Starting again

[iamjulian]

Very small first light report from my new back garden.  Moved house the other week and while darker skies was a slight consideration, it was not the driving factor, and we did look at houses that would have meant a naked eye limiting magnitude drop of about one and a half.  Thankfully though we ended up in a slightly darker part of the Welsh Marches and I got a taste of how dark on Saturday night

Headed out about 9pm to stand on the back porch.  Immediately got hit in the face by a stupidly bright security light.  Quickly realised we had inherited it guess how long it took me to disable!  Despite that set back, and a street light in my peripheral vision, after five minutes my NELM was 5.  My old back garden when I was reasonably dark adapted was something like 4.6 so I am pretty happy.  The Milky Way was very obvious and there were enough stars to make the constellations less obvious. 

I didn't have long, and only my eyes, but M31 was easy, as was the double cluster, and I thought I may have seen M13, but I couldn't be certain.  My telescope is still in storage but cannot wait to get it here.  The garden has some big trees, so my previous big panoramic view is curtailed somewhat.  That said I do have a gap about the width of the square of Pegasus in a south east direction, so I should be able to pick up more of the Messiers that were previously unavailable to me.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Sounds great. Look forward to your reports once your scope is unpacked.

[Astro Imp]

Looking good.

Good luck when you get out with your scope.