Usually a good show, but like all such events it's dependant on the weather, and for this show the forecast was dire. Heavy rain and gale force winds for the whole afternoon.
We had to be there for 9:30am to claim our pitch and set up the gazebo and kit, we did this under very windy conditions and Rhys thoughtfully placed his van to windward of the gazebo, protecting us from the onslaught coming our way.
There were not as many visitors as hoped because of the weather forecast, but though the clouds enveloped us most of the time there were occasional patches of clear sky where our 3 telescopes came into their own, Vic and the Celestron 8" with a white light filter, Dave and his 6" Skywatcher refractor with a white light filter and the PST. Sandra did good work with her Planets game, drawing in the small fry and their mums.
The afternoon saw high winds and a couple of very short sharp bursts of rain, which caught us unprepared and we had to hurriedly get the equipment under cover.
We left the showground early as did most of the other exhibitors and returned to Austerfield to be greeted there by another squall, so the gazebo was put into the big dome in an open condition to allow it to dry out before packing it away till our next show in July 2017.
Notwithstanding the terrible weather we all enjoyed the occasion well enough.
One of the added attractions was a man on a small trike, with a bucket of detergent and two long sticks with string connecting the ends. He'd dip the ends in the bucket and wave them about in the wind producing giant bubbles for the small children to chase.
We were Paul and Elaine, Dave and Lesley, Vic, Rhys and Sandra. Photographs by Paul Booker.
Brian