Just Too Light Tonight

[redneon]

Dammit. Tonight was the only night this week that I'd get chance to go out. Perfectly clear skies but I was out for about 30 minutes, trying to give my eyes time to adjust to the dark, but it's just too light. I can just about make out all the stars of Casseopia but it's a push.

Presumably it's got something to do with the Earth being its furthest away from the sun at the minute?

[paul mc c]

Its really to do with the earths tilt,do you have a telescope.

[redneon]

Yeah, I do. And a pair of good 10x50s. They did yield significantly better results but it's all relative.

[JamesF]

More to do with the angle of declination of the earth's axis, I think.

James

[RedCoat]

Managed to have a nice look at Arcturus, but although it was really clear it did seem quite "light". Glad it's not just me!

[ronin]

It's called Summer.

Happens every year.

[chiltonstar]

Develop an interest in double stars......

Chris

[lukebl]

...Presumably it's got something to do with the Earth being its furthest away from the sun at the minute?

It's to do with the fact that the tilt of the earth's axis means that even at midnight the sun is only about 14 degrees below the horizon (from NW Europe) at this time of year. A solution would be to move southwards by a few thousand miles!

[Macavity]

Well, I was certainly SEEING things, last night. Seeing, seemed quite good - Plenty of steady diffraction rings etc. But everything was decidedly "muted". Residual sky brightness or a thin skein of high cloud? Eventually BED proved a greater lure.

[MontyUK]

It depends a lot on your latitude. The further north you go the lighter it is later - to the point where it doesn't get dark at all - land of the midnight sun and all that. I am on the south coast and although it didn't get dark until after 10:30 it was dark enough later to give the best night of the year so far. No moon, contraty sky, no cloud at all and masses of stars - far more than usual. Although there was quite a lot of light around and I could move about without bumping into things. I easily found the Messier objects around Hydra, Cygnus and Lyra - many for the first time. M13 was stunning, best I have ever seen it. M57, M27, M71 were clear and easily seen. Best of all was M39 which seemed to float in the sky with a backdrop of bright stars. I lost track of time until 1:00am. However it was colder than expected, jeans and sweatshirt but still cold! Loads of moving lights as well which I assumed were satallites, apart from one of those damn burning Chinese lanterns that suddenly appeared out of the blue coming straight at me. I used a 200 Dob, but even in 10x50 bins some of the DSOs were visible.

Hardest thing was trying to line up the finderscope with so many stars around - would a Telrad assist, I've never tried one?

Sorry you didn't get the same.

[Pete Presland]

roll on the autumn

[Si W]

These light nights are getting right on my nerves , Ok it happens every year, but I think what make it worse is Britsh summertime as well , I could live with it if it was GMT, could start an hour earlier and finish an hour earlier so I'm not to tired for work. Ah well, only a few weeks to go.

[Astro Imp]

It's called Summer.

Happens every year.

[foundaplanet]

These light nights are getting right on my nerves , Ok it happens every year, but I think what make it worse is Britsh summertime as well , I could live with it if it was GMT, could start an hour earlier and finish an hour earlier so I'm not to tired for work. Ah well, only a few weeks to go.

I'm all for that

[Shibby]

For me, there was a lot of thin, high level cloud about, giving the impression of the sky being light. The lack of transparency was the problem.

It does actually get pretty dark at the moment, particularly around 12-2am, certainly dark enough for decent visual astronomy imho.

[Gra]

For me, there was a lot of thin, high level cloud about, giving the impression of the sky being light. The lack of transparency was the problem.

It does actually get pretty dark at the moment, particularly around 12-2am, certainly dark enough for decent visual astronomy imho.

Noctilucent cloud, i do belive.

[astro_al]

Develop an interest in double stars......

Chris

Seconded. I was splitting the double double the moment I could see Vega.