Howdy from Horsham!!

[phillc]

Hello Frank and a warm welcome to SGL.

phillc

[Pauly]

Hi Frank, welcome aboard. I'm just down the road in Cowfold. Nice dark skies here, street lights out just after midnight too.

[brantuk]

Hi Franke and welcome to the group

[Andymod]

Hi and welcome

[BAZ Senior]

Hi Frank welcome to the forum.

Here's a link for a dark sky map which may be helpful in finding a site.

http://avex.org.free.fr/cartes-pl/uk/UK-pl-relief-topo.html

[mark7331]

Hi Frank and welcome to SGL

[zedds]

Welcome to SGL Frank.

[Thunder]

Hello and Welcome to SGL

[Argon]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Paul.

[markymoo]

Hey Frank, and welcome.

I can concur: stellarium is excellent. There are some good aps for the ipad/iphone/ipod touch too. I particularly like StarmapPro, but it's an iphone/ipod touch app only at the moment so you have to scale it up on the ipad. Still a great app though, as it allows you to enter details of your camera, telescopes, eyepieces etc and it will show you the field of view. Very useful.

For dark-ish skies I find it quite good just south of Dorking, or along towards abinger hammer. When I say "good", I mean good compared to where I live, which is much closer to London!

I use a green laser pointer if I'm with friends, and I don't think they're illegal. You just shouldn't point them at aircraft, people, cars etc. of course, but of course you shouldn't need a law to prevent you doing that...

Good luck with the astro photos - hope you post some of your results!

[markymoo]

As for the green laser, perhaps it's feasible to get a license of sorts from a police station for an "Astronomy Laser"? I wonder if this is worth investigating.

frank

I'm 99% sure you don't need anything of the sort - I ordered one of Amazon recently and there were loads on there. They wouldn't list them if they were illegal.

You can pick them up for under a tenner if you look around.

[markymoo]

I should probably add: I'm not a lawyer, so if you are in any doubt about the law, consult a professional! That's just my little disclaimer.... ;-)

[chesty]

welcome:) m8

[iamzoso60]

Wecome from a cloudy West Midlands.

[Martin Whitaker]

Hi Frank, welcome sgl from me, I live in Cumbria and dark skys are a norm for me, never used a laser pointer though, stellarium is good.

Martin

[matt c]

And a hello from me to Frank, welcome to SGL

[smutly]

Hi and welcome to SGL

[weso]

hi and welcome from me also

[lord-merlin]

welcome from lord merlin

[nightfisher]

hi and welcome to sgl

[Guest Andromeda1]

Hello and welcome to the group

[carl0s]

hi frank and welcome to sgl. this link might help you find darker skies CfDS: Maps of Light Pollution

[Paulb3098]

Hi from Winslow

[Patrick1948]

Hi Frank and a warm welcome to SGL from me in Sheffield...clear skies to you.

[nobbytate]

Hi and welcome to sgl