Your Astro Holiday Plans

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My plan so far is to go to a little camp site some way outside Cahors, in southern France. I had beautiful dark skies there. It is quite close to the "Black Triangle of Quercy" and I might well drive there with the kit (C8 and loads of other kit all fits easily into the Espace ). I might later visit Pic du Midi and environs. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

Niall, any star party that does black pudding on a BBQ has to be worth a visit:

 

[faulksy]

lake district or scotland with the kids and my new dob, and the highlands with the other kids (steve and calv) late on for a week

[billyharris72]

My missus's fiftieth birthday has just gone, and we decided to have a big holiday to celebrate. Don't know how I managed this but I somehow convinced her (she's vaguely interested in astronomy but would never go outside in the cold and dark just to see some stuff in the sky) that what she really needed was a two week cruise in northern Norway this October, with daily lectures from Ian Ridpath.

I'm tagging along to provide company and moral support.

[scarp15]

On 6/19/2016 at 22:36, m.tweedy said:

looking forward to a 7 week New Zealand trip in January. My wife is aware that certain bits of Astronomy gear will be coming along for the ride.

Kielder Autumn Star camp before then.

Sounds wonderful, interesting to learn what astronomy gear you plan on taking Micheal. Hope too to make Kielder Star camp in the Autumn.

[m.tweedy]

Iain i normally take my WO66 plus some WO eyepieces and carbon Fibre tripod. The decisions is Astrotrac or Star Adventurer. The Canon 600 has the Baader mod. Various other bits and bobs-rigel that i modded to fit on my camera hot shoe, trigger trap, home made (by one of my Astro friends) battery operated dew band for camera lens.

Want list-Samyang 14mm as the 9mm fisheye does not give me the view i like.

see you Kielder or Starbque at Derwent prior to then.

[BGazing]

Corfu, then Zagorohoria. 39 deg latitude, so fairly south. The later should be fairly dark, I expect over 21, and 21.5 at places.

One benefit of living in Serbia is that I will drive there, so no probs getting the equipment in the estate.

[neural]

This year it's Andalucia for us - we're splitting a week between Granada* where I'm not expecting much skywatching, and a little farm place just outside somewhere called Busquistar which is in the Sierra Nevada national park. High hopes! My trusty binocs and monopod will be taking up most of my luggage space as usual.

* (just typed Grandad there, not quite the same)

[BGazing]

On 15/06/2016 at 09:37, ollypenrice said:

Yesterday a former guest and now friend, who bought a house in this area, called round to introduce us to a New Zealand couple who run an astro B and B in NZ. http://www.stargazersbb.com/

They couldn't have been nicer people and their place looks terrific. If ever I manage to head down that way I won't hesitate to spend some time there.

Olly

Only noticed this now. Coromandel peninsula is beautiful...been there and hope to get to NZ again. This gets bookmarked until then.

[MarkyD]

Well my week in the Lake District was 100% cloud cover :(.  Pity as the view was zero light pollution except a farm in the valley.  I captured this time lapse instead on the Canon

 

[BGazing]

On 01/07/2016 at 23:09, neural said:

This year it's Andalucia for us - we're splitting a week between Granada* where I'm not expecting much skywatching, and a little farm place just outside somewhere called Busquistar which is in the Sierra Nevada national park. High hopes! My trusty binocs and monopod will be taking up most of my luggage space as usual.

* (just typed Grandad there, not quite the same)

dunno if you have checked this out...

http://www.andalucia.org/en/astrotourism-star-tourism/companies-specialising-in-astro-tourism-2/

[BGazing]

On 27/06/2016 at 00:19, BGazing said:

Corfu, then Zagorohoria. 39 deg latitude, so fairly south. The later should be fairly dark, I expect over 21, and 21.5 at places.

One benefit of living in Serbia is that I will drive there, so no probs getting the equipment in the estate.

update, zagorohoria is apparently full of people running some kind of marathon. go figure. 

so it will be tzoumerka instead. this place, http://www.theasis-igloo.com/en/ and the owner apparently has a 10 in dob! hope for some clear skies.

corfu is very, very humid atm. good seeing a couple of nights for the planets, but everything else is a wash, unless i uhc it.

[Beulah]

On 03/07/2016 at 09:39, MarkyD said:

Well my week in the Lake District was 100% cloud cover :(.  Pity as the view was zero light pollution except a farm in the valley.  I captured this time lapse instead on the Canon

 

What a lovely area of the UK. Great time lapse!

[neural]

On 14/07/2016 at 21:29, BGazing said:

dunno if you have checked this out...

http://www.andalucia.org/en/astrotourism-star-tourism/companies-specialising-in-astro-tourism-2/

Neat. Pleased to hear that the Sierra Nevada is "en proyecto para su certificación" as a dark sky reserve or the Spanish equivalent. I shall report back...

