"Not as Good as it Once was"

[Don Quixote]

Well then....so much for "ClearDarkSky". :-) Last night at Oakwood was a disappointment of anticipations brought on by the unfulfilled encouragement I received sitting in my study reviewing the CDS prognostication for the night viewing conditions.

I went out hoping to study M51 for a while. I was expecting the sky to be similar to last Tuesday at Penfield.

It may be that my location, not being as free of Terrestrial light had something to do with this. The "CDS" page told me I had the same combination of darkness, transparency, and seeing, but it did not come close ! I later could plainly "see" :-), that my problem was a lack of "Seeing" and "Transparency" which illustrated itself in the imaging I later attempted of the Milky Way which I posted in the "NightScape" Forum. The sky did not reveal any cloud structure naked eye, nor did it reveal in the telescope. But the images from the DSLR revealed a very extensive streaking of the sky with a gauzy membrane which is illuminated by the terrestrial light at the Oakwood site. It was at this point I wondered if I would have had better seeing at the Penfield location...I love the learning curve ! :-)

I was using the same glass (ES127 APO, 12.5 Docter) I used on Tuesday but I was not able to observe the wonderful detail of the previous outing. M51 presented as it has done so many times before as a dim gray patch with two points of light as though a very wide double star of very low brightnesss. This was what I had expected last Tuesday and why I was so delighted and surprised at that time.

This evening it was not to be !.
Furthermore I could see non of the naked eye objects I look for in a fine sky condition.

I thought that maybe later things would improve. I was actually pretty early in my attempt on M51.

After a certain amount of grumbling I decided to try to catch the moon before she dropped out of sight. The fingernail was actually very pretty hanging there over the "foggy" Western horizon. I had difficulty getting focus but did the best I could and have posted the image in the AP, "Lunar Images" section.

I went back to M51 several times during the evening but to no avail. I never got more that what I had when I started.

After a bit of frustration I decided to try imaging the Milky Way, such as it was.
This is when it was revealed to me the extent of the crud in the sky. Of course I was shooting low to the horizon and would expect that to mitigate against good images, but the phenomena ranged all through the sky. I attempted to shoot the M31 region but it was so bad as to not bother posting, although it might be illustrative for some. Again...the eye did not pick this stuff up, although it was obvious that the sky was very deficient as I said above, I could not see any of my naked eye measures of fine sky.

Well that is my story.
Even though the outcome was nothing like I expected...( isn't that the way some times ), I still came away with the experience and a few interesting images if for no better use than to illustrate what havoc the sky can play.

As I finish this report it dawns on me that expectations can be a funny thing. On the one hand I saw less than I expected last night, but on the other hand I saw much more than I expected on my last outing. I guess the take away is, Mark, "Go with the flow". I was glad I had my camera with me and could break out of the "one trick pony" mode..

BottomLine:
I learned quite a bit last night even though, or maybe because, my expectations were not met !

Cheers to you all, and may your skies be clear and your eyes be bright !

[Bigzmey]

Observing is like fishing, never no if you going to catch something, but still beats day at the office.

I always use Milky Way as an indicator. If it is clearly visible and well structured - galaxy time! If not I look for other targets.

[bladekeeper]

Transparency has been bad around here for a very long time. I can probably count the nights of reasonable clarity since the beginning of the year on one hand. It has effectively killed my galaxy hunting. The constant frustration has severely dampened my enthusiasm.

Sometimes, at least for me, a day at the office beats the astro.

All my whining aside, you came away with more experience and knowledge, you got some great MW shots as well as a nice lunar sliver, so all in all a good night.

[OzEclipse]

Hi Mark
We all have nights like that. My dark sky varies depending on crud content and as I mentioned in a recent post, fog, in the sky

The important thing is to salvage something out of it. Glass half full.

Joe

[John Baars]

Oh well, sometimes the Queen Universe gives us a look at her most beautiful Deepsky Objects, if she is favorable to us. I always consider that as a gift. And then you don't believe your own telescope. I also experienced that twice on M51.
But most of the time she doesn't. Never mind, there will be a next time!

[Juno16]

Hi Mark
We all have nights like that. My dark sky varies depending on crud content and as I mentioned in a recent post, fog, in the sky

The important thing is to salvage something out of it. Glass half full.

Joe

Disappointing night Mark. We all know the feeling. The sky prediction apps are wildly variable.

