Where to go?

[Mansnake]

Hi all!,

Quick question. Me, the other half and our 2 year old are looking to go on a family holiday in July and im hoping to tie it in with stargazing. Are there any star parties anywhere in the UK in July? or are there any nice dark skies which the surrounding areas is good for family entertainment during the day....or am i asking to much

Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks fellow star gazers!

Clear skies!

[pete_l]

In general the UK has very few hours of TRUE darkness during July. The reason is that nights are short and the sun doesn't get very far below the horizon, so there is still some (not much, but a little) light scattered into the atmosphere. So in the south, the 6 weeks either side of the longest day (June 21) is not going to be great for observing. You can still see stuff, but it's not going to be worth travelling to an extremely dark location, as the light night sky will act as if there was light pollution.

[Stargazer_00]

You Are spoilt for choice.i like Dorset Devon and Cornwall but Norfolk is good and dark. As is the Lake District, Scotland.

I'm doing Norfolk this year as a dog walking / astro holiday

[ronin]

You will have to go South to get anything resembling dark and then not really dark and just a couple of hours of it.

Unfortunately many clubs close down for July+August.

Search out the Astro Centre at Todmorton (think at is where) and see if they have anything, I would guess the SDAO has nothing as the nights there will simply not get dark. However enquire as it is summer and there are lots of visitors so perhaps a short viewing until 2:00 may be something they organise.

NLO does not as best I know have anything like a star party at that time of year, they do have the SW Astro Fair which is I think August. Could be worth an email to NLO to ask if anything is organised - look under the Observatories scetion, send a PM and enquire.

There is The Observatory at Herstmonceux, they may have something at that time, not really a star party but an astro event of some sort.

After that out of ideas, although suspect that there will be a couple somewhere, just not heavily advertised at present.

[Mansnake]

thanks for all your replies. ill have to have a look around.