Good viewing in Brittany?

[Moonshine132435]

Inspired by the recent thread on packing up for the summer (please say it ain't so, I'm only just taking delivery of my first scope this week!) and people taking their scopes on holiday, I was wondering if anyone had any experience of observing in Brittany?

I am off to Dinan in August and am optimistically thinking I'll schelpp my new Skywatcher 150P and EQ5 mount along for a go and was wondering if any of you had any tips, bearing in mind I'm a total telescope newb. Thanks.

[Tinker1947]

You could run Stellarium from that location and advance the date to see when its gets dark ect.....

[RichM63]

I only have experience of observing in Brittany.

By August the summer nights will be getting longer again, noticeably so with sunsets around 9.30 pm down to 9pm towards the end of the month.

The days can be very hot, sometimes being the hottest place in Europe thus nice and toasty at night.

The Milky Way make a great spectacle.

Might suffer a little from high altitude turbulence.

If you can sneak the scope in, go for it, otherwise a pair of big binos will give great pleasure.

Have a great trip,

Rich

[Moonshine132435]

Thanks, I'll definately run Stellarium to get prepared. The late sunset suits me perfectly as the kids will be in bed by then, fingers crossed for some cloud-free nights!

[RichM63]

For scope and stellarium

48.4564° N, 2.0489° W

For local seeing conditions. (pretty accurate but only gives 3 days)

http://www.meteoblue.com/fr/france/meteo-dinan-22882/seeing

Haul the kids all the way to the very top of Mont St Michel, anyone would sleep well after all the steps.

For cracking sunsets + photo opportunities head over to Cap Frehel Lighthouse, even the big boys setup on the cliffs.

For vertigo inducing wobbles, climb to the top of the roof at Fort La Latte just round the corner from the above lighthouse (castle used in the film The Vikings).

[Moonshine132435]

Thank you very much Rich, that's tremendously helpful. Mont St Michelle is the only one of those I was already aware of, but given that my boys are very young unfortunately it'll be me schlepping them up all those stairs. I predict that it will also be me asleep next to my scope that night, under what will be the clearest skies of the whole holiday. 

[RichM63]

Hey Moonshine, I doubt that this will fit in with your plans but I've just discovered that there is an Astronomy event on July 29th at La Maison de la Rance (basically down at the port in Dinan).

No steps! LOL

Rich

[rwilkey]

Hi Rich, that sounds good, my wife and I will be nearby on that date, if you have any more details that would be greatly appreciated!

[RichM63]

Be even better when I hit 250 posts.

Typo, 29th should read 26th July!!

Original advert from AngloInfo.

[rwilkey]

Hi Rich, I make that Friday the 25th, very confusing but we shall not be there then, unfortunately.

[RichM63]

Shhhh, we like to keep Brittany to ourselves.

Apparently the Astro Club in Dinan meets every Friday 21.00.

So it could be either Fri or Sat 25th or 26th.

I'll give the club president a bell to sort out the date and see if they have anything else on in Dinan for end July + August.

Contact Michel Marchand on Phone
02 96 85 32 81

Cheers,

Rich

[Moonshine132435]

That's awesome Rich, thanks. We are over for a week from 2nd August so I might well be able to make an Astro Club meeting, especially if it's an observation too. I'll contact Michel when we arrive and see.

[rwilkey]

Hi Rich, that's great, but I had a chat to the wife about it and she thinks it's too far to drive, I didn't realize Brittany was such a big place.  Dinan would be about 3 hours drive for us, and my wife being the only driver etc, as I am partially disabled.  Would still be interested in any details, however.

[RichM63]

Hi folks, hopefully I will have an update for you later. I've just put the phone down from the President of the Dinan Astro' Club.

They have an amazingly active schedule for this period with it seems something on virtually every day.

He has promised to email me the full calendar + details etc. 

@Robin, yes Brittany is big, but with the empty roads I always know that nowhere is more than 2 hours away. However if you want to give an indication of your intended location I'll check my locally biased searches to see if there is anything that might be of interest without the need for a long drive.

