UCAS, star parties and a flight to remember!

Yes. It's officially been two months since my last post. I'm a bit embarrassed, but if I said it had been the busiest two months of my life so far, then I wouldn't be lying.

Main updates include:

• UCAS offers
• S197 module results
• An aurora flight
• Work experience
• Star Party

So, I should probably start with the most interesting. UCAS offers. For any of you that actually read this, my last blog post stated (I think) that I had sent off my UCAS. 2 months on and I have received all 5 offers. I'm sorry, but if someone had told me on the last results day that getting a C in maths was not the end of my university aspirations, I wouldn't have believed them. Now I'm holding 5 offers, 4 of those offers are at 1994/Russell Group universities, and I don't know where to go. Who knew I'd be so spoilt for choice? Leeds, Cardiff and Sussex all want AAB (with an AB in maths and physics). Aberystwyth and Kent have made me a lower offer, one that I can't remember right now - oops! I think my top two choices are Cardiff and Leeds. I've got until the 9th of May to make a decision, so I'm trying to push it to the back of my mind until after the January exams.

Now for some really happy news. Mid December was an approximation of when I should have received my S197 module results by. I am very pleased to announce that I PASSED! This morning I received a letter stating how well I had done on Section A, which was 20 multiple choice questions. I only got 4 wrong, so I am quite happy with that. On Section B, which involved longer written answers, I scored:  3 'Well Achieved', 4 'Achieved' and 1 'Just Achieved'. This is on a scale of 5 levels, with 'Well Achieved 'being the best and 'Not Achieved' being the worst. There is another level between 'Just Achieved' and 'Not Achieved' but I can't remember. A normal pass is 'Just Achieved'. The Open University has such a complex grading system.

Next on the list of news was my aurora flight. To give a rough idea of the sights I got to see on this flight, see some of the pictures taken by the famous Astrophotographer and Sky at Night Presenter Pete Lawrence here. It was genuinely once of the best experiences of my life. For anyone wanting to go see the Northern Lights, a flight is a fantastic way. Even if the aurora puts on a poor show, the clarity of the night sky and millions of stars on view is enough to amaze anyone. I would not get away with posting about the aurora flight without mentioning Nigel Bradbury. The combination of his passion and knowledge of the sky made sure that the in-flight commentary was brilliant. I would give anything to be back on that flight.

I should quickly mention that it would have made more sense to mention the star party before the aurora flight, but I'm not a fan of putting things in chronological order. To quickly summarise what a star party is (you wouldn't believe the amount of times I have been asked 'what is a star party?'), it's where lots of astronomers gather in some form of fields/farm/outdoor area. They camp, bring astronomical gear and geek out all weekend. For my first star party, I wanted to attend a smaller one - just to get me used to it. I decided to attend the Peak Star Party held at Shallow Grange Farm. It exceeded all of my expectations.

It all kicked off Friday night. My friends (Matt, Hannah and Bryn) and I arrived about an hour before it got dark. Consequently, this led to the 10 man tent being partially set up in the dark. By the time we had eventually set everything up, we were greeted by beautiful night sky in all its glory. I'M JOKING. After staying up until 12am, I decided to let the clouds win and my poor tired self rest. The skies cleared early on Saturday morning and I was most definitely asleep.

Saturday lunch indicated the start of the lectures. This was of course after I decided to bang my head on a very expensive telescope and caused it to bleed (my head, not the telescope). If my memory serves me correct; we had a Dark Skies presentation by John Tanner, a Astronomy in the Peaks style lecture by Dr Daniel Brown of Nottingham University and the day was finished off by a spectacular lecture by Prof. Ian Morrison. After cooking a poor meal, I decided to get out and be social with the many pleasant people who decided to attend the Star Party. If I started to list all the spectacular sights I was treated to through the kindness of many astronomers letting me look through their equipment, I would be here all day. My favourite sights were finally being able to see the Sun and all its wonderful sunspots, M13 a globular cluster and locating M31 for the first time. It's not even hard to locate, I'm just a bit useless.

I spent the majority of Sunday morning putting down Marquees, not that I minded helping of course. It did however cause me to miss the first lecture! It was okay though, because I think I managed to make a lasting impression on several main hosts of the star party. Once I actually managed to attend the Sunday lectures, it was lovely. The first (well, second of the day) presentation was given by Nigel Bradbury on aurora flights. It was really interesting and I really enjoyed it, even if I was late (once again, sorry). The final lecture of the Star Party was on Pulsars, not quasars, and was given by Prof. Andrew Lyne. I dragged along my fellow campers and found it inspiring.

Not that they will read it, but I really would like to thank James Pels and many other people who organised such a fantastic event for making my first star party so special. The Peak Star Party 2012 has been confirmed according to here, so I expect everyone reading to attend if they can!

I did intend to write about my work experience, but there simply isn't enough time. I've got to go get ready for the busiest weekend in retail of the year (apparently). GOGOGO!

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy. Image Credits to NASA.