What's the best time to view deep space objects?

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Hello tiered eye astronomers

I've been viewing the night sky at between 8 - 10pm in the evening. But I read that people are creeping around in the early hours. I'm I missing something and should I advise the domestic management that I'll be absent between the hours of 'x' and 'y' and not worry (well not yet at any rate )

Could you please share some of your experiences of the kind of things you observe if you are one of those who is active in the early hours?

Cheers N.

[RikM]

My local streetlights are dimmed after midnight, so I tend to get my best views of deep sky faint fuzzies between midnight and 2am. The seeing tends to have settled down a bit by then as well.

[Tribal-Wolf]

I would definite say night time, very difficult to find through the day. Seriously though, last night was hazy around here so I couldn't find any. I think it's best to wait till everyone has gone to bed and put their home lights out, it makes quite a difference.

[RikM]

I would definite say night time...

I sooo wanted to post that

[glowjet]

I think any time after dark is what our friends are hinting at Lol, but it is not a question of what time you can see a particular DSO, but if you can see it at all,

very dark skies are an absolute must in this respect, to see them at their best and a knowledge of what subjects lie in each Constellation, together of course, with the time this will be visible from your location. Apart from TL@O which I am sure will have already been made known to you there is a paperback of some 500 pages devoted to most of all the things you are able to see with a small scope/bins and dealt with Constellation by constellation throughout the year. Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders is well worth the investment and should keep you active throughout all all the hours of darkness, for quite some time to come

[umadog]

The darker the skies the better they will look. Avoid nights with a bright moon if you want DSOs. You can see the brighter objects even from the city. For example, one can see the brighter galaxies in Ursa Major from the London suburbs. However, even if an object is detectable from a very light polluted location it will look better if you're somewhere darker.

It's worth trying to quantify what we mean by a dark sky because it's not really an all-or-none thing. Here's one way of quantifying how light polluted a location is: Bortle Dark-Sky Scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

London and its suburbs are about 7-9 on this scale. Northern Scotland is a 1. The darker parts of Wales about a 3. Here's a map with a colour-scale: The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness An area that rates about 4.5 starts to look really rather pleasant. A 3 is wonderful. A 1 is simply astounding.

There are really two sources of light pollution. Local light pollution, such as a brightly lit nearby car park, can often cause significant damage to one portion of the sky. Moving 3 or 4 miles from such a light pollution source can make a big difference. Overall sky-glow is harder to deal with. Lights from a big city can be visible even a 100 miles away.

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LoL. Sure I do get that darkness is obviously best. And yes I've ordered my copy of TL@O.

But what I was really interested in is what you will find in the sky during those late (or early) hours. And if it's worth setting-up for??

[Tribal-Wolf]

When I was a lad for some reason I always thought if I stayed up long enough with my scope I'd see a ufo. Why they would only fly around at that time at not other times didn't even cross my mind lol

[umadog]

I think you should download Stellarium and have a play with that. Basically, stuff that you stay up for in the early hours now will be the stuff that appears in the early evening in the summer.

[Redpaul]

LoL. Sure I do get that darkness is obviously best. And yes I've ordered my copy of TL@O.

But what I was really interested in is what you will find in the sky during those late (or early) hours. And if it's worth setting-up for??

If you haven't already done so, download Stellarium. It's free and you can fast forward to any time and date and plan your viewing.

Paul

[Ags]

The best time to observe? Either when you have to get up early the next day for work, or when you have friends visiting, or there is something unmissable of telly. That last one never seems to happen these days :-)

[Jon Sales]

I sooo wanted to post that

Beat me to it too

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OK I've downloaded the program, ordered my book (TL@O). I'll let you know my own experiences here in darkest Oxfordshire.

Cheers, N.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

For DSO's, any time after dark is good. The darker the better, so avoid moonlit nights. Seeing doesn't tend to impact DSOs tooooo much so earlier in the evening is fine.

The main reason people are creeping about in the morning, is because thats roughly 6hours after the sun goes down, and the ground/air temperature has stabilized, meaning planetary views are (usually) MUCH better at those ridiculous hours.