Greetings from WsM

[Deck_Dark]

Hi stargazers,

After lurking for info on various stargazing sites for a while, I’ve finally committed and joined a site, this site

I bought an Orion XT8 Dob a couple years ago, and after observing Jupiter and it’s moons through the eyepiece I’ve been hooked ever since.

Some recent additions to my setup are a Telrad, which is surpassingly large. As well as 9x50 Illuminated RACI. 

I’ve got a few questions about my setup, but I won’t pose them just yet, thought I’d say hi to everyone first and will have a look around the current threads before I post.

 

Cheers!

Ben

[Floater]

Welcome. I hope you have lots of fun with the forum and the hobby. 🙂

[Ruud]

      Hi Ben!

[ronl]

Hello Ben, and welcome to the community, hope you enjoy your time with us,

see you around the forums.

Clear Sky's.

[JamesF]

Welcome, from a short way down the M5.

James

[John]

Hi Ben,

Welcome from me as well - just a short way up the M5 at Portishead

Nice scope you have in the Orion 8 inch dob

[Deck_Dark]

Thanks for the nice welcome

 

Hi JamesF and John, nice to know there’s a few of us around the area . Have you got any favourite spots around the region?

[Nigella Bryant]

Hi Ben, yep a fair few around the south west. Welcome. 

[Deck_Dark]

Great, thanks Nigella, good to know

 

[John]

14 minutes ago, Deck_Dark said:

Thanks for the nice welcome

 

Hi JamesF and John, nice to know there’s a few of us around the area . Have you got any favourite spots around the region?

I mostly observe from my back garden but I'm a member of Bristol Astro Society who have a small observatory not far from me so I can also observe from there.

I've heard that the National Trust car park at Sand Point is a pretty dark spot but I've not yet tried it myself.

[sloz1664]

Hi Ben, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by sloz1664

[Deck_Dark]

7 minutes ago, John said:

I mostly observe from my back garden but I'm a member of Bristol Astro Society who have a small observatory not far from me so I can also observe from there.

I've heard that the National Trust car park at Sand Point is a pretty dark spot but I've not yet tried it myself.

Thanks John, I hadn’t even thought of Sand Bay. I’ll check out the Bristol AS as well, would be great to visit an observatory.

[Deck_Dark]

5 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

Hi Ben, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Stever

 

Thanks Stever, nice to have such a warm welcome from everyone and see this is a really active site.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL 

[JamesF]

22 minutes ago, Deck_Dark said:

Thanks for the nice welcome

 

Hi JamesF and John, nice to know there’s a few of us around the area . Have you got any favourite spots around the region?

John probably knows of better areas near you than I am likely to.  The skies are quite dark where I am so I don't really need to travel.

Obviously Exmoor is pretty good, but that's not somewhere you can just nip out to.  Looking at Google Earth I'd probably be tempted to head towards Axbridge.  Perhaps try the car park at the Webbington Hotel, or if you fancy something spooky, it looks like there's a car park opposite the church in Compton Bishop.  The yatch club site on Cheddar reservoir might be worth checking out, too.

James

[Deck_Dark]

1 hour ago, laudropb said:

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL 

Thanks very much laudropb 

[Deck_Dark]

59 minutes ago, JamesF said:

John probably knows of better areas near you than I am likely to.  The skies are quite dark where I am so I don't really need to travel.

Obviously Exmoor is pretty good, but that's not somewhere you can just nip out to.  Looking at Google Earth I'd probably be tempted to head towards Axbridge.  Perhaps try the car park at the Webbington Hotel, or if you fancy something spooky, it looks like there's a car park opposite the church in Compton Bishop.  The yatch club site on Cheddar reservoir might be worth checking out, too.

James

Some great suggestions there, thanks James. Do you just look for low populated areas on google earth, or is there a dark skies 'layer' or something similar that you've added?

[Demonperformer]

Hi, Ben, and welcome to SGL.

Enjoy the journey.

[PeterCPC]

Hello Ben and welcome.

Peter

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Ben, welcome. 

[rwilkey]

Hi Ben, a warm welcome from me too, just up the road and along a bit.  Hope you enjoy your stay here, there's lots of info on this forum and a great lot of friendly people.  Clear skies!

[cletrac1922]

Ben

Welcome from Land Down Under

You travel the universe in this forum

To add another dimension to you viewing, thought about solar

Simple to do

The had plastic cover of your Orion, has a small removable cap

Simply sticky tape some Baader Visual Solar Film to under side of cover, and you set

 

[Rob wright]

Hi Weston here too.

roman road is a good spot as it raised, I observed Mercury from there.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Rob wright

[JRM]

Hello Ben, welcome to the lounge.

Rick

[Ships and Stars]

Welcome Ben, I'm quite new here as well. Or inexperienced. Take you pick! Haha.

Nice dob by the way!

You were asking above about a dark skies layer for GE. I don't think there is one per se, but I use light pollution map to tease out which places might offer the better views.

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=6&lat=7017101&lon=-323978&layers=B0FFFFFTFFFFF

It shows approximate light pollution in SQM and uses the Bortle scale which runs from 1 (very dark skies) to 9 (ouch, sorry!)

There are other environmental factors as well for seeing conditions beyond simple darkness, but this is the fundamental place to start. Once I find a dark area, I then check it out on Google Earth and see what roads are accessible to the public. My ideal spot is on a private road near where I live, quite high up so excellent views all-around, but I haven't worked up the nerve yet to ask the landowner if I can drive up there with my scope. The worst they can say is no, really.

Where I live at home isn't great, but I can still get some decent views in without loading the scope and driving out of town.

Happy viewing!