Getting started in Surrey

[Pete Presland]

hi welcome to SGL from peter in bedfordshire

[Charon]

Welcome aboard.

[glowjet]

Hi Harry and welcome to SGL

John.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Harry!

Dana

[harryt]

Hello again everyone

What a welcome! Many thanks for all your messages. A few responses, in no particular order

Surrey group, really looking forward to meeting some of you, but sadly cannot make the social tonight - hope to meet some of you at RC soon.

Fondofchips, Stellarium now downloaded - brilliant, thanks.

Doug & No-i-Dear, I've have resisted the urge and followed the advice to start small with binos, but I do have a birthday in early May....

Sam, I have GoSkyWatch on the iPad already but have not had much chance to use it yet. It does have a red setting so hopefully it is up to the job. How close is up the road? I'm in Ashtead quite close to the M25 so plenty of light pollution to fight. Will I see much from the garden or will I be a regular at RC?

JohnDoe, Yes, she's 9 and very excited, so lovely to share. Not sure if the others are going to join in - other daughters are 11, 13 & 17.

[alan g]

Hi harryt and welcome aboard.

[jazzysam]

Hi Harry,

thanks for your response...

I live in Oxshott; so literally up the road from you. I observe from my loft (which I turned into an obsy), since I have health challenges that mean that I'm not allowed to pick up anything heavy - my son helped me set up first, and I just open a loft window and off I go!

regarding light pollution, I've found that I don't have a problem at all. I face south east (back of the house), and back onto green belt land, so the nearest light pollution is the M25. I've found that any targets above 25 degrees are perfectly visible, but of course, anything at the zenith is just brilliant.

i also use a Baader light pollution filter, and when the moon is bright, restrict myself to imaging in H-alpha.

you are welcome to pop around to see my setup/see what's visible if we ever get a clear night. You are also welcome to join me to tonight's social, since I'm driving there anyway - just let me know if you'd like me to pick you up.

hope this helps!

clear skies,

Sam

[harryt]

Hi Sam

Sounds like a great set up and yes I would really like to visit some time soon if possible.

Sadly heading up to town this evening so cannot make the social.

Good to hear about the light pollution but I am a great deal closer to the dreaded.

I'm sure I will get to know about filters and H-alpha in due course!!!!!!

Harry