Nothing to report report

[Starhoparfa]

Just returned back from a resort called Pineda de Mar on the Costa Brava- it's in the Lloret de Mar/Tossa de Mar area and about 45 minutes from Barcelona. We had 12 days of faultless weather- blazing sunshine day after day and consistently around 33C. When we flew in there was a thin layer of high cloud which didn't seem to make a difference to the sunshine on the ground. I took the 10 X 50 bins and the S & T pocket atlas hoping mainly to get a view of a few of the DSOs in Saggitarius and Scorpius which would be a bit higher up at that latitude.

Anyway, and I kid you not, I only saw a maxiumum of about two stars every night which were high up and I can only assume were in the summer triangle. You couldn't identify a single constellation. The amount of lights in the area didn't seem that great compared to the more commercial resorts I've visited and, lets face it, even those are usually away from the major connurbations. There was an orangey glow to the sky though so I'm not sure whether my disappointing viewing night after night was down to haziness or light pollution.

So, is it actually worth taking bins to mediterranean holidays or is mine an isolated experience?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I took my bins and scopes on holidays to southern France this year and had very good views. My guess is that the coastline is too light polluted along the popular areas, even at a distance from the main centres. Going a bit inland can help a lot, in my experience. Any haze compounds the problem, as light emitted from the ground reflects off it.

[swamp thing]

Sounds like you had haze over there at night. It can't be just LP if it was that bad. I can see more than that from central London on a clear night.

Any sort of haze wipes out your view very fast indeed. Very frustrating.

[Josh Wilson]

Took a look at an LP map of Spain. You were right on the edge of Barcelona's light pollution. I, too, have noticed an orange color to the night sky from my location, but on very bad nights, it turns an ugly brown color and infects my pictures.