New member Hitchin/Letchworth

[Pippa01]

Hello!

I just received my first telescope yesterday as a birthday present. Managed to get a good clear night last night for having my first look skywards through it. Hoping to tap into your knowledge of the area for good skywatching places.

[Monty]

Welcome aboard, I began with garden sessions until I was totally familiar with my scope then I began to venture out. What equipment do you have?

[Pippa01]

Hello, yeah I had a good look from the garden last night and will be doing that for a wee while yet I have a Skywatcher SKyliner 150p with 10mm superfine and 25mm (I think) Still trying to get used to the names and numbers.

[MadgieEm]

Hii!! Might be a bit far for you but I like to go to Essendon for sky watching. Low horizon, good big space. There are some back roads past The Rusty Gun in Hitchin with some good spots to set up around.

[jasonp]

Welcome to the group. Certainly been a good start to the week for clear skies.

You have a great scope there and those eyepieces are pretty good to be fair you will get some excellent views.

The rusty gun dark site sounds good Madgie. You must let us know where this is as we have been looking for ages

[Pippa01]

Madgie hi, thank you. Yeah, Rusty Gun isn't too far at all so I'll have a think about that. Essendon is a bit of a trek though. Will have to save that for a night when we've got a babysitter.

Jason, thanks for the welcome. I was indeed lucky to get such clear skies on my first night. Hoping to get my learning head on and figure out what I'm doing very soon.

[Daz1974]

The rusty gun is also a very nice place too should the clouds roll in

[jasonp]

Welcome back Daz

[Stargazer_00]

Hi! Welcome! I'm over in Stevenage. you could try taking a wander up to LDAS and meet a few people and learn a few bits from folks directly. Not sure if anyone here is an LDAS member.

[Pippa01]

Hi! Welcome! I'm over in Stevenage. you could try taking a wander up to LDAS and meet a few people and learn a few bits from folks directly. Not sure if anyone here is an LDAS member.

Hi, thank you. I had heard that there was a society that meets in Letchworth so just need to find out when they meet and make my way there.

[benvz]

Welcome to the forum. You seem to have got a free set of clear skies with your scope, which must be a first. Most people just get clouds.

[malc-c]

Hi, thank you. I had heard that there was a society that meets in Letchworth so just need to find out when they meet and make my way there.

http://www.ldas.org.uk/

The society is very active, and we have our own observatory at Standalone Farm. It's well worth visiting one of the star parties, or pop along to the next meeting.

[jasonp]

So what kind of days are we thinking. ?

1. Evenings after work. ?

2. Weekends in the afternoon

3. Weekends in the evening

Maybe I should start a new topic ?

[jasonp]

Grr wrong post sorry.

[Stargazer_00]

I'd probably be tempted to take a wander over to LDAS at some point. I only went there one time to dip my toe in the water and had a bit of a bad experience. No one turned up on a night that was supposed to be an observing night. Waited on my own for about 45 minutes, someone turned up and said it wasn't on if no one was there already and then I went home :/ Never got much enthusiam after that. I'm sure it was a one off but it is what it is. I was quite green then and am much more experienced now.

[jasonp]

LDAS have never really done it for me

[Pippa01]

I'll give it a go as it's so local for me. It's bound to be helpful with being a beginner.

[ronin]

The last LDAS public night was March 16, so that has gone and I see there are no more public observing planned, so it would have to be a club night. The next of those is next week Friday+Saturday Apr 12+13. They say to contact them before. So worth an email.

I think LDAS have had a change or two in running the club and so not sure of how it all stands at present. Sounds like StarG00 had a similar experience to me. I turned up there one night and no-one there, waited and eventually left after 20-30 minutes and passed a car on the approach road in that stopped and asked "What i was doing there!!!!" I replied the Public Observing Evening that was supposed to have started at 7:30 was the reason, it was 8:00 by then. Got a sort of off hand grunt. Sometimes I think they do not help themselves.

[Pippa01]

Thank you. Will try and pop along and see what happens.

[Daz1974]

Without turning this thread into an LDAS bashing I have felt that since the change in organisation/leadership in the last 12 months it has changed for the worse. Even though I wasnt the most active member I have very little interest/enthusiasm for attending events now and would much rather meet up with a smaller group like we are trying to arrange here.

[gordonewen]

Hello all, I thought, as I am the newish chairman of LDAS, I should reply to the notes above. You are right that there have been some changes in the past year and there were some teething troubles. However, I believe that they are now over. The observing nights are published on the website, and there is a phone number to call to check that observing sessions are going ahead. I would encourage anyone who is thinking of going there to phone and check, we do not want to disappoint anyone. The society is very active; we have monthly talks by guest speakers, we have 4 meetings a year where members give talks, we have an astrophotography group which meets monthly, we are going to deliver some introductory astronomy talks for the general public this spring and summer (we have got grants to support these activities), we have telescopes for hire, and an observatory. We have what I think is one of the best society newsletters in existence.I would encourage anyone in the area to come and give us a try, make a judgement based on your own experience. We really do want to encourage people to get interested and be active in astronomy. I hope I might meet some of you soon!

[Spacedout]

Without turning this thread into an LDAS bashing I have felt that since the change in organisation/leadership in the last 12 months it has changed for the worse. Even though I wasnt the most active member I have very little interest/enthusiasm for attending events now and would much rather meet up with a smaller group like we are trying to arrange here.

Hi All,

Sorry for jumping in late in the thread but I see there are several here not too far from me so thought I'd say hello! I too joined the LDAS about the time they had the problems with leadership and it the experience put me off a tad and only went the once. Anyway if something is being organised locally I'd been keen to attend for sure. I have much to learn and a good book will take you only so far...

Regards Karl

(Newbie to SGL)