(justbeats) wrote in message om...

I have read much about
the joy of "dark skies" and intend to travel to find some. But what I
saw in my last session makes me wonder if I already have them over my
house (5 miles S of Buckingham in the UK)! ... The Milky
Way was prominent to the naked eye; almost horizon to horizon. The
dark lanes were clear and the nebulous clumps in Cygnus looked
semi-solid. No moon and clear sky, but faint haze and light pollution
below about 35 deg to the South. Andromeda visible to the naked eye.

Sounds pretty dark to me -- darker than I would have thought possible
so close to London. Far from pristine, but you're not going to find
pristine skies anywhere near you; England is just too densely
populated.

With the scope, I got acres of black between both components of the
double-double. I also saw 3 diffraction rings around the stars (in
focus) during a moment of particularly stable air. Is that a sign of
good skies ...

Yes, three rings in a 10" scope means very stable air. But that
is completely unrelated to how dark the skies are -- good seeing,
as opposed to good transparency.

M27 ? wasn't a dumbbell! It was vaguely rectangular with faint
semi-circular extensions to each side ...

Yes, that's exactly right. You need at least half-decent skies
to see those extensions without a filter.

At 77 metres I
know getting higher will improve seeing (less air) ...

Nah, the difference between 77 meters and the highest point in
the U.K. isn't all that significant -- certainly not worth
travelling for. Besides, lugging a 10" LX 200 to the top
of Ben Nevis isn't my idea of fun. I can't think of any
roads in the U.K. that go very high at all.

Now if you were talking about the Alps, that might be a
different matter ...

- Tony Flanders