Best places to travel for astronomy ?

[Olli]

Hi 

 

I’m thinking about doing a solo trip next year and would like to do some Astro photography while I’m on holiday I was just wondering where are the best places to go which have really dark skies?

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Assuming you mean in Britain, then take your pick:

https://gostargazing.co.uk/location-map

https://www.darksky.org/dark-sky-places-in-the-uk-and-ireland/

 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Gfamily]

8 minutes ago, Olli said:

Hi 

I’m thinking about doing a solo trip next year and would like to do some Astro photography while I’m on holiday I was just wondering where are the best places to go which have really dark skies?

Are you looking to travel abroad, or within the UK? How will you be travelling; by car,  plane, camper van? 

Within the UK, the main problem with summer travel is that you only get proper astronomical darkness for a very short while, so a winter trip may be preferable. We had a good time at Loch Morlich (near Aviemore) in November a few years back. The campsite has access through a stand of trees to the beach, which effectively cuts off all light pollution.  Othewise, there are places in Wales that have good dark skies.

Abroad, you are likely to find it easier to get away from light pollution. We've had some stunning dark skies in the Spanish interior. 

Have you considered joining a Star Party? These have the advantage of taking over a campsite (which can have annoying lighting "to help the campers") so there is better control of lighting, and there will be like minded people to share ideas with - and give advice if you think you need it. 

What equipment are you thinking of taking? 

[John]

Namibia is reputed to have some very dark skies:

https://www.wolwedans.com/destination/dark-sky-reserve/

We visited Australia for a month last November but only had a couple of clear nights on the whole trip !

We are going to northern Arizona later this year and I believe the skies there can be very good.

Closer to home there is Exmoor, the Elan Valley and Keilder all of which are known for dark skies.

[Gfamily]

Useful resources that will give you sky quality measures - though not the likelihood of getting clear skies

Clear Outside website  http://clearoutside.com/forecast

Light Pollution Map  https://www.lightpollutionmap.info

[Olli]

18 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

Are you looking to travel abroad, or within the UK? How will you be travelling; by car,  plane, camper van? 

Within the UK, the main problem with summer travel is that you only get proper astronomical darkness for a very short while, so a winter trip may be preferable. We had a good time at Loch Morlich (near Aviemore) in November a few years back. The campsite has access through a stand of trees to the beach, which effectively cuts off all light pollution.  Othewise, there are places in Wales that have good dark skies.

Abroad, you are likely to find it easier to get away from light pollution. We've had some stunning dark skies in the Spanish interior. 

Have you considered joining a Star Party? These have the advantage of taking over a campsite (which can have annoying lighting "to help the campers") so there is better control of lighting, and there will be like minded people to share ideas with - and give advice if you think you need it. 

What equipment are you thinking of taking? 

Hi I am thinking of travelling abroad and I’m thinking of just taking a SA and maybe a small telescope to put on it nothing to big. Haven’t thought much about it but I’d probably travel by plane and hopefully stay somewhere that is close to a dark site that I could hopefully walk to.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Olli

[Olli]

11 minutes ago, John said:

Namibia is reputed to have some very dark skies:

https://www.wolwedans.com/destination/dark-sky-reserve/

We visited Australia for a month last November but only had a couple of clear nights on the whole trip !

We are going to northern Arizona later this year and I believe the skies there can be very good.

Closer to home there is Exmoor, the Elan Valley and Keilder all of which are known for dark skies.

Thanks for the advice. That’s the only problem is the weather, I’m trying to find somewhere that’s got other things to do as well I was thinking Hawaii but maybe that’s abit extreme, Tenerife seems to be a popular place.

[Astro Buer]

Tenerife is a very good choice. It’s extremely accessible as you can drive up to the base of Teide at 2,200m to be above the clouds. There are also a lot of parking bays up there which makes setting up a breeze. Bang for buck it’s an excellent astro holiday. 

As for other things to do on the island, you’d be surprised what you can find when you head away from the main tourist areas. 

Another option is La Palma, which in my opinion is more dramatic with the views over the Caldera, and it’s a touch darker than Tenerife, but not a deal breaker by any means. The most structure I have ever seen in the central core Milky Way (from the northern hemisphere) was from Tenerife last June. The only problem with La Palma is there are not as many accessible spots at the top in which to set up. But that’s not to say there aren’t any... once I bumped into a gentlemen nestled into a nook precariously on the side of the caldera with his dob he’d ferried all the way from Holland...! Anything is possible. 

