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You're in dark sky heaven, but you have a difficult choice to make. . . .


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It’s a tricky one. When I’ve found myself in this situation in the past, when I hadn’t had much experience or success with DSOs, I went crazy on trawling around galaxies I had never seen. This was with a 16” truss dob using push to and I had a ball!

I think now I’m more likely to enjoy objects I’m familiar with and to get the best views I can of them. I will still spend ages on the Veil if given the chance under good skies even though I’ve seen it many times before.

On a slightly different topic, I’m similar with wanting to use my own scopes when at a star party. Although it is nice to look through others’ scopes, particularly large aperture dobs, it’s always nice to use your own kit to its full potential and see what it can do.

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If this was to be a one off only challenge, since revisiting 'old favourites' has for myself meant years of dark sky trip encounters anyhow, as my backyard is for brighter objects only, then I would dedicate the session to pursuing purely new targets.  

I might cheat at the end though, when the list is complete, successful or not, I would likely go for one or two renowned seasonal show stoppers. Going out with a bang, is always a satisfying way to wrap up a dark sky session and with nobody looking, the temptation would be too irresistible.  

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Option 2 s it's cloudy a lot where I live. I have to revisit the old favourites as I like spotting new aspects/features/comparing with previous sessions which may be several months ago. Plus reinforcing the mental sky map...

Option 1 kicks in when there is a run of clear skies and energy levels align...

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16 minutes ago, Beulah said:

Option 2 s it's cloudy a lot where I live. I have to revisit the old favourites as I like spotting new aspects/features/comparing with previous sessions which may be several months ago. Plus reinforcing the mental sky map...

Option 1 kicks in when there is a run of clear skies and energy levels align...

Hello Stranger! 😀

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Option 2 for me.

I'd want to use the pristine conditions to rediscover old favourites and see them in a new light (literally).

I'm not really interested in faint grey fuzzies that would be a little less faint, but still grey and fuzzy in my scopes, however good the conditions..

Dave

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22 hours ago, Paz said:

It would definitely number 2 for me. If I had great dark skies I would not want to be spending any time searching for targets or reducing my dark adaptation looking at star charts or smart phone screens to help me star hop. I would stick to things I can find by myself and just appreciate the better views.

My feelings exactly Paz.  With a very dark sky and perfect seeing I would revel in seeing all my familiar targets  , but better. They would reveal more, and with a nice widefield eyepiece you could not fail to scoop up targets not seen before.

Edited by Saganite
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