Saturday 16th July & Sunday 17th July 2016.
It turned out to be one hot weekend!!!
Plus top it off, the Sun had a superb selection of sunspots on both days so plenty of solar observing was done with the public 🙂
This years festival was the first time that the Society had attended by purchasing its own stall space, instead of being set-up in the exhibition marquee which was not provided this year. This actually turned out to be to our advantage as we were able to spread ourselves out more and put our equipment, display and telescopes exactly where we wanted 🙂
Saturday was the hottest day, with plenty of clear blue sky to observe the Sun which we did for most of the day. Sunday started out cloudy but sultry, and it was nice to have a breeze through our marquee which had openings to both sides to allow the public to walk through.
The Sunday Crew……
Members helping were all kept busy showing the Sun to the public through 4 Hydrogen-alpha telescopes and 1 Newtonian with a white light filter fitted. Activities were provided for the public to interact with in the marquee and many took part in the Planet Game with some of the youngest participants beating the older ones.
A BIG THANK YOU must go to members Honor Wheeler, James Burchell, Andy Barber, Rita Whiting, Diane Clarke, Rob Wilson, Simon Dawes, Debra Holton and Mike Rushton for their assistance at this years Dartford Festival and to others for their support.
Also a big Thank you to Colin Wheeler (Honor’s Dad) for providing the marquee free of charge and also for allowing us the use of his van for transporting it and the display and equipment.
Below are a few photos of the weekend, taken by Honor Wheeler, Diane Clarke, Jim Burchell and Rob Wilson. Thank you for sharing them with us 🙂