With the Canaries, if you want ease, Tenerife is best. If you want a little bit of extra drama, go La Palma

[jock1958]

I visited Tenerife a couple of months ago and it has excellent dark skies with virtually nil LP. 

I was gobsmacked what I could see even though I only had my binoculars.

There are regular Astro trips up Mount El Teide a renowned dark site, which I sadly missed out on 🙁

 

[jock1958]

28 minutes ago, Astro Buer said:

Tenerife is a very good choice. It’s extremely accessible as you can drive up to the base of Teide at 2,200m to be above the clouds. There are also a lot of parking bays up there which makes setting up a breeze. Bang for buck it’s an excellent astro holiday. 

As for other things to do on the island, you’d be surprised what you can find when you head away from the main tourist areas. 

Another option is La Palma, which in my opinion is more dramatic with the views over the Caldera, and it’s a touch darker than Tenerife, but not a deal breaker by any means. The most structure I have ever seen in the central core Milky Way (from the northern hemisphere) was from Tenerife last June. The only problem with La Palma is there are not as many accessible spots at the top in which to set up. But that’s not to say there aren’t any... once I bumped into a gentlemen nestled into a nook precariously on the side of the caldera with his dob he’d ferried all the way from Holland...! Anything is possible. 

With the Canaries, if you want ease, Tenerife is best. If you want a little bit of extra drama, go La Palma

Ha ha you just beat me to it!  

[almcl]

We visited Wyoming last August, to a ranch running a week long 'Astronomy Retreat'.  We had use of a 10" Dob, solar scopes and a 20" dob which was bought out on 3 nights.  Skies were great and they even got me on a horse during the day time for the first time in my life.  My avatar is a picture from one of the nights.

[Trikeflyer]

Olly Penrice’s place les granges in France alps has dark skies and some great tips on Astro photography. 

Steve 

[Olli]

2 hours ago, Astro Buer said:

Tenerife is a very good choice. It’s extremely accessible as you can drive up to the base of Teide at 2,200m to be above the clouds. There are also a lot of parking bays up there which makes setting up a breeze. Bang for buck it’s an excellent astro holiday. 

As for other things to do on the island, you’d be surprised what you can find when you head away from the main tourist areas. 

Another option is La Palma, which in my opinion is more dramatic with the views over the Caldera, and it’s a touch darker than Tenerife, but not a deal breaker by any means. The most structure I have ever seen in the central core Milky Way (from the northern hemisphere) was from Tenerife last June. The only problem with La Palma is there are not as many accessible spots at the top in which to set up. But that’s not to say there aren’t any... once I bumped into a gentlemen nestled into a nook precariously on the side of the caldera with his dob he’d ferried all the way from Holland...! Anything is possible. 

With the Canaries, if you want ease, Tenerife is best. If you want a little bit of extra drama, go La Palma

Thanks for the help sounds like Tenerife would be a good place to go to.

[Roy Challen]

19 hours ago, Astro Buer said:

 If you want a little bit of extra drama, go La Palma

But if you want a lot of extra adventure, you could do worse than the far southeastern part of Kazakhstan. No light pollution at all, no overhead flight paths, no facilities of any kind, no English! But you'll find the darkest skies imaginable. As an indication to how remote this region is, it's not far from the Eurasian Pole of Inaccessibility. La Palma is probably nice too, but I haven't been there!

[Gfamily]

As well as Les Granges (Olly's place) in Provence, there's also Astrofarm France near Limoges / Poitiers. 

http://astrofarmfrance.com/

It has a fully equipped RoR observatory and a range of scopes, or you can take your own. 

[StevieO]

I too have been thinking about where and how to get away from the UK clouds.

A simple solution  would be to go somewhere where they have all the equipment you may need and use theirs, like Astrofarm or Les Granges. My trip to Les Granges (Hi Ollie!) a few years ago is still green in my memory and I still have images on my wall from that trip.

More adventurously, go to somewhere like La Palma or Tenerife, and take your own gear. Easyjet fly to both places and, out of season, accommodation costs would be low. Then you can rent a car and drive up into the mountains and set up. My problem with this approach would the amount of gear it would be necessary to take in order to take full advantage of the pristine skies: mount/tripod, OTA, laptop, cables, camera, power supply etc etc. - enough to cost a small fortune in excess baggage fees.  I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has taken this approach and how it turned out.

All the best

StevieO