first time in dark skies!

[tripleped]

Finally had  an observing session at  a dark sky site (with my local astro club) and it was  truly glorious!  I live in Bortle 8 and  the best  I've  had prior to this  was  Bortle 5-6 (which was  very nice  by comparison)   With my 10" goto Dob managed  to see  28 Messier and  2  NGC's in a 2+ hr  session starting about  10 pm. Concentrated mostly on Saggitarius objects, created an observing  list, started  closest to horizen and worked my way up. Very efficient to have  planned out the session well in advance so I wasn't  slewing  all over  haphazardly.  My adult  son was  with me. As he was  switching out eyepieces, I was  checking  the list for the next target  and  entering  it into synscan pro app-  this made for a very efficient operation. Many of the objects  I'd seen before, many I hadn't due to light pollution. The ones  I had seen before  popped  out  like never before.   Lots of  globulars and open clusters,  a few nebulae, saturn and jupiter, and one planetary neb (Saturn neb)  Many memorable sights  but the highlights of the evening were:

                  1) Jupiter  with Ganymede transit shadow - perfect view!  (and  a huge surprise as  I didn't even know  it was visible that  night which made it extra fun)

                  2) M31- bigger, brighter and bolder than I've ever seen

                  3) M25 open cluster  (Sagittatius)    very, very nice ! (first  time  seeing it)

                  4) M15 globular  (Pegasus)

                   5) M11  Wild  Duck- which is probably tops on my list  of favorite  clusters 

                   6) M24   Sag. Star Cloud-  rich, dense field of  stars- terrific! 

 

Looking  forward to going  back there. Next  time gonna  first spend  some  time with the naked  eye just  taking  it all in  and  trying  to find  as many constellations as  I can. One thing I found was that  being  used  to knowing  constellations  under Bortle 8 skies it  can be a little confusing  at  first  when presented  with a far  richer star  field and  at first can be a bit more difficult  to identify certain constellations. 

Clear skies  to all!

[RobertI]

Lovely read, sounds like you had an amazing time. Yes, I’ve found that really dark skies can make it confusing to find your way around, even when you know the constellations well. Keep posting. 👍

[jetstream]

Excellent report!

Congrats for a fine session, dark skies make all the difference and your 10" is perfect for everything.

[tripleped]

Thanks Robertl !

[tripleped]

Thanks jetstream!

[Sunshine]

Enjoyed that read, its great you had your son there swapping eyepieces, always fun to hear about dark sky adventures!

[tripleped]

Thanks Sunshine!