Ideas for Future Flamsteed Trips

Thanks Clive. Some good suggestions for visits there!

Jodrell Bank should be easy to arrange. We should probably plan for an overnight stay the night before, as it's a fair hike from London (3-4 hour drive?)... but we could arrange something really quickly. Perhaps a trip in September? The Flamsteed have been there before, of course... back in 2007.

La Palma does sound great. It would take some organising, as the observatories are generally only open to the public during daytime hours. The altitude may also be a bit of a problem for some people... the telescopes are about 8,000 feet up!

Kielder is another great idea. Again, easy to organise... we'd just need the weather to cooperate! Oh, hang on 🙁

Baikonur... yes, well... as you say... we can dream! The only trips I can find cost around £3,000+ and you can't guarantee the date of the trip, because the launch windows can change!

Thanks for your comments Mike.

Regarding a possible trip to La Palma, I see that on the ING website:

Casual visits to the ING, in daytime or at night, are not possible. However, group visits by schools, amateur astronomical societies and similar parties with a particular interest in the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes can be organised.

Perhaps it would be possible to visit the observatories during the day, then during the night, take advantage of the excellant observing location and carry out some observing or astrophotograhy at one of the network of 14 natural astronomy viewpoints?
(See section Astro Turism)

Excellent, thanks for this research Clive. I'm sure that we can claim a "special interest" in the Isaac Newton scope, given our links to the Royal Observatory.

Could we arrange a visit to Mill Hill maybe even for some observing. Perhaps Francisco could arrange for us.