Guernsey Or Jersey Darker For Stargazing?

[Pingster]

Hi, does anyone has experience which is darker and easier for star gazing? Guernsey or Jersey... we will be traveling from London, UK.

Thanks,

[Viv]

I would have thought Guernsey.

Much smaller than Jersey, and a bit more rural.

But a long time since I visited Jersey, but lovely place it was.

[lunator]

I Can't comment on Jersey but for Guernsey head north or west, St Peter Port is quite well lit, I would head for St Sampsons or The Vale. There is a large common in The Vale which is used as a golf course. The common runs up to L'ancresse Bay.

Cheers

Ian

[Pingster]

Guernsey has an airport in it, so i assumed that would create lots of light, hence i thought Jersey may be better. Thanks for the heads up reading the St Sampsons. Isle of Sark is easy to i guess i can spend a week there and travel between all three Island. I hope the locals are friendly towards tourist with telescopes

Has anyone been to either location? If so plz share a good private spot to setup.

[umadog]

I think they've been enacting LP regulations on some of those islands so things may have changed. Still: I haven't been, but according to the LP maps the islands aren't particularly dark. On the other hand, the countryside around Rostrenen in northern France looks darker. I'm saying that purely based on the LP map, of course. Southern France is better still. I'm sure any of those options is better than SE London, though!

[Pingster]

Where can i get the light pollution maps for Jersey?

[laser_jock99]

Alderney or Sark if you can get there? Had a couple of weeks on Alderney a few years ago. Anywhere away from the main village is all fairly dark. Head for the Southern side of the Island if possible.

[joeWyncoll]

The Isle of Herm has almost unobstructed views of the sky. Edging my parents to book a holiday to Guernsey in the summer for the dark skies

[Steve Ward]

Sark's the one to visit.

http://www.socsercq.sark.gg/darkskies.html

[astronymonkey]

Ive had the pleasure of watching the perseids from sark just as a thunderstorm rolled in from jersey.... pretty spectacular watching the lightning in the distance with awesome dark skies above.

Sark is pretty easy to get there from guernsey, you get a small ferry over from st peter port and the same ferry is used to carry all sorts of things to the island so there shouldnt be too much drama if you arrange to transport a scope with you, just let the ferry operator know before you travel (although I doubt they will even charge you extra as its pretty relaxed). Once on the island there is a tractor and trailer which will take you up the steep bank from the little port up to the plateau on top of the island. The same tractors also go to the camp sites and B&Bs and costs about a £1. On the island there are no cars , only the tractors and bikes you can hire. Camping is on two sites, one is la valette which when I went was basic but would be pitch black on a night (although it rained when I stayed there) and the other is Pomme de Chein which was more well equipped but would be just as dark - Ive stayed at both but go out of the school hols if you can esp for Pomme De Chein as it gets reasonably busy.

Jersey is more commercialised but a lovely island with awsome beaches and coves so would make a better holiday. The north of the island is darker as most of the population live in the southern side of the island. There is an airport but its on the top of the island and isnt too busy and is more to the west side of the isalnd. Again dark skies are gauranteed if you travel into the rural bits and I believe they have an active astronomy group also.

Geurnsey is quieter and has a good campsite called la bailloterie which I have stayed on about 10 times, and is quite secluded and used to have a quite side field which the farmer would probably let you set your scope up in. This is a good place to be based in as its handy for beaches and will have dark skies.

Alderney is trickier to get to as the boats take ages and the flights wont take a scope, after all they only take about 15 people anyway per flight. Alderney is unusual as it has its main village in the centre of the island, up and away from the port. This too would be good for astronomy but is difficult to get to with a scope.....good for a beer though with quite a range of pubs for a tidy island.

Herm is unusual as it only has about 10 families who live on there permanently and there is no camping as far as I know, day trips are welcomed but to stay over you would need to saty in a b&B and Im not sure how easy it would be to get a scope there.

So having listed all of these 5 islands many times over the past years, I would sum up as:

Jersey - good all rounder with lots to do during the day and on a night if its cloudy - good for astronomy in the north of the island and easy to get to by car on a ferry - there is now also a campsite you can take a caravan too but ive never stayed there and there are others that take tents

Guernsey - Quieter but nice camping. If you like rock pools then its great but not loads to keep you busy unless you like the outdoors and walking, scenery etc. Again you can get a ferry over from the UK so can take a car and it also has good camping for nights out under the stars.

Sark, you need to get there from Jersey or Guernsey via ferry. Spectacular little island with loads to see if you like walking, scrambling, cycling, caves etc and good campsites but limited other things to see if you prefer to be entertained rather than finding things to do ...nice little pub though. Good dark skies and no cars and only a handful of street lamps.

Herm - ran more as a day trip island than anything else, you can walk around it in about 2 hrs and I remember buying an A3 map of the island with a scale of 1ft = 1 mile which shows how small it is.

Alderney - difficult to get to but worth going if only for a few days. Lots of old fortifications from WW2 and there is a campsite but Ive never stayed in that one , again dark skies.

