Every year, amateur astronomers, astrophotographers, and space enthusiasts gather for one of the most exciting events in the UK astronomy calendar—the Practical Astronomy Show. Held at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, this free-to-attend event brings together leading manufacturers, retailers, and experts, making it an unmissable experience for anyone passionate about the night sky.
After years of virtual meet ups and solo stargazing, there’s something truly special about getting out again and attending events in person. Familiar faces filled the room and it was nice to be out again attending an astronomy event. We didn’t make it 20ft through the doors before we bumped into old friends and it was like old times again. It was a joy to share banter. Although, I probably drove Jonathen crazy with my continued attempts at persuading him to build an observatory. However, 100% of those surveyed agreed with me and thought an observatory is clearly the right next move.
Our first loop around the exhibition hall took close to two hours because we were bumping into people we hadn’t seen for years. But, I had an agenda and a shopping list. I was interested to see what had changed over the last few years. One clear observation was the price hike of equipment now seems to make the hobby look even more daunting.
My shopping list consisted of purchasing a dedicated planetary camera, an atmospheric dispersion corrector and a good quality Barlow lens so that I could start to build my planetary scope set up.
Three loops later and lots of talking, thinking, talking, thinking, I left with a bag of goodies.
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