Naked Eye report 23/11 2008

[glennbech]

My family of 3 often takes a 150km trip to buy cheap food in the fantastic country of Sweden. It's a little bit about the trip and a little bit about saving some $. Lately it has been a little about astronomy as well. In between the countries there are almost no cities and I have suspected that skies must amazing.

Last night was moonless and at around 8:00pm I took off the main road and drove pretty deep into the forest on a dirt road. The aim was to do some naked eye observing. (It took some bribery to get my wife to agree on the slight detour). It also felt a little bit like a horror movie, you know; "lets drive up this desserted road. I wonder where it leads!"

When I got out of the car I made one of those "holy carp" sounds that automaticly comes out when you see something amazing for the first time. Since mt childhood I have never seen such a sky, and I have not seen such a gerat sky since I got interested in astronomy.

The cygnus area seemed the densest but the double cluster was visible even to my freezing (and unwilling) wife without contact lenses. I've never seen the milky way that defined.

I was a bit sad about the timing since Orion wasn't up, the sword would have been a treat. The pleiades looked great and I counted 7 stars. I guess I Could have seen more If I had the time to settle down.

I wanted to spend all night of course, but my 2 year old claimed it was cold (he hever says that unless bored!) and I didn't want to stretch my wife's patience any longer.

I guess I'll have to take the next shopping trip alone, with my 8" Newt, or even just the Megrez 90 in the back seat .-) I might also consider to put a 12" dob on my wish list just to bring along on those trips...

What a night!

[beamer3.6m]

And I thought my trips to Tesco were interesting!

[Talitha]

Fantastic! May all your shopping nights be clear ones!

[Helen]

Great report! We had a recent trip to a rural area and I can identify completely with the awesomeness of the naked blaze of the milky way under reallly dark skies :shock:

The car park of my local Tesco is the best place close to me for seeing the planets - got strange looks from people, but I got to see Mercury in my binos

Helen

[Sam]

Crikey I thought driving to the next county to go shopping was extravagant! but to another country, well that's something! glad you found a nice dark sky site.

Sam