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STARGAZING IN WALES


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Hi All,

I'm looking to take a trip to Wales purely for stargazing. I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on where to go to get the best views, what the best way to get there from Milton Keynes if anyone know a cost effective way of getting there as I don't drive.

Any recommendations?

-Jen

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I think your problem is likely to be that the "best" places to view are not going to be very heavily populated and as a result there will be little public transport in the area.

Where I live in the south west which is reasonably dark and not desperately remote, the nearest train station is over ten miles away and there's no vaguely regular bus service much closer than a couple of miles. There's not even a B&B closer than the local village more than a mile away, which does have some light pollution. It wouldn't surprise me if you ran into the same problems looking for somewhere to stay in Wales.

If you don't drive then the most cost effective solution probably has to be to go with another astronomer who does.

As an afterthought, I don't even know if there are such places, but does anyone advertise "dark site" holidays in Wales? Might be worth discussing things with them if there are.

James

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agreed with james, otherwise could look at need-less light pollution and possibly find a darker and accessable place nearer yourself for yor convience and then try and pin point an area using google streetview to observe from, using this method i have found a great place 6 miles away from home.

another thing is although Wales is a beautiful and dark place weather is often unpredicable,

also try and locate a local society find out where they observe from.

hope ive helped.

Gaz

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Hey im from wales and i live near a place called swansea, there is a place called 3 crosses in the gower peninsula which has a long road that lies on top of a large mountain and this place is perfect as there is a car area beaten out to the side of the road and its perfect as you can see the whole sky in 360 as your rather high up, and its also one of the only places on google maps light pollution chart which has almost no light pollution in that eact place i mentioned (i know its impossible to have no light pollution these days but this place is litteraly black!) haha hope this helps as the area is right next to a pub called the king james pub. theres plenty of hotels hostels and caravan parks near too :)

Ash

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Also from Wales and i have family in West Wales (St Davids), one of the darkest places i have been, the milky way here is stunning, the most stars i have ever seen.

It's right on the coast with plenty of camp sites, hostiles, b&b etc, getting there might not be so easy without a car but a place called Haverford West has a train station with busses to St Davids.

Ashley Morgan looks to have found a great spot which will be easier for you to get to, swansea has a train station and plenty of public transport.

Good luck and enjoy the trip.

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Being an avid Sea trout fisherman in my past, spent many holidays in Newcastle Emllyn not far from LLandovery, if I remember the village sits bellow a little place called Rhand y Mywn ( translation land of which the part is lead, we were told ) which is up in the Black Mountains old lead mining area, fishing late at night even the Milky Way casts a radiant light, and brings back memories of a deep black velvet sky with myriads of stars.

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Thats close to Llyn Briane...

Slightly further North...the river crossing on Strata Florida is nice an dark... but not on a public transport route.. spent many a crisp night under a tarp up there...

Can be a bit of a wet journey after heavy rain...

plenty of vids on youtube...

Billy...

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Having just come back from Wales the weekend I found that there is not a great deal going on. Great for rural sites to observe from and living the country life but even local attractions don't seem to run the normal 9-5. I know it doesn't offer much help but just wanted to point out that if you are relying on public methods of transport you could end up having to compromise staying nearer to light pollution. If this is the case my recommendation to you would be to consider a boating holiday to the Norfolk broads. You need no license to drive the boats and you can get yourself moored up in the middle of now where avoiding any source of light pollution and when done jump back on the boat to get a nights kip. Boating holidays are reasonably cheap, some boat yards are near to train stations, your not stuck to one destination once on the boat, you get a hot cup of Rosy lee when you want it and you don't have to rely on a taxi picking you up if the clouds roll in.

Just a thought.

SPACEBOY

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well only hostiles i now of other than asbos in wales for stargazing would be the random horses cows bulls etc that roam across the peninsula haha they are like ninjas of the night, you wont know they are there untill their behind you having a nose down your scope haha has happend once or twice..... scary stuff

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