Suffolk imagers?

[rocketandroll]

Just noticed this lovely empty forum!

Thought I should put something in it :-)

So, having been struggling away at the DSO imaging thing almost entirely by myself this year, I'm keen to know if there are any other imagers, or would-be imagers in Suffolk, ideally within a reasonable drive of Ipswich?

My local astro club is great, but no one in it is particularly in to imaging so I'm keen to find anyone else in the area interested in A: finding good sites and B: sharing advice and the odd beer and doing some imaging in the area some time?

Cheers!!

Ben

[lukebl]

Across the border into Norfolk, but hope you can count me in. My imaging is based at home obsy, despite suburban location, but always keen to share imaging conundrums and issues!

[Wobbly Bob]

South, Clacton Essex, always keen to get together.

[prankpeter]

it is a stack of thirty 60 second shots through the AT66 with my StarShooter DSI II and guided with the C6. Unfortunately it was directly over my neighbors house and their motion activated flood lights kept coming on.

[Carbon Brush]

I live in 'orange sky' Nottinghamshire. Just got back from a couple of days in Assington, near Sudbury. Distinct lack of orange around there.

As I knew the weather was going to be against me, along with a near full moon, I only took a minimal portable set of kit. But it certainly looks to be an area worth further investigation.

Thumbs up to Suffolk County Council for not filling the villages with lots of over powered lights.

[rocketandroll]

...and they're turning the street lights in the big towns off late at night now too, which is even better :-)

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good sites around the area?

We had blagged use of a local farm but unfortunately they put new security measures in that meant they couldn't allow anyone on-site after dark any more so we lost it :-(

Ben

[antimorris]

I am in Suffolk and only half an hour drive from Ipswich in Norton. I generally image from my garden, and although this means limited field of view due to some giant trees it has works well for me so far.

I also would like to know of some good local sites. My husband found a campsite nearby that caters to astronomy (I believe the owner has a dome on site or something) but we haven't tried it out yet. Might be worth me looking into more.

[Starlight 1]

I am in norwich 10 min walk from the old Norwich observatory ,as I am in a flying club it only a ten mins drive to the flying field.

[mcro89]

Hey ,

I live in Ipswich and will be getting into imagery. Will be getting my first scope this weekend and hopefully start learning the ropes with astrophotography. I have used just my DSLR to get some ok wide-field shots and lunar shots but finally i will be able to play around with a scope attached to my camera.

Would love to meet up with people in the area for some stargazing nights.

As for sites i have been to Shingle Street a few times. apparently Orford is meant to have the darkest skies in Suffolk but i have never checked it out. I guess most of that coastline is good viewing.

Maybe we should organize a little group star party/get together soon. I will hopefully get down to the next taster evening at the Orwell Astronomical Society on Nov 1st.

Matt

[rocketandroll]

Hey Matt!!

Yeah, it'd definitely be good to have a local meet up.

Failing all else, you're more than welcome to pop down to my 'stunning' imaging location in my workshop car park in Westerfield (just north of Christchurch park) next time the mrs lets me out and I'm down there imaging.... gonna be trying to get guiding working for the first time all being well... possibly next week.

I've just checked the OASI schedule and there doesn't seem to be an open day on Nov 1st?

There was one on Oct 1st, not on in Nov though as far as I can see... though I could be wrong :-)

On Nov 2nd I'm giving a talk (ha, as if I know anything?!) on getting started in astro imaging at Nacton village hall as part of OASI's talk schedule. You're more than welcome to pop down for that.

Ben

Hey ,

I live in Ipswich and will be getting into imagery. Will be getting my first scope this weekend and hopefully start learning the ropes with astrophotography. I have used just my DSLR to get some ok wide-field shots and lunar shots but finally i will be able to play around with a scope attached to my camera.

Would love to meet up with people in the area for some stargazing nights.

As for sites i have been to Shingle Street a few times. apparently Orford is meant to have the darkest skies in Suffolk but i have never checked it out. I guess most of that coastline is good viewing.

Maybe we should organize a little group star party/get together soon. I will hopefully get down to the next taster evening at the Orwell Astronomical Society on Nov 1st.

Matt

[mcro89]

Hey ,

Yea meeting up at your location would be good.

As i said i just got my scope today (Skywatcher 150p EQ3-2) so over the next few clear nights i will be playing around and learning the ropes.

I have been reading these forums and watching you tube videos for months so i have all the theory done, just need to put that theory into some nights out with my scope.

Its not an Open Day at OASI its just a taster evening for people who are thinking of joining. I have sent them an email saying i will attend which i got a confirmation reply.

I will try my best to get down to you talk on the 2nd as well.

Will keep you posted.

Cheer

Matt

[Stu_D]

Hello Suffolk imagers!

Having recently joined up on the forum i am fairly new to observing, eventualy i would like to get in to imaging too. I got pointed in the direction of this Social Group from my hello thread in the Welcome forum.

Although i live near Cambridge, i have friends and family in and around Ipswich so am in the aeria quite oftern, and would also be up for coming allong to any meet ups locally. If there are any going on give me a shout

Stu

[rocketandroll]

Hi Stu

I think there's probably enough of us to maybe try and get a meet-up going.

I did have a great venue for imaging/observing just outside Ipswich on a certain TV personality's farm, however they recently changed their security arrangements and now can't allow anyone on the site after they close for the day.

I'm trying to find another location where we can meet up and do some imaging from, maybe for the end of November, early December.

