British Night Championships

[Tatty]

Just a plug to enter the BNC. It's cheaper than all the other mentioned - £13, and no fee hike. Entries open at Fabian4. Starts will be 6.15 - 7.15pm to allow all you X-Country runners to do the Nationals at Parliament Hill Fields on the way down

[King Penguin]

BNC is 6 weeks away, and with light gain of approx. 20 minutes per week that means it will be getting dark about 1 hour later than now (the other hour being in the mornings). Is it not possible that 18:15 might be slightly early for first starts ?

[Tatty]

I've checked the lighting up times , which it gives as 5.45pm. If people feel it won't be dark enough I'll put them back 15 minutes. It is very dark in the forest! Scary - that's why I'm organising, not competing

[Tatty]

Entries for the BNC close next weekend. Come on guys getting those entries in - I don't want to put in all this effort for under 200 runners. It''s a triple header with an event in the afternoon in the New Forest, courtesy of SOC, followed by the Sarum Saunter on Sunday. The BNC is part of the Masters and the UK cups

[Arnold]

Re the question of "is it dark enough": the best guide is to take the official "sunset" times which you can find online and add one hour. Anytime before then will be too light.

For the British Nights sunset in Southampton on 25/02 is 17h39 according to Google so the first start should be 18h39. 18h30 at a push but definitely not earlier.

ps - I'd love to come but sadly no longer eligible to win any prizes..

[graeme]

ps - I'd love to come but sadly no longer eligible to win any prizes..

Come to the Scottish Night Champs then! For obvious reasons, you won't become Scottish champion but we'd have given you a prize if you'd won last year.
Glen Dye is darker and scarier than the New Forest too.

[Tatty]

Starts will either be 6.30 or 6.45pm Time to get down after the National Cross country at Parliament Hil Fields.

[Scott]

Apparently the end of nautical twilight for Hamptworth on 25 Feb is at 6.51pm, so I'd image that it will be dark enough in the woods by 6.45pm, if not before.

[Tatty]

Thanks Scott. No idea what "Nautical Twilight" is though

[mharky]

It's a shame the best night orienteers in Britain will be running the Scottish Night Champs, eh?

[Scott]

No idea what "Nautical Twilight" is though

It's technically defined by the angle of the sun below the horizon, but to nick the Wikipedia definition:

at the end of nautical twilight in the evening—under good atmospheric conditions and in the absence of other illumination—general outlines of ground objects may be distinguishable, but detailed outdoor operations are not possible, and the horizon is indistinct.

In other words it's the time at which it is "properly dark" - certainly a better measure than sunset time (although obviously it gets dark a bit earlier under thick tree cover!). If you know a rough longitude and latitude you can check it here.

[frog]

I'm amazed they were allowed to be on the same night, but won't say more or Paul C will come and beat me up

[andypat]

Scottish Nights is only level C - I guess it doesnt matter what it clashes with. British nights is level A. Which will be the better event? Neither will give the better ranking points.....

[Street]

It's a shame the best night orienteers in Britain will be running the Scottish Night Champs, eh?

I heard the best ones aren't running either of the night champs

[mharky]