First night at a dark site

[soundwave]

Heyyy all!

So I went down (with my brothers) to a pretty dark site tonight... (≈6.6 magnitude sky)

My mind was/is blown 

As we drove there we could see more and more stars in the sky..

and after taking the telescope out of the car, I looked up and saw... THE Milky Way 

I didn't have this sight anywhere in my memory (sad as it is)... we could see a (pretty) distinct band across the sky, arching above us, and in that band we could see some dark areas of interstellar dust and gas... 

It was really awesome.

We tried to take a picture with the camera (Canon T2i / 550D), but I guess the lens we had on was too "zoomy" (I believe that's the technical term  )

We got the telescope ready and watched Saturn a bit (as it was getting low in the sky)... Not really great seeing closer to the horizon, but Saturn is always nice to look at.

Then we moved into the main event... Star Clusters!

At first we tried to look at a cluster which was too low in the sky to get a good view, I guess... and I didn't really know how big should I see it in the finder...

So we tried another one, but couldn't really be sure we're looking at the right place...

And then we tried... M22!

I must thank Qualia (What Can I Expect To See post), because that sketch of a fuzzy star cluster is basically exactly what I saw in the finder scope (!) just a lil bit smaller and fainter.. So I knew I got it right this time... I had the 25mm eyepiece in the scope, and it looked great!!! 

...it was a bit small though, so after we all took a nice look, I cranked it up a notch to 10mm.. and this is where M22 really shined for me    

I wasn't expecting to see it like that, I was expecting a bit more fuzziness... but it was really awesome. We looked at it for a while....

We also tried the 4mm eyepiece, and while it did seem much bigger, it also seemed a bit harder to get into focus.... but it still looked pretty awesome!

Then we got out the T-Ring, to check if we could photograph it   (no barlow or anything yet, so I think it's 52x mag...)

I tried to remember everything I've read about AP here on the forums and on other places... I didn't take flats or bias, mainly because I couldn't remember what they were   I'll do another read-up later about that.

ISO: 12800

Exposure time: 1/3 sec

Images: 10 Lights / 10 Darks

I was "stuck" at F7.1, and only later I discovered how to change it on that camera, but it was nearly dawn by then...

I know that it's not a "good" result, and it looked way better in the observation, but I'm pretty happy with it for a 1st try 

As dawn started to creep on us, we noticed a very bright star has risen... turned out it wasn't a star at all, it was Venus! 

Here's the best picture I managed to get of Venus... I had to lower the ISO to 100, and the exposure time to something ridiculously short...

and here is a picture of Venus that I took after we packed up everything and got ready to go... 

it's a bit blurry, so Venus looks a bit bigger than it should look...

All in all, it was a great night, most of which was focused on M22 (my new favorite thing).

Can't wait for next time! 

[faulksy]

sounds like you had a unreal night, and what a place with 6.6 skys, you dont no how lucky you are. i observed m22 for the first time last week and it is awsome

[mdstuart]

Sounds awesome..

Something special about just looking at the sky with the naked eye at a dark site..

Mark

Sent from my BlackBerry 9320 using Tapatalk

[Beulah]

Awesome....lovely dark skies with a great scope, too. Would that be in the Negev?  I imagine there's a fair bit of light pollution in your country and it must be difficult to find a dark location....

Thanks for your report, I enjoyed reading it. 

[swamp thing]

M22 is a giant of a glob and resolves easily even in modest apertures which is just as well considering how low it is in the sky here. It never takes high mag very well here either because of its elevation. I'd love to glimpse it from somewhere it gets better height in the sky.

Pity the seeing didn't allow you to ramp the magnification up a bit more it must be an incredible sight from your location in a 10" scope.

[soundwave]

Faulksy: That's what the LP map said hehe  It's hard for me to evaluate how accurate they are, but I would be interested to find out somehow.. (although it was enough to make my jaw drop  lol)

Beulah: Yeah, I live in the northern part of the Negev, so a 35 minutes drive south gets me to pretty decent skies like these.. Maybe next time I'll do a 1¼ hours drive to an even darker site... maybe.

Thanks, everybody! 

Yup, it was pretty unreal (or way more real than I'd imagined)

[Beulah]

Beulah: Yeah, I live in the northern part of the Negev, so a 35 minutes drive south gets me to pretty decent skies like these.. Maybe next time I'll do a 1¼ hours drive to an even darker site... maybe.

Thanks, everybody! 

Yup, it was pretty unreal (or way more real than I'd imagined)

Nice!!

You obviously don't suffer from the damp conditions we can have here in the UK, including unsteady skies and dodgy transparency.

Crystal clear most nights, excellent seeing more often than not. You are lucky!!! 

[Astro Imp]

Another great report, if you carry on like this we'll all be coming to join you with those great skies 

Keep on enjoying it and tell us all about your adventures.

