Found. One owner from new...

HantsAstro is doing something that a lot of astronomers in the area thought couldn't work: locating dark skies sites in the South of England, that are good enough and consistent enough for deep sky observation and astrophotography, sheilded from the lovely British 6 month winter. Oh, and accessible without a Land Rover... and relatively safe.

Let us tell you. They do exist .

One thing I discovered on our travels is there is no such thing as land of the free. It seems every square inch of the UK is owned, managed or controlled by someone. Not exactly land of the free. But, on our travels I was amazed to find what I had long suspected, pockets of really dark sky. Getting access to them is a bit trickier. Better still the warm reception one gets when you tell anyone about astronomy.

Using a Sky Quality meter, I was getting readings of dark sky sites of Mag20+/Arc second from several locations. Though a lot depends on weather, and recently, the South has had some really extraordinary clear nights.

We are currently in talks with several sites for an observing calender for Sept 2008 on. It's looking good and it's looking dark.

Right now, this really, surreally feels like star-chasing.

David Woods