Dark Skies or Not!

[Charic]

Nice and Sunny right now, maybe I should go out and trim the lawns, but I wanted to use the 15x70s early this morning as a final test before maybe moving them on?  I'm hoping to buy some new 10x50s only to find that between midnight and 0200 I managed to see only a handfull of Stars with  just my eyes only? ( I didn't stay out for 2 hours, just made the observations!) The brightest was Arcturus, Then I managed to just make out Ursa Major, and Polaris using the Binocular. If you set Light Pollution settings in Stellarium to level 9 you`ll get an idea of how light it is here at 57 degrees North, and I also managed to go out without waking my Skyliner which is still snoozing quietley in the corner! wouldn't want to hurt its feelings to tell it, that its too light to go out to play?

Roll on Winter and darker nights, only 6 Months to go till Christmas and about two Months up here till darker skies? now where's my Christmas shopping list?

ps....Anyone considering their new purchases in Astronomy, should also consider the conditions. 'Light buckets' they may be, but pretty idle if you cant use them efficiently!

[acey]

You should be getting a dark enough sky again by August. Meanwhile stick to moon and planets or just enjoy the long, light evenings. Lousy time of year for deep-sky astronomy, but great for trout fishing.

[Charic]

+1 for the fishing! Its times like this that a proper astrodome would be nice. At least I could project Stellarium. I see your not too far South from me, so similar conditions maybe.

[Owmuchonomy]

Yes it's a bit of a dilemma. Here at 54N I managed my second star party on Thursday but it was really a moon and planets party. I stayed out until 1pm and saw quite a few stars appear and the Milky Way was just discernible in Cygnus. Since the demise of our cherry tree I was also able to pick out Antares but it was so low. I guess that's it until August. Still, the wallet is safe.

[RichM63]

Mackerel and lobster for me.

  I stayed out until 1pm and saw quite a few stars appear and the Milky Way was just discernible in Cygnus.

Cor, Stella Artois branded filters must be great!

Best,

Rich

[stevend]

Skies are not dark but tonight they are so clear. The moon and Saturn are just amazing this evening.

[Pondus]

+1 for fishing. I`m living at 59°N and in a fisherman`s paradise, so for me there`s defo life before dark  .

Rune

[Geordie mc]

As I predicted on purchasing a new ccd camera the weather has been lousy and now it's too light to image dso's. I've decided to try some lunar imaging and to spend time looking at the various software program's available for use with the new camera. Looked at maxim, astroArt, sequence generator pro and Nebulosity so far. I like maxim a lot but it is pricey, especially for the pro suite version. Is it worth having the max point feature that adds 100 dollars in the pro suite?