Hello!

[dan_uk]

Just wanted to reach out and say hello to you guys! I found this group today during an online hunt for a good dark site in Essex!

I have recently moved to Brentwood and bought my first scope in April (12" Meade SCT) and have been thoroughly enjoying it and have even started delving into video CCD stuff.

I would really like to join you on the local meet ups you have, i've never quite enjoyed going to dark sites alone and I can only drag family and friends around with me so much.

I found a lot of good info on sites around Burnham-on-crouch and Bradwell-on-sea but I see a few of these didn't pan out. Is there a definitive list anywhere of tried and tested sites? Going forward I would be happy to check out some potential sites myself and add to the list.

Thanks!

Daniel

[dan_uk]

Just to be a little more specific with my request, are there any co-ordinates or a postcode to get to "dengie" ? It seems to be a well known good site that I would love to try out.

Thanks!

Daniel

[knobby]

Hi Daniel,

we've tried various sites around Dengie and to be honest theyre all pretty decent. They all seem to have something against them ... a farmers securty lights ... power stations in the background ... private land ... deep gooey muddy tracks etc.

I'll have a trawl back through the old posts to see if i can recommend one !

Good to see a new member

Lovely scope you have , what ccd imaging have you tried

[wookie1965]

Cant help with the dark site in Essex but a very warm welcome to SGL

[Simms]

They are a few good sites in the Dengie area - as Knobby said, some private but others are just at the side of the road - we currently have a few places we go - but another great place to look is around Ugley area (up near Stansted) - you may think that the close proximity of the airport would render the area useless, but it actually has relatively good dark skies.

[dan_uk]

Thanks for the replies!

Seems that both Dengie and Ugley are roughly the same distance from me! So i'll certainly try both. Simms, I was reading your Iceland thread and got excited when you compared Dengie to Iceland!

I am using a Mallincam Xtreme 2 for video, it's been great so far although I am still learning each time I use it. The best things i've seen so far are M27 and what I believe was M51, was strange as I selected Lagoon Nebula on my handset but seem to come up with M51. M5 and M11 were great for learning camera settings with.

Thanks for looking for some site recommendations knobby, i'm very grateful for that!

[Blazar]

Welcome Dan. Hope the trips work out well.....I may get to one of these sites at some point myself ;-) mind you at the moment, everytime I get the scope out some clouds come out....the last couple of evenings for example...trying to do some Lunar stuff, and bang....there are the clouds. so apologies gents...the clouds are my fault for the last couple of nights ;-)

[Shaky]

Hello Everyone,

Apologises to hijack the post. I have also just started out SG and would also like to say a quick hello! I've only been out a few times but the best time I've had was here :

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=51.618123,0.792904&spn=0.010965,0.01929&t=m&z=16

I haven't been out exploring much so I'm not sure how this compares to other places. I pulled up on the side of the road along there someone and there was no traffic and very little light.

[skywatcher250]

hi mate welcome to the group ! def be nice to see you next time we are out - your arent too far from me actually and not to far from some of these other guys (about equidistant to basildon and loughton i reckon haha)

hope to see you soon !

[Billy- the -Badger]

Woo hoo another 12" meade owner.

Welcome to the nuthouse.

[knobby]

Hi Daniel, I've gone back over my old pm's trying to find the sites we tried that weren't too bad without much luck.

the only one I remember was the ww2 airfield in bradwell, it was pretty dark and quite flat but had a fair bit of light coming from the power station.

i seem to remember Bamus found a good site down a lane towards a church but can't remember the details . I'm sure he will be on here soon. That one was pretty dark but very muddy but should be ok this time of year ...

[knobby]

Hello Everyone,

Apologises to hijack the post. I have also just started out SG and would also like to say a quick hello! I've only been out a few times but the best time I've had was here :

https://maps.google.....01929&t=m&z=16

I haven't been out exploring much so I'm not sure how this compares to other places. I pulled up on the side of the road along there someone and there was no traffic and very little light.

hi Shaky, that looks pretty good, was there much light from the caravan site ?

[dan_uk]

Thanks knobby, where abouts in Dengie do you go?

[dan_uk]

Did a good hunt around the forums and found these two:

http://goo.gl/maps/Qlqif

http://www.bing.com/maps/?where1=51.635717377115,0.919464603067#Y3A9NTEuNjE5MDIyfjAuNjE1NDYwJmx2bD0xMSZzdHk9ciZlbz0wJnE9NTEuNjM1NzE3Mzc3MTE1JTI1MkMwLjkxOTQ2NDYwMzA2Nw==

Are these still good?

I might be heading out to Maidstone tomorrow as my cousin lives there and he's willing to head out and find somewhere around there with me. I'll let you know if I find anything good.

[knobby]

I seem to remember getting thrown off the 1st one by 4 blokes in a 4x4 with shotguns they were pretty reasonable though!

that's the problem we had over there, all the dark bits seem to be on someone's land...

I like the look of shaky find though, seems to be away from farmers land

[Blazar]

Yer the one Shaky highlighted is about 15 mins from me over in Hockley. I could whizz over there and mooch around to see if its anygood. it is near the Marina, and they i think they used to have quite a few powerful lights up and about....

[skywatcher250]

i forgot about the guns gary... jeeeez

[dan_uk]

Nightmares about the guns keeping you up?

[skywatcher250]

no honestly.... the heat does that haha - but i totally forgot about that

[knobby]

[Simms]

You sure have a pretty mouth!!

[knobby]

Uuuuugghhh

[dan_uk]

Anyone up for meeting tomorrow? Seems like it will be the only clear night before I go away!

[knobby]

I'd love too Dan, but too busy

Full moon too...

[dan_uk]

Anyone up for meeting tonight? Forecast looks clear! I was thinking maybe Dengie?