What to expect to see in St Albans, Herts, UK/ how to find out!

[eddiesenior]

Afternoon all, I recently decided I want to buy a telescope and get into the whole star gazing lark! I'm looking to get a skywatcher 200p - firstly, is that a good start point? The problem I have is that I can't afford to buy the telescope outright so my brother has offered to purchase it for me but before he forks out for it he wants me to find out what I can expect to see! As the title says does anyone here live in or around St Albans, what can you see? Does the fact that the street lights near by are turned off after 12 reduce light pollution by any meaningful amount? Or will I need to go to the countryside to use the scope in any meaningful way?

Any help is much appreciated!!

Matt

[brantuk]

The 200P is a fabulous scope to start with and the lights off policy will be very good for observing.

You'll easily see planets (with the right magnification) as well as DSO's like Orion Nebula, Andromeda galaxy, M13 globular cluster, and Plieades open cluster. You'll also see many double stars. Don't be fooled by pictures in magazines and on the internet though. You'll only see colour on planets - everything else will be shades of grey/white and black. The eye simply can't perceive the colours that a camera long exposure shot can. Nebulae will appear as clouds and galaxies as faint smudges in the night sky. You may be able to resolve many stars in the core of a globular cluster and open clusters will look like diamonds in the sky.

You'l find plenty of folks from here in your area and there should also be a local astronomy group

[Daz1974]

Here in Stevenage I have a 130P and despite the street lights of north herts I have witnessed some great things through my little scope. Granted, a remote dark country site would be great but don't be too put off from an urban location. Taking my kit down to Cornwall next month so hoping for some good clear nights in a much darker location than my back garden so will be interested to see the difference in viewing

[Vega]

I'm probably stating the obvious, but at this particular time of year you wont see anything like you'll be able to see at any other time. Between the end of May through to the beginning of July, the sky doesn't really get dark enough for deep sky viewing. In fact, all through June the sun has an effect all night.

[jerryTheC]

The main drawback to observing in town is that unless you can get out of sight of streetlights, neighbours lights, and things lit up by them, it makes it hard to get your eyes to dark adapt properly - so having the streetlights go off should make things much better

[onesmallstep]

Hi and welcome to SGL

I live in the WelHat area so have similar LP problems. The midnight lights-off policy helps to an extent and your choice of scope will also make a difference because of the amount of starlight that it gathers. You can make a DIY light shield for the scope to reduce the effects of LP in your immediate area. You can write to your local council explaining the problem.

You could also try the following websites. One is a link to a light pollution map of the UK and shows a region by region breakdown of the LP problem. The second is the Federation of Astronomical Societies and gives a list of astro clubs and societies in the Herts area.

http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/countryside/dark-skies

http://fedastro.org.uk/fas/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8

HTH!

[Redpaul]

I have the same telescope, it's an excellent choice.

This site will give you a rough idea of the views you will get through the 'scope.

Click on the red "Switch to visual view" option then select your telescope and eyepiece and work away!

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

Paul

[Pete Presland]

I have the same telescope, it's an excellent choice.

This site will give you a rough idea of the views you will get through the 'scope.

Click on the red "Switch to visual view" option then select your telescope and eyepiece and work away!

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

Paul

this certainly is a good site for seeing what the image scale is going to be, particularly for planets.

[SeedyF]

Matt

I live a couple of miles from St Albans. The light pollution is pretty bad in most directions and a 30 sec exposure will give you a beautiful orange sky. But don't despair, you can still see plenty. If an object is close to the horizon is pretty pointless but you'll be able to see plenty of reasonably dim objects if they are above 20 degrees.

I have a 250 now and had a 150 before that and even in the 150 I could happily enjoy the brighter DSOs, the 250 gives me easy access to lots more now and you should be able to see globular clusters, nebulae, galaxies plus our solar system objects with a 200.

The street lights going off should make a decent difference in your immediate vicinity. I was surprised how dark it is without them. It won't cut down the sky glow from Luton and Watford though and if you are sitauted near a main road the lights won't go off. I often pick my son up from work at 3am and its disappointing how many streets remain lit despite the lights off policy recently adopted.