Astronomy friendly sites
Hi everyone.
I purchased my first caravan a couple of months ago and had a good week away at the Luskall Caravan Park in Near Hereford. However, that's a really long trek, too far for a weekend break.
I also stayed on the Bolten Abbery club site, which whilst lovely has a huge amount of trees making it unusable for astronomy.
What I need for astronomy is to be able to setup my telescope and have a good view of the night sky. I won't need anything bigger than a normal pitch with awning space (can setup the telescope instead of the awning) space wise anyway.
But the most important thing is that I'd need a clear view of the night sky, ideally without many trees in the immediate area. Realistically, if I can hold up my arm at about 45 degrees and have a good view to the south that would be perfect.
I live in the West yorkshire, needs Leeds and I'm wondering about sites that I can spend the weekend with good view of the skies.
Any ideas?
Comments
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Hi, I would think any of the Northumberland sites would be ok as it is a black sky and ok for your hobby.
I Live in the Lot in France and the sky is superb around and our village lidghts are far enough away for me to use my scope. Some sites have brighter street lighting than others.
Hope this helps.
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Hi Astro, the best site I can think of that is not too far away from you would be Orcaber Farm, Austwick. It used to be a C&CC certified site, but not sure if it still is. It may now be a small commercial site. There are large trees behind the pitches on the left as you enter the site (pitches 1 -3 inc) but the rest of the pitches would probably be suitable for you. Pitches 4-7 inc would probably be the best, and you could probably request these when booking.
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CLs would be a better bet than club sites because of the lack of site lights. It really depends what you want if site facilities.
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Most club sites have too much light, as NTH has said. If you want a decent bit of 'dark' go for a CL.
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Check out the designated 'dark skies' areas of the U.K. Then find Sites/CL's within them. I'm on the East Yorkshire coast, there's not much darker than over the North Sea
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Head to Northumberland, there are vast swathes of countryside miles from big centres of urban occupation. Club Sites just produce too much light pollution, albeit to keep visitors safe. But for a true experience of low stars, and hundreds and thousands of
twinkling stars, comets and satellites galore, it is hard to beat the Kielder Forest and other moorlands of Northumberland.Certain areas of Cornwall and Norfolk are very good as well. No doubt Scotland's wildernesses will be excellent. You can go on star watching holidays in Northumberland, the tourist board up there have tapped into a very good market for those interested.
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We used to to go Holgates (non CC site
)and it used to be brilliant for looking at the stars. Not been for a while now so not
sure what the tree growth is like but we always needed a torch to get back to our 'van it was that dark.....girls used to love it. Not far from Silverdale.0 -
There are some dark skies in Lincolnshire too - if they would let me have that CL you could come here! But CLs and CSs (the other club) are the way to go - and google earth to check them out. I wish CC sites didn't polute the view as much I must say.
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Many years ago when the children were the age my youngest grandchildren are now I was on a site in Britanny where the night sky was incredible. Had a similar view doing an overnight drive from Alicante to Bilbao when we pulled of into a rest area for a couple
of hours sleep where it was as black as pitch.0 -
Thanks everyone.
I'm not too worried about the light pollution from the club sites. As I'm into Astrophotograhpy, whilst light pollution can be an issue (and it's a huge problem where I live now) The main issue would be getting setup under a blanket of trees. It's lovely
to have that for a walking cycling holiday. But for looking up, it just gets in the way.Looks like I'll be heading to the lake district area, the east coast, or Kielder - and yes, those as some of the best skies in the England (there's better in Scotland, but that's too far for a weekend)
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We stayed at High Farm CL near Helmsley back in the summer. Big open skies & probably a bit nearer for you. Also now have EHU.
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Another CL close to Helmsley is Carlton Grange. You might not get the best view off the site, as it's shielded by trees, but there are plenty of open fields around the farm.
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If you download 'Archie's Camping' (POI's for campsites, for SatNav or available also as an App for Android phones - see website for details) then you can use Google Earth to find many campsites throughout Europe, including thousands of campsites in the UK. There are details of Caravan Club sites (both Club sites and CL's) 'The Other Club' sites, and commercial sites. You could then find 'dark sky' areas and see all the sites which are available in those locations.
You can also use Google Earth to check out the tree cover on most campsites.
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