Meteor and MW gazing in Portugal

[Roger Fairhurst]

I returned from Portugal on Sunday after a week's holiday.

We stayed in a private house 5km outside Tavira up in the hills and were blessed with really quite dark skies and very little LP.

I was gobsmacked to be able to recognise the big dipper, little dipper and then Polaris at first glance but what really knocked me out was the Milky Way! It stretched right across the sky from NE to SW and was a joy to look at through my 8x32 binos. The 8.1° field of view seemed just right for strolling down the MW.

I also had a pair of 10x40 bins and shared them with my son who was also there with us. I'd invested in a chaep (17 quid) monopod from Argos whilst in the UK in July (my much more substantial Cullman monopod was to heavy for the likes of RyanAir!) and this helped the star gazing no end as did the two sun beds which belonged to the house we were staying in!

I am very restricted viewing wise were I live in Germany and so was a bit like a boy in the sweet shop in the evenings!

I have since also bought a pair of 6X30 Kowa porro bins which also give a beautiful wide and clear view and are light enough to be easilly hand-held.

I was hoping to see the Pleseid showers as they approached the climax and although we did see many comets, by the time the best viewing came around we were in bed and asleep - this being mostly due to the local food and wine which was as important to me as the star gazing!

It was interesting to note how low the big dipper was at this latitude and also Perseus was quite low so although we had clear skies I would imagine the view of the meteor showers further north in Germany or UK was probably better.

Well all this served to fuel the old appetite for more which I will be doing as soon as I can get out to do some serious observing - this newbie is still bitten by the bug so I'll just hope it stays that way.

Kind regards

Roger