Tips for Blacklands Farm Dark Sky Weekend

[AndrewH]

Hi all.

We will be having our first deep sky weekened later in the year at Blacklands Farm who have been incredibly helpful.

Not doing tents, but we are staying in one of the lodges.

Do you have tips to make it a successful weekend. One I did in New Zealand required bringing sheets of paper to place over the windows of the loddge to prevent bright light escaping.

[Carole]

we are staying in one of the lodges.

They have lodges in Blacklands?  Interesting I might be interested to join you, when are you going?

To make it a successful weekend yes you want to exclude as much light as possible, we tend to use red film over lights, windows and on laptop screens.  All lights including torches should be red lights.  Cars not to be opened and shut after dark unless the lights have been covered or de-fused as this can really upset and annoy dark adapted eyes.  Unfortunately you can't do much about Joe public. 

Place your scope so it is shielded from light if at all possible the toilet blocks can shed unwanted light, so try to park your car in the way. 

Earplugs might be a good idea at Blacklands as they have a tendency to empty the cess pit and the dustbins at unreasonable times especially if you've been up all night. 

The guys here would recommend plenty of beer and a bottle of the "French weird stuff" if it's not suitable for astronomy, I have yet to find out what the latter is. 

Carole

[MarkS]

Not doing tents, but we are staying in one of the lodges.

Sounds like you might be talking about Blackland Farm in East Grinstead which does have lodges.

We sometimes go to Blacklands Farm Caravan and Camping near Henfield: http://www.blacklandsfarm.co.uk

Mark

[AndrewH]

Ah! That would explain a lot.

Anyway, thanks for the advice and will let you know how it goes.

There are only 25 places so we have to reserve for our own society but I am sure we will have plenty of lessons learned.

[MarkS]

The guys here would recommend plenty of beer and a bottle of the "French weird stuff" if it's not suitable for astronomy, I have yet to find out what the latter is. 

The weird French stuff is Pastis - a very strong version - and no, it's definitely not suitable for astronomy!