.

Come the evening, the day’s storm was just a memory and clear skies were now overhead. Keith, Lee and Mark made the most of them. Saturn was the main target... appearing a little higher than anticipated and not behind the Royal Hotel as feared, at least not for a while anyway. The image was surprisingly steady, and caused much excitement, especially when Titan was pointed out. Once Saturn was hidden, our favourite deep sky objects were centred in the eyepiece, the transparent conditions allowing great views, much appreciated by the visiting host.

Mark did a solo party the following evening, although conditions were not as clear with slightly milky skies, people were still impressed with the views of Saturn, deep sky objects were though harder to appreciate.