Friday 12th August to Monday 15th August 2016

Penmaenau Farm Builth Well Powys Wales LD2 3RD, next to Royal Welsh Showground.

SOLAR OBSERVING

COSMOS PLANETARIUM ASTRONOMICAL TALKS. ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVING STALLS & CRAFTS WORKSHOPS. SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Solarsphere Festival 2016

Panorama above shows the Antares dark sky field with my green teepee.

12th -15th August, Penmaenau Farm, Builth Wells

This is a festival of space music and astronomy, an unusual combination!The campsite has three camping fields, one of which is for observing. There is a strong family festival feel, with activities for children as well as a programme of astronomical talks. Talks are held in a Talks barn , with chairs set out and screen and microphone setup. Music takes places in a separate , close building. This houses the stage with bar, and a conjoined building has stalls, inflatable planetarium, SPA stall and food service. Food is "burger bar" type but is freshly cooked. Not much veggie choice.

Friday Evening was music, and a Fancy Dress Competition, for adults and children. It set the pattern for the weekend, when the forecast for clear skies was completely wrong, with total cloud cover.

TALKS PROGRAMME:Saturday: 10.00 - 10.45 DSLR Photography by Nigel BallThis was an informative talk, covering star trail and Milky Way photos mostly. There were tips on how to plan in advance. 20 secs, 1600 asa, 3000k white balance suggested settings for Milky Way.To plan a suitable foreground with the Milky Way in the right place, the Photographers Ephemeris app was mentioned. Also Sky Guide and Tidepoint if the sea was in the foreground. He has a website for more info.

Saturday 12.00 - 12.45 The Moon Anew by Ninian BoyleNinian runs the Astronomy KnowHow website, and sends monthly What's in The Sky free emails if you sign up. He also runs paid online courses for beginning astronomers etc. His talk on the Moon was an interesting look at the history of the Moon, and theories of its origins, including The Big Splat! An informative talk suitable for beginners and anyone with an interest in our nearest neighbour.

Saturday 14.15 - 1500 Our Local Star by Mark Townley. Mark is a teacher in Dudley and is most interested in the Sun , largely because you can see it during the day anywhere. The talk went into the history of its formation, chemistry of its structure, and what you can expect to see on its surface using a small telescope. It was a well structured , informative talk of wide interest. He mentioned the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project, and gave out free eclipse glasses and a small diffraction grating, to demonstrate splitting light. He mentioned the possibility that the Vikings used Sun Stones carried on their voyages to help their navigation, also known as Icelandic Spar. May be worth contacting for Rosliston Science Days. He ran a solar observing session all day, but unfortunately the clouds stayed!

Saturday 1630 - 1715 Constellation from Babylon to Bowie by Professor Nigel Henbest. This was about the history of Mans involvement with the Stars, and how constellations and their names changed from early civilisations through to the current day, with the creation of the Bowie constellation earlier this year. Yes , there is one, and it's massive. Nigel also mentioned Citizen Science, where members of the public can get involved in real research through shared use of home computers around the world. BOINC , Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, is the centre for citizen science, including around 8 astronomical projects open to all to get involved with. Chris Lintott's Zooniverse is another project where amateurs have found real results.

Saturday evening was space music on the stage, with bands including Hawklords, successor of the famous Hawkwind. By far the best band of the weekend. Some of the others were very idiosyncratic, with a wide variety of styles and costumes. Better than sitting in your tent waiting for the cloud to go!

Sunday 100 - 1045 Question and Answer Session. I didn't attend, but I understand the best question was on Moonfarts!

Sunday 1200 - 1245 The Aurora by Will Gator. An excellent talk, with the best explanation I've seen on how the Aurora works, also mentioning aurora on other planets.

1415 - 1500 Supernova Explosions by Megan Arvo. A very interesting and in depth look at the science behind supernova and the different types of explosions.

1630 - 1715 Are We Alone - possible life on other worlds , by Professor Alan Longstaff. This talk examined the possible number of planets that could support life in any form, and the factors that scientist think need to be present to support life. He explained briefly how spectroscopy can identify minerals and elements on other bodies. He very much left open the original question, but it was a very thought provoking talk!

Comment from Ed Mann, who also attended, and is going back next year.

Nigel's website is www.nigelaball.com. He's sent me some good stuff onAurora photo processingMark Townley mentioned https://solarchatforum.com/. It has the magnetometerproject information etc. and loads of great solar stuff (how to use a bat detector as a magnetometer)The citizen science website was www.boinc.berkeley.edu

SUMMARY

Would I go again?

The site was excellent, with good camping and not crowded. As usual the astronomers nearby were all keen to share their scopes and knowledge. The talks were well worth attending, well organised with good speakers. The Talks Area was well organised, and the onsite food useful if limited. Stalls were very limited, mainly catering for children, apart from a few, including the Society for Popular Astronomy, Nigel Ball, the Dark Skies Project and a planetarium.

Unfortunately skies stayed cloudy on Friday night, and most of Saturday, apart from a brief glimpse of the Moon early on before the clouds rolled in. I was able to stay on the Sunday night, which was a bit better. We were able to look at Saturn and Mars as well as the Moon , Albireo and the Andromeda Galaxy. This didn't last long, and the clouds came back.

The whole festival was well organised and friendly. It was clear there were two groups present, one for stargazing and the other for the music. This set up worked well, as the music was not too invasive on the dark sky field if you wanted to avoid it. It was remarked how well the children on site behaved. It was good to see so many families present, and after the music anyone interested in astronomy came up to the observing field as a group, and chatted to those with scopes. This gave a good outreach opportunity to promote the wonders of the night sky.

At a price of only £45, with free camping, this was a bargain. This was the second year of SolarSphere, with interest and attendance bigger than the previous year. Other Star Parties charge

more than this- £85 for one I can think of. I suspect prices will have to go up for next year, but this will just bring it line with the norm.

I certainly enjoyed the whole experience, despite the cloudy skies. This is a testament to the atmosphere and organisation . There is a programme of activities for children, including cardboard rocket building and launching.

Ed and I both agreed we will be back next year, if possible. It's worth attending and you can either watch the music or totally ignore it. It didn't affect the observing and talks in any significant way.