How Wales put out my fire for Astronomy.

[Pingster]

Last year in Aug/Sept i found an amazing spot in the hills of Wales. I estimate very close to mag 7 skies. Almost no light pollution, almost no light Domes. Between 11pm to 1am the skies were absolutely stunning. Very clear and crisp. You heard those rumours where people hold a Oii filter in their closed palm and can see the veil naked eye? We thought it was a joke, but our location was so dark we mamaged it!

After 1am the skies got more hazy, but still better than any other location i have frequented, and ive been to many... Darkest area of Camber, Boxhill, Isle of Sheppy, Bignor is Sussex. None of them compared to Wales.

But it was a 215 miles and 5hrs drive for a Londoner.

After a returned home i went to my usual dark site in Camber. What i remembered as a visible, but not stunning milky way... Compared to what i remembered of Wales, it was just poor. I spent 15mins frustrated by the views and headed off home. I stopped stargazing for 8months. Disappointed that my 16in dob.... Was limited by even my local (1hr away from London) 'best dark sites'. Wales appeared to have turned my 16in dob into a 25in monster. (ive Never looked into a 25in' just a guestimate).

The good news, time is forgiving on ones memory.... And ive learned to forget what i have missed. And ive been out stargazing for the last 2 months and enjoying it.

As a lesson i have learnt is that from a city... My helios Q7.4 on a parraellogram is a joy to use... With its low mag and wide FOV the sky looks busy with stars, and colorful stars too.

And my new 12in dob with a WO binoviewer is a great compliment for zooming in on star clusters and a handful of about 5 brighter DSO's. Its actually good for just scanning the stars in general. But i miss goto. Without it wasting a good 20mins searching for a view thats not amazing from a city is very frustarting as our clear sky window can be mere hrs.

And the time is coming close with long nights to warrant another trip to Wales... But should i go? I know its gonna kill my love from astronomy for another 8months.... A few nights of pure joy or 8months of ignorance bliss?

[Ganymede12]

I live in Wales. I meet up with other Welsh members of SGL often and we meet at Blaenavon and - despite it makes my skies look terrible in comparison - I still go because the dark skies are worth it.

Trust me - you'll regret it if you don't go!

P.S It's cloudy here far too often, Wales is far from being the best skies in Britain!

PP.S Where in Wales did you go?

[Pingster]

We went to a location west of the Claerwen Reservoir, Cynghordy, Carmarthenshire. Its a car park with almost perfect360 views... No chav, no doggin, remote... A stargazer dream.

Hehehe. I know all too well how cloudy wales is. But last year after a aweful long run of clouds the whole of the Uk had a 1 week heat wave with clear skies for the whole week! I think members here will remeber it. Im waiting for a simular situation this year and will go out for a whole week just to make it worth it. Fingers crossed the weather will permit.

Wales is SO much better than all my other best dark sites.... It makes them completely frustrating to view from. Espcially becuase i have a big scope... And know its not really practical to own a scope much bigger.

My advise to newbies... Enjour your local dark sites for as long as you can.... Then go to Wales! just dont go to early in your hobby or you may never want to take your scope out again unless you live very near to Wales obviously.

[Beulah]

Pingster...

This is great stuff. I live near to the border of Wales and am really looking forward to a foray out into the wilds once the skies get darker. It's a shame that something that should be freely available from one's back garden has to be accessed at great pains...

PM sent.

[Moonshane]

I know what you mean but I just tend to observe different things at home. there's still lots of globs, doubles, planets, open cluster, planetary nebulae and the moon to observe even in light polluted areas like that in which I (we) live.

[Pingster]

You heard those rumours where people hold a Oii filter in their closed palm and can see the veil naked eye? We thought it was a joke, but our location in Wales was so dark we mamaged it!

[Pingster]

Deffo agree with choosing your view based on your location. But the naked eye sky in Wales was dreamy

[Moonshane]

totally. I had a similar experience last year in the Lakes - the view of the MW naked eye was bordering on emotional.

[Moonshane]

what you could try is varying the view a bit by making an aperture mask. on a 12" dob I'd expect this to provide an unobscured view of 120mm - effectively creating a 5" f12 apochromatic 'refractor' whilc will provide excellent contrast on planets and lovely tight stars and doubles.

[SteveNickolls]

Thanks for this post Pingster-it touched a couple of nerves with me. We had a holiday in North Norfolk two years ago where the skies were so dark during our stay it struck me how like the book illustrations the sky was! Coming from a quite badly light polluted suburb of Nottingham with I reckon a sky limiting magnitude of 4.3 I suddenly realised how much I normally just couldn't see. Luckily it didn't put me off astronomy it just showed me how poor the local sky really was so I have tended to observe the Moon and planets. Then last week just when the weather improved my large telescope developed an electrical fault so I returned to my 10x50 binoculars and I rediscovered how many previously 'hidden' stars were revealed by them! The two nights of clear skies that followed were some of the best nights viewing/learning I have had. I would say go back to Wales and enjoy yourself-we are going back to Norh Norfolk later this the year when I hope the skies are again clear.

