Telescope Reviews: Binocular Universe: Berenice's Hair

Phil's article and these posts are wonderful. Everyone's comments got me to thinking. One of my thoughts--How do the other posters see Berenice's Hair from their various geographical locations?

So, I turned to SkyTools 3, a wonderful observation planning software program that I have loaded on my PC. This program provides many features. One feature is the ability to view the night sky from various geographical locations, dates, and times.

In addition to the viewing location of my own backyard here in Kentucky, I also set up additional viewing locations. Spruce Knob, West Virginia, North America is my closest dark site (7.1 to 7.5 mag, Clear Sky Clock data, 350 miles away, 8 hrs).

Among other things, what prompted me to do this was the desire to observe Berenice's Hair in its correct position--not the upside down position I observe from here in Kentucky. Of course, I could have grabbed an atlas off the shelf and turned it upside down.

Daniel_H, you are fortunate because you get to observe Berenice's Hair in its natural free-flowing position. Shirley, if you travel to Key West, you should be able to enjoy her hair in its natural position. Depending upon the time you choose to observe, you folks also have another option that I do not have--to view Berenice's Hair flying behind her head, as if she is riding in a very fast, open-top chariot. However, Phil and those of us in the 40-degree latitude must use artificial means such as software programs or turning our atlas upside down, before we can enjoy her natural hair position.

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Another neat feature with SkyTools 3 is the ability to adjust sky limiting magnitude. I have three settings for my backyard: 5.0 mag (most nights, actual measure with Sky Quality Meter, SQM), 5.5 mag (nights I enjoyed 2 years ago, SQM measure), and 7.1 mag (the sky as Native Americans may have viewed it 400 years ago). The time-travel jump in my backyard from 5.0 mag to 7.1 mag makes quite a difference, when toggling from the two settings in SkyTools 3. On the positive side, all these measures and software simulations make traveling to a dark site so special. While I am there I want to burn every heavenly sight into my memory.

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Finally, in my opinion, I think online sky magnitude measures, such as Clear Sky Clock and Dark Sky Finder, should be taken with a grain of salt. In my case, the online measures report sky magnitude of 5.5, which was what I was getting two years ago when I did actual measures with a Sky Quality Meter. This year, the magnitude has dropped to 5.0--same instrument, same location, same time of year, and same time of night.

If sky darkness matters to you, I suggest you purchase a Sky Quality Meter and begin recording the magnitude measures from your observing locations.