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WADAS (Wakefield and District Astronomical Society)

stonemonkeylives

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Sam Baker

Sam Baker

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Morning all,

Looking at moving to Wakefield start of next year, been commuting here for 6 years for far too much money so time to get my own place. But I was wondering how far out of the city itself do you need to go for good skies, if there are any? As the garden and sky quality has to be a factor for house hunting!

Matt.

Hi Matt, you're looking no more than 30 mins drive to get to winscarr, which is as dark as it's going to get given the light pollution from hiddersfield, Wakefield and Manchester, you can just about make out the Milky Way!

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Posted
Posted

Morning all,

Looking at moving to Wakefield start of next year, been commuting here for 6 years for far too much money so time to get my own place. But I was wondering how far out of the city itself do you need to go for good skies, if there are any? As the garden and sky quality has to be a factor for house hunting!

Matt.

As Sam says it's a 30min drive to get out to our normal viewing site but there is also sutton bank which is around 50min drive from wakefield, mostly motorway so an easy drive.

There are a few other places nearby but light pollution becomes much more apparent.

Feel free to join us when you finally move over this way

Damian

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Mark62

Mark62

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Hi mat and welcome to WADAS. As Sam says its very light polluted in this area and u need to be able to drive to find dark sky's. It's not as bad as when the blast furnaces in Scunthorpe are pouring out [emoji2]

Mark

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Sam Baker

Sam Baker

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Fingers crossed next time I manage to get out, I can try guiding since PhD and my atik Titan seem to have made friends now- although I'm sure it will be happy to work during the day or on cloudy nights and then decide to not work on clear nights

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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Was having a think over the weekend about making a dew shield for my scope and saw this in Tesco. it needs trimming a bit i think to make it a bit shorter, but its just an insulated camping roll and cost 5 quid. It fits really well. It didnt sag at the far end either, i used a paper clip as a rough fastener on the inside join just to keep it together.

I will get some longer elastic to help secure it to the OTA a bit better, but i think it could be a good dew shield.

What do you think?

Chris

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I might even see about cutting a grove in the camping matt so that it slots down over the dovetail bar so that it goes down to the finder.

Nice idea,

I noticed the same flaw about Vickys the other night at kielder

She did point out that it wasn't the exact right one for the scope cutting a slot for the dovetail in the foam would make it fit a lot better.

Self adhesive Velcro is great for keeping stuff attached.

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Sam Baker

Sam Baker

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Fingers crossed next time I manage to get out, I can try guiding since PhD and my atik Titan seem to have made friends now- although I'm sure it will be happy to work during the day or on cloudy nights and then decide to not work on clear nights

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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Nice idea,

I noticed the same flaw about Vickys the other night at kielder

She did point out that it wasn't the exact right one for the scope cutting a slot for the dovetail in the foam would make it fit a lot better.

Self adhesive Velcro is great for keeping stuff attached.

Yea, it should fit nicely then. the tesco mat that ive got has some clips on it as you can see in the picture with elastic going through them. I might unpick that elastic and replace it with some bigger pieces and try and see if it works with that

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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according to clear outside - its going to be clear from 9pm. But i'll check checking it till tea time and make the decision then.

ive just checked mine, it does say its going to be clear but with snow or rain. how do you get snow or rain without clouds?? lol

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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Looks great Chris. Excellent idea and cheap as well.

Double cluster there indeed Vicky. Was an excellent late night early morning! Inky black skies and beautiful bright stars ;)

ta, ill see how it performs over the next few observing sessions 

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Sam Baker

Sam Baker

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After getting some repairs done to my mount, a bolt has sheared and needs machining out of the bottom of the leg, I've brought the legs back home just in case and will take back to my old bosses engineering shop tomorrow! I need to try guiding! So fingers crossed I'll get the opportunity tonight!

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