Peter Presently sat outside on a glorious evening having just eaten dinner. Will be on the way to UK for a couple of weeks myself. Not sure there is any region specific advice I can give beyond what you might find from SGL, magazines, etc about UK. I am about 45 degrees north, you are a bit further south so skies are a bit different but not hugely from UK. For me the main difference is the lack of light pollution as I live in a rural area and it sounds like you may too Shame we are too far apart to get together but this is a big country Clear skies