North Skye deep sky contrast.

[cotterless45]

Night four, 1-3.30am. Crystal clear,too many stars to make out Cygnus,Cassiopeia and Cepheus.

Firstly a whizz up and around Cygnus , the emission nebulae could be seen by eye along with the tortuous shape of the almost white Milky Way weaving from horizon to horizon.The MW splits,moves to the left ,separates and moves onto the East.

NGC7000, the North American neb was brightly lit by Daneb and stunning at x20.Along withNGC6914 and IC1311.

NGC6992,6960 and 6995 were clear and whispery at x30 with a UHCfilter. I had never seen these so clear and expansive before.

IC5067 /70 also stood out clearly.

Then onto objects that I know well from my home light polluted site, for a comparison.

Ursa Major was setting in the West, above sung low,however M51 did look brighter.

M31 filled the fov lengthwise even atx48, at higher mags the outer areas were whispery and detailed.

M27 was stunningly bright , with a UHC it shone out with a light green hue from the background.

M57 just glowed at x120, there were fine filaments across the core.

M13,71,9 and 15 were resolved to the cores and dust lanes in M13 . I found a small bright globular NGC6934 in Delphinus as well as two planetary nebulae,Ngc6891 and Ngc6905.

I had a look at some galaxies in Pegasus , NGC7479,7814 and a brighterNGC7331

Ngc891 is a pleasing spiral with discernible dust lanes in Andromeda.

I had another look at the Blue Snowball NGC7662,above Pegasus which was now turning on it's side and the bright blue blinking NGC6826.

Then before the Moon showed I lay back on the grass, over the roof Jupiter was getting high and there were just so many stars. The Double cluster just shone by eye along with a brilliant Perseus chain.A run along Cygnus showed all the open cluster NGC being some ten times larger than the others. Wind and Moon then drove me to bed and plan for the next 9 nights.

On the practical side, Skye midges eat astronomers until midnightish, no spray will deter their efforts.

Nick.

[rory]

sounds (reads) stunning . i think the fact there are so many stars you can get lost and find it almost impossible to find constellations is what worries me for dark site trips. but what a nice problem to have.

[cotterless45]

The main problem is what to look at !

Nick.

[Mike73]

Any idea of the NELM/Bortle Nick? Stoooopily dark I bet!

[Naz]

.

On the practical side, Skye midges eat astronomers until midnightish, no spray will deter their efforts.

Nick.

I agree, nothing will totally deter the little devils, but, and it's a big but, forestery workers in the north of Scotland use http://avonshop.co.u... soft&pagenum=2

It certainly appeared to work and make it bareable, with very much reduced bites when I went fishing at night for sea trout in the Cairngorms.

[cotterless45]

Any idea of the NELM/Bortle Nick? Stoooopily dark I bet!

No idea mate, it's dark, very dark. I can pick out a row of streetlights 15miles away across the Minch at Lochmaddy.That's it for light pollution. I never realised what a tortuous and torn path the Milky follows and the amount of dust / nebulae in it.

Anyone considering the Highlands and islands: bring a scope!

Nick.