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New Forest, dark sky views.


cotterless45

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High cloud slowly drifted away like a curtain opening a great show. Overhead the enormous bright Milky Way washed through Cygnus into Cassiopeia and Perseus. It brushes the base of Cepheus.

At it widest I could cover it with the length of my hand. It looked more like a giant fish with fins behind Cygnus showing all the dark areas of the rifts and nebulosity.

Deneb looked stranded between the tortuous twists and dark areas. I don't think I'd ever seen so much detail here.

The double cluster was glowing by eye and both fitted into the fov with a chain up to Stock 2 and the many clusters along Cassiopeia. The view was just granulated with stars.

Above Mirach the Andromeda galaxy was bright by eye, filling the fov in the binoculars. I swung down to Triangulum and caught M33 at half the brightness and size. It was beautifully caught in four corner stars.

By eye ,the great square of Pegasus held quite a few stars which I hadn't seen from town.

Swinging down to the chains of clusters in Cygnus , I found the Coathanger and above it , M27 glowing brightly.

As the night went on , more and more was rising, Auriga, Gemini, Taurus, Orion and Leo followed by Spica. This is an astounding time of year for constellations. Before dawn Acturus had returned with UMa and the Canes Venatici rising high I the north.

Deep sky targets can be so easily found under these dark skies. They just stand out so clearly in the fov. In addition you get the great vista of a wide sky filled with stars.

Try and get out to our dark skies, the views are just cracking. I hope that you can get out of town even for a short session and view the beautiful winter skies,

Nick.

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Great write up Nick. We also had perfect skies in Cumbria, taking the dog for a walk around 8pm on Shap fell the milky way was spectacular (if the hound would have allowed it i'd have laid down & gazed up until hypothermia set in) Must get myself a pair of bins.

Steve

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