Where do you observe/image?

[Beulah]

I am just curious as to how many people observe on their property, whether it's a small/large garden, at a village hall or field far away from neighbours, or whether the only opportunity you get is at your local astronomy group meeting or star party.

If you don't observe/image at home, how far are you willing to travel?

[starstalker]

Atm i use my local harbour(rye) it's pretty dark accept for a load of orange street lights that are about 200 meters away where the boats dock I also have flashing green and red lights that show the way out to sea, it's about a 5 minute drive but I am on the lookout for a better site I'd be willing to drive 20- 30 mins to a better site

[eddy]

Other (explanation) My girlfriend owns a field in a pretty dark area out of the way, its only small, few acres but has elec on site and is locked up (she keeps pigs, chickens, geese which are a bit of company) and only a 10min drive down the road! other than that, a local field and the back garden!

Eddy

[tooth_dr]

I wouldn't really ever go further than my garden to image or observe, but if there was something that was a special event, and my horizons didn't permit visibility, I would be prepared to travel for a better view, but 3-4 miles max.

[TopHouse]

Other (explanation) My girlfriend owns a field in a pretty dark area out of the way, its only small, few acres but has elec on site and is locked up (

bet you don't tell her that when she asks what you see in her!

Now if she had a pub as well.....

Carlsberg don't do girlfriends, but if they did....

[TopHouse]

Mostly in my back garden, but it faces NW 'ish' which is a bit of a pain, so sometimes the front garden which gets funny looks from passers by, telescope set up and lappy on a dining chair!

But within 5 mins drive is the start of the moors, and that is SERIOUSLY dark!

This is literally 2 minutes drive from me :-

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=OL3+5LT&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=22.719047,67.631836&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Oldham+OL3+5LT,+United+Kingdom&layer=c&cbll=53.582169,-1.973409&panoid=yoFbpy9esRhIhvA7tF-GoA&cbp=12,215.52,,0,12.66&ll=53.581997,-1.973977&spn=0.011096,0.033023&z=16

[Hypernova]

I don't have a car yet so I am forced to observe from my back garden which is in a fairly light polluted area with loads of houses nearby with floodlights and conservatories so not the best place.

The local countryside is slightly darker but for a good dark sky I must travel to wales or the Shropshire hills area which I know are relatively free from LP.

[Glider]

My back garden mainly and also the EMS dark site near Sawley.

[JohnC]

Camping and caravan club sites mainly. Very dark.

Garden was ok till the council installed lots of additional lamps a few years ago:(

[Martyn_Bannister]

My back garden, which isn't ideal since I am restricted to NE to S by the house, trees etc. Can't seem to organise babysitting to go anywhere else

[mark7331]

My back garden, but I'm lucky as I live in a little village and don't really suffer from LP often. My garden faces east and I have good view of the south too.

[winterlight]

Back garden although quite light polluted. Feel safer at home

[Talitha]

I chose 'Other' but probably could have checked 'Garden', too. The bulk of my Observing is done from the Starpad on the eastern half of my 40 acres, but when it's snowed in i observe from the deck.

[jaquesnoir]

- Mainly in my garden.

- Sometimes in my brother's garden, some miles away.

- Once a year I take my scope to an annual camping session for a week in Oxfordshire with my old schoolmates. The sky is quite a bit darker there.

Talitha - Stop making me jealous of all your dark skies, land and guns.

[badgerchap]

I had to choose other because I vary my observing site depending on

- weather conditions

- my initial location

- what I'm observing.

For example if visibility is anything other than perfect LP gets a bit too bad in my garden so I'm forced to relocate to a field. This doesn't matter for planetary, unless I'm observing something low down and the trees get in the way. Also when I'm in Wales, I have to shift position several times a night over a half mile radius cos the valleys get in the way!

[Talitha]

Talitha - Stop making me jealous of all your dark skies, land and guns.

... firecrackers too, and -40C in the winter.

You have the glorious British Museum, though...

i could spend the rest of my life roaming around in there.

[kev]

In the back garden, or if there is something special one up the road in a dark layby on the North York Moors

[Beulah]

Mostly in my back garden, but it faces NW 'ish' which is a bit of a pain, so sometimes the front garden which gets funny looks from passers by, telescope set up and lappy on a dining chair!

But within 5 mins drive is the start of the moors, and that is SERIOUSLY dark!

This is literally 2 minutes drive from me :-

OL3 5LT - Google Maps

That's a great spot - and you'd have your back pretty much to the light pollution from Manchester!

[Aldebaran5]

In my back garden, which is a good view. My vantage points are SE, S and SW with moderate viewing on all angles. I live in a bungalow which is great for all round viewing. The only problem Ive got is small light pollution.

Keith.

[Nick]

I observe from my back garden, the sky is quite dark here in Wales, I recently drove a few miles to get to the top of one of the Brecon Beacons (500 meters above sea level) to look at Comet McNaught. Although I could see the glow of Cardiff 45 miles away the view was stunning. The big difference is that you get above the haze.

[badgerchap]

I observe from my back garden, the sky is quite dark here in Wales, I recently drove a few miles to get to the top of one of the Brecon Beacons (500 meters above sea level) to look at Comet McNaught. Although I could see the glow of Cardiff 45 miles away the view was stunning. The big difference is that you get above the haze.

Did you find McNaught easily enough? He's going to be quite difficult from my location, but I reckon I could get him when I go to Aberdovey next week. What mag is he atm?

[george7378]

In my garden which is rather remote, and has a paddock with masses of surrounding dark fields.

[AndyH]

In my back garden mainly.

I try to get to both the Spring and Autumn Kielder events and am hoping to get to this Novembers, Galloway one.

Holiday/camp at least 2 times a year in the north west of Arran and take a smaller scope and big bincs.

Andy.

[PortableAstronomer]

When I lived in Surrey I used to drive for an hour to use my scope.

I took a monster 100AH generator backup battery as I was using a lot of CCD equip & laptop etc... My schedule was like this:-

20:00 leave house

21:00 arrive on location, start aligning etc & cool the CCDs

23:00 start imaging

01:00 pack up and drive home

02:00 arrive home

So that was 6 hours away, to get 2 hours of time with the scope. I got used to it. I could have really done with a 'dark' pub next-door though :-)

[Nick]

Did you find McNaught easily enough? He's going to be quite difficult from my location, but I reckon I could get him when I go to Aberdovey next week. What mag is he atm?

The comet was reasonably easy to locate, I had been trying for a few days from my back garden and caught a glimpse but it was really just too low and my view of the North East is not great. From the top of the Blorenge (which has an excellent view North with very little light pollution) it was easy to find. I used a 102 mm Vixen refractor with a 32 mm eyepiece. I attach a picture I took with a Nikon D70 at prime focus - 5 x1 minute exposures. As you can see it took a bit of contrast stretch and is quite noisy.