Incredible skies in Norfolk for night vision

[Highburymark]

Last weekend we visited my brother in law’s family in Cley, a small coastal village in Norfolk - close to Kelling, which many SGL members will of course be familiar with. He lives in a beautiful house on a hill looking out to sea, and is blessed with the most magnificent views. Compelling though the daytime scenery was, however, I was more interested in waiting for nightfall, and looking upwards. 
After dinner on Saturday, I grabbed my TV85, and popped out. The skies were as dark and perfect as I have ever experienced - the Milky Way a blazing stripe stretching from one horizon to the other.
A few targets to begin with. I checked out Jupiter and Saturn. Very nice at 200x. A few standout globulars - M13, M92 and M15. I swept the area north of Sagittarius, several Messiers prominent, right up to the Swan overhead.
Then I replaced my standard eyepiece with a 55mm TV Plossl, attached to a PVS-14 with Photonis 4G intensifier. This is a really nice tube - FOM of 2141, signal to noise ratio of 31.95. For night vision geeks, these numbers are important. They give you an idea how clean and bright objects will appear, while minimising the background scintillation that could compromise astronomical work with cheap devices.
Into the diagonal it went, and the heavens were immediately transformed into an breathtaking carpet of puffy nebulae and dust bands. Sweeping through Cygnus was simply stunning - the North American, Pelican, Veil, Gamma Cygni, all extensive and aglow. The Crescent, just hanging there. No effort, no averted vision. Further down, the Heart and Soul and Elephant’s Trunk, framed by countless stars.
I switched filters to the Baader 685nm, and swapped eyepieces to the 18.2mm and 11mm Delites to focus on stellar targets. M13 and M92 were superb, and unlike earlier, nearly resolved to their cores. M31 showed dust band detail. M81 and M82 were bigger, brighter and prettier than ever before. 
It would be perfectly fair to ask whether anyone reallly needs night vision when conditions are this good. Of course, the answer is no. I would willingly give up my NV system for ten clear nights in Norfolk with nothing more than a small refractor each year. But the fact is that the two experiences are completely different - NV shows an entirely unique view of the night sky, where constellations no longer bear resemblance to the familiar patterns we know from star charts, and where emission nebulae become part of a much bigger tapestry of interstellar gas. 
It’s ironic really, because I bought my image intensifier to punch through the appalling light pollution in London. It does indeed do that, to a degree, on nights of good transmission. But bringing it to a dark site really drives home what night vision technology can do for amateur astronomy. It’s more than a game changer. It can be almost overwhelming - even with my little TV85. I came away from last weekend thinking that night vision possibly makes even more sense for people under dark skies than those plagued by light pollution. How the NV views would stack up in Cley with a large SCT or dob I can’t imagine.

[pic showing set up was taken a while ago - thankfully no need for light blocking umbrellas in Norfolk]

[Deadlake]

Very good report Mark! 

What was the SQM in Cley? Amazing how much difference a dark sky can make!

Who needs to a drag out a 16" DOB when you have NV. 😀

[Highburymark]

 

Thanks. Not sure of the SQM. Would be an interesting experiment to compare a large dob or SCT with a small NV set up under such conditions.

[Mike JW]

Your NV set up would out do a large Dob quite easily. I live under the sort of skies you experienced (I can see M13 naked eye, just) on those rare good nights) and using a large Dob is impressive but  has a narrow fov. 

Mike

[Pete Presland]

I was in Weybourne, Norfolk a couple of weeks back, just down the road from Cley. The skies were excellent there as well.  It was just so nice to see the Milky Way again, there a little glow from Sheringham up the coast though. This was worse from the beach, than the garden of the cottage i stayed at. I guess being slightly inland and surrounded by trees helped block it.

Saw plenty of persids as well.

 

Edited September 11, 2021 by Pete Presland

[Highburymark]

9 hours ago, Mike JW said:

Your NV set up would out do a large Dob quite easily. I live under the sort of skies you experienced (I can see M13 naked eye, just) on those rare good nights) and using a large Dob is impressive but  has a narrow fov. 

Mike

How many nights a year would you put in that rare category living where you do Mike? 

