Magic of a dark sky.

[cotterless45]

A short break on the Kent coast ( 51 11' north) gave a night not only of sparkling clarity, but a very dark sky. As darkness began to fall the first players appeared followed by the full length of a bright and wide Milky Way. Stars were there right down to the sea horizon. The nearest big glow being in Calais.

I had only a pair of 15x70 binoculars, but a scan of Cygnus showed fields completely packed with stars looking almost granular. The breaks , shapes and dark nebulae to Deneb and Sadr could be made out.

I soon picked out a glowing M27 in Vulpecula. Dropping down to line between Albireo and Altair, there was the bright inverted Coathanger cluster.

The Andromeda galaxy was absolutely huge, spanning the field of view. Dropping down I found M33 with less surface brightness , but plenty of structure. What a beautiful target.

Cassiopeia was nearly lost in the mass of stars, NGC was found with a bright pair of phi eyes. Dropping off of Caph at the rh end showed the dense cluster NGC 7789.

Below Pegasus was the Pisces circulet and stars right over to Formalhaut in Pisces Austrinus. Jupiter Rose in the full length of a side wards defined Gemini pointing to the whole of Orion.

The whole sky just sparkled against the very darkest of backdrops, so deep compared to the usual edge of town glow.

If you get the chance to observe under a dark sky , then it brings it's very own special magic.

Old Nick.

[Paul73]

Shows what dark sky's can do. Surprised that you had time to draw breath.

Shame that it isn't spring/summer. You could have bagged a couple of the missing Messier's whilst you were about it!

Second thoughts. Maybe not. It would be a shame to waste a sky like that by studying one tiny part of it.

Paul

[Rustysplit]

Sounds fabulous Nick. Whereabouts did you go? I went down to Dungeness a couple of months back and that was great. Surprisingly dark and so much to see.

[scarp15]

Nice report, a true dark sky is magical  and in such circumstances, a pair of 15x70 binoculars can perform brilliantly, as I discovered recently at Kielder.

[Mike73]

Nice one Nick.

I really don't like observing from home, every object I look at just makes me wonder how it would appear at a dark site!

[faulksy]

going down mid wales on friday with swampthing and estwing the skys down there are absolutely black like i have never seen them, so i no what you mean nick, just hope the weathers good

[Mike73]

going down mid wales on friday with swampthing and estwing the skys down there are absolutely black like i have never seen them, so i no what you mean nick, just hope the weathers good

Is there an unofficial SGL gathering in Wales next weekend??  Can I come??? 

[Special K]

Well done Nick. Reminding me of unfinished business I have in all other parts of the sky that don't contain a comet or the ghost of one. With no moon about tonight I got me a hankering for some globular clusters! Might have a go at M33 as you mention it but only if this forecast comes true. Enjoy your trip!