A dark site at last!

[szymon]

We're in Grado, Italy, for the next week...and the sky is like nothing I've ever seen before! It's truly incredible. Only downer is that directly outside our Bungalow is a light :-( so when I set up the scope it was hard to see much, but walking on the beach is amazing -- perfect views of the Milky Way, and looking up is just like looking at stellarium :-)

Hopefully they'll turn off all the lights late at night, if not I'll have to take the scope somewhere further away. I'm so excited to finally be *seeing* the stars :-)

[Stargazer33]

Sounds wonderful. Enjoy your dark skies!

[Stu]

Excellent stuff, enjoy!!

[timwetherell]

The stars are truly wonderful from a dark site - have a great holiday

I just wish the general population could see that (a) all that light they spray into the sky doubles their energy bills and ( how pretty the sky is if it isn't ruined by light pollution

[nightfisher]

The stars are truly wonderful from a dark site - have a great holiday

I just wish the general population could see that (a) all that light they spray into the sky doubles their energy bills and ( how pretty the sky is if it isn't ruined by light pollution

Tim, how very true!  from my home location i have so much light pollution that 99% of deep sky objects are invisible, its good that i much prefer looking at Luna

[szymon]

Absolutely. I live in North-West London and thought I was quite lucky with what I'm able to see...but that's because I had no comparison!

Turns out that the local lights stay on here all night, but the swimming pool is dark (because it's closed). So my plan is to sneak over the gate with the telescope and set up by the pool, with no stray lights. Should be perfect :-). Maybe not tonight as it's really cloudy today, but tomorrow's forecast is for clear skies, sun all day and stars all night...

[acey]

The one bright light affects your ability to dark adapt but obviously has no effect on the sky, so if you can shield your eyes from its glare (both direct and reflected off immediate surroundings) you'll get the same view as if it wasn't there. You also have the benefit currently of earlier full darkness, so more viewing time before moonrise. And better weather, scenery, food.... heck I'm envious!

[Special K]

Excellent result for you and the Milky Way is real jaw-dropper, isn't it?! Good luck by the pool, as glare is more obnoxious than LP sometimes. Can you cover that light without getting in trouble? Things we do in the dark of night to get the ideal scenario