The AstroFarm B&B in Confolens, France

[Cjg]

It's been nearly two weeks since I've returned from a short break and work has kept me from writing a review of http://theknowledgeobservatory.com/.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the AstroFarm, superb from the moment that I was met at Limoges airport by Andrew. The accommodation, the food and the skies were superb. My room had shutters on the windows, so on the two nights I was up until almost 7am, I slept soundly undisturbed by sunlight.

In terms of sky quality, I've seen stars from here that I have not from Seething, as an example, there are a group of 3 (?) stars beneath Alkaid; they are named Asellus (according to Stellarium) easily seen, reminded me of a mini Triangulum in shape. There is a faint star that you can use as the final "hop" to M81/M82...I struggle to see this at Seething, but was immediately obvious from the AstroFarm.

Sue is an accomplished cook, her meals were made with local ingredients and were delicious....they own chickens, so scrambled eggs for breakfast were superb. The "common room" called the Hub has free wifi, it was fast enough to pick up emails and keep track of the sports from the BBC website. Stacked with enough teabags, coffee and hot chocolate too.

Andrew is a knowledgeable observer and has built one observatory, with a viewing platform and second observatory in the making.  Over the two nights full on observing, I saw 68 Messier objects in my little Tak, with 27 completely new to me.

I'll be going back when I can.

 

Chris Greenfield