The 'Great Cornish Getaway' Day 1 down to Sennen Cove

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Day 1 April 17^th 2021: Day One - Down to Sennen

Campsite: Sennen Camping and Caravan club site - Hard standing and EHU – see end of post for address details

Route: A30 from Bodmin and then B3306 - stopping at services just north of Hayle, off the roundabout to Ventonleague

Distance:  84 miles

 

Arriving at the storage site at 0900, we off-load Zebedee, our Skoda Yeti and pack everything into Bryony. Since the weighbridge last week, we have trimmed further what we carry in her, but it still seems a lot (and we are only carrying the SMALL telescope!). We have contacted SVTech to see what their view is. We suspect that given the additional fuel, water, bigger telescope, bike security chains etc to be carried in the future, then we have no alternative but to up-plate.

All checks complete and we are ready to go by 10am. We will get faster at this packing and departing routine but it is, after all, only our third outing in her and we are still in the ‘trial and error’ phase of deciding where best to store things.

The new Yuasa 100ah LFD 30 leisure battery has been fitted. For some reason which we cannot work out, it initially blew the battery fuse. I traced all wires, examined all the electrics and checked everything was working and charging as it should and I couldn’t find why it blew the fuse. One of those little life mysteries.

The drive down is direct, painless and relatively traffic free. There seems to be lots more tall giant white windmills on the way down than we remember from our 2019 visit. Arriving on site around 1300 to be warmly greeted by Keith, the warden, we fill up the water tank (it took several minutes!!) and drive onto the hard standing, using one ramp on the driver’s side to level the motorhome up.

We face outwards looking over the flat, exposed site, surrounded by its low walls and striking scenery (stupendous views across to the sea).  Sunsets are fabulous and Land’s End airport lies barely a mile away, providing good views of the occasional small plane and paraglider landing or take-off. 

An afternoon stroll along footpaths through cliff top fields and then down onto the coastal path above Gwynver beach gives splendid views across the sands of Sennen to the little village of Sennen Cove. (Try walking out the back of the site office area and heading through the fields to Tregiffian before looping around to the west to walk the cliffs above Gwynver beach). Open fields, views up the local granite batholith hill of Can Brea and steep sided narrow river valleys.

 Oh, and beware the steep paths down the cliffs to the beaches. They are very slippery under foot; go on, ask us how we know!

Star gazing report 17^th April 2021 2200 - 0030:

Bortle 3 skies with 5% total cloud cover. High pressure system with low night time temperature around 3C at 2100.

Targets for the night with telescope:

·        Waxing crescent moon 26%; 5.6 days old rising 20.54 - looking at determinator line and southern highland mountains and craters; trying to identify Posidonius crater (95km)

·        Stars – Regulus, Arcturus, Spica, Castor and Pollux

·        The Lyrid meteor shower

Telescope used: Skywatcher Heritage 100p table top, Dobsonian with eyepieces x25 and x 12; Barlow lens x2

Astrophotography practice:

·        Photographing the crescent moon

·        Photographs of motorhome and the stars above

·        Photographs of local farm landscapes surrounding the campsite

Camera used: Canon EOS 800D, 24mm prime and 55 – 200mm zoom lenses, tripod.

This is my third night out since getting this small telescope and the learning curve is still steep. The session starts with a mobile phone app – Sky Safari and 20 minutes familiarising myself with the celestial sphere above. I’m trying to learn and internalise the major constellations and their constituent stars. Its slow going as I have well known memory issues! Meanwhile, the telescope, set up at the start is cooling and acclimatising to the outside temperature, as is the camera on its tripod.

I take the opportunity to lay out the table with my guide books and star charts. Eyepieces are placed in my jacket pockets to keep them warm and then it’s time to focus the telescope on the moon.

 

The images are better than I expected and of course reversed and upside down. I’m initially confused when looking at moon maps. Very disorientating and good brain exercise. After several minutes tracking the moon I switch to the camera for some photographs. Getting crystal sharp stars and features on the moon is tricky. I’m using manual focus and every time I adjust the focus ring, the camera wobbles slightly, making the gauging of ‘sharpness’ somewhat hard! It isn’t helped by constantly changing atmospheric conditions.

The Bortle 3 night skies are cloudless and dark. The skies sparkle above with thousands of stars and the air is clear and crisp. I mentally make a note to stay up until 0230 to try and catch the Milky Way when, according to my Photopills app, it will be directly over the top of Bryony. When we arrived earlier in the day, one of the wardens told us that the last few nights the Milky Way had been spectacular. I am really excited by this revelation.

The Milky Way sadly doesn’t happen. After two hours I am chilled to the bone and shaking with cold and that’s despite thermals base layer, two fleeces, a duvet jacket and outer Gilet, two woolly hats, a scarf, inner and outer gloves and thermally lined mountain trousers. I must be getting old because when I was younger and climbing in the Alp’s I never experienced this level of coldness!

The Milky Way will wait for another night when I am better dressed. I will stay in bed and get up for it rather than doing one long marathon session. Lesson learned!

Meanwhile, I have a problem to resolve. In daytime I can get my smartphone into its holder and onto the telescope successfully. Focus is good and images are pleasing. This isn’t happening at night. I can barely get any focus or sharpness at all.  I have no idea why but I need to sort it soon because it is frustrating me somewhat!