Is the difference between Bottle 2 from 3 worth driving an extra 3 hours?

[MKHACHFE]

Hi all,

I'm planning on taking my XT8 to a darker site than my Bottle 5 home location this October or November and have spent many evenings trying to find the best place that isn't on the other side of the UK (I live in Kent).

I've narrowed it down to either SW Isle of Wight which is B3 rating or south of Bude which seems to have a B2 rating according to Clearskies website. 

So my question is basically is the increase in darkness worth the longer journey. I'm assuming most of you will say yes, so my follow-up question would then be: is B3 a HUGE upgrade from B5? Basically, will a B3 site blow my mind already?

Edited to ask if this image is an accurate representation.

 

Cheers

Edited September 30, 2019 by MKHACHFE

[pregulla]

How long do you plan to spend there? For one night 3 hours extra sounds like a lot and I would probably settle on bortle 3. If it's more than that I'd go for as dark site as possible or you will keep wondering how would it be under darker skies.
 

Bortle 3 is the darkest available for me. I live under bortle 6 skies and the difference is huge. I can barely detect the milky way at home, at bortle 3 site it looks very detailed and impressive. My first night I spent more time with binoculars than a telescope. Obviously DSOs look more impressive too and fainter ones can be seen.

 

 

 

 

[joe aguiar]

Quote

so to start u live in a yellow zone I think ( I don't use the bortle zone as the descprtion of the different zones seem to be off to me) so I use the colour zones.

anyway if your in a yellow you are much better than a lot of the population who live in the city (white zone ) like me.

I used to drive 90 min just to get to a orange zone for 2 hrs then back. so taking the go to time and back that 5 to 6 hrs which is a lot for same night looking.

later on I went to a friends cottage and 3 years in a row my family went on vaction each year to cottage resorts all 3 were in green zone. the green zone is where I would say the real dark skies begin and you will really see those dso well.

after that I got into a blue zone which is what your saying which is of course better but half of my south skies were blocked.then later I got into a grey skies which u guys called zone 2, which is 2nd best there is.

so saying all this is I think the blue zone is fine there wont be a HUGE difference between blue and grey. yes theres some diff. if the drive is not long then do it if its another long drive for 1 zone better I say do the blue zone

hope that helps

joejaguar