[BGazing]

10 minutes ago, neural said:

Neat. Pleased to hear that the Sierra Nevada is "en proyecto para su certificación" as a dark sky reserve or the Spanish equivalent. I shall report back...

Please do report. My missus is not too keen on astronomy, but likes the idea of Andalucia. Marriage is all about compromise, right?

[dwarfnebula]

Spending a few days later this week at a cabin north of Port Hope Michigan.  Very little in the way of light pollution in that area of the state .  Taking the 10 inch dob along and hoping for good observing weather.  

[ollypenrice]

There is something great about hearing about all these dark places in the wide world.

Olly

[Mikey0368]

We did an overnight stay in Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley, earlier this month just for the dark skies and it was wall to wall cloudy at night. Couldn't believe it!

We're going to Madras in Oregon for the eclipse next year. The hotels have long been sold out so we've got an RV and we're heading to Solarfest.  If nothing else they're promising proper beer and good food.....

http://oregonsolarfest.com/

 

[Beulah]

On 18/07/2016 at 08:31, neural said:

Neat. Pleased to hear that the Sierra Nevada is "en proyecto para su certificación" as a dark sky reserve or the Spanish equivalent. I shall report back...

Good news.

Lovely region of Spain and I wish we'd explored the area when backpacking many years ago.

Please report back!

[BGazing]

just to report. back from tzoumerka, greece, this place http://www.theasis-igloo.com/en/

excellent trekking and hiking, fantastic food and 21.45 sqm-l skies on your porch. property has a 10 inch dob, although it badly needs a new focuser and finderscope. still, my evo 8 did the trick.

it is very humid, though, but worth it. lovely views of the lagoon and swan for me, and i reckon even lovelier for those who live up north.

[ollypenrice]

On 25/07/2016 at 23:05, Mikey07 said:

We did an overnight stay in Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley, earlier this month just for the dark skies and it was wall to wall cloudy at night. Couldn't believe it!

We're going to Madras in Oregon for the eclipse next year. The hotels have long been sold out so we've got an RV and we're heading to Solarfest.  If nothing else they're promising proper beer and good food.....

http://oregonsolarfest.com/

 

You were surely unlucky. I was there in August a few years back and the sky was stunning. We slept in our hire car up on Dante's Peak to escape the 50 degree heat in the valley. 50 degrees at midnight... Holy moly.

Olly

[Mikey0368]

16 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

You were surely unlucky. I was there in August a few years back and the sky was stunning. We slept in our hire car up on Dante's Peak to escape the 50 degree heat in the valley. 50 degrees at midnight... Holy moly.

Olly

It's the second time we've been to Death Valley in the month of June and we saw rain both times!

[ollypenrice]

4 minutes ago, Mikey07 said:

It's the second time we've been to Death Valley in the month of June and we saw rain both times!

Wow. We cycled from Seatlle to San Francisco then hired a car and went to Death Valley and the National Parks etc for day rides. We set out mid July and flew home at the end of August. In seven weeks we had precisely no rain whatever. The nearest we got was Pacific mist but there was not one drop of rain throughout.

Olly

[jooli_ash]

The sky from the Forest of Dean was lovely, including my first session through the Aquila - Sagittarius area which is out of site from my back garden at home. This was done somewhat unconventionally from binoculars through the open living room window, but was breathtaking (and comfortable!)

I do find it hard to find suitable outside locations, on holiday or at home, there's always something that puts me off; usually the thought of being disturbed by someone who thinks I might be up to no good. On holiday especially I'm not sure how you can scout out good locations easily and quickly when you're booking a place, they don't normally tell you what the southerly view is like, or how many automatic security lights they have in the garden!

I wonder if this site can start a page of links or suggestions of tried and tested specific locations / properties that are really good for holiday astronomy?  Even a list of properties with their own telescopes would be a start - I've found 4-5 by googling but there must be many more surely?

[BGazing]

39 minutes ago, jooli_ash said:

The sky from the Forest of Dean was lovely, including my first session through the Aquila - Sagittarius area which is out of site from my back garden at home. This was done somewhat unconventionally from binoculars through the open living room window, but was breathtaking (and comfortable!)

I do find it hard to find suitable outside locations, on holiday or at home, there's always something that puts me off; usually the thought of being disturbed by someone who thinks I might be up to no good. On holiday especially I'm not sure how you can scout out good locations easily and quickly when you're booking a place, they don't normally tell you what the southerly view is like, or how many automatic security lights they have in the garden!

I wonder if this site can start a page of links or suggestions of tried and tested specific locations / properties that are really good for holiday astronomy?  Even a list of properties with their own telescopes would be a start - I've found 4-5 by googling but there must be many more surely?

I was thinking the same. have a subforum and open separate topics for countries (or, I guess, more topics for the UK) with geolocations, google earth pinning and possible photos.

that would be MEGA useful...