The Eight Sisters....

[Stu]

Typically with it being a lovely clear night last night, I was out for dinner with friends so no scope time. When I got home, I wandered into the back garden to have a quick look up. Alcor was very clear next to Mizar, which normally means the seeing is good. Very unusually, I could see the Double Cluster with the naked eye, not normal at all from my house.

I had a good look at the Pleiades, and normally only see six stars. Last night it was a clear seven, with one more quite obvious with averted vision, and a suspected ninth. That's a definite first for me, thought my eyes were past seeing that many. Very nice.

Stu

[Space Dragon]

That's pretty good naked eye......whereabouts in Surrey are you....you must be a fair way out ?

[nightfisher]

well done Stu, i wanted to get scope out and could see the conditions were top notch, but got home from a 14 hour day, on the back of a 15 hour day before, so no scope for me

[Mike73]

We had partial low level clouds last night with a bit of a breeze which pushed the clouds along quite nicely, the seeing was poor but the transparency was excellent. Clear forecast for down here tonight so hoping for more of that (apart from the clouds ).

[acey]

When I was a boy my dad and I would look at the Pleiades from the back garden and see how many stars we could count naked-eye. He made it to 13, I think - I'm not sure if I got past 10. The list below gives the brightest stars in order of magnitude - there are 10 brighter than 5.5, though seeing them all is a test of resolution as well as sky darkness.

        Alcyone         25 Tau       2.90        Atlas           27 Tau       3.62        Electra         17 Tau       3.70        Maia            20 Tau       3.87        Merope          23 Tau       4.18        Taygeta         19 Tau       4.30        Pleione         28 Tau       5.09        --             HD 23985      5.23        Asterope 1+2   21+22 Tau     5.31 (combined)        --             HD 23753      5.44        Celæno          16 Tau       5.46        --              18 Tau       5.64        Asterope 1      21 Tau       5.80 (separate)        --              33 Tau       6.05        --             HD 23950      6.07        --             HD 23923      6.17        --             HD 24802      6.19        --              24 Tau       6.29        --             HD 24368      6.34        Asterope 2      22 Tau       6.43 (separate)        --              26 Tau       6.47        --             HD 23712      6.49

(copied from http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_see.html)

[Jason71]

I always look for this when it's clear. A real gem to see.

[Stu]

That's pretty good naked eye......whereabouts in Surrey are you....you must be a fair way out ?

Yes, was very surprised, normally my skies are nowhere near that good. I'm on the outskirts of Walton on Thames! It was getting on for midnight I guess, so the seeing had calmed down a lot.

Stu

[Stu]

Thanks Acey, interesting. I've certainly read reports before of people seeing numbers into the teens, but had never got past seven myself.

Stu

[alan potts]

I have just looked and I could see about 50 but I did have a 115mm refractor on my eye.

Alan.

All joking I will go out and try it without a scope.

[Scott]

from my garden I've definately seen 6.... fairly sure I've seen 7 and think I've seen 8 but that may be wishful thinking....It's not really a good test of the skies though as I wear glasses and I seem to get diffraction/reflection with them. I wouldn't be surprised if someone with young eyes claimed double figures from my garden though and I wouldn't have thought the seeing was that good....not bad, but not great either.

I really wish I'd gotten involved with astronomy when my eyes were in better working order, not so much for the scope, but for the naked eye aspect.

[Stu]

The seventh one I normally struggle with is Celaeno, the eighth one I definitely got was Pleione, and the ninth that I was reasonably certain of but very intermittent was Asterope.

Any luck Alan?

Stu

[Stu]

Just had a quick look in 'The Messier Objects', and Mr O'Meara logged 17 with the naked eye! Puts it in perspective!

Stu

[Space Dragon]

Jeez......either my light pollution is worse than I thought or my eyes are donald ducked.....coz all i can see is a smudge.

I'll give it a serious try next clear night.

[alan potts]

Sadly a bit of high cloud got in the way and it was a battle to make out any.

Alan 

[Stu]

Yes, last night I was struggling to see 5 or 6!

[Space Dragon]

Put my head out the back door at midnight and it was clear as a bell [typical].....tried averted vision and counted 6/7, so not so bad after all, good way of telling how the seeing is, just never thought of doing it before.

[chiltonstar]

Tonight was extra clear here - well the bit between the clouds anyway! I counted 8 definitely, with a ninth possible. Needed my glasses though! 10 years ago I could see a few more without glasses, although the LP was much less then.

Chris

[LukeSkywatcher]

From my back garden with the naked eye............i usually see about 5 stars.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

When I was much younger I did once count 14, but nowadays I think I do not get past ten (from a dark site). From my garden 6-8 is more usual

[alan potts]

I had a go at this two nights back after being let down by the  high cloud reported back in the thread.. 

I really believe I can see 9 with another 2-3 averted imagination. I when down the bottom of the my field which is about 150 meters from the house so there was no kitchen lights getting on my nerves, sat 10 mins then started looking, the night was superb. Tried tonight and saw none, cloudy.  I did see about the same from Hull about 35 years ago but my eyes were really good then, they are not bad now unless I am reading a book.

I think with the lights of today in towns and cities you are doing very well to see 7 stars.

Alan