[ATMoB-discuss] Suburban light pollution / last night's seeing

[Dave Snay]

I was out doing some astro-imaging last night and was struck by how bright
the sky was compared to other recent nights. I don't have an explanation,
but the sky's apparent darkness certainly does seem to change from night to
night.

ttfn,
Dave
> -----Original Message-----
> From: atmob-discuss-bounces at atmob.org [mailto:atmob-discuss-
> bounces at atmob.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Wilson
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 9:37 AM
> To: ATMoB-discuss at atmob.org
> Subject: [ATMoB-discuss] Suburban light pollution / last night's seeing
> 
> I'm relatively new to astronomy and was wondering if some of you more
> experienced folks could offer some advice. I went out to the Weston
> reservoir last night, hoping to see a few binocular objects (10 x 50 on a
> tripod). I could see most, but not all, of the stars in the Little Dipper.
> I
> could identify most of the constellations in my planisphere and, of
> course,
> Venus and Saturn. I was disappointed, however, that I could not see any of
> the binocular objects such as M3 and others listed in
> http://www.skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn0705.pdf
> 
> So here's my question: was the problem suburban light pollution, poor
> seeing, or both? Or was it my technique? Do I need to travel the 55
> minutes
> to the clubhouse to get darker skies, or was last night just poor seeing
> (despite the lack of clouds and moon) and on another night I'll be able to
> see plenty from Weston?
> 
> Suggestions? Thanks!
> 
> --
> Bruce Wilson
> 617 823 8041 (c)
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