Dark sky viewing

[robhalliwell]

Hi All,

this is my first post and was wondering if you could give me some advice, my 6 year son is mad on all things astrological, i was planning this week whilst it clear at night in the northwest to take him to a dark sky location so he could see the stars.

we dont have a telescope yet, is it worth going? will we see anything more than a normal night in a built up area? for example the milky way?

also could anyone suggest a good starter telescope, preferably motor driven?

i have seen this one AstroMaster 130EQ-MD Reflector Telescope not sure if its any good though?

thanks in advance

[rfdesigner]

Welcome to SGL

You will see far far more if you can get away from the glow.

The winter milky way is harder to see than the summer, but at a decent site you should be fine. Plan on needing a good 15 mintues for your eyes to dark adapt after you switch off your headlights.

Take some binoculars with you, and download Stellarium (free) so you can familiarise yourself a little before you go.

Take a red torch if you have one, (a bike rear light is ideal) red torches won't destroy your night vision but will help you not to fall over things in the dark.

In my opinon 6 is a shade young (my 5 year old daughter loves astronomy things.. but has the attention span of a gnat, so I wouldn't take her out on a trip like this, maybe your son has more staying power)

have fun

Derek

[stevetynant]

Hi Rob - going to a dark sky site with just your eye balls will be a big difference from Urban viewing although you need to take some time- perhaps 20 minutes to get used to the light conditions ie dark adapted. Now would be a good time to go aswel as the moon is not flooding the sky with light - you should still be able to see the Milky Way although its at its optimum in the Summer months from what I understand.

Take a couple of deck chairs, your bins and some coffee I'm sure it'll fire your sons imagination even more.

As to telescope - if it was me knowing what I know now in the short time I've invested in this hobby I would go for a Dob mount and spend as much as you can afford on aperture - the scopes are easy to set up, easy to transport and your son will have better access to the eye piece as it is lower to the ground but thats just my opinion and I'm biased as I have one myself.

Definitely go to the dark sky site ,scope or no scope - I'm sure there'll be many others to give opinions on your new scope and welcome to the forum.

[robhalliwell]

thanks for the great advice guys really useful, i'm definitely going to go now!

I believe its a new moon on thursday, will that make much difference?

thanks

[stevetynant]

Well I saw nebulas from my back garden last night that I'd never seen before and we have some light pollution here in the Valleys - about two weeks ago it seemed like someone had put a flicked the swith and put the floodlights on themoon was so bright.

Check the weather forecast if it looks like you'll get a clear night tonight go when theres no clouds about - we should be ok for a few weeks again now until the moon gathers itself - clouds are a different matter in this hobby lol.

I think Derek has made a good point though - make sure as best you can where your going is safe if its the first time and you don't know the area too well - otherwise have a great night and let us know how you get on

[umadog]

You should go round about the new moon, that's right. Light pollution is something that occurs on a sliding scale. So you have urban skies, suburban, skies, skies with fairly little LP, and truly dark skies. This map gives you a rough idea of how LP is distributed in the UK:

http://www.iota-es.de/light_pollution/Ireland_UK.gif

The colours correspond more or less with the Bortle scale: Bortle Dark-Sky Scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You can have plenty of fun with binoculars and a star chart. Learn to identify the constellations, etc.

A *dim* red torch is important (red alone is no sufficient). If you use a bicycle rear light then you should dim it down a bit. Painting a few layers of red nail varnish over it will help.

[rfdesigner]

Another map but with slightly more resolution:

http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/images/darksky01.jpg

Derek