Waddensky

The Atlas 2015 map is based on a calculation of light pollution levels from satellite data, not on actual measurements. Clear Outside uses the same source as lightpollutionmap.info. Sky glow can be caused by scattered light from distant sources as well as local lights. Light pollution filters don't help much.

The best way to determine your actual sky darkness is performing measurements yourself using an SQM or by finding out your naked-eye limiting magnitude using suitable charts.

Great suggestions here. I'd like to add two other aspect of planetary observing that are sometimes overlooked: skill and patience.

At first glance, Jupiter can be a very bright dot at lower magnifications. It takes some time and effort to learn to recognise the subtle details on the disk of the planet, especially when one expects to see an image comparable to the colourful pictures rich in contrast found online. Jupiter will always be small at useful magnifications.

Make sure you are comfortably seated, and take your time, a lot of time, to study the planet. Sometimes the seeing just suddenly improves for a few seconds, and concentrating on the disk for a while will reveal details not seen at first glance. It may take a while to master the 'craft', but it is very rewarding. Good luck!

A nice introduction to carbon star observing is Y Canum Venaticorum. It's one of the brightest carbon stars, visible all year for many northern hemisphere observers and called La Superba for good reason!

Perihelion is 3 July, depends a bit on your latitude but I guess the comet will become visible early in the morning above the NE horizon around Wednesday or something. Very low and in full twilight, could be difficult. Later in the month the comet is placed in the evening sky, closest approach on 23 July but already much dimmer by then.

Mira B is currently separated from the primary by only 0.47", I doubt that is within reach of amateur equipment.

Antares is a nice red giant currently visible. But if you like deep red stars, look into carbon stars! They're wonderful.

Excellent results, Steve! 👍

23 hours ago, Ken82 said:

Where I live is supposed to be bortle 5/6 but numerous new build houses have gone up within a few miles in recent years yet the bortle scale hasn’t changed. 

It depends on the source of the light pollution data. Some sites take actual (recent) SQM readings into account, but most sites use the sky brightness map generated in 2015 from VIIRS satellite measurements.

There's an interesting post about C/2020 F3 on CN. If the comet survives perihelion, it will be visible very low above the NE horizon early July in the morning, the view unfortunately much affected by dawn and moonlight. Later in the month the comet becomes an evening object, still very low and already much dimmer.  So while the conditions are not favourable, if it lives up to the expectations the comet might become a nice binocular object. Fingers crossed!

23 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Yeah I read about this now you remind me but where would I get a print template for such. 4 degrees on the PSA is 19 mm

Maybe it's as simple as drawing a few circles of different sizes in Inkscape and print them out on transparent sheets? No idea what the quality is of those prints but worth a try 🙂. You can draw circles the size of the field of view of your eyepieces too.

There are transparent overlays available for atlases like the Uranometria 2000.0 (like this one). I believe the Sky Atlas 2000.0 has them included by default. Maybe they are available for the PSA too? You can also print a design yourself on a transparent film suitable for your printer, or draw it manually on it.

The darkness is about the same as a first quarter Moon illuminating a dark sky. It's far from great, but if you're used to Bortle 9 for example it makes a huge difference, of course. If you're driving to a Bortle 5 spot for a night of stargazing, I'd suggest to drive a little further 😉.

Welcome to the SGL!

For the budget, an 8" dobson is a great choice. It's often recommended for beginners because it offers the most aperture for the price and it's easy to set up and operate. It's also a great allrounder, nice views of planets, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies.

There are a few things to consider though. First, you need to master the craft of 'star hopping'. Dobsons are scopes you push to your target manually. It's not difficult and fun to do, and considering you have experience with binoculars, I'm quite sure this won't be a problem for you. A good star chart or app will help. Second, as Girders points out, because a dobson doesn't track objects, your targets drift out of view quite fast at higher magnifications (because the Earth rotates!). When I'm doing outreach, I regularly need to check if the object is still in the field of view. If you enjoy the night sky with your daughter and help her to locate objects, that's something to keep in mind. Third, a dobson is a bit cumbersome. The tube is large, the base is heavy. Not too large, not too heavy, but something to keep in mind or perhaps to experience at a star party or in a shop before you buy one.

