Full Moon - A Newbies Error :D

[Pingster]

Tonight i made a real newbie mistake.....

Two nights ago (friday) the weather prediction was light rain/clouds. But we had an unexpected partly cloudy night with long enough holes between for some viewing. So i grabbed my scope and loaded up my new ethos 17mm. The moon was full and high, but i was shielded from its glare thanks to my house facing it. DSO were too faint to really enjoy so i focused on just checking out stars. Thru the ethos the views were very enjoyable, actually the most i have ever just star hopping. It really felt like looking into space with high technology and fine optics. Unlike my initial disappointment of viewing thru a 'straw' with the default celestron plossls. Don't get me wrong, the plossls so far seem as sharpe and detailed as the ethos. Just missing the FOV thats makes it an awesome experience.

So onto my main story. With fridays night memory strong in my head. Sats evening came and i had another surprise. BBC Weather showed that my new darkish sky location (Isle of Sheppey) would have clear skies, '"very good" visibility and 85% humidity (i think i overlooked this and it was a big reason why my viewing was very bad!)

Keen to try this new location i called my friend and grabbed my scope. Knowing his interest in Astronomy is not as strong as mine i knew i was making a real gamble! The location is too remote to go it alone, but i have not had a decent observing session all month. If my friend is disappointed... he may never want to join me again! Also i knew that the moon was full and high in the sky. But i made a newbie error. Thinking that a dark sky location, with no clouds would provide a good experience i headed out.

The location was remote with 360 views. Felt fairly safe, no chavs, very little passing traffic. 1 car every 1 hr passes, and its a saturday evening. We drove onto the car park which was light grey gravel.

Looked up into the sky and was very disappointed. With the naked eye i could not see the milky way at all. And i would guess i could only see about 200 stars max . Once setup (8se) i looked down my scope and noticed the the sky looked darker than from my suburbs back yard. Yet it was not able to get nice crisp stars/views. Instead the sky looked like, when you are in a dark room trying to look at objects in the room. The sky background looked like blobs of dark grey and lighter grey 'pixelling about'. We were at the location for at least 1 and a half hr and the views never improved so i guess we gave our eyes enough time to dark adapt. The scope setup looked fine and no dew on the plate.

Believing the full moon was to blame i set on targets with the moon against my back. But it was like a HUGE spotlight behind me.. hahahaha. I could see the glow of it all over my eyepiece rim and it reflected off the light grey gravel.

DSO where not enjoyable as they were far to faint. To my surprise Androm M31 managed to show fairly clearly as a fuzzy oval blob, even against the moonlight.

I went home disappointed with my views, but appreciated my friends company. Theres only one way i will encourage him to join me again.... my Flextube 16in should be delivered this week. Just in time for the moon to disappear according to Sky View. I hope the views will blow our socks off as so far only the view of Saturn has impressed him. Its so important for friends to be hit with a wow factor if one is to convince them to come out again!

To summarize i blame my bad viewing on.

1. the full moon.

Don't underestimate it, even from a dark site, it will block out most of the stars, leaving you with a view that will only be as good as a subburb LP sky.

2. 85% Humidity.

The Isle of Sheppey is fairly small and surrounded by water. With the sky being so humid, i think 'haze' and extremely think layer of water/fog cased the sky to look muddy/wobberly.

On a positive note, once Jupitor was high we got a great view of it with its 4 moons. And for the first time i think i actually looked at a galazy and it looked like a really faint oval shape. It was not m31, i forgot the M number, but i would say it was low in the horizon, and was 90degress to the left og Androm. I think the time was around 1.30am. I can;t wait to see it again without a full moon!

So let my experience be a warning to keen newbies like myself. I would be interested in your similar experiences.

[swamp thing]

We've all done it buddy.

Rushed out cause it's clear only to forget the moon is full.

Double stars and a few open clusters are about the limit apart from any Planets that are around on nights like this.

Regards Steve

[acey]

Yes, always check the moon phase and rise/set times before planning an observing session. Full moon is 9 times brighter than a half illuminated one, and even a half-moon is too bright to make it worth going to a dark site, unless it's very low.

[todd8137]

i think most people do this ,

rush out by a scope

have a quick play and wonder why they brought the scope

never read any books prior to buying

hence all the mistakes we do and will make in the future

clears skies

pat

[BellatrixC4]

ugh, yeah. I Haven't been doing this for very long, but I know for a FACT that humidity has played big roles in my observing so far. The humidity makes the air thick, making it harder to see objects that are far away. Kind of like looking through fog I suppose. As for the moon, unless I'm looking at it, go away you big full thing!! >.< it's annoying when you;re trying to look for a specific thing and that it's there. Shinning so bright.

Then again, the moon itself is a pretty interesting object that I can spend an hour just looking at it XD So why should I complain!? lol

[studio1one]

the Moon itself is great observing when full though.

[BellatrixC4]

It is!! Especially that now I just got this new software, a moon atlas that a buddy of mine gave me, it gives me a purpose to be looking at the moon through my scope. Identifying craters FTW!

[Pingster]

Since ive got my new 16in scope the moon has become a new beast to view. I thought i had seen details in it at x117 mag, using the 16in i am able to view at x300 and its amazingly sharp. Im now able to view details within 'details'. Its an amazing experince.

[BellatrixC4]

Since ive got my new 16in scope the moon has become a new beast to view. I thought i had seen details in it at x117 mag, using the 16in i am able to view at x300 and its amazingly sharp. Im now able to view details within 'details'. Its an amazing experince.

woah! I bet! you should takeee pictures!! If you haven't already haha!