I use four of them and try to get a “consensus “. Sometimes when they all look good, I set up and nothing but clouds. That is disappointing for sure. Just a set up and break down exercise. Bummer!

At least you had some sky time, even if it was marginal.

I’ve never observed from a dark site, but I imagine that the views from home would never be the same.

Take care,
Jim

[helicon]

Sometimes conditions are just tough. But as they say, any night of observing beats sitting in front of the TV.

[Don Quixote]

Observing is like fishing, never no if you going to catch something, but still beats day at the office.

I always use Milky Way as an indicator. If it is clearly visible and well structured - galaxy time! If not I look for other targets.

Ain't that true!
I know some old boys around these parts who can smell the rain coming the day before, and some who can tell you what fish will bite by what the sunrise looks like in the clouds, and one guy who can tell me what I will actually catch by the way the top of the moon looked the night before. If there is no moon he says I should expect to need a flashlight when I get up to...well, you know...

When all is said and done Andrey it boils down to the company one keeps.

I love getting out and baiting the clouds !
I have seldom come home whithout something to tell.
It is a great Hobby...
But seriously, I have not wet a worm in a long time and I live on the water. I'd rather be out in my fields with the glass.

[Don Quixote]

Transparency has been bad around here for a very long time. I can probably count the nights of reasonable clarity since the beginning of the year on one hand. It has effectively killed my galaxy hunting. The constant frustration has severely dampened my enthusiasm.

Sometimes, at least for me, a day at the office beats the astro.

All my whining aside, you came away with more experience and knowledge, you got some great MW shots as well as a nice lunar sliver, so all in all a good night.

No joke Bryan.
Do you remember a post I loaded where I philosophied about bad skies...well I have recanted that before but I certainly will repeat my racantation now. I am learning.

[Don Quixote]

I went back out to Penfield last night. Henry was not with me. Prognostications were good from midnight to 4 am.

The sky seemed good for about an hour. When I arrived at about 11:30 I found 2 young couples out there. They were laying on a blanket looking up into Cygnus. We greated briefly. They were viewing through their 22mm instruments and I listened, as I set up, to their pleasure comments and common attempts to point out to each other what they were individually focused on.

I set up 10 yards away and lined up Jupiter. I asked if anyone wanted to view. They all popped up like
jacks-in-the-box. :-)

Each one took their turn with great excitement and many thank yous. Then I took them to Saturn with the concomitant responses. It was such fun to share my joy with them. The pleasures seemed to bounce back and forth among our little group like a house of mirrors. I thought to myself, "If this is all I get tonight it is worth the drive."

I then brought out my binoculars and coached them on finding just 2 objects which I was able to see naked eye. In the beginning they could not find them naked eye, but then they thought they could, just.
The double clusters, a favorite of many, and M31 were faintly apparent to me and I first instructed them by pointing out nav landmark stars. In this I regretted that I have not brought my green lazer pointer, but we succeeded in spite of the clumsiness in the visual/finger pointing method.
Then we put the binoculars to work. Each one struggled a few minutes and then the mighty Aaaaah! Was music to my ears. And each, in turn, tried to coach the next one with encouragements. And after all had captured those wonderful photons from the double clusters in their own eyes in the binoculars they were able to see the faint objects naked eye. There was a sort of rejoicing in them as they experienced this freedom of seeing. I was delighted !
From there I coached them to M31. This one took a wider scan of hopping. And in this case I showed them to measure the sky with fist and finger as well as the relation to this in the fov of the binoculars. They again took turns and each one uttered their excited utterances.

While they were each working on Andromeda I ran the Meade 8 inch to the target. I asked if they wanted a view of M31 in the big glass. Of course they did and even before they had all captured the bino view the had gathered aroung the big glass.
"Hold on. Hold in." I said. Before you get the big view you all have to accomplish the small glass. They laughed but took up the challenge and doubled their work to help those who had not succeeded with the binoculars. Once this was achieved all had their fill of the larger view. It was such an eager group of young folks.
They had made a 2.5 hour drive to this site from Chicago !

There was a lot more conversation, questions, answers and more questions. At 1 am they had to leave for rhe trip north.

And by then the sky had turned to more crud. Prognostications if a 3 or 4 hour sky were not to be.
But I would not have missed this outing for anything...well maybe for a bortle one sky...:-)

Peace and clear skies to all !

[bladekeeper]

Now that sounds like a satisfying evening! Congrats, Mark!

[John Baars]

One of the nicest stories I have read about such an event.
Great story Mark, and very well done!!!