Hope this helps,

Any questions then just ask,

Astronymonkey

[Pingster]

Wow astromonkey.... thats very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write you informative reply.

The misses and i will be going to Jersy and as you said we shall try finding a nice spot on the north to use our 12in scope. I wonder what nag skies i can expect in North Jersy?

From what you say Jersy is going to be a great mix of daytime activities and night time stargazing.... if its clear!

[astronymonkey]

No worries, I have family in jersey so get to go usually once a year. In the north There are some quiet bays with small harbours you could drive down to and set up and not get too bothered with anyone passing so it should be good and you can check these out during the day, also keep an eye on where the wind is blowing in from as the island is so small you can work out which side of the island will be more sheltered.

If the weathers cloudy there's loads to do with nice restaurants and pubs so I'm sure you'll enjoy it ...

Astronymonkey

[CabbageMS]

I Can't comment on Jersey but for Guernsey head north or west, St Peter Port is quite well lit, I would head for St Sampsons or The Vale. There is a large common in The Vale which is used as a golf course. The common runs up to L'ancresse Bay.

Cheers

Ian

Hi all, I'm a Guernsey native who has recently got into astronomy.

The skies here seem very dark relative to most parts of the UK (I have lived in Oxford and Leamington so admitedly not the darkest parts of the UK, but should give you some idea). You also have the benefit of having herm island which is very accessible and does have camping and B&B avaialble. The east side of Herm is very dark, the west side faces Guernsey, but is still dark. Most people have covered Sark, but I will add that is much more accessible from Guernsey than it is from Jersey. Shifting heavy/large gear there is not a problem as there is a freight boat that goes each day seperate to the passenger boat. I have camped on Sark at Pomme De Chein (the closest campsite to the harbour) and the night time sky looked exceptional.

Jersey is great but you do not have Herm and Sark on your doorstep as you do in Guernsey. I'm not sure how the two islands compare in terms of sky darkness but town of Jersey is significantly larger than the town in Guernsey and is more similiar to a small UK town, where as Guernsey town's winding, narrow cobbled streets are more similiar to a french style of town.

If anyone fancies a trip to Guernsey/Sark/Herm then please get in contact and I will do my best to help out with organisation.

[Pingster]

Thanks for the replies guys. Just came back from a week holiday in Jersey. Of our 7 days we actually had 5 days of clear skies... i think Londons weather matched what we experienced in Jersey. But the night i decided to have our observing session was partly cloudly .... graaaa!

We stayed at St Heiler. I took my 12in Dob and sky quality meter. From the beach, directly infront of our hotel, i got an average reading of 19.80 which i think converts to approx 5.45Mag skies. Thats not bad. The milky was was just about visible as light grey patches in the sky. No spectacular at all, my girlfriend had to be guided to see it, and even then she was not sure if she 'got it'.

For our stargazing session i drove out to the North, Route Du Nord "Road To North". Its a viewpoint overlooking the sea. As pointed out by astromonkey most of the population live in the south side. From here i got an average SQM reading of 20.85.. approx 6Mag skies. From this location my girlfriend said, "wow, the milky way is really clear now". There was also a portable toilet on site... that was perfectly clean.... the cleanest public toilet i have ever used... very useful when you plan a whole night of stargazing!

Unlucky for us the sky looked clear, but even my girlfirend whos it was her first astronomy trip pointed out, "there must be a very thin layer of cloud in the sky" because once our eyes dark adopted, the sky appeared light grew for much of our observing session. Combined with not great seeing.... i had bright views of the DSO's... but view and stars where not crisp but always slightly fuzzy.

So how does it compare? My best reading in 20.85 is a lot better than my home location in Greenwich London which is 18.50... 4.37Mag. But its only just a bit better than Box Hill in Surrey where i got a reading of 20.00... 5.5Mag. And this was in Mid June so i am sure it would be even darker now in Sept.

For those who have not been to a dark site before... i highly recommend you drive your scope with you if you visit Jersey. The 6Mag skies in the north and i'm sure the west would be dark still. Maybe 6.5mag? There are so many public carparks over looking the sea you can observe from without any interruption. The people of Jersey are very well manner and the young... very polite.

For those who live in great London... then you will be disappointed as the skies are not much darker... or even less dark than your back garden. Jersey is a small island... as CabbageMS pointed out... its pretty much like a small town in the UK. So light pollution is worse than i would have thought.

For those planning a visit, i recommend you book a hotel in town, St Brelade.... a beachside hotel that looks good is called Golden Sands. Pop out of the hotel and 2mins onto the beach and you have instant approx 5.5mag skies. If you have a car... a short 5~7mins ride to the hills in the west and theres loads of carpark viewpoints where im confident the skies will be between 6 to 6.5Mag.

As for Jersey in the day.... BEAUTIFUL. The best beaches i have been to so far. And the local people are so willing to help you have a great time. I wish we had booked 2 weeks.

[crashtestdummy]

just noticed this thread after asking for details of astronomy in the channel islands.myself and the gf are planning on going in april and i wasnt sure where to go but from the info here ive decided on guernsey where we will camp as a base and explore the other islands from there.great info guys