A Binocular adventure on a weird sky.

[Kronos831]

I currently am on holiday in my father's hometown, a small island near rhodes called symi.Symj, is a pretty small town,with only about 2000 residents.That means that the light pollution levels must be low. Acknowledging that, i called my friends, grabbed my 10x50 bins(that i got for 20€ from Turkey),and went on my way to find a dark site.About after 20 mins of walking (from the city),i stumbled upon a beach, it was dark, so i went in.There i decided to lay on a sunbed that was there.After looking up(not being dark adapted, my friends just kept turning their flashlights on for some reason), i saw the haze of the milky way stretching from Cassiopeia to cygnus and beyond!I was amazed as i ve never seen the milky way before and smudged it off as clouds until i confirmed it was the milky way from an app! The weird part was that at just straight overhead, was the port ,which had many lights, and as a result the sky appeared half bright and half dark. I turned over at Sagittarius and headed over the lagoon nebula. Brilliant! 3-4 stars in a line surrounded by bright nebulosity.(while still being in the haze!) Afterwards i headed to cygnus,it was a real light show! I saw the milky way layering on top of Cygnus while catching a glimpse of m23 and yet again, failing to see NGC7000 . Then, with the corner of my eye, i detected something moving, then turned over to Cassiopeia to see a shooting stsr!(it was my first time seeing one!!!) Was very brief, yet enjoyable. Right afterwards i turned over at the Perseus double cluster.Magnificent! Appeared as 2 small balls of light , almost connected yo eachother. Finally, i realised that finally, the target i was seeking to observe all year long, M31 was into the area with the light pollution! What a shame! While also being low on the Horizon, I couldnt see it with the naked eye. I observed it with ny binoculars for 10 minutes or so . The core was resolved nicely with some hints of outer nebulosity. Overall a great night and now, i wished i had my 8" dob with me....

(Sorry for any granmar mistakes, im currently typing this at 2 am xD)

[andrew63]

Sounds like an  atmospheric place to observe from.  That whole area around Sagittarius gives some lovely wide field views in binoculars, and is much better placed for you than here in the UK.

andrew