Dark sites

[lhuchison]

Since i started star gazing i have only used my back garden which is in a suburban location and not too bad for light pollution.

But after a recent family holiday to Cape Verde isles which  are off the west coast of Africa, my eyes are truly opened! 

The island practices a dark sky, non light pollution strategy due to the mating antics of local turtles and luckily i took a pair of travel binos with me.

The first night when returning to the hotel i looked up and was blown away by the clarity of the star constellations.

So i settled on the balcony of our room for a couple of hours much to the annoyance of my better half. But was it worth it? totally !!

incredible sights of orion with a totally black sky, i saw stars never seen before around the constellations . 

Being near the equator i saw constellations not seen before from my uk site, which seemed strange.

Next time i holiday on such a remote dark site I will try to get my other half to carry my 8in edge with mount through customs!