So got to move

[Chubster]

....and get a place with a south facing garden. Was out this morning looking for the leonids (only saw three in a hour ) From my North facing garden and because of trees etc I only have a very restricted view.... a little bit down from the zenith and and a little bit of the eastern sky. So I thought id have a look out the front (in the communal carpark) and WOW Stars bl***y everywhere. You guys with that lookout as so damn lucky ! On to the Estate agent in the morning !!!!

Whilst I was out in the carpark I noticed a smudge to the right and up a bit of Saturn.....Was I seeing M57 M67? And if so what seeing would that give my skies, ive never really known how to judge that. Is there a simple rule of thumb ie if you can see all the stars in say ursa minor then your seeing is ......

Right cup of tea time to try and get some feeling in my fingers

Later

Chub

[GazOC]

It think it would have been the Beehive cluster M44 Chubster, they are one of the easier naked eye Messier objects TBH but it still means you have at least reasonable skies (if not better).

Oh, and yes, I love my south facing garden. Sun all day in the summer and great views at night all winter.

[Kai]

I might be whinging about the streetlight near my garden,but it is south facing so i cant really complain.

But i do not have a view north as the house is in the way unless i set up in the street and then i get funny looks

[GordonCopestake]

my garden faces west so i get good views to the west, south and north. my east view is blocked though so i have to wait longer than most for objects to appear in my sky. my sky is mag 4 though on a good night

[daz]

Same as you Chub, North facing for me!!

I need to travel to get a decent East or South view - just too many street lights for setting up in the front

[Chubster]

Yeah but not far though Daz.....you could just set up in the Millenium Park

[MartinB]

....Whilst I was out in the carpark I noticed a smudge to the right and up a bit of Saturn.....Was I seeing M57 M67? And if so what seeing would that give my skies, ive never really known how to judge that. Is there a simple rule of thumb ie if you can see all the stars in say ursa minor then your seeing is ......

Beehive is magnitude 4 and is visible with the naked eye provided light pollution isn't excessive. Here is a previous posting which gives you a rough guide to darkness of your sky

http://stargazerslounge.co.uk/index.php?topic=7720.msg83522#msg83522

BTW "seeing" relates to how much the atmospheric conditions are affecting the view of the stars (causes twinkling for instance), "transparency" is an indication of how clear the sky is (e.g freedom from high cloud, general murkiness) and visible magnitude tells you how faint a star you can see (related predominantly to the amount of light pollution). so it is possbile to have good transparency and a very dark sky but poor seeing.