There are a couple of other farms/ venues which I might try contacting.

The issue will be giving notice to everyone.... at the moment we are getting less than 24hrs notice of clear nights... so it may be a bit of a lottery... I don't want to get everyone out to a field to look at clouds :-)

Hopefully we will get a nice clear spell for a few days and can get something organised!

Ben

[antimorris]

Ben - What about getting an email contact list for those interested so if it's going to be clear and a get together looks promising you can send out a message to everyone via email since not everyone gets on the forum daily?

[rocketandroll]

Ben - What about getting an email contact list for those interested so if it's going to be clear and a get together looks promising you can send out a message to everyone via email since not everyone gets on the forum daily?

Genius idea :-)

If anyone is interested in getting together for an immaging session somewhere... drop me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll put a mailing list together... then we can at least get some discussion going on venues.

Ideally we need somewhere with power...

Will have a think....

Ben

[Spellmaster]

Ben, Met you last week at your talk, defiantly up for doing some imaging

[rocketandroll]

Ben, Met you last week at your talk, defiantly up for doing some imaging

Hi mate!

Great... I think we definitely need to sort out a venue... drop me a PM with your e-mail address and we'll try and get something sorted out!

Ben

[mcro89]

Hey guys,

I just PM my email to you Ben. I am keen to get a group together and meet some more people as im on my own at the moment.

I have used a darksite up in Tunstall forest where there is a large open carpark and open skies.

I was going to go down to the OASI open/taser night and also to your talk Ben but i was away in London then so missed out.

Hopefully meet some of you soon.

Matt

[Stu_D]

Hi Ben

I have just sent you my email address too. Hopefully we will be able to sort something out in between the cloudy nights!

Also went along to the last OASI open/taser night at the beginning of the month but i'm not sure i can justify membership to something like that when i am not exactly local. Its a very nice facility they have at Orwell school though!

[AstroMum]

Hope you don't mind me replying to this thread so late.

I'm only just about to start my astronomy journey, but wanted to suggest Coddenham as an area with possible good dark skies. There is a chap living there with his own observatory, the village suffers surprisingly low LP despite being so close to Ipswich. Have a look at his website if you're interested:

Tom Boles searching for SuperNovae at the Coddenham Observatory

I'm a little further up the road towards Debenham and skies are quite good here. You can see the glow of Ipswich to the south, but otherwise it's not too bad. My house backs onto fields, so you are welcome to come visit one evening if you want to try somewhere new, our garden is roughly 1/3 of an acre.

[rocketandroll]

Hope you don't mind me replying to this thread so late.

<snip>

I'm a little further up the road towards Debenham and skies are quite good here. You can see the glow of Ipswich to the south, but otherwise it's not too bad. My house backs onto fields, so you are welcome to come visit one evening if you want to try somewhere new, our garden is roughly 1/3 of an acre.

Hey Becky

That sounds awesome... if you didn't mind haveing a handfull of astronomers descend on you... someone's garden has the potential advantage of electricity I guess :-)

Maybe if we all bring cake and biscuits we can bribe you to lets us have a little get together at yours? :-)

We may be moving out in that direction soon having just sold our house in Ipswich... it'd be nice to have a garden that is astronomy-friendly!

I was thinking... if there's a chance of some clear nights... maybe we try and all organise a meet-up for the latter end of February?

Ben

[AstroMum]

Hey Becky

That sounds awesome... if you didn't mind haveing a handfull of astronomers descend on you... someone's garden has the potential advantage of electricity I guess :-)

Maybe if we all bring cake and biscuits we can bribe you to lets us have a little get together at yours? :-)

We may be moving out in that direction soon having just sold our house in Ipswich... it'd be nice to have a garden that is astronomy-friendly!

I was thinking... if there's a chance of some clear nights... maybe we try and all organise a meet-up for the latter end of February?

Ben

Cake and biscuits sounds good.

Don't get too excited though lol, it's far from perfect out here. We have a few trees bordering properties which limits the view a bit, but it's quite clear over the fields. You'll need to be prepared to share the garden with our hens too, though they'll be fast asleep at night and are contained behind an electric fence.

We're also very close to the village hall which has a good size recreation ground backing out onto the fields. If you wanted a more formal gathering, the hall itself is a nice place to hire and I think the rates are quite good too.

This is quite a nice area to live and it doesn't take long to get to Ipswich while still feeling sufficiently rural. You'll have to let me know where you move to, perhaps you'll have a suitable garden too!

Don't think I could make a meet unfortunately, due to small child needing my attention. Would like to when he's a bit older though.

[peonic]

I'm definitely up for a meeting - just getting back into things after a 4 year hiatus. Currently trying to piece together what little gear didn't get sold off after the arrival of he kids!!

I think I'll be mostly doing visual stuff in he near future, but finding a dark site with some fellow space nerds to natter to sounds awesome!

[bugle]

I would have to agree, children, money, astronomy! never mention those things together!

Like a few others in this thread, I'm a bit of a newbie at this, however imaging is where I want to go...

Is the email list for meets still being progressed? If so, I'd like to join it.

Cheers

[rocketandroll]

Hi all... yes... still trying to organise a meet-up...

we're probably almost at a stage where we have enough people to hire somewhere... between six to eight of us, hire of Newbourne village hall for an evening wouldn't be too bad at all... just a few quid each I think.

It's pretty much wall to wall cloud and rain forecast for the next week or two... maybe after that we can start getting a plan together?

Ben