How's light pollution on the edge of Basingstoke?

[emadmoussa]

Towards the Western edge of Basingstoke, is light pollution manageable??

[emadmoussa]

To add, the whole area has the new downwards pointing LED street lights.

[Richardisgreat]

check this little light pollution map out, hope it helps, you can zoom in to an are by roliing the mouse wheel

http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/uk/index.html

Richard

[MikeWilson]

It's not going to be great, to be honest...

However you're in a great location for travelling a few miles north or south to some much darker skies 20-30 minutes in the car to the south around Alton and the skies will be significantly darker.

[annamay]

check this little light pollution map out, hope it helps, you can zoom in to an are by roliing the mouse wheel

http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/uk/index.html

Richard

What happened to the rest of the UK? 

[emadmoussa]

I will be about 5 minutes walk from the open fields towards the West.

[emadmoussa]

What happened to the rest of the UK? 

You don't always have the choice if you want to purchase a property.

[annamay]

You don't always have the choice if you want to purchase a property.

No, I mean on the UK map of light pollution, they left out large chunks of the UK on it.

[Richardisgreat]

The parts that are not coloured like parts of Cornwall, Wales, Northern England, and most of Scotland are areas of little to no light pollution I believe. Areas which are White like London and other major cities are the worst for Light pollution, Red areas are next then Yellow, green, then blue. Our groups sky is in the Yellow zone and we have had some great observing sessions. If you can get in to a green or blue zone then you would be in for a serious treat

Clear skies friends

Richard

[emadmoussa]

The parts that are not coloured like parts of Cornwall, Wales, Northern England, and most of Scotland are areas of little to no light pollution I believe. Areas which are White like London and other major cities are the worst for Light pollution, Red areas are next then Yellow, green, then blue. Our groups sky is in the Yellow zone and we have had some great observing sessions. If you can get in to a green or blue zone then you would be in for a serious treat

Clear skies friends

Richard

I think I'll be on the edge of the yellow zone considering the Western and south western directions are predominantly extended fields.  East, however, is a hopeless case...then again..I don't have access to this direction where I am. I just wait for objects to come to me

[Richardisgreat]

Its decided. Im moving to Kazakhstan

[AlexB67]

You could do worse looking at that map, certainly looks better to where I am and not far form some dark spots according to avex    . The only thing is  it is best for west as you say. Ideally south to east is my better side and I would probably prefer that, but unless you have a lot of freedom on house budget you could be looking for ages if you start taking all those restrictions into account.

When the missus and I  bought our house I had not started stargazing and it turned out I got it quite lucky, as far as cities go, but a reasonably sized garden was always a priority at the time, after being cooped up in a flat in the centre for too long, it actually has reasonably clear views and shielding apart from one lamp, which after some progress with the council is going to get shielded, neighbours never leave light on after 11 12 or so. no outside light on the houses so it could have been worse.

May be worth an extra trip at night to see house and surrounding area to see what the lights are like perhaps.

[Paul73]

Emad

From memory, there isn't much to the west and to screw things up and if the streetlights go off at midnight. You might get ok views elsewhere. The glow from the M3 will subside as it gets later. Your main issue will be the lighting on the many roundabouts around Basingstoke.

Could be worse.

Paul

[emadmoussa]

I had a walk around and I can see that I have a clear horizon towards the south (garden faces south), and some east and a lot of clear views to the west. The house is on a relatively high area and garden is not overlooked by neighbours but the ones on the left.

Most importantly I don't have streetlights directly in front of me....ah, we'll see.

[Paul73]

I hope that you like late observing. The M3 motorway is down there. I am about 3/4 of a mile from the M4 and the LP is noticeably better late at night. Saying that, it can't be that bad, I was happily chasing Galaxies in Vergo last night at about 11pm over the motorway.

Paul

[AlexB67]

Sounds good. Good luck with it  , so there will be a house warming  / garden star party no doubt, I await buying a ticket for SGL EMAD

[emadmoussa]

Sounds good. Good luck with it  , so there will be a house warming  / garden star party no doubt, I await buying a ticket for SGL EMAD

I have to wake up from the financial shock first and then see if I have anything left to buy my equipment again over a century of time.

[MikeWilson]

Top tip: be able to be mobile and the sky is your oyster

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cotterless45]

choose your targets with regard to your light pollution and if it's bad then any visit to dark sky will blow you away. we're similarly placed on the edge of town. some nights when the humidity picks up the lights , it's just a glow all around. some nights are quite decent with the Milky Way in view overhead.

We also have a generous 9 streetlights and security lights around, folk here being afraid of the dark. I stop direct light by means of poles and dark throws, quite handy as some folk don't use curtains. This gives enough to see some of the fainter doubles and deep space targets.

When ever possible the scope is packed up and dark skies are visited.

To experience pristine sky is a whole different experience, just family and economics prohibit living in such places. I've been lucky to go on holiday to Skye to visit the dragon in law every year . Also lucky to have visited the western isles and inner Hebrides. Then it's back to town.

I'd try and work round your home skies and save those so elusive targets for dark sites,

Nick.

[scarp15]

choose your targets with regard to your light pollution and if it's bad then any visit to dark sky will blow you away. we're similarly placed on the edge of town. some nights when the humidity picks up the lights , it's just a glow all around. some nights are quite decent with the Milky Way in view overhead.

We also have a generous 9 streetlights and security lights around, folk here being afraid of the dark. I stop direct light by means of poles and dark throws, quite handy as some folk don't use curtains. This gives enough to see some of the fainter doubles and deep space targets.

When ever possible the scope is packed up and dark skies are visited.

To experience pristine sky is a whole different experience, just family and economics prohibit living in such places. I've been lucky to go on holiday to Skye to visit the dragon in law every year . Also lucky to have visited the western isles and inner Hebrides. Then it's back to town.

I'd try and work round your home skies and save those so elusive targets for dark sites,

Nick.

Definitely attaining pristine skies is a privilege, such as a selective holiday to a remote location. I ventured on a 55 min journey north last night to my dark sky spot in Northumberland. Undoubtedly worth the journey, yet even here the distance sky glow from Tyneside was present.