I have had enough--Part 2 The Solution

[laudropb]

A few weeks ago I posted of my frustrations at the lack of opertunies to observe this winter due to the permacloud here in the West of Scotland. My solution was to try a trip to Astrofarm. Confolens in France. Was it worth it? YOU BET. I had 6 nights and early mornings observing under beautiful dark skies. I got to use some lovely equipment and even tried my hand at some DSO imaging. The warm welcome and great service provided by Sue and Andrew was just the icing on the cake. I feel rejuvenated. This is an experience I would definitely recommend to others. I will post some observation reports soon, but it is taking time to sort through my notes from 6 full sessions. Many of them all nighters. Oh by the way , the bird watching in the local area is also very good.

[billyharris72]

Glad to hear it went so well - just what the doctor ordered! Off to Tenerife for some observing this October - fingers crossed.

Billy.

[Swoop1]

Good to hear that you had decent conditions. Sounds like you have your Astro Mojo back.

[xtreemchaos]

great stuff John, needs must, glad you had a great time mate.  you should move to south wales, but guess what ive got in the sky at the mo, its gray and spitefull. charl.

[andy fearn]

Hi laudropb.

glad you  had good condition's, i have seen astrofarm on tv and had considerd a trip for myself and wife (who is not astro minded) but wondered if there would be thing's for her to do ?

[laudropb]

31 minutes ago, billyharris72 said:

Glad to hear it went so well - just what the doctor ordered! Off to Tenerife for some observing this October - fingers crossed.

Billy.

Hi Billy. I was in Tenerife in February. Some nice dark skies if you get out of the main resorts. They also now do trips up mount Teide for star gazing if you don't fancy the drive yourself.

[laudropb]

12 minutes ago, andy fearn said:

Hi laudropb.

glad you  had good condition's, i have seen astrofarm on tv and had considerd a trip for myself and wife (who is not astro minded) but wondered if there would be thing's for her to do ?

Hi Andy. I suppose it depends on how you intend to travel. I flew from Glasgow and the beauty of it was I could travel " light ". They even supply all your toiletries so I only had cabin luggage. There are lots of lovely quaint towns in the surrounding area, but you would need to drive to get to them. I was lucky in that I was the only guest for part of my time there and Sue or Andrew drove me to various locations as they went about their daily business.

Have a look at their excellent website. It is full of useful information.

[andy fearn]

Thank you.will take a look.clear skies.

[mikeDnight]

So it's you that's responsible for at least two of the plague of vapour trails that spoil my seeing! 

I'll not hold it against you though, and I'm glad you had a great time. 

Mike 

[iapa]

1 hour ago, laudropb said:

Hi Billy. I was in Tenerife in February. Some nice dark skies if you get out of the main resorts. They also now do trips up mount Teide for star gazing if you don't fancy the drive yourself.

Some one mentioned that to me the other day - and that while they spent some time getting camera setup just as they were about to take their shots were told the bus leaves NOW! Not sure how long they were actually stopped for tho'

 

[Saganite]

Excellent John, glad you had such a great time. 

[Stu]

Great stuff John, very pleased you had good conditions.

We don't often (ever?) see observing reports from you, so I am looking forward to a good read.

[Peter Drew]

2 hours ago, billyharris72 said:

Glad to hear it went so well - just what the doctor ordered! Off to Tenerife for some observing this October - fingers crossed.

Billy.

Contact Steve Phelps at Tenerife Astronomy Society, he hosts their meetings and offers commercial trips for very amateur friendly "up mountain" observing with pickups from the main southern resorts.  

[billyharris72]

12 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Contact Steve Phelps at Tenerife Astronomy Society

Funnily enough that's who I'm organising the holiday through - a company called Dark Skies Teneriffe.

[laudropb]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

So it's you that's responsible for at least two of the plague of vapour trails that spoil my seeing! 

I'll not hold it against you though, and I'm glad you had a great time. 

Mike 

Sorry it would have been 4 trails Mike. I had to fly to Stansted and then on to Limoges from there.

[Stub Mandrel]

It's great to hear you have fully recharged your astro batteries!

[MoonNut]

Great to hear you had a fantastic trip, looking forward to your report and thinking seriously about going there myself!

 

 

[niallk]

Nice one: sounds fantastic!

I've gotten out once in about 7 weeks, but it was a great night: just getting even one good observing session in can really fan the flame

[msh1]

my sister lives about 10 mins drive from Confolens ,we are talking about moving my observatory there ,she has about 10 acres of land and its pitch black at night ,i should be able to run obsy via team viewer 

[Floater]

Result! ??

[FenlandPaul]

I've long read about your cloud frustrations, John (learned your real name from this thread!), but been really grateful for the encouragement you give to others when we post observing reports and images. Like Stu I'm looking forward to reading your reports now! 

Paul

[laudropb]

15 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

I've long read about your cloud frustrations, John (learned your real name from this thread!), but been really grateful for the encouragement you give to others when we post observing reports and images. Like Stu I'm looking forward to reading your reports now! 

Paul

Thanks Paul.

[Cjg]

Glad you had a great time, and have had dark clear nights too.  A few nights with good Stargazing really does help.

Chris

[johnfosteruk]

I'm so glad you had such a great time at Confolens John. Hopefully you've brought some clear skies back with you too. 

[laudropb]

Thanks John. Not exactly clear skies, but I did manage a short session on Jupiter last night.