i have no garden, where can i go??

[MALIENGLEZ]

Hi all,

As the title says really. I live in a flat so need to drive somewhere at night, but where?

I live near heathrow airport so could do with escaping the light pollution a bit. Where do people who have no gardens normally go?

Many thanks

Paul

[estwing]

errr...calling all londoners

[garethmob]

theres the baker street astronomers (astronomy society) who usally meet up in one of the parks, it might be good to contact them and see where they go as its usally better when you have other people with you

(i dont mean safer, but more friendlier and less.......what was that noise.... on edge kind of thing and its good to share the views too

[tjr]

Yep, Baker Street Irregular Astronomers meet one night a month (weather depending!) in Regent's Park. Its a surprisingly good location given you're viewing from central London. Not sure if I'm allowed to leave a link, but here goes:

BSIA News

[swamp thing]

Hi Paul

I live in south London (Sutton).TBH I cannot enjoy the hobby from under LP skies there, so i always transport my scope out of town to observe. It takes me about a half hour to get away from the worst of the LP. Alas for proper dark skies considerably longer is needed to get away from Londons horrendous LP.

Personally if you can drive your scope right out of town this is a miles better option than joining up with the Baker street lot in the middle of it.

Regards Steve

[JamesM]

Not sure how close you are to Heathrow or on which side of it you live but there is an astro club in Croydon which you can view here. Hope that helps.

James

[Dunkster]

Heading westwards, I'm told the sky starts getting quite dark out the other side of Newbury, but I've never ventured that far

Depending on how far you're prepared to travel, you're reasonably well placed to hit the motorways and venture out to Surrey, Hampshire, Bucks - even Wiltshire and Oxfordshire - there's a number of clubs/societies in the surrounding counties.

[scoobymike]

Hi,

I'm in Esher so 10 miles from you and have the same problem. Are there any unlit car park areas near parks/common ground you can use? That's what I tend to end up doing, as long as it seems safe. A half hour drive will certainly get you somewhere, and in an hour you can get some pretty good skies - North of Newbury (Leckhampstead area) will give you great skies.

[David JM]

As the title says really. I live in a flat so need to drive somewhere at night, but where?l

If you have a 24" scope you have to stay where you are. If you have a portable 'scope you can go anywhere you like as long as you are prepared to travel there, although the travel back is the important bit. Leaving a site at 0200 with 2 hours travel means a lot of coffee or falling asleep behind the wheel.

www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/uk/index.html

shows a zoomable map of the UK with light pollution. A light pollution filter will help but not a lot in a big city where not all the light is soduim or mercury.

I did a course at Crayford and I have the same clarity of Saturn where I live now [rural Northants] with a 4" mak cass as there was with the 24" scope in the Crayford observatory.

[umadog]

Don't worry! Most of us are in the same boat. I have a garden and essentially never use it for astronomy as the area has security lights, lots of sky glow, and trees. I usually travel at least 40 miles to reach a good spot. When I can (which is rarely) I travel considerably further. It's a bit rubbish to have to travel to see something that's always directly overhead, but such is life

Give good consideration to what kit you use in order to make it as easy as possible to travel. e.g. you can try to arrange things so that you only have to make two trips up and down to get everything into the car. Choosing the right scope, the right accessories, and the right carriers is key to this. Keep it simple and you'll be good. Try to find a local astro club (either local to you or local to your nearest tolerably dark skies) as those guys will point you to suitable observing spots away from doggers, drunk people, other weirdos, and police patrols.