The Milky Way

[acey]

But do they turn off all the lights at night? Think I prefer a bit of solid ground far from streetlights where I can get a steady view through my scope.

[bamus]

But do they turn off all the lights at night? Think I prefer a bit of solid ground far from streetlights where I can get a steady view through my scope.

yeap. Have been in merchant navy myself . navigators like astronomers need to have very good dark adaptation in order to spot any ship in area. on the open sea only ferries and cruise vessels are lit like Xmas tree, normal vessels are using only small and dimm navigational lights.

I would not recomend telescope on the vessel, good binos would do the job and to see MW you do not need telescope anyway.

[acey]

It sounds like the ideal way to take a big scope to a dark-sky holiday somewhere, with a bit of bino viewing en route - I'll maybe give it a go some day. Meanwhile for the Milky Way I'm happy to take a 20 minute drive out of town - once the nights get a bit longer.

[laser_jock99]

yeap. Have been in merchant navy myself . navigators like astronomers need to have very good dark adaptation in order to spot any ship in area. on the open sea only ferries and cruise vessels are lit like Xmas tree, normal vessels are using only small and dimm navigational lights.

The open sea is pretty dark. I've done some costal cruising in the past and one of my best memories was on a summer crossing from Scilly Isles to Jersey. About midway we were 80 miles from land in any direction and the view of the summer Milky Way was magnificent. The star clouds through Scutum down to Sagitarius on the sea horizon were excelent.

Being a small sailing boat with minimal lights we could also watch the bioluminecence in the water caused by the passage of the yacht. A green, glowing trail was visible for 50m or so along our wake. Magical stuff.

This photo was taken that on that evening- already looking very clear but any kind of night time photography is clearly impossible!