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SW London - Hi al...


Hazio123

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A big hello from South West London - yes, another one! The light pollution is terrible here and living in a flat doesn't help much either so if anybody has any viewing spots they know of near Hampton, be sure to let me know!

I've loved the stars pretty much since I first saw them and subsequently have had many amazing nights under them including a few ski holidays and the best being a trip to Tromso to see the northern lights... there were more stars than there was sky.

Anyway, I've never really got technically involved with stargazing, that was until about 2 years ago when I went straight out and bought a Skymax 127 GoTo after lots of research etc. It turned up, I loved it, but, I never had any success with it. It was big, I had to travel away from the light pollution with nowhere really in mind to go, I wasn't that patient, never got it GoTo'ing properly, every night seemed to be a cloudy one and I eventually got fed up with it and sold it.

But here I am, increasingly finding myself looking up at the stars and wishing I still had it.

The death of Sir Patrick Moore and last nights beautiful clear sky has got me all excited again. Except this time I'm going to do it properly... Binoculars to start with (I'm already researching as we speak and am leaning towards the Helios fieldmaster 10x50... Good reviews, cheaps etc.) and maybe a couple of good books (Turn left at Orion and Nightwatch?!)

Hopefully this time ill get it right...

All there is to find now is a decent spot to gaze from.

Oh and hi...I'm Harry!

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Hi Harry and welcome to SGL, a very wise decision after your previous experience, it is just a pity you were not a member of SGL at the time, as help would have been at hand. Perhaps you might like to look up the Baker Street Irregulars, who meet in in Regents Park on a regular basis, where I don`t doubt you would obtain a lot of help and advise :)

John.

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Hi Harry and welcome to the forum. In reality there is no correct approach to astronomy, only what suits you and your aspirations. :smiley: Hopefully we can all enjoy a few more clear evening skies to get out there and practice what we have learnt. The 'Turn Left at Orion' book is certainly one I would recommend to anyone starting out and I would also recommend you take a look at some free planetarium software called "Stellarium" which you can read about here. Lots great features to keep you busy when the clouds come in and will compliment nicely the maps and instruction contained in the above book as you can use Stellarium to rehearse finding your chosen object.

Clear skies and enjoy the forum

James

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Hi welcome to SGL.

The LP is pretty bad but you can get some good views of the planets, deep sky not so good. Close to the zenith around 1-3 am things are not too bad. I have used wimbledon Common in the past and is step up from the back garden with unobstructed views for the whole sky.

There is a social group http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/112-sgl-surrey-observers/ on the forum that meets regularly.

They have some decent dark sky sights such as Ranmore Common, plus some considerable experience.

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