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Brecon Beacons places to go


hobsey

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I'm heading out to the Brecons this evening as its looking clear with a chance of frost.

Is there any recommended spots to go to?

I've tried looking on the Brecon Beacons website as they have a list of top tens spots to go but I think their servers are down as the page times out.

Many thanks.

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Visited Usk Resevoir nr Trecastle for the first time last night, which is reputed to be one of the best dark sky sites within the national park.

We set up at the car park, which is the only suitable observing spot there really. Nice flat grassy area to set up on with handy picnic bench, good horizons all round except for portion of north-west, which is blocked by some trees.

Unfortunately for us we got clouded out at around 11pm so can't really give a proper assesment. However what we did see up until then was pretty good...the double cluster and M31 easily visible to naked eye, plenty of structure to milky way overhead and to the north, not so good as it stretches south as there was some light glow from the valleys conurbations.  It's not too bad though and was exagerated by cloud on the night.. I don't think it would be much of a problem, if any, on a good transparent night. Another good thing is that the road to the res is a dead end so little if any traffic, we only saw two farm vehicles on the approach road across the other side of the res during our 4 hour stay. There are 2 street lamps by the car park (see our recent thread) but as suspected, these are not switched on and don't look as if they worked for a long time. One tip, if you do decide to go there, then take a blanket or something to cover the nearby illuminated anglers ticket dispensing machine, which is surprisingly bright in the dark.

Wherever you go, I hope you have better luck than us with the weather - we were gutted as it was our first visit to a proper dark sky site! :sad:  If it is clear tonight then we'll kick ourselves as it was a toss up between us going tonight and last night.

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Just saw the BBC forecast for tonight...looks as if I'll be giving myself a real good kicking before long!  :sad:

The country lane from  Trecastle is not well sign posted. So if, like us you don't have sat nav,  then just keep going for about 4 miles or so until you see some conifer forestry in the distance, carry on to junction and go right - there is a sign post there.

Hope you have a good night... 

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Thanks for that.

Just been doing a bit of research and a number of sites say cray reservoir/village is suppose to be one of the darkest areas around so it looks like we maybe heading there as it's not that far away.

A couple of sites also say that there is a large field within the village that people can use with a large car park but i can seem to find it on google maps.

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Don't think you'll go far wrong with Usk res. We looked at Cray res, but went with Usk as it's a bit further away from the valleys light pollution, and as I mentioned..  it's a nice little spot to observe from.

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WOW! What an amazing spot that Usk Reservoir is.

Milky Way, clear as daylight and even managed to find M31 for the first time ever.

Took quite a few Milky Way shots which I need to wait until I get home to Surrey to process and upload.

Stopped off at a high spot on the way home and saw the Pleiades, winters on its way. 

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WOW! What an amazing spot that Usk Reservoir is.

Milky Way, clear as daylight and even managed to find M31 for the first time ever.

Took quite a few Milky Way shots which I need to wait until I get home to Surrey to process and upload.

Stopped off at a high spot on the way home and saw the Pleiades, winters on its way. 

I stopped at Usk Reservoir many moons ago (late 80's) with my home made tracking mount. The darkness then was quite good.

Milky Way from Usk Reservoir 24mm Lens 5' exposure Ektachrome 400 slide film

MILKY_WAY_001-1.jpg

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WOW! What an amazing spot that Usk Reservoir is.

Milky Way, clear as daylight and even managed to find M31 for the first time ever.

Took quite a few Milky Way shots which I need to wait until I get home to Surrey to process and upload.

Stopped off at a high spot on the way home and saw the Pleiades, winters on its way. 

Glad it worked out for you.   :smiley: 

Last night was the best I've seen in my neck of the woods I can remember.

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  • 3 months later...

hi all, my son wants me to take him to the green desert this weekend but I dont fancy doing a 2 hr journy each way, I have been to the res many times fishing but never observing, so what and where exactly would you park up , the house side or the other side?

Cheers

Paul

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hi all, my son wants me to take him to the green desert this weekend but I dont fancy doing a 2 hr journy each way, I have been to the res many times fishing but never observing, so what and where exactly would you park up , the house side or the other side?

Cheers

Paul

Looking at google maps in satellite view, I think it's was maybe the side you call the house side.

Used the benches for my gear.

https://goo.gl/maps/dHdur

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I think from the house side also there is a lovely view of the mountains so may try experimenting and see what happens

In this link is a couple of photos I took from that spot, all done on a static camera tripod.

Not very good but it will give you a good idea of the views.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/223807-brecon-beacons-milky-way/

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Well if I get half as good as that I will call it a success, I have a nikon d7100 with the kit lens 18-55  a 55 to 200 kit lens and a 300 f2.8 prime. I was just going to use the 18-55 kit lens and see how things turn out, but may experiment and see how it goes. been looking at making a barn door mount just havnt had the time to make one yet, looking forward to it now

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