Auckley Show 2017

This was to be the last show of 2017, hopefully a high to end the season. But it wasn't to be. We had the usual helpers, Dave and Lesley, Paul and Elaine and Sandra, with the addition of Phil who collected all the gear from the observatory. Phil came instead of Rhys who'd gone wind surfing near Goole on this wet and windy day, and to think we got just as wet and cold as he must have done. Our day was a steady mix of rain and sun with a relentless wind blowing the rain clouds and clear patches over us in 15 minute steps throughout the day. It started with an altercation with the funeral stall(?) to one side of us and the donkey stall on the other! No room for my car which was promised a space. But the leader of the show sorted it out and moved the donkeys, downwind, to give us more space.
We spent the day moving telescopes in and out of the gazebo and drying and protecting the photographs and ourselves. The sun however, was helpful, and we were able to show visitors a small prominence and two sun spots. Sandra had called on some of her friends and work colleagues to visit us, much talking, well there would be wouldn't there. We had a drop-in visit from John Foster and his friend Mike, and a lady fire-eater on stilts. I thought Paul had missed her, but he hadn't.
The gazebo finally gave up under the onslaught of the wind and rain, one of its corner joints broke, but we made it last the day. It'll have to be repaired during the winter.
One of the highlights was Phil's new pair of APM 5" binoculars on a fine wooden tripod. Excellent instrument, much better than our big binoculars, but ours is 11 years old with achromatic objectives, whereas Phil's is 5" but the objectives are Apochromatic. We were able to test them against each other, no contest.
However the weather was, it didn't dampen our spirits though it did get us wishing for central heating in the gazebo. Paul Booker took the photographs - all of them.