UK skies getting darker and clearer?

[Pingster]

I just finsihed flocking my scope this week and took it out at 3am on 19th Aug. All evening the sky was fully cloudy, BBC weather reported that it will become completely clear some time after 1am. So i wait and waited. Thought ir would never happen, bit it did. The cloud layer moved slowly but in the horizon i could see the patch of clear perfect sky. I worried that seeing would be bad and that it looked as if the typical white haze was still reaching very high in the sky. Anyway i decided to head out to my local public field.

Jupitor was high at 39deg. I pointed my scope at it and was amazed. At x105 it was perfectly sharp with the moons pin sharp and with contrast against the almost black sky. I have never seen the moons so crisp and contrastly, i would say they looked like jewels, like the brighter stars of the pleiades. Up to x210 and jupitor was still very sharpe, with two round spots observed, a darker top region, two dark bands and the bottom with distince fine bands. I was amazed. Never seen jupitor this sharpe before. At this mag the moons where no longer pin sharp, but started to take on skme spherical form, but only just.

Next i used a hyperion zoom and the moon was pin sharp all the way up to the 8mm click. I decided to powermate it. It was pin sharp all the way up to 8mm (x450) where it soften. But still amazingly good visually for studying detail. There was very little 'water ripple' effect on the moon so seeing must have been very good.

Next i viewed pleiades, i always heard some people like them most in bins. I have a pair of cannon IS 14x50 and agree i normally prefer the view with them to my scope. But this night changed my mind! The pleiades were at 38deg and in my 32mm nagler the sky was extremely dark with the brighter stars shining with such contrast and intensity, that i fianlly saw the 'jewels sprinkled in velvet' look. Stunning, much better than tru my bins.

I am sure my flocked scope contributed to my improved views. Jupitor being only 20deg from the moon. When i pointed my scipe at jupitor i looked down it and was amazed at hiw much moon light made its way down the OTA. Therefore is i had not flocked the moons light would have bouced all over the OTA and reduced contrast.

But at the same time i reasoned that the sky could well be clearer than any other day i have observed since gettig my scope 2 months ago. We are reaching the end of summer.

Then today i had a nice period of 20% cloud cover for about 1hr. I looked at the sky, with the naked eye it did not look much better than during july. But thru my bins i could see many more stars than usual (suburban back yard). I think i was actually able to see the milkyway 'band' stars, never been able to see this from my back yard before.

Has anyone been thinking the same? That the skies are becoming more clear? If this is just the beginning i cant wait for full winter! Infact i cant wait for minimal moon in 1 weeks time!

[todd8137]

hi there sounds like you had a great night i flocked my tubes a while ago it stillis under debate(the mrs swears it made not a ounce of diference) but i think it did the heat if the day is make in view in a bit better but winter is not always the best time granted its colder so the heat thermals and all the rest ,but the skies do get darker more inky black i can see the milky way most nights i bet if you took your scope to a proper dark site you would be overwhelmed wit the things you could not see from your back garden

glad you had a great night i love jupiter but the moon is my favorite since a child with a pair of 9x40 bins my dad got me i always looked at the moon

cheers pat

[Pingster]

Hi Pat, i think the flockig def helped that night and in simular situations where the moon is righ next to the object one is viewing.

Have you blacked the edge of your secondry and blacked all the silver bits around the secondry (screws)? As that made a very obvious big improvment for me on bright objects.

I agree the moon is one of the most spectular views in the sky, esp with big app!

I have yet to properly test this svope out in dark skies, ive seen to darkish site an it wad amazing.