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Welsh Newbie

Julian Hands

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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I've been following this forum for about 3 months after we moved house from Chepstow to Glanamman, which is in west wales and on the border to the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Every clear evening since we have moved here, I'm absolutely awestruck by the beauty of the night sky. I didn't appreciate just how much light pollution we had in Chesptow until we moved here. Every clear night we can see the milky way and with my Iphone 'Star Walk' app (over brands I'm sure are available) I'm following the constallations and tracking the planets as they pass over the uninterupted views in the fields behind us. This has made me take the plunge and invest into a half decent scope (which is all my funds allow). I use to do some observing when I was younger, but the scope I had was only ever useful for the moon and never saw any other object in the sky.

I have gone for a Skywatch Evostar 120ED with EQ5 mount and hope to be able to attach my DSLR for some imagary shots as I have the T piece and adaptor already from my earlier days. I also have a celestron screw in moonfilter that I/m guessing will be compatible with eth Skywatch eyepieces?

We are blessed with our location and amazed that I haven't come across any other interested folk in astronomy around here as the area to me seems idillic, it only takes me 7 minutes to get deep into the Brecon Beacon National Park and on top of the hills, which I certainly intend to take this scope up one night to observe from.

What I do need though is a hard case for the scope, I've seen a few german Aluminium/foam Cases and also a few soft cases on amazon, can anyone recommend a case that may be useful to aquire in order to take this scope out and about, as I'm also a local Scout Leader and would love to take it to some camps and setup for the kids to get a chance to have a life experience hopefully they can take away with them?

This is a fantastic website and thanks in advance for all your help. :smiley:  

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Thanks all,

After browsing around this forum today, I've seen the posts and downloaded Stellarium and just peeked outside (overcast sky :-() but in between the passing clouds have made out some details that relate and after finding out our location coordinates, the sky map is absolutely perfect to what I'm seeing.

What a fabulous piece of free software. thank you all for this recommendation, Brilliant.

Julian

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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It's because we're so blessed with this area that I had to make the investment (even the wife is happy about it), I enjoyed astronomy as a youngster but never had the location like this, it really is a joy to sit outside and just stare at the wonder above us. I've spent many nights with our neighbours in front of a small outside brick fire place and a few tinnies just lost in the detail we can see, on clear nights the colours of the milky way really stand out.

I'm really looking forward to getting the scope delivery but I'm more than content with just the location and some star maps in the interim.

Really want to take the scope into the Beacons national park as it must be spectacular with 360 degrees of viewing unpolluted skies.

Julian

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jason.p

jason.p

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Welcome to SGL. You're right that we are blessed with good skies in this part of the world once the clouds clear. My daughter lives in the Brecon Beacons park and as you say the skies can be amazing.

Let us know how you get on with the new scope, and don't hesitate to ask anything. There's a wealth of experience and expertise here.

Best wishes and clear skies

Jason

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Hope this gets seen?

<a href="http://s1323.photobucket.com/user/Julian_Hands/media/BeaconsNationalPark_zps1ab27a6f.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1323.photobucket.com/albums/u599/Julian_Hands/BeaconsNationalPark_zps1ab27a6f.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo BeaconsNationalPark_zps1ab27a6f.jpg"/></a>

This is where I would like to get a nights observing done at some point, clear skies allround and no light pollution. amazing.

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Welcome Julian, trecastle resevoir is a good place and not far from you, car parks benches and plenty of dark skies. hope to see you up there sometime

Hi Brrtpaul, Do you mean the USK reservoir? I can cross the beacons to get there with ease, would love to have some company at some point to get me started and point me in the right direction.

Many thanks,

Julian

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hgjevans

hgjevans

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We are blessed with our location ...

You certainly are! My father was from Maesycrugiau (other side of the Brechfa forest from you) and I well remember the stunning skies there. I also well remember the frequently miserable weather, so I guess it's a case of swings and roundabouts. All the same, I'd give my eye-teeth to have a few of those fabulous dark nights here.

You're also quite near the NBGW, which I love - well worth a visit, if you like that sort of thing.

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Thanks Huw,

Yes we have done the NWBG and I hear the Swansea Astronomy group use it also for skywatching evenings, so fingers crossed I'll get down there soon.

Yeah the weather is topsy turvy and currently this is the second wettest place in Wales, but when it does clear it is truely breath taking.

Patience  may be required :-).

Julian

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Hi All,

I'm still awaiting the delivery of my evostar 120 but was out last night biting at the bit, as i viewed Jupiter as a beautiful bright star passing over.

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Again I've been reading up on this forum and the internet generally, that it may be worth getting a Telrad, and for newbies (who wear glasses) will make finding the targets allot easier, will a Telrad fit onto an Evostar 120 as the pictures I've seen show this unit as quite a chunk and usually mounted on 8" Scmidts, was also wondering if the dew shield would hamper the view through the Telrad?

I'm beginning to realise that this astronomy mallarcy can be a money pit and that the eyepieces may be worth the investment to get any real satisfaction. I'm thinking of getting 3 BST eyepieces to start and see how we progress, would like to see planets and some DSO's so if anyone can recommend some EP sizes for an absolute beginnner, just to start observing in general then I would truely appreciate your support.

Many thanks,

Julian

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Telescope due for delivery tomorrow and a clear skies forecast, fingers crossed it all goes to plan, need to see Orion for the FutureLearning course as well.

I've just been to a site I've been looking at for observing and with the low cloud and drizzle it was quite noticeable the light pollution as I drove out from the local village and the deeper I went into the national black mountain park, the darker it went with all red tinge to the clouds lost and just pitch black viewing, the only drawback I see is the wind in this remote location?

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Julian Hands

Julian Hands

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Been doing the Open University, Future Learn Orion Course, quite interesting and really enjoyed going outdoors and taking a photograpgh of Orion for the first time last night.

Only had a short window to take the snap due to thick cloud rolling in but still had a quick play and got this:

gallery_40965_3559_5100.jpg

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