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Best part of the sky?


bobmoss

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Imagine that you were going to put in a permanent pier but wherever you put it in the garden would compromise/block some part of the sky. Which is the best part of the the sky that you would make sure you had a clear view of (and why?)

For the sake of argument, ignore the planets as I can get the tripod out and reposition myself for those and also assume that wherever I put it I can still see Polaris.

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If you're in northern hemisphere, south. If you're in southern hemisphere, north. All objects are at their highest when they're on the meridian, so that's always the best part of thy sky to aim for. Check out an image of the famous Leviathan telescope in Ireland. It had supporting walls on either side and aimed south, which was all that was needed. When William Herschel was doing his nebula sweeps from Windsor he aimed his scope to the south, moved it slowly up and down, and made note of every DSO he saw as it drifted through the field of view.

If the question were instead "which is the best part of the celestial sphere?" (i.e. favourite constellation or region) then there would be some choice in it. I would vote for the stretch running from Ursa Major down to Virgo, which has the highest density of bright galaxies.

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My garden has houses around it, which actually help it get darker, but also block most low stuff out.

(Say below 15 degrees mostly)

However if I set up by my western wall I have a gap to the South which gets me down to around 3 - 4 degrees

off the southern Sea-Horizon and another smaller gap to the Southeast.

The whole sky comes to me through the year, Including every Messier Object, all of which will be available over the

1st half of the year (I completed this years messier list on June 30th).

You cannot plan for every visitor and planet of course but sometimes you just have to move. 

A clear South will get you to every place and object that your latitude will allow.

Regards, Mick

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If you're in northern hemisphere, south. If you're in southern hemisphere, north. All objects are at their highest when they're on the meridian, so that's always the best part of thy sky to aim for. Check out an image of the famous Leviathan telescope in Ireland. It had supporting walls on either side and aimed south, which was all that was needed. When William Herschel was doing his nebula sweeps from Windsor he aimed his scope to the south, moved it slowly up and down, and made note of every DSO he saw as it drifted through the field of view.

If the question were instead "which is the best part of the celestial sphere?" (i.e. favourite constellation or region) then there would be some choice in it. I would vote for the stretch running from Ursa Major down to Virgo, which has the highest density of bright galaxies.

That's really interesting, thanks.

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My garden has houses around it, which actually help it get darker, but also block most low stuff out.

(Say below 15 degrees mostly)

However if I set up by my western wall I have a gap to the South which gets me down to around 3 - 4 degrees

off the southern Sea-Horizon and another smaller gap to the Southeast.

The whole sky comes to me through the year, Including every Messier Object, all of which will be available over the

1st half of the year (I completed this years messier list on June 30th).

You cannot plan for every visitor and planet of course but sometimes you just have to move. 

A clear South will get you to every place and object that your latitude will allow.

Regards, Mick

Thanks. That sounds like a similar setup to mine, If I could just get rid of a few neighbours trees it would be even better!

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The south. Over the course of the year all things will come around to the south, and over the course of the night, things will sweep past to the south.

Excellent, thanks. I didn't realise that but it's obvious when you think about it.

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