Fourteen of us, roughly half of the signed-up BAS membership, gathered at Cliddesden on Saturday night from about six o'clock onwards. The ground was hard (a sign of things to come) so we were able to drive our cars right down the field to the part furthest from the school and its accursed "security" lights. An amazing array of kit unfolded from people's cars and soon we had three non-computerised 'scopes and two computerised ones set up. Andria arrived a little later with her LX90 to make it an even match between the "hoppers" and the GOTO brigade. Nick was our video-man, producing not one, but two StellaCams to use on his Sky-90 refractor, one as an "eyepiece" and one as a finder. Now, that's style!

With this array of kit, how could we go wrong? Well, we had a good go at it! The starhoppers were definitely in the ascendancy for the first couple of hours. Two of the computerised 'scopes "wouldn't work", for different reasons (hopefully soon to be fixed!) and Bob's 10" LX200 just wouldn't "goto" with any degree of accuracy. Boo. The situation wasn't helped by 80 to 90% cloud cover, which was making alignment very difficult for the LX200 - as fast as we slewed to Polaris (or anywhere else) the clouds blanked it out. Spot another good candidate, slew, and by the time we were there (and the LX200 is quick) it was cloudy. Messier's ghost was toying with us.

The "dobs", on the other hand, were picking off Messier objects through the "mug holes" with relative ease. Mercury, too, was felled by John and Dave's non-GOTOs, showing a wobbly little half-phase disk. It was easily visible to the naked-eye when the clouds co-operated. There was also a very thin, two-day-old Moon, hanging low in the west. Good views again had. Score one for the star-hoppers.

The clouds continued to annoy and Bob continued to swear. And then, bingo!, the problem was spotted. The declination setting on the LX200 wedge had slipped. We were somewhere in the south of France as far as the LX200 was concerned! With that fixed, and a decent alignment on Polaris done, suddenly the LX200 was galloping! The clouds were still in the way, but at least we could get to things. Sadly this was a little late for some of the early objects. They were theoretically visible, but when we slewed the LX200 to them, the tube was almost horizontal and we were looking through the murk of the atmosphere towards the orange glow of Basingstoke. A hopeful peek through the eyepiece, but, nah, nothing visible. Oh well, we didn't really expect to get 110 anyway! At least we could relax now!

John's barbecue was fired up and Andria produced her pot of soup and we started to warm ourselves, dark-adaptation be damned! The LX200 continued to slew and Dave continued to tick things off. The soup warmed us, but the clouds were clearing and the night cooled us. Sausage butties restored the balance a little. At least we could see the sky now, pretty much all of it in fact. It was a nice night. But cold. Those with thinner shoes said their farewells as the night rolled on and we were eventually down to seven. Nick continued to push the Sky90 about and show us things on his monitor, including a now-brilliant Jupiter and some of the Leo galaxies. Bob continued slewing and Dave carried on ticking. Nick eventually left and we were down to six. The brave. Or possibly the stupid, as a good, hard, white frost was now coating the field and our cars. Amazingly the LX200 was clear and with the cold air, we didn't suffer from dewing on the front-corrector plate, the Achilles Heel of SCTs.

With the Virgo cluster "bagged", we retreated into the school. Walking into an unheated school at two in the morning would normally lead one to exclaim, "it ain't half cold in here", but tonight it felt strangely like a sauna! Tea and biccies, and much wiggling of frozen toes, restored us and we marched out, rather enthusiastically I thought, to do battle once more. I expect the Magnificent Seven felt much like this. Except we were six - Bob, Dave, Dave, Henry, John and me.

The wind was more than a little annoying by now (in a farmer's field at 3AM in March, hard to believe, I know), so I moved my car to screen us and John moved the barbecue to warm us! We continued to pick off the newly-risen objects with ease, until we attacked Sagittarius and Scorpius. A few fell easily, but then we encountered an evil, astronomer-hating beast that had been lying in wait for us - the hedge! Whatever we did some tree or branch, or even twig, got in the way. We missed a good few globs this way :( If the 110 had still been on, I think we'd have moved Bob's 'scope and set up nearer to the school, but it wasn't, so we didn't. One more eventually called it a day, and we were five. Another couple of objects emerged from the hedge and were ticked off, but by then it was getting light. Rapidly. At 5AM we called it a day. A quick pack-up followed and by 0530 we were on our merry way.

So, a good time had by all? I think so! Despite the unpromising, cloud-ridden start, the rest of the night proved to be a good one and, on our very first attempt, we got 90 Messier objects, ranging from galaxies and planetary nebulas to a supernova remnant and a double-star. With completely clear skies, I think 100 would easily have been on, but the full 110 may remain forever elusive from that field in Cliddesden!

Many thanks to all who turned up and produced 'scopes and binoculars and video cameras and barbecues and tick-lists and tables and chairs and food. Especially the food, especially the soup! If you didn't come, make a note for next time. Next time? Yes there will be a next time and next time we'll know what we didn't know this time! Congratulations to the final Famous Five - you know who you were :)