Sunday 15 April 2012

Stargazing In Cornwall

I have just arrived home from my holiday in Cornwall where I had hoped to do lots of stargazing, I had read on various websites about how from the dark Sky's in St Agnes Cornwall you can see the milky way over head. I was very excited about the prospect of seeing the milky way for the first time, so I decided to take my praktica binoculars. We decided to stay in a place in Cornwall called Portreath which was only 5 minutes away from St Agnes so that meant that it should still have pretty dark skies.I checked the weather forecast before I went and it said that there should be 3 clear nights during the week that I was there. The first night that we arrived had a clear sky but i decided to stay inside and catch up on my sleep as I had got up at 4am that morning, as there were supposedly to other clear nights ahead. But sadly as the week went on there was rain and clouds meaning that I didn't have a chance to see the milky way, I am planning on going back in October so I can always try again then. I really enjoyed my stay at Portreath as there was a nice beach and an active harbour, if you are planning on going to Cornwall I would recommend staying there. The stay was also a good chance to use my binoculars on boats at sea as the house we were staying in had a sea view, the binoculars once again impressed me and I found them very useful throughout the holiday. Portreath is only about a half an hours drive away from Fistral beach which is great for watching surfing ,and about 20 minutes away from St Ives which is a very nice seaside town. So even though I wasn't able to see the milky way on my holiday I still enjoyed my holiday in Cornwall.

2 comments:

  1. Really nice post. As a native or Cornwall and a lover of astronomy it is so nice to see the two combined into one post! I can certainly vouch, the sky viewing is excellent. I am in Duporth and most nights I can get out the telescope and just enjoy the limitless light-pollution free views! I really love Cornwall.

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  2. I am planning on going back soon so hopefully I can do some stargazing then.

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