Cheers,

Steve

[laser_jock99]

Pingster I know what you mean about having to put up with poor skies some of the time. I live 30 miles due North of Claerwen and can appreciate the pristine skies you speak of. But work takes me away from this all week, and although I'm in a semi rural location (sitting in my parents garden in Warwickshire doing some imaging right now!) the skies are fairly orange looking.

Just looking forward to the weekend- and hoping it's not cloudy, which it is about 80% of the time. This being the case I try and make the best of where I am right now, so I'm up to a spot of narrowband imaging- in Wales I wouldn't t need these filters.

[Pingster]

Nebular. I found an awesome spot in Norfolk and was blow away by its skies. At an estinated 5.8mag about 1.2mag lower than my spot in wales.... It gave wales a good run for its money. I highly recommend the obsure areas of wales on the coast.

[rory]

i hope wales blows me away too. im going in a couple of weeks to builth wells in powys for a two nighter. taking the dob with me.

[m.tweedy]

look at Wales as a treat that only comes around every once in a while. The same could be said after visiting Kielder and Dalby Star parties. I think wow I wished I lived here-then reality (and the need to work) takes over and I then just look forward to the next time.

[umadog]

I get where you're coming from! I stopped observing for years, mainly because of light pollution reasons. I knew what I was missing and couldn't get the skies from home. Just too depressing to look up. Then I realised it was a question of adjusting how I observed. Once I resumed observing, I regretted the time I spent avoiding it and neglecting my Dob.

Now I only observe planets from home. I have a darkish site about 90 minutes away (about Bortle 4) and I get out to Bortle 2 or better when I can (about 2 to 5 times a year, perhaps). It's rubbish that one has to travel at all to see something that is directly overhead every night, but the good news is that it is still possible. You have a nice 16" scope so use it while you still can. In the future the lights will creep in, your eyesight will go, and you won't want to carry the heavy scope. Go on holiday once a year to the south of France, if you can.

I'd say you're easily seeing more with your 16" in Wales than a putative 25" back home. Once a DSO becomes overwhelmed by skyglow no aperture is bringing it back. It's impossible. We have a 25" at our club and it's in Bortle 4 skies. The views through my 10" in Bortle 2 and Bortle 1 are nicer than what I see through the 25" where it's light polluted.

[Albenn]

Ooh er! I'm scared now.

I'm off down to South Wales near Carmarthen for a few days and am looking forward to it (just hope the weather is okay) and am taking my Heritage 130p with me. We have pretty good sites here in the Lakes but it's always cloudy. Frustrating lark this Astronomy

Anyway, the people we are going to stay with live on the edge of a little village with hardly any light pollution and they say the Milky Way is awesome on a clear night. The fear I have now is if it is as good as they say, that I too will be disillusioned when I return.

[Ainsley]

I was camping in Cornwall two weeks ago - I was there for diving, so didnt take the scope.

Doh ! - while up at 3am to take a leak, I could not only see the Milky Way, but Venus, close to the horizon actually cast some light on the sea.

I was so amazed I woke up my wife and we spent ages counting shooting stars and regreting leaving the scope at home.

[James]

I suffer the same Pingster - having seen dark skies in Wales near Cardigan and down on the Lizard in Cornwall I always find it frustrating to arrive back home to skies that are not really a patch on what I've seen... it was enough of an effect to stop my aperture fever in it's tracks as I realised that once I'd looked through a bigger scope I'd be unhappy with a smaller one. Moonshanes advise is good on this, just tailor the objects you observe to suit you're location, that helps a little.

Imaging has cured me of all this however - when at home I image and when at a dark site I observe...

James

[Beulah]

I was camping in Cornwall two weeks ago - I was there for diving, so didnt take the scope.

Doh ! - while up at 3am to take a leak, I could not only see the Milky Way, but Venus, close to the horizon actually cast some light on the sea.

I was so amazed I woke up my wife and we spent ages counting shooting stars and regreting leaving the scope at home.

Yeah but if you had a scope you would have missed the meteor showers...

It's a catch 22 situation - we feel guilty if we are observing with our binoculars and Mk1 eyeballs, wishing we had our scopes or we feel guilty for not seeing the bigger picture as we peer down an eyepiece!

[g7vhj]

Although I only live 9 miles from the border of Wales in the Forest of Dean, Most of my camping and holiday trips take me to Cornwall, But based on the comments on here that is about to change.

look out Wales here i come.

There are some really good dark sky spots in the forest of dean but restricted to almost over head viewing due too the trees.

Regards Pete

[danielbb]

Think im going to stay a few weeks in wales in the winter never seen a very dark sky yet. Interested to know the location of this carpark

[faulksy]

Think im going to stay a few weeks in wales in the winter never seen a very dark sky yet. Interested to know the location of this carpark

i have looked it up on google maps but couldnt find the car park went all the way around the lake as well. sounds good though

[rory]

wales for me and me young lad next weekend, booked it to coincide with a new moon . now if it would just stay clear for one night id be chuffed, my first dark sky expedition woo hoo .

[jason.p]

True, clear skies here can be stunning, but clouds are clouds wherever you are, and we certainly get our fair share of them

[faulksy]

wales for me and me young lad next weekend, booked it to coincide with a new moon . now if it would just stay clear for one night id be chuffed, my first dark sky expedition woo hoo .

were in wales rory ?