First night under darker skies

[Guest Tuomo]

Hello!

 

So I took your advice and left my comfy backyard and headed for darker site about 30 mins away from my home. According to lightpollution.info the area should be quite ok for visual astronomy. What do you guys say? There are few brighter globes in the horizon but generally sky was dark and I could spot many Messier objects with naked eyes....

Well, how did it go? Not so well. Night was very windy. In fact winds might have been even stormy. Gushes of winds moved my 12" at high mags. There was not any apparent humidity not even the location is by the sea. How much does stormy winds affect my seeing? I ask this, because I was bit disappointed. It was darker, but the difference was not that big.

Should I head back there sometimes later and check night sky when theres no winds? How much does cold temperatures affect seeing?

 

 

ps. I was there with my friend who took some short exposure shots of night sky.

Me, my 12" and light pollution near horizon. Would LPF in DSLR camera remove LP like this from the pictures?

 

Double cluster with Andromeda?

Big dipper AKA. Otava or Plough