Paul Stephen
Fridays observing of the Orionids was rather dissapointing.
I met Tom McEwan and Bill Ward from SAG down at the site beside Loch Doon at about 22:00. They had been there from about 20:00 and had had a brief few spells of clear sky when they got to see comet Swan but by the time I got there it had clouded over once again. We hung around for another couple of hours and it seemed to be clearing a little around 23:30 but by the time I got the scope set up the fog was rolling in and the clouds had formed again. We gave up at 00:00 and hit the road.

On the positive side, the site does look good with clear views West, North and East. Theres a bit of an incline to the south blocking some of the lower southern sky. Will certainly keep the site in mind for the future.It took me roughly 1hr 15mins to get there from EK and a bit longer to get back because the A77 was closed northwards due to a crash between an unmarked police car and another vehicle.

All in all a bit of a dissapointing evening although it was good to meet Tom and Bill and view the site for future sessions.

Tom McEwan
Even though last night's weather turned out to be poor it did clear enough to see that the Loch Doon area is a good observing location. I was worried that we may
experience some through traffic from fishermen but that didn't really happen (only a few cars passed during the 4 hours we were there). Next time it may be worth trying a different site on the loch as nearby houselights were a problem early on.