[ak47]

hi itai!

next week im getting my new scope and after reading your post I'm seriously thinking to take this 4 hours drive and visit the Negev myself, 

would you mind sharing the specific location? 

anyway, thats a great M22 pic! 

[soundwave]

Hey, ak47!

We went to a place near "Golda park" (7timer / google maps). 

If you look just north to the park, there is a (decent) dirt road leading up to a place called "The fountain of Youth". We drove on that road until we found a nice flat piece of land (around here).

But tonight we went to that general area again! (woohoo!) but we tried this place instead, a bit to the south of the park (the previous location seems better, though).

2nd night at a dark site! 

I had some friends over, and we decided to go to that general area again tonight. We got there kinda early (around 23:00), when the moon was still nicely situated in the sky.

At first I thought there was a light shining on us from somewhere, but then I realized it was the moon... and it was BRIGHT.

No stars at all could be seen around the moon... but one planet could be seen clearly above the moon.. and you could really see its red tint..

We did see a lot of stars outside the moon's light-reach, but no Milky Way at this time... (at around 2:00, we could start seeing hints of it).

I also think this new place was a bit more light-polluted than the previous location. I'm pretty sure of it...

Unfortunately, we forgot to charge the camera's battery (noobs...), so these are the only (nice) pictures we managed to take:

After a while of looking at the moon (which blinded our eyes, ouch!), mars & saturn, I was feeling the itch for a Star Cluster again 

and after some fiddling around... there it was.. M13!

I was pretty happy for actually managing to find another star cluster (meaning yesterday's find wasn't a complete fluke lol), but this cluster seemed a bit fainter, but maybe it was the moon messing up the contrast (although it wasn't near the moon).

After we all looked at it for a while, I sat there and just stared at M13 for a long while... and after some time, I could start seeing it a bit more clearly.

After a long session of observing M13, and then a bit more of Saturn (because, you know... it's Saturn  ), we thought it would be awesome if we try to see a Nebula.

And after some searching around, we actually saw the Dumbbell Nebula.

It didn't look like a star cluster at all (which was a good sign)... it was blurry (even though the stars around it were sharp) and no colors at all...

I wasn't sure it was actually it at first, but it did look a lot like this picture that I found online now.. only gray (and less noisy).

I'm hoping to see it more clearly someday (somehow).

All in all, it was awesome, I really enjoy seeing these distant objects, like the Dumbbell Nebula, whose photons we saw tonight, were emitted 970 years before the invention of the telescope 

By the way, on our previous session (with M22), during some test-shots that we took to see how much exposure-time we can pull off with a manual dob, we caught what appears to be a streak of light...

Could have we accidentally caught a shooting "star"? Kinda looks like it... but it's hard to be sure 

[Pondus]

Very nice reports. A joy reading them . 

Rune

[Daniel-K]

Awesome sounds like your having a blast with the 10" you should try m10 and m12 there two globular clusters quite close to each other. Keep up the reports always good to see someone getting clear sky

[Beulah]

Itai;

Wait until you get those moonless nights...that 10" scope will not disappoint you. 

[HIP3802]

Congrats on two great reports. It sounds like you are really enjoying the 10" - especially with those dark  skies.  The 'shooting star' you report in one of your images is most probably the curse of an astro-imagers life  - a satellite!

Martin

[soundwave]

Cool! But yeah, I can see how it can ruin a photographer's shot (or make it just interesting enough to post.. like in my case).

Although I did put on my list to observe the Hubble space telescope somehow...  

[swamp thing]

Itai

Next time you are observing M13 have a little pan round it with your low power eyepiece. Keep M13 in the FOV, but, just pan around it. If the sky is dark you should pick up the galaxy that accompanies it. It's about a degree away

Have fun out there

[soundwave]

Thanks, Steve. I'll try that out next time I'm at a dark site!

[lbscherm]

Lovely to hear your experience soundwave! Can't wait for my first properly dark site viewing   

[acey]

Faulksy: That's what the LP map said hehe  It's hard for me to evaluate how accurate they are, but I would be interested to find out somehow.. (although it was enough to make my jaw drop  lol)

Take a star chart with you, look for very faint stars (smallest circles on the map) and you'll get an idea of your magnitude limit. Concentrate on areas high in the sky (ideally overhead). For example the S&T Pocket Atlas has a limit of 7.6 mag, if I remember rightly, which will almost certainly be fainter than you can see. Find the smallest size stars on the map that you can definitely see in the sky, read off that size from the scale on the chart, and you'll get an idea of your limit. I'd be very interested to know if you can actually see stars to 6.6, as the LP map suggests. You may find your actual limit is somewhat lower. A limit of just under 6 is sufficient to see the Milky Way in glorious detail. At 6.6 you should be able to see the galaxy M33 with the naked eye, if it's suitably placed in the sky.

[soundwave]

Hi acey, I'll try that next time I'm there   thanks