Should I drive to a dark spot with the moon at 76.5%

[N3ptune]

Yeah i am not sure about that, the sky is great but the moon is strong, but I want to look at DSO's.. a poll will decide if I stay at home and sketch the moon or if I go to a darker spot for DSO's

(; Please vote.

[Frank the Troll]

Wrap up warm

 

[Beulah]

Moon sets around 1am, so you can get the best of both. Plus you live in Canada, darker than most SGL members' home areas on this forum. Even if it is for a bit of peace, quiet and soul restoration under the stars. Go for it.

[jetstream]

For DSO no, for everything else, yes.

[pete_l]

It depends how many other observing opportunities you expect to get in the next month or so?

If this is the only time, you might as well make the most of it. But if  you expect (social life and weather permitting) to be able to observe in a couple of weeks, I'd give it a miss and wait for a better opportunity.

[N3ptune]

Hemm that's an interesting poll, very interesting.

NOT GO The moon is too strong and only Neptune is available.

GO a good sky could help me see Neptune's disk for the first time.

GO I would like to go there because it's calm and a nice spot for my Saturday night fever, extreme social life.

GO I could see a few DSO anyways in medium conditions before 1:00 and many DSO's after 1:00

NOT GO The timing is hard, for a DSO observation I would need to arrive there at 23:00 for 3 to 4 hours observation then return here at about 3 or 4 AM

NOT GO This will affect me next week even if I sleep all day Sunday. (Although I could force me to sleep Sunday night with a sleep aid.)

SUPER GO I could see constellation I rarely see after 1AM, this would be REALLY NICE and a premium event.

GO I don't work tomorrow so I can sleep.

GO the conditions forecast are quite good, but a bit cold, 4 Celsius.

NOT GO I have all the opportunity to return there.

 

I have 6 GOs with 1 super go, againt 4 NOT GO's

[orion25]

A clear sky is all the reason you need to get out under the stars!

Reggie

[Charic]

Moon free nights are best for me.

[Stu]

What is your sky like at home? Targets like globs cope with the moon better than other DSOs so maybe stay home unless you are in a very light polluted area?

[N3ptune]

I can see the Veil from home, so it's polluted but there are some opportunities, I have other spots option too, much closer from home and a bit better. I am starting to consider these options too, 10 minutes of road only to access the entire stellarium dome.

It could be great to look at the moon, do a sketch, perhaps locate Neptune and look at a few Globulars, and maybe find a carbonstar. This could be a good plan.

My gear is ready to go, I am drinking a tea now and taking my time to decide ((:

 

[barkis]

The human eye can take a long time to adapt to viewing faint light, especially after staring at the moon for even a short time.
If you intend to surf for deep sky, do not even glance at the moon, and certainly not through your scope.
You could scupper your dark adaption for so long, you'd be bored waiting .   Neptune is at Magnitude  7.8 at present, Uranus a lot brighter a 5.7.
 A youngsters healthy eyes adapt quickly, and are very sharp, the older you get, the adaptation to the dark takes a lot longer to reach 
full potential. Set you project to either the moon, or Deep sky, but not both, you will degrade the quality of the deep sky returns.

[rockystar]

2 hours ago, N3ptune said:

I can see the Veil from home

Not sure I'd venture out that often if this were true for me.  In my near by dark site (50 Min drive ) this is only just visible. 

[N3ptune]

I am back from my observation, I choose to drive 10 minutes instead, stay close to home.

It was a very good and interesting observation again. I drew 2 sketches. Turned out, I spent most of my time looking at the Heart nebula and clusters... what do you know!  there were many visible spots of nebula too. I'll talk about that in a report tomorrow!

@rockystar I can see the veil from home but not much, the 2 extremities are visible with the filter, some parts are visible without filter too very very faint. At the darker spot it must be 3x better, maybe more. It's not hubble but for a small telescope I think it's impressive.

UPDATE: Report

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/301054-2017-09-30-planet-neptune-the-heart-nebula/?tab=comments#comment-3294088