Local Groups near Otley ... Able to help relative newbie

[Star searcher]

Hi,

Relative Newbie to Astrophotography ... 

Have a few successful night shots and have purchased a Star tracker adventurer to do longer tracked exposures .... 

Wondered if there is somebody who can show me where I am going wrong ...  Still think I haven't polar aligned properly ...watched all the u tube stuff ..

Also to arrange dark sky trips . I have a few places in mind  ... Already been to kielder and Northumberland coast .. Tan hill and local sites not a problem ...

Thanks

[Fozzie]

Hi Star searcher, welcom to SGL..  im assuming Otley, north leeds? North or south side?

There are a few group's around.. leeds astro who meet at the new inn eccup, bradford AS (not sure where they meet) and harrogate AS ( which im lead to believe is not an active observing society, more of an "arm chair group"

As for sites, anywhere north and west of harrogate gets dark quickly, thruscross, fewston reservoirs give nice back drops and not as far to travel.. with the star adventurer you're very mobile!

HTH

Fozzie

[Star searcher]

Hi Fozzie

Thankyou for the reply ....

Yes a

I am between all 3 cities ... north of Leeds .... i have popped over to Brimham  Rocks a few times good skies north ... 

Malham is supposed to be good too ..

I will look at the groups mentioned thanks 

Star searcher

[Fozzie]

No problem Bryan, ive not tried brimham yet, been up to the far end of thruscross a few times with the scope..

As for polar alignment, i can get good tracking at home with a motorised mount, but thats because ive marked the garden up with a North marker.. if you need any pointers let me know as im only a few minutes away.. ive been looking at a star adventurer also sonutd be nice to see one in the flesh!

Ta

Fozzie 

[Star searcher]

There is too much lighy pollution at my house to polar align ... 

Sounds like a good idea to me ... any help aligning will be great ..also you can see kit ...

[MikeJames]

thinking of nipping the Otley Chevin sunday morning to observe Jupiter - is it a good spot and is anyone else considering going?

 

[Fozzie]

7 hours ago, MikeJames said:

thinking of nipping the Otley Chevin sunday morning to observe Jupiter - is it a good spot and is anyone else considering going?

 

I suspect from.the paddock near the car parks or up near the royalty pub you'll get the vantage point from the chevin.. I'll be setting my alarm for it but it'll be the comfort of the garden for me as I have good horizon east and South.. 

Good luck if you venture up..

[MikeJames]

that's where i was thinking - i know that bit quite well from walking.

didn't make it there but I did get up to view and had a naked eye view but there was low cloud and slow moving so didn't get any decent scope time.