Tearing my hair out...

[LondonNeil]

Good question!  It's bortle 8-9 here which limits things.  I'm taking the approach of just try for myself to see what is possible and how much fun it is.   This is still only week 3 so I really am just doing short sessions,  an hour or sometimes just half,  it's not about any particular view it's about learning my way around the kit and the sky, learning the hobby.   So far I've just been on my driveway, looking over the street lights and houses,  but once I'm a bit more clued up I intend to walk to the end of the street where there is a small area of greenery away from the street lights and its bortle 7. The Lawns at Beulah spa. Still not great but hopefully worth the 3-4 minutes walk each way! 

I suspect my targets will be restricted to zenith and south. Firstly I'm on the southern side of the crystal palace ridge but also,  walking my daughter home from cubs last week she asked about navigating so I mentioned the big dipper and pole star, looked round.... that's odd..... pull out Stellaryium beginning to really get confused...ah.  I was looking where it should have been but the whole northern sky had no stars visible.... it was the glow of London!  The haze over Croydon is not the same...I can still see Saturn with the naked eyes,  get the red dot on it and boom! There it is rings and all.

If I really get into it then it's only 20  minutes in the car to places like selsdon woods or Addington woods where it begins to get a bit darker, or biggin Hill is another 15-20 mins and down to bortle 4 I think,  or 5.  I think that there is an astro club based there which I'll try and get to once I know in looking at the right end of the scope..... you do peer down the fat end,  right? 😄

I've also got family in Essex,  bortle 4 ish, so could take the kit when I visit. 

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

2 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

The Lawns at Beulah spa.

That area can be really soft and soggy. When my kids were very young I took them there on first bikes. My daughter went careering down the slope straight towards a tree. I sprinted after her and had to 'rugby tackle' the bike to save her. I was covered from head to toe, the wet mud even went inside my shirt, but when I said we must go home they threw such a tantrum of disappointment that I had to let them play for an hour. I got some very odd looks!

[LondonNeil]

You know where it's name comes from? It has a 'spa' or waters. The spring water was said to be better than Bath and the spas were twice visited by Queen Victoria.  The bottom of the slope,  where the houses start again were small lakes,  there was a maze and some buildings, an auditorium or something.   There is still a small spring all year,  I've never seen it dry, and many places in the surrounding area are very wet..... my own back garden is a swamp most winters hence I can't use it much.   The garden also has the house restricting views south and lots of large oak trees (Norwood =North wood..... its a very green locale) .  I know the bits of the Lawns that are dry though.... the all weather ballcourt for a start,  but also the top near the spring is actually a dry and firm ground. 

I taught my kids to ride their bikes there too!  All 3 doing their first unsupported pedalling at the Lawns.

I guess Mr H you aren't nearby any more though  ..Yorkshire is quite a way away!

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

1 hour ago, LondonNeil said:

I guess Mr H you aren't nearby any more though  ..Yorkshire is quite a way away!

We simply could not afford to live in London any more. Moved to a small dales town, it was like moving to heaven. We lived at the lower end of Clive Road, the River Effra (see old maps) ran along the gardens there, ours was so waterlogged that it was unwalkable in winter. I dug a pond for frogs and about a spade depth down water actually squirted out of worm holes. The upside was that while most houses suffered damage from clay shrinkage in that era, if you look carefully you will see all the cracked lintels along the road, but ours did not, nor did the massive trees at the garden junctures suffer either.  

[LondonNeil]

Just on the north side of the ridge,  at the bottom.  I cycle into work in Victoria and go along Croxted Road the road parallel. 

Yes I know,  show me a building in South London without some cracks,  haha.

[RJC]

My last 2 years in London/Kent were in Beckenham so not too far from you there.

Moving back to Cornwall was also like heaven after a decade of London.

I miss it at times but I don’t think I could go back now.
SW was great at the time but we got priced out so ended up buying in Streatham Hill, not quite as nice

@Mr H in Yorkshire A small Dales town sounds nice, I’m a Yorkshireman at heart, I lived in West Yorkshire until I was 9 before moving to Cornwall.
The Dales is my favourite place to holiday in the UK! We go most years.