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Judge your sky with orion

Stub Mandrel

By Stub Mandrel
in The Astro Lounge

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DRT

DRT

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I can't see it at the moment but my gut is telling me my location would be a 5 on a good day and a 4 on the other 364 days of the year.

I can see the nebula with the naked eye on a really clear night, but mostly not. I can almost always see the sword.

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saac

saac

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What a cool and really easy guide Neil.  I think I'm somewhere in 5.  The Moon is starting to have an influence here at the moment but I easily make out the stars in the sword and perhaps I was kidding but a hint at  nebula.  Yeah I think I'm probably kidding myself!

A truly dark sky is something to be experienced and if you haven't yet done so I'd encourage you to get it on your bucket list.  I used to do a bit of Munro bagging in my youth and remember a overnight bivvy  on one of the corries of , I think Bidean  nam Bian, in Glen Coe.  I remember lying there in the bivvy bag looking straight  up at an inky black sky filled with more stars than I have ever seen.  It really felt like I could reach out and hold the stars in my  hand, while the satellites played around as though it were the M25. All around me was just silence and an equal inky blackness .  I've never forgotten it, a really wonderful experience.  Now if only we had that and warmer at our home locals  - but then again everybody would be doing this!

 

I'd love to see the skys in Arizona or similar.

 

Jim

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JamesF

JamesF

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The CPRE as part of their dark sky campaign ask for people to count the number of stars inside the box formed by Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel and Saiph.  When I've done that on a good night I get well into the twenties, so like Gina I'd say I'm probably a 6.

If I can see any at all, of course, which has been a rare thing this winter :(

James

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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I'm chuffed about finding that!

Just a bit better than a 3 for me last night, but my eyes only had a few minutes for dark adaptation and I was in the front garden (letting the dog out) where the streetlamps are very intrusive.

In the back garden looking south and eyes well adapted I can just see M42 in the sword so a good 4.

Close to the horizon looking north I only ever see stars like Capella and looking straight up on a perfect night (and totally dark adapted) I can just see the milky way straight overhead, so you can see my sky is incredibly patchy!

Luckily I am not far from a spot where I can get a 5. I hope to try imaging in the peaks soon, but i need some certainty of a clear night and good seeing!

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Riemann

Riemann

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This is really helpful.   From memory the sky round our house is somewhere between 4 and 5, probably closer to 5, but I will have a systematic count next time I have a clear sky.   This is about right as I live in a medium sized village about 3 miles from the nearest town.

But I have a question as I am a relative beginner.   Given a darkness of say 4.5 on this scale, what should I be able to make out in terms of nebulae and galaxies?

The reason for my question I am struggling to make out nebulae and galaxies.    M42 is easy, M1 I have just about made out, M82 was so faint I was not sure if I was imagining it, and I cannot make out NGC2264 at all despite several attempts.     I am using a C11 SCT so don't think I am short of light gathering power and I have just ordered some filters that may help.

Our neighbours have some bright spotlights that illuminate the trees near our boundary about 100 feet away from where I set the telescope up.   Very pretty but I they play havoc with my night vision so that might be part of my problem rather than the sky.   I would rather avoid having to travel to observe but I am beginning to wonder if it is necessary.

BTW nice twist on the Iggy lyrics Neil.

Peter

 

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spike95609

spike95609

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That's very interesting, makes a change from staring at Ursa Minor trying to work it out. I'm definitely in the number 4 area - and I do live in a large village!

9 minutes ago, Riemann said:

But I have a question as I am a relative beginner.   Given a darkness of say 4.5 on this scale, what should I be able to make out in terms of nebulae and galaxies?

Your skies sound similar to mine. With my 10" dob I can pick up a fair few faint galaxies but it is more hit than miss, living on the edge of the Black Country doesn't do wonders for the quality of my skies. Anything in the 11th magnitude I feel safe having a go at, beyond that it's unlikely.

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ghostdance

ghostdance

Posted
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Thanks for the link Neil :)

Going by this, I'm usually  (clouds and orange  permitting) 2.5 to 3....hey, that's not so bad! Thought it would be worse given my location. On a clearish night I can even make out the Pleiades (eyes only ) with averted vision. 

ps I tend to judge my sky by the Kids. If I can see em naked eye - little sleep for me!

I've been getting *lots* of sleep, lately...

 

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DaveS

DaveS

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Coming back on this I would say about 3.5, though as I said, I have seen 4, that was as recently as Dec 2013 from Acton on a *very* clear night. There was a time (30-40 years ago) when 4 -5 was normal from Acton. So I'm a little perplexed by their scale details, since they recon my visibility is right for a small town edging to large village, whereas I recon Ruislip is a large suburb. In fact looking at Orion (Or anywhere SE-S-SW) I'm looking over a major retail park with their horrid lights, and a major road. Something I didn't check when I looked at the property. I did though check for, and reject, properties near a flood-lit sports ground.

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Hadron

Hadron

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I would put my location down as being about a 5.5 to the east and south situated as we are on the very edge of a small village. To the north and west we get a degree of light pollution from the local towns and RAF bases.

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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I think that the way it works is image 1 is stars down to mag 1 (Betelgeuse 0.45, Rigel 0.18), image 2 stars down to mag 2 (Bellatrix top right 1.64) image 3 down to mag 3 (Saiph  bottom left 2.07), and so on.

So in effect it lets you estimate your NELM (Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude), shame it doesn't explain this in the document.

 

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kev

kev

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4 mainly with some 5, and a very rare 6 once a year at home.

last week on Wednesday I was driving home along the A1, then M62 near Goole, and it kept going from rain and muck to clear, and when I say clear I mean absolutely stunningly. I stopped the car after Howden in a layby and had a look, despite how tired I was. definately a 6 then.

 

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