Cheers,

Rich

[Scott]

My wife and I shall be in Pontivy around 21st August. really looking forward to it as its about 25yrs since I've been to France and that was only Paris. We're driving so the astro gear shall be coming too .

[rwilkey]

Hi Rich, the resort is Beg Meil near Fouesnant, which is some way from Dinan. We will be there 27 July to the 2 Aug.

[RichM63]

Scott you might have struck lucky in that there is the equivalent of an SGL weekend 29, 30, 31 August situated in the college grounds about 15 mins out of Pontivy. It is called GRAO (Grandes Rencontres des Astonomes de Ouest) and has been going for many years.

Link,  GRAO inscription is free and the important food is not expensive. (site seems to work better in FF) Might be worth a visit if you are still in the area.

Robin there is an active Astro Club just to the north of where you will be in Coray 30mins that organize public observations at the observatory.

Unfortunately their web calendar only seems to show 1 month at a time, so can't see what's on when you will be here.

Link Loar Gann But if you can face a 60 mile motorway drive a day visit to the Carnac alignments is well worth it.

Best,

Rich

[RichM63]

Moonshine, M. Marchand has sent the his event calendar, see attached Excel. You will see that it is a busy week with lots happening within sensible drive times from Dinan.

Cheers,

Richard

Planning+anim +2014(1).xlsx

[rwilkey]

Hi Rich, the Loar Gann looks interesting, we shall have a look at this again before we travel.  Thanks for that.

[Moonshine132435]

Thanks for that Rich; I'm definately going to see that I get some time at the scope now.

[RichM63]

Further info arrived from Dinan.

Observations at Maison de la Rance for July/August, all FREE

Cheers,

Rich

Maison de la Rance; au port de Dinan à 21H00

        Juillet  :    Vendredi  04     Août  :    Vendredi  01

                               "         11                            "       08

                               "         18                            "       15

                               "         25                            "       22

                                                                          "       29

Also on Sunday June 22nd there is a Solar festival Day, solar scopes, etc, etc at Saint Samson sur Rance, again FREE, same contact details as above. Starts Noon.

Dimanche 22 Juin à midi

Saint Samson sur Rance   22100

Amener son pique-nique au Menhir du Tremblais, garer son véhicule dans le Bourg

GRATUIT

     Observations Solaires aux télescopes, (taches et protubérances)  Cadrans Solaires,

     expo photos, fusées à eau, Artistes divers sur le thème du  Soleil.

     Organisateur Marchand Michel avec le concours

 de la Municipalité de Saint Samson

[Moonshine132435]

Thanks Rich.

[RichM63]

Things seem to be looking up.

I know that a couple of you are heading over here later this week/next so I've updated my local weather forecast service parameters.

To end of Wednesday.

As we head into the middle of the week it would seem that from 21.00 (starting to get dark) that the low cloud is lifiting and high cloud layers are clear.

The 'seeing' conditions are into the green with 4 index and high turbulence is reducing with the jet stream slowing down from a current 40m/s to 22m/s.

Day time temps are not exactly great at around 15°C but at least they are fairly constant throughout the day.

This past week the weather has been oddly consistent: Bad/Good/Bad/Good/Bad/Good, but most nights have cleared from midnight onwards, Andromeda, Plaeides, Milky Way all easily visible naked eye. The problem is 'setup' early evening shower followed by clear late night.

I'll try to remember to update on Friday for the W/E.

[RichM63]

Tonight Friday promises to be pretty good up to 2am.

However tomorrow Saturday 23/24 looks as though it will be GREAT from dark 22.00 right through to 04.00 with dark blue and top of the green across the board, although the jet stream is accelerating again with projections up to a potentially poor 37m/s.

Sunday looks pretty solid cloud right through and the JS is up at 51m/s.

Had a stop over beer in Pontivy on Wednesday evening on the way back from an astro' emporium in Lorient, but I didn't spot a wayward SGL Mod amongst the strollers. Lovely summer evening beer down by the Nantes/Brest canal though.