What a difference a day makes....that and about 2000 miles

[ShrewView]

Last night, having literally just returned from a break in Tenerife, and the sky being clear as I stepped out of the taxi I thought I'd spend a little while star gazing (not sure if this is a sign of obsession or not). I suppose I wanted to compare my home location with what I'd seen the night before. Since I didn't take a scope away I just opted for the small binoculars I had taken and my own eyesight.

So what were the main differences?

Tenerife

The first thing that struck me in Tenerife, being further south, was the different view of the sky I could get. Venus was brilliant and high above the horizon for hours after sunset and mars too was similarly situated and would have been great to view with a scope when at its best this year, whereas from home they've been a bit of a struggle being so low. Then there were the stars and parts of constellations I can't see from home like Formalhaut. From home this is again really too low with my southerly horizon but was clear and bright like mars. The downside was that to the north my view was impeded by a 12000 foot high mountain. I had hoped to go up to the Teide park for an organised astro trip but it had been cancelled due to clouds: more of a similarity with home perhaps!

Later, Orion was pretty clear and high and I could make out the major stars and belt but light pollution made the fainter stars impossible with the naked eye. Even a good few miles from the main tourist resorts the glow from unshielded lights that stay on all night is much worse than home.

The other most noticeable difference was temperature. In Tenerife at midnight it was around 16c, so very comfortable for viewing. 

Home

Orion was well situated to compare and immediately I could see my home location is darker with stars n1 through to n6ori visible.

I also caught site of a few meteors in the hour or so I was out. The first two were what I assume to be Andromedids, passing as they did through Pegasus and Andromeda. The last passing westwards through Taurus could have been an Orionid? It's was also a fair bit colder...temperature at home -4c with a thick frost on the ground so about an hour was all I could manage. 

Conclusions

I'm really tempted to take a small scope with me next time I travel so far south, as it would open up a lot more possibilities. Not sure how you'd transport one though; I can imagine the chaps on the x-ray machine sending a suitcase or hand luggage off to be inspected if it showed a strange cylinder inside!

[PeterW]

Shouldn't be much trouble.. you can see there is nothing dodgy inside the cylinder... ;-)

 

Peter

[clarkpm4242]

I've taken a  refractor to the Canaries many times.  No problem.  They see hundreds of camera telephoto lenses.  Scope in hand luggage and tripod in hold luggage.

You must get away from any resorts and up above any cloud inversion layer.

'til next time!  

Paul

[alan potts]

Nice report, you have a few degrees on me down there and it really does make a difference even from where I am.

Alan