First Night Out - Success!

[Spigot]

Hey all! If you haven't seen my newbie post, you can find it here. It's just a brief introduction of myself to the forum. Having a great time thus far.

In that topic, I mentioned that I often have a very hard time finding my way around the night sky. A user by the name of HIP3802 recommended that I download the Stellarium software for some help in navigating (shoutout to Hip!). My ladyfriend and I decided to give it a test. What followed was an impromptu, totally unprepared stargazing trip - our very first.

A friend advised that we set up in a graveyard just outside of town where light pollution wouldn't be too much of a problem. Arriving just before sundown (and careful not to be stepping on gravesites!), we gave ourselves the goal of observing the Milky Way. No telescope, binoculars, ete. All naked eye observation.

We had a great night, weatherwise. A bit colder than what we've been having the last couple of weeks, but nothing a hat and coat couldn't take care off. The clouds even held off until just before we had left at around 10:45 PM EST.

Observations centered around what we determined via the software to be the star of Vega and the Summer Triangle. The two of us were completely blown away as the sun set down behind us and the stars just kept bleeding through the void. (That sounded overly dramatic, but you get the idea. ) Half the time was spent trying to determine which star was which, though I enjoyed the discovery all the same.

Our goal of seeing the Milky Way was more or less achieved. Neither of us had ever seen it outside of pictures, so we weren't sure exactly what to expect or look for. There was some discoloration/strange lighting in the sky passing through the Triangle that died out as it approached Saturn and the northern horizon. What little bit was saw seemed to die down in intensity as the night wore on. Has anybody else experienced this? I assumed the opposite would happen as it passed overhead.

I also managed to glimpse four or five shooting stars, which I can honestly say I haven't seen since childhood. It was great to, in a sense, be reacquainted with them.

All in all, highly successful trip! We both had a great time minus a few bug bites. Still looking for a good, local, convenient, and safe location to stargaze from. The graveyard worked for tonight, but I'd rather not be traipsing around on somebody's final resting place. I'd also like to be further away from the highway. I-99 ran no more than a mile or so to our east. I'd wager to bet that it hindered our view with all the lights.

Can't wait for our next (hopefully more prepared) trip!

Delta Aquariids, anybody?

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Setting up in a graveyard at night! Braver than me haha. But i am reading S Kings novel, the Salems lot, so that doesnt help.

The milky way is fairly easy to spot, but you might not realise you have, i often mistake it for very high cloud running through the Northern Cross, (Cygnus). But from places like Africa, it is suppose to be immence, just one of those things that i want to see one day.

bleeding through the void.

Love that - A line straight out of Doctor Who!

There are quite a few bright nebula around Vega too, M57 and M27, and M13 is around there if you havent seen them before. Will post links to maps to find them. All in all it sounsd like you had a pretty good night and a good start to stargazing. Do you have a telescope? You dont mention one but you do say you set up, so that sounds so.

http://www.solarius.net/assets/finder_charts/messier_13.pdf

http://www.solarius.net/assets/finder_charts/messier_27.pdf

http://www.solarius.net/assets/finder_charts/messier_57.pdf

[Superdavo]

Nice! I've seen the milky way myself, and it's just a faint glow. Also, if ever you get a telescope or look for faint targets in binos, learning the constellations is really useful.

[ronl]

It's nice to hear you had an enjoyable evening, Stellarium is a very good

tool, and can be used on site, if you have a laptop take it with you and

switch to night vision mode, it's the icon that looks like an eye with a star

in the middle, it gives you a red screen view, which does not affect your

dark vision, that way you can easily find your way around.

[Spigot]

Matt - I actually don't have a telescope. That's something I want to ease into purchasing.

Super - Thanks for the tip!

ronl - Yeah, I took the laptop out with us and actually found night mode by accident about halfway through the night.

[andrew63]

Enjoyed the read, thanks - even a pair of binoculars can give some great views if you don't have a telescope yet, and of course very portable.

andrew

[Spigot]

We considered stopping by a friend's house to pick up his binocs, but didn't want to drive too far out.

[Astro Imp]

Nice to hear you had fun, thanks for taking the trouble to share with us.