less than I could under a 4.5 sky -- I did this for a night in New Hampshire
and I was so lost -- it was not funny -- I cannot find my way under such
conditions.
"Brian Tung" wrote in message
...
ultralightbackpacker wrote:
If you had mag 6.5+ skies tonight. How many stars could you name
without a chart, strictly from memory?

Lots: Joe, Fred, Mary, Tom, Liz, Harold, etc.

Oh, the usual conventional names. Well, if you mean the proper names,
I doubt that dark skies matter. With the exception of the deeply
variable Mira-types, the stars with proper names all are bright enough
to see under indifferent skies. (Maybe not inner urban skies, though.)

My guess is that I could pick off perhaps 50 to 100 proper names, given
enough time. If you let me use Bayer letters and Flamsteed numbers,
probably several times that many. But I've got a fairly deep interest
in star names, so I'm probably not typical.

Brian Tung
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