How dark are your summer nights?

[Bovski]

Unfortunately the same as my winter nights I can sit in the garden and read a book.

I hate LED street light's.

[wimvb]

4 hours ago, Bovski said:

Unfortunately the same as my winter nights I can sit in the garden and read a book.

I hate LED street light's.

I can relate to that. Before I moved to my current location, I lived in the suburbs. Across from my observing location, some 20 m  away, there was a street light to the South East. Unlike in some other countries, Swedish street lights are not turned off at midnight, but are on all night long. And right across the street, to the South, neighbours could leave their bathroom lights on all night.

Edited June 26, 2020 by wimvb

[don4l]

 

As my imaging improves, I notice that I am getting fussier about "darkness" "transparency",and "seeing".

Two years ago I did a Ha survey of Cepheus under fairly thick haze.  The data was good enough to show me potential targets, including the "dark" areas.  It most certainly was not good enough to share in public.

 

Last night the conditions were similar, but there was no point in setting up.

 

I've been gathering OIII data this last week.  I have a strong suspicion that in a year or two, I won't bother with OIII for about a month either side of June 21st.

[maw lod qan]

Here in Fla where I live, 27°, I'm lucky. It gets very dark and when the conditions are right very clear.

I live in a borderline 3-4 if I use the Bortle scale. Sky glow to the West is very noticeable over riding any star below about 25 degrees above the horizon.

On both sides of the zenith, the Milkyway is visible, though some nights are much better than others. 

Town is rapidly coming my way, but my time is most likely going to be over before it gets out here.

[DirkSteele]

On 25/06/2020 at 18:18, John said:

It does get dark here but not for very long. 2-3 hours of observing and the light starts to infuse the eastern sky.

Over the last few nights I've been able to see the milky way faintly running through Cygnus somewhere between midnight and 1:00 am. Had some decent views of the Veil Nebula with 100mm - 130mm scopes, with the help of the O-III filter of course.

Still, its only going to get better now we are past the solstice and observing the deep sky in shorts is quite nice

Shorts and t-shirt observing is the best!

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Shorts and t-shirt observing is the best!

Unless you're dripping in sweat in high humidity and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes as is the case right now here in Texas.  I much prefer our winter observing with pants, a light jacket, no humidity, and no bugs.