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Tommy5
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/04
Posts: 1382
Loc: Chicagoland
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Monday i drove from my heavily lp chicago suburb to the dark skies of western michigan.i usually don't post on the dso forum becuse i can't see many dso from my home ,usaully only 3 stars in the little dipper. Anyway in michigan i saw all of the stars in the little dipper, the dark rifts in the milky way and m-33 in binoculars after the moon set. dragged my C6R refractor over to mich to check this stuff out.Here is my observation report.
M-11, spectacular city of stars, white stars on a dark background not light grey dots on a darker grey background like at home.
M-13, stunning view, at 220x entire eyepiece full of stars!,some of the core not resolved but like a photo
M-92, smaller m-13 cool stuff
M-27-never saw it from the suburbs of chicago,easy target in the finder scope, a small rectangle,in the scope at 171x a very large box, pinched in the middle.
M-57 at home looks like a light grey spot, here the thing glowed like a out of focus jupiter,easy to see the darker center
Double-cluster, great sea of stars across the eyepiece,unforgetable, it looks cool from chitown but nothing like this.
M-31-visible to the nasked eye as a small cloud, in binoculars it is huge, shaped like a galaxy, in low power 43x,the galaxy shape is obvious M-110, M-32 easy to see and some disk shape appearing.
M-33, visible in binoculars as a crab shaped light cloud, in low power some spiral arms hinted at.
Milky way mottled to naked eye dark nebula easy to pick out
14 meteors counted 3 were smokers
I can't believe some folks get a sky this every clear night,some get even darker skies,view wasn't just better it was like a whole new experience like i was just looking out into space .thanks for reading. 
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star drop
Guilty as Charged
Reged: 02/02/08
Posts: 2895
Loc: Cattaraugus Co., NY
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It is wonderful to get to darker skies. I am so glad that you had the opportunity to do so.
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Ted
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stevecoe
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2114
Loc: Arizona, USA
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Tommy5;
Always glad to hear from someone enjoying dark skies for the first time. Gets me in touch with my first night under dark skies..easy to get lost;-)
Have fun;
Steve Coe
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150mm 6" f/8 Celestron Refractor on Sirius Mount
80mmED 3" f/7.5 Orion Refractor
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
New Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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Tommy5
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/04
Posts: 1382
Loc: Chicagoland
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Thanks Ted, Steve,dark skies really make a difference
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Silicon Owl
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 11/25/05
Posts: 935
Loc: Waimea, Hawaii
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Sometimes it seems like only astronomers (amateur and pro) seem to appreciate dark skies. I find it disconcerting when I can not see the stars, something is wrong, the world is not right. Walking out into my driveway and looking up to the bright Milky Way is something I treasure.
Andrew
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Andrew Cooper
Personal Website and CN Gallery
Handmade 18" Dob / NS11GPS / 6" RFT / 90mm APO / TV-76 ...and a twin 10m
"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." --Sarah Williams
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frank5817
Post Laureate
Reged: 06/13/06
Posts: 3007
Loc: Illinois
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Tommy5,
Great report! You need to get away from Chicagoland more often. I could sense your excitement as you described each target. You are a deep sky observer that has been delt a disservice by so called, "Modern Civilization". Nice reporting Tom.
Frank 
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CESDewar
GorillAstronomer
Reged: 01/16/05
Posts: 1802
Loc: Morganton, GA, USA
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I know what you are talking about. I lived in Chicago for 40 years, and then moved to the North Georgia mountains where 6.5 mag skies are "normal" on moonless nights. I had almost given up on astronomy, living in an urban LP'd city, but now, my interest in astronomy was jump-started by the move and it has become my dominant hobby again
Hope you are able to make a regular trek to those darker skies!
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Starman1
Vendor - Scope City
Reged: 06/24/03
Posts: 10921
Loc: Los Angeles
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I grew up in the midwest in a city with few enough streetlights (this was the '50s) that I could see mag.6.2 in my backyard.
Now I live in LA, where sometimes Polaris (mag.2.1) is an averted-vision object.
But, fortunately, I have a high altitude mountain site only 90 miles away that has mag.6.7-6.9 skies.
I can't imagine not being able to see the stars once in a while, though. I do it every month for an all-nighter, and several times a year to a 2 or 3 day star party. Even then, I feel like I should observe more.
But LA just isn't wonderful for anything except the Moon, planets, and double stars.
Glad you got to darker skies. Would that everyone could.
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Don Pensack
12.5" Truss Dob, 5" Maksutov
Sustaining Lifetime IDA member, TeleVue junkie
Edited by Starman1 (08/14/08 01:11 AM)
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Tommy5
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/04
Posts: 1382
Loc: Chicagoland
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Thanks Andrew,Frank,Don CesDewar,i will try to get out to dark skies more often,the wife and daughter were playing scrabble with friends and didn't even come out to look at the sky once, no interest at all ,they thought i was a lunatic out there most of the night,but everyone is different.
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mosdc61
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/04/06
Posts: 510
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Nice report Tommy, I always enjoy reading posts about nights like this. Having just moved from a heavily LP area, I know how nice it was to get out to the high mountain desert where even the Milky Way could cast a shadow. It sounds like you had a great time, and here's hoping you have many more.
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square_peg
Postmaster
Reged: 03/26/04
Posts: 23813
Loc: Maple Valley, WA
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It's amazing what getting out of the city does for an astronomer. Glad you had a good night, Tom.
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Tom (Pegster)
DSH-8 (GSO Dob)
15x70 Oberwerks
SVP 100 f/6 achro
WO 66 Petzval
Sears Discoverer EQ 60/900
8x42 Regals
History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides
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Tommy5
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/04
Posts: 1382
Loc: Chicagoland
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thanks steve and squarepeg, it was a night to remember.
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