[Mike JW]

Mark,

I live in rural Suffolk. When I was doing between 120hrs and 150hrs observing in a year - may be a dozen. The most transparent skies seem occur in the summer months - July/August. All too often the humidity levels are too high. May of 2020 was a wonderful run of transparent nights (so little car and aircraft pollution) - mag 5.7 at the zenith and tacking the milky way close to the horizon. Light pollution steadily increases making it increasingly difficult. In August this year I did eight observing sessions and just on one of them could I detect mag 5.7 stars visually. 

A poor night for me is mag 5.0. A typical night is mag 5.4/mag 5.5 high up. I use the stars in Ursa Minor as I guide. Milky Way is always visible!!!!!

Mike

[Highburymark]

9 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

I was in Weybourne, Norfolk a couple of weeks back, just down the road from Cley. The skies were excellent there as well.  It was just so nice to see the Milky Way again, there a little glow from Sheringham up the coast though. This was worse from the beach, than the garden of the cottage i stayed at. I guess being slightly inland and surrounded by trees helped block it.

Saw plenty of persids as well.

 

I was impressed that so many people in the area are aware of light pollution and minimise outdoor lighting at night. Local authority obviously proactive on the issue.
Tbh I’d be happy to move to Norfolk tomorrow and work remotely, but think it’s going to take several years of campaigning if I’m going to persuade my better half. 
 

[Highburymark]

3 minutes ago, Mike JW said:

Mark,

I live in rural Suffolk. When I was doing between 120hrs and 150hrs observing in a year - may be a dozen. The most transparent skies seem occur in the summer months - July/August. All too often the humidity levels are too high. May of 2020 was a wonderful run of transparent nights (so little car and aircraft pollution) - mag 5.7 at the zenith and tacking the milky way close to the horizon. Light pollution steadily increases making it increasingly difficult. In August this year I did eight observing sessions and just on one of them could I detect mag 5.7 stars visually. 

A poor night for me is mag 5.0. A typical night is mag 5.4/mag 5.5 high up. I use the stars in Ursa Minor as I guide. Milky Way is always visible!!!!!

Mike

Bad news that your LP is growing - but to be able to see M13 naked eye blows my mind! 

[Chris]

Great report Mark, I can't imagine you'll forget that session in a hurry and very interesting to hear how you describe the NV experience. It really does sound like a whole new level. 

Dark skies verses LP never ends well for LP does it. 

 

[PeterW]

Was on holiday near Norwich recently… but the moon was up and the light pollution almost as bad as back home 😞 … need to return to the county and persuade people for we need a more rural location when the moon isn’t about! I didn’t manage to get to Cley in the daytime either… apparently it’s rather good for bird watching?!

Peter

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Was on holiday near Norwich recently… but the moon was up and the light pollution almost as bad as back home 😞 … need to return to the county and persuade people for we need a more rural location when the moon isn’t about! I didn’t manage to get to Cley in the daytime either… apparently it’s rather good for bird watching?!

Peter

Indeed Peter - that’s how we spent Sunday morning, in one of several hides near the beach - me trying to appear more knowledgeable about coastal wading birds than I clearly am.
There’s also an impressive birding visitors’ centre, which among other attractions has its own optics shop. Mostly binoculars and spotting scopes - but nice to see a real store where you can go and try the goods before you buy them.

[PeterW]

I went to Strumpshaw fen and realised all the wildfowl were in “eclipse”(moult), so they all looked like female mallard! I need to give it a month or so before visiting Barnes WWT again. Did you bring any optics with you? Your TV85 with an amici prism and an ethos would have given the “green scope” crowd a good thrashing!

Peter

[Highburymark]

6 hours ago, PeterW said:

I went to Strumpshaw fen and realised all the wildfowl were in “eclipse”(moult), so they all looked like female mallard! I need to give it a month or so before visiting Barnes WWT again. Did you bring any optics with you? Your TV85 with an amici prism and an ethos would have given the “green scope” crowd a good thrashing!

Peter

😁

Just a pair of binoculars for the birds, though you’re right, the telescope would have been excellent. 
Must put Barnes on my list of birding destinations. Have visited a few cemeteries and wetlands in north London over the past year, but Barnes looks great 

[PeterW]

Definitely. If you’ve been to Walthamstow you’d definitely be needing some scope power!

Peter