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Exmoor Observing Sites


MercianDabbler

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Just back from a week on Exmoor... planned for the waning/new moon and with the telescope along for the ride. I had a few clear nights and needed to figure out where to set up.

Doing a search online turns up pages and pages of recommendations but most seem to be either direct from the tourist board or various newspapers and travel sites basically rehashing the same info. Finding recommendations from people who had actually used a telescope on Exmoor proved more tricky and some postings on here were about the best I found so thanks to the folks who posted here.

If anyone knows of any other good info (i.e. based on experience) then I'd be interested to know. Do other folks really spend their nights set up in rural car parks with occasional passing traffic? I didn't see anyone else doing astronomy, in spite of the moon phase and proximity to the Dark Skies Festival.

A few experiences of my own, staying (this time) near Combe Martin at the West end of the moor...

The tourist info centre has a leaflet with a map of the darkest areas and recommended locations for observing. I was puzzled by a 'minor road' shown running through the dark area which as far as I can gether is not a road at all but a boundary line.

One cloudy night was forecast to clear later (it didn't). While waiting I checked out a few of the recommended sites...

'Brendon Two Gates'. A cattle grid on the B3223 road across the moor. Two big laybys to the south (enclosed) side. Continuing North is more fruitful - the road is then unfenced and there are several car parks with clear views to the West. A couple of these were my chosen observing locations. They can be pretty exposed in windy conditions. There were two distant pools of sky glow to the West, presumably from Barnstaple and Ilfracombe. The road was quiet at night with no more than 5 cars passing during the 2-2.5 hours I was there each night. Several car parks were occupied by camper vans parked up for the night. Watch out for sheep bedding down on the road too.

'Goat Hill Bridge'. Two laybys alongside the B3358 road. In a river valley with high ground to either side. I didn't stick around, feeling that there would be more passing traffic on this road. On one night I passed this location the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife... fortunately the higher B3223 car parks were crystal clear.

'Valley of Rocks'. I was only here during daytime. Two off road car parks. A deep valley so forget anything near the horizon but if you want star trails with spectacular rock formations in the foreground then this is the place. The 'through' road goes across a private estate and I imagine that passing traffic will be minimal.

'Holdstone Down'. A proper off road car park on high ground overlooking the Bristol Channel with views across to South Wales and attendant lights. Higher ground to the South and West so objects near the horizon would be hidden. Ithe road here is very minor so I would expect minimal passing traffic.

'West Anstey Common'. Not one from this trip but I spent a few hours there on a previous trip when staying near Dulverton. Not in the darkest part of the park, having open views over the hinterland between Exmoor and Dartmoor. Parking near one of the boundaries it was possible to get a fair way off the road and the boundary shielded me from any approaching headlights from that direction. Passing traffic was infrequent.

Anyone got anything to add about these or other sites?

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3 minutes ago, MercianDabbler said:

Just back from a week on Exmoor... planned for the waning/new moon and with the telescope along for the ride. I had a few clear nights and needed to figure out where to set up.

Doing a search online turns up pages and pages of recommendations but most seem to be either direct from the tourist board or various newspapers and travel sites basically rehashing the same info. Finding recommendations from people who had actually used a telescope on Exmoor proved more tricky and some postings on here were about the best I found so thanks to the folks who posted here.

If anyone knows of any other good info (i.e. based on experience) then I'd be interested to know. Do other folks really spend their nights set up in rural car parks with occasional passing traffic? I didn't see anyone else doing astronomy, in spite of the moon phase and proximity to the Dark Skies Festival.

A few experiences of my own, staying (this time) near Combe Martin at the West end of the moor...

The tourist info centre has a leaflet with a map of the darkest areas and recommended locations for observing. I was puzzled by a 'minor road' shown running through the dark area which as far as I can gether is not a road at all but a boundary line.

One cloudy night was forecast to clear later (it didn't). While waiting I checked out a few of the recommended sites...

'Brendon Two Gates'. A cattle grid on the B3223 road across the moor. Two big laybys to the south (enclosed) side. Continuing North is more fruitful - the road is then unfenced and there are several car parks with clear views to the West. A couple of these were my chosen observing locations. They can be pretty exposed in windy conditions. There were two distant pools of sky glow to the West, presumably from Barnstaple and Ilfracombe. The road was quiet at night with no more than 5 cars passing during the 2-2.5 hours I was there each night. Several car parks were occupied by camper vans parked up for the night. Watch out for sheep bedding down on the road too.

'Goat Hill Bridge'. Two laybys alongside the B3358 road. In a river valley with high ground to either side. I didn't stick around, feeling that there would be more passing traffic on this road. On one night I passed this location the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife... fortunately the higher B3223 car parks were crystal clear.

'Valley of Rocks'. I was only here during daytime. Two off road car parks. A deep valley so forget anything near the horizon but if you want star trails with spectacular rock formations in the foreground then this is the place. The 'through' road goes across a private estate and I imagine that passing traffic will be minimal.

'Holdstone Down'. A proper off road car park on high ground overlooking the Bristol Channel with views across to South Wales and attendant lights. Higher ground to the South and West so objects near the horizon would be hidden. Ithe road here is very minor so I would expect minimal passing traffic.

'West Anstey Common'. Not one from this trip but I spent a few hours there on a previous trip when staying near Dulverton. Not in the darkest part of the park, having open views over the hinterland between Exmoor and Dartmoor. Parking near one of the boundaries it was possible to get a fair way off the road and the boundary shielded me from any approaching headlights from that direction. Passing traffic was infrequent.

Anyone got anything to add about these or other sites?

Would be really good if you can tag or somehow copy paste this thread into the Devon & Cornwall club topic list, as I think it is relevant there.

And if you are in Devon, join the club!!

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19 minutes ago, gilesco said:

Would be really good if you can tag or somehow copy paste this thread into the Devon & Cornwall club topic list, as I think it is relevant there.

And if you are in Devon, join the club!!

Alas I'm now back to my familiar Midlands sky glow and the telescope is tucked up in its box. Not sure on the etiquette of cross posting/linking on here. Views from locals would be very welcome, as would views from visitors like myself.

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2 hours ago, PeterW said:

Their Dark Sky Reserve application and annual reports can be found here: https://www.darksky.org/our-work/conservation/idsp/reserves/exmoor/

Sounds like you’ve had a look from the sites they list.

Thanks for the link - interesting to see the up to date reports.

Yes I did use their leaflet to find sites but showing just 'Brendon Two Gates' on the cross moorland road did strike me as missing the opportunity of showing the other parking areas slightly further North on the same road - these are more open and in most cases allow you to get further away from the road than the site indicated on the map. The Goat Hill Bridge site is not shown in the tourist board leaflet - this one came from the 'Go Stargazing' web site.

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The SQM data they list is very good. E sites need to be reasonably accessible and useable. We know of a site in the South Downs that’s good, but the road isn’t, so it’s not on the dark skies list.

 

peter

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