August bank holiday visit

[hobsey]

Hello everybody.

I will be visiting a friend that lives is Seven Sisters over the August bank holiday when there is a new moon.

I know its not very far from the Brecon Beacons but I was wondering if someone can point me in the right direction for a good spot to do some wide field milky way shots and possibly time lapse, ideally I would like to have some water or something interesting in the foreground.

Many thanks.

[L8-Nite]

Cray Reservoir off the A 4067 road heading to Sennybridge has been a place of interest to me.  Have a look on Google Earth. 

[hobsey]

Good shout, looks promising.

Hopefully it will be clear that weekend for me to give it ago.

[stevetynant]

Drovers arms on the top of mynyddvepynt is another cracking

G shot with the Milky Way as your backdrop.very dark and quite atmospheric

[daiwelly]

I would vote for Cray reservoir, and its not too far from me I wonder? may even pop and pay a visit

[daiwelly]

Cray Reservoir is almost a straight run from severn sisters probably about 20mins, but is in a valley, this should be taken into consideration. Another cracking open panorama would be of all the black mountains.

51`56' 31.31 N, 3`28'15.68 W this is a trig point on top a hill close to road 500mtr walk to trig point an easy walk, this is overlooking all the black mountains..near the village of Aberbran, Brecon,

[hobsey]

Cheers for that, that also looks like a good spot.

[L8-Nite]

Sparked by this thread, my Wife & I took a drive up to Cray Reservoir today. There is a spot by the lake just off the A4067 which looked like it would be good for late night observing.  Here are the coordinates from Google Earth.......

51*  52'  39.00"  N  

  3*  37'  07.00"  W

Its an old disused bridge next to the road with several bollards to stop cars from driving on to it.  Equipment would only have to be moved about 20 paces for set up.  There are tall thick shrubs between the road and the bridge which should block any headlights of passing cars.

About a quarter of a mile to the North there is a well paved single track road called Heol Senni, which climbs to about 1400 feet and has a panoramic view of the lake and valley below.  There are also a few spots to park and enjoy the scenery.

Here are a series of photos showing the lake, and from the bridge area panning to the East, then looking back towards the lay by entrance.

Edit: Photos 4 & 10 show the sheltered observing spot. 

[hobsey]

Spot on, nice recon work.

The real tester will be at night.

[stevetynant]

That does look a good site Mike- might be worth a reccy in the Autumn

[L8-Nite]

That does look a good site Mike- might be worth a reccy in the Autumn

Yeah, for me its about the same distance to the Blaenavon site Steve.  I did note that the farm house near the bridge appears to be empty, so there would only be passing vehicle lights to consider; however, the trees and heavy brush should sort that intermittent issue out.

Dorothy & I will be going up to Brecon again shortly, so hopefully I'll have a chance to check it out at night on our return drive. 

[L8-Nite]

Well, bank holiday weekend is almost here. 

I'm looking forward to getting out of town, even if it's only for one night of observing; just hope the weather is favourable.

Anyone else ?

[hobsey]

I'm still heading over on friday and still looking forward to it.

The mate I'm staying with says it dark enough from his back garden but will still be heading up to the Brecon Beacons.