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, shielded 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 we 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 we were amazed to find what we 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 Mag 20+ 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. It's looking good and it's looking dark.

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

David Woods