Good luck with your choice, and have a lot of fun!

Such a rapid brightnening so close to the Sun... I don't want to be a pessimist (because I am not 😉) but couldn't that be a sign of desintegration? Perihelion is 3 July, fingers crossed. If it survives, it could be interesting.

All light will more or less affect your night vision. If you have a device with AMOLED screen, the 'leakage' of light is mimimal because only the 'lit' pixels will light up and the dark pixels are effectively off (no background lighting). Astronomy torches have the ability to dim the light to a very low level. I've never done measurements but it would be interesting to compare the two.

23 hours ago, JOC said:

If the OP is in a Valley which is still 100m above sea level then does this need to be adjusted for.  For example in some instances you might be looking down to a horizon?

That's correct. For an elevated observer, the actual horizon angle can be less than 0. This Wikipedia article (header Zenith angle) has a figure explaining the geometrics.

PeakFinder is a great free resource to find out horizon elevation angles for specific locations, based on SRTM data.

39 minutes ago, Gsc1ugs said:

Well i would like to gaze at anything, even galaxy’s, looking for a few models that can do this, bit of an allrounder.  

A 15 or 20 cm dobson is usually considered a good allrounder. Keep in mind that both Jupiter and Saturn are placed fairly unfavourable for northen hemisphere observers this year and the next couple of years.

They are satellites. A lot of them up there, nowadays.

Hi Nicolàs and welcome! That's a really wonderful observatory! I love your outreach activities, nice to spread the word, isn't it?

Groet van een Oud-Castricummer,

Koen

On 14/06/2020 at 14:45, Dannomiss said:

Also different apps seem to display the Constellations differently. I wonder in the case of Hercules they wanted to make it look like a person... To make it more dosquishable... But I think it's unhelpful lol

This is exactly what it is. The constellation stick figures have only been popularised since the 1950's, when Rey published The Stars: A New Way To See Them and introduced some very interesting (and reasonably complex) figures to recreate the images they represent. Here's some interesting info on this background. Stick figures are in no way 'official' (like the constellation boundaries) and it's just how you want to see or recognise them.

In reality, the stars of most constellations have nothing to do with each other, besides being in the same field of view as seen from Earth. Just go out and create your own 'constellations' that will help you to find your way around the stars 😁. One of my own most recognisable 'constellations' consists of the head of Draco and one foot of Hercules (yes - he's upside down!), five stars that are kind of a personal seasonal marker for me, but aren't listed anywhere.

4 hours ago, Dannomiss said:

Also located corona.

Well, that's good news I guess...

Neptune is visible even with binoculars. Currently, the planet is a late night object in the constellation of Aquarius, close to Mars. In September, the planet is in opposition and visible all night.

Maybe light from the Moon rising, more likely light from a distant city or greenhouses scattered by the fog.

The 100 pc limit applies only to observations from within the atmosphere (parallax of 0.01 arcsec). The Hipparcos satellite (geostationary orbit) was able to measure distances accurately up to 500 pc, Gaia (in orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point) even more.

Yes, observing from an orbit with a larger semi-major axis will increase the distance limit with the same error. Here's an interesting comparison of the parallax differences of Proxima Centauri as seen from the New Horizons space probe and from Earth.

Wow, what a wonderful feature. I should get into lunar observing more, a lot of treasures to discover.

Yes, get Stellarium and you will find out exactly what's up. Your pictures don't have enough context to determine the stars or planets you've seen. Not many bright objects currently in the NW. Capella is most striking, Castor and Pollux are in the neighbourhood too. The star right overhead could be Arcturus.