Some southerly targets and a big improvement.

[Pixies]

I'm still investigating the local effect of the LED replacement streetlights in Edinburgh. So as faint fuzzy season approaches, I'm hoping to see an noticeable difference in what I can observe. Of course, a year of observing experience means I am better able to locate these low-contrast objects more surely, but I am confident that there should be an improvement visually. I still have that annoying streetlight in the lane at the bottom of the garden, which means I can never get well dark-adapted and which limits the locations I can plonk down the scopes. Hopefully the council will be getting that shielded soon.

Anyway, last night turned out a  suitable  night for observing. Seeing was very poor and transparency wasn't the best, not one of those dark crisp winter nights. Still, it was a rare clear night, so it wasn't going to waste and I set up the 8" dob.

I thought I'd test out the seeing first. The Trapezium was showing the 4 brightest stars but E&F were nowhere to be seen. Also, the faint 'C' star in Sigma Orionis was only fleetingly visible at 150x. 

Moving east, I checked out comet C/2019 L3 ATLAS. It was easy to find, close to Mebsuta (Epsilon Geminorum) and was a fuzzy ball with an obvious brightening at the centre. I made a note of its location as I thought I'd check back later and see if I could determine its motion.

A quick visit to Castor then NGC 2392

Now, further east again and I thought I'd check out Cancer. In the past, I'd never been able to see it naked-eye as its southerly location meant it was hidden in the light-pollution murk. Now I can make out some of the brighter stars - Beta, Delta and Iota - but I can also see M44 as a brighter patch NW of Delta Cnc! That's a big improvement!

Then back to the dob and I tried for M67. Looking back at previous observation notes, they were like: "Fainter than Expected", "Hardly visible and very small" and "little resolution". But last night is was much nicer! About 50 bright stars with many other fainter ones not being resolved (and not helped with the poor seeing). I could make out bright and dark lanes, too.

Tegmine - don't know why I bothered, but I did. No hope of splitting the close pair.

Then on to the faint fuzzies that were now starting to appear over the rooftops. Comments in () are previous attempts from the back garden

Leo 1 galaxies:

M105 - faint in direct vision. the brighter core obvious with averted vision. (Only averted vision previously)

NGC 3384 - similar to nearby M105 (Only AV previously)

NGC 3389 - faint in averted vision and only obvious using dob-wobble (not seen from back garden before)

M95 and M96- Just visible with direct vision with best contrast at 120x (faint AV only previously)

Leo Triplet:

M65 and M66 - both visible in direct vision, better with higher magnification up to 150x (faint but barely visible with direct vision)

NGC 3628 - faint with Av and  dob-wobble (not seen before from back garden)

Cold stopped play, but first I went back to the comet to note it's change in position after 90 minutes. It had obviously moved and checking on a map later, appeared to have moved about 0'45" in those 90 minutes.

A good proper observing session. I'm impressed with the improvement that the new streetlighting has made towards the south! Lots of things I'd never seen from here before and faint stuff was now visible with direct vision. Still, not a patch on a proper dark sky, but this will make my usual backyard sessions much more satisfying!

[RobertI]

Good session and some nice objects, it must be encouraging to see your skies improving. I was also out recently in my garden, which is ‘ok’ from an LP point of view, but not always easier to navigate around the the more empty parts of the sky. I got out my homemade 2x50 ‘constellation binoculars’ and was treated to some ‘super vision’ and could easily see cancer and some of the fainter constellations in full together with several open clusters such as M35. It was almost like being at a dark site. Highly recommended to improve the back yard observing experience.  

[Zermelo]

That's a nice comparison.
We usually get to view infrequently in the UK, and conditions are usually different each time, in some aspect or other. So it can often be difficult to compare like with like, or systematically to assess the effects of a known change like your street lighting. There's always a temptation to grab as many new objects as the gaps in the clouds will allow, but these reflective comparisons can be very instructive.

[Stu]

Excellent new on your improved skies, it makes such a difference. Back at my old house the skies improved by about half a magnitude when they fitted new LED lighting.

I agree with @Zermelo, here it seems very tricky to make valid comparisons over a period of time, I guess meticulous note taking is the best way, but to my shame I’m not good at that!

[Pixies]

2 hours ago, RobertI said:

I got out my homemade 2x50 ‘constellation binoculars’ and was treated to some ‘super vision’

I've always been fascinated with this type of binocular. Hopefully get to try some out one day. What make/model do you have?

1 hour ago, Stu said:

it seems very tricky to make valid comparisons over a period of time, I guess meticulous note taking is the best way, but to my shame I’m not good at that

Using SkySafari plus, the per-object observing notes means one can quickly look back at all observations made for something. Of course - that entails having to make the notes in the first place!

 

Oh - and as of 30 minutes ago, the streetlight at the end of the garden has had a shade fitted! 😎 Roll on tonight....

[RobertI]

8 hours ago, Pixies said:

I've always been fascinated with this type of binocular. Hopefully get to try some out one day. What make/model do you have?

They are basically two Nikon camera tele-extenders tied together with cable ties! But you can buy the ‘proper’ versions for less than £100 now - worth a punt I would say as you wouldn’t lose much when selling them on.