Dark sites - Minninglow Car Park anyone?

[RichLD]

I managed to get out to my nearest dark site at Surprise View last night for the first time in 2 years for some widefield Orion action. It was not a successful evening - on top of various antisocial "human entertainment",  5 billion lumen headtorches/cycle headlights and a "sheep in wolf's clothing" Corsa that had clearly ram-raided Halfords parking right next to me and leaving the engine running, lights on and blasting out Niche Bassline at high volume, one of my cameras ceased to function and now appears dead - I'm gutted! I managed 50m luminance, 25m Red and 50m HA...?

So, to the question - has anyone tried Minninglow Car Park, DE4 2PN for imaging/stargazing? If so, how did you find it? Was it better or worse than my description of Surprise View above?

I'm also open to suggestions of other sites - it would be lovely if there was a stargazing friendly campsite, farmers field or similar to use, I'm willing to pay.

 

Thanks!

 

Rich ?

[Spacehead]

"human entertainment"
Yeah - too many chav scum around these days to be in a public place with expensive kit.  This country has gone down the toilet.

[Paul73]

Can’t be many worse places to image!

I did enjoy your descriptions though. Could be that secluded car parks atract ‘entertaining’ types. I’ve had success with footpaths where you can park in a field entrance and hide behind a hedge only 10 meters from your car. It does require a scoping trip in daylight. Having a couple of options ready is a good idea, as I once turned up to my chosen spot to find that a brightly lit camper van had chosen my spot for the night. Finding another location in the dark proved difficult.

Paul

[RichLD]

10 hours ago, Spacehead said:

"human entertainment"
Yeah - too many chav scum around these days to be in a public place with expensive kit.  This country has gone down the toilet.

Quite! I don't think the recent spate of good, unseasonal weather helped TBH. I've imaged there a lot before and it's never been that bad!

4 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Can’t be many worse places to image!

I did enjoy your descriptions though. Could be that secluded car parks atract ‘entertaining’ types. I’ve had success with footpaths where you can park in a field entrance and hide behind a hedge only 10 meters from your car. It does require a scoping trip in daylight. Having a couple of options ready is a good idea, as I once turned up to my chosen spot to find that a brightly lit camper van had chosen my spot for the night. Finding another location in the dark proved difficult.

Paul

Surprise View used to be an excellent imaging site but I will definitely take your advice - a scoping exercise in Summer could be very enjoyable in its own right!