I went 'up north' to visit my parents in Atlanta, Michgian this weekend. Atlanta is on you right hand, palm facing you, on your middle finger between the middle knuckles!! In short--it is in the middle of nowhere!
The report was for rain all weekend, so I didn't expect to observe, BUT, I did pack my refurbished 4" scope and EQ mount and new fancy EPs. You never know.
It was rainy and cloudy all Sat. I haven't seen the lake and streams so high in a decade or more! The landscape was so green, it was a little frightening. Mother Nature on a rampage. I went to bed around 10pm, having given up on clear skies on this moonless night. I woke up a few hours later and peered out the window. A star!! I got up, got dressed, and began assembling my stuff for an impromptu session.
What I saw when I stepped off the porch, I was not prepared for. The sky was glowing with thousands of stars! It was amazing. The milky way was no cloudy nebulosity, but 'the backbone of night' (Sagan's phrase..)! This was the sky I remembered from so many summers as a kid. Magnitude 6.5, to be sure.
There is NO light pollution in Atlanta, MI. In general, observing conditions are mostly terrible. Vs. Tucson, we only get 50-60 clear nights vs 250+. The US southwest destorys us on seeing and transparency as well.
But--when it is clear, it is phenomena to the naked eye! It was much better than Tucson, when I had to contend with the city sky glow. Though dark sky protocol helped tremendously, it cannot compete with no light pollution at all!
There were so many stars I was disoriented. The usual guide stars and constellations were lost in a blanket of dusty points. The Hercules keystone was all but buried amidst its celestial neighbors. I hurriedly set up-- in the dark! A new mount and scope, new eyepieces, uneven ground....a recipe for high comedy. I stepped in some doggy doo doo. I struggled to align the scope, properly, then took to running around to dodge trees and find steady ground. At last, I peeped throught the finder, and was blown away. It was settled on a piece of the Milky way. There were thousands of stars in the 9x50 finder! Stunning. The Baader 13mm showed me thousands more! I pressed on--clouds were coming in from the south. My goal was M13. I had to repeatedly find the constellation-- I wish my laser mount had arrived Friday! At last it was in sight. I moved from the 13 to the 8, to the 5, the UWAN 4mm-- why was it so distant, and small? With the 4mm, it was only just beginning to resolve--amazing, but not magnified--I thought-- like it should. ??? The clouds rolled in. The dog poo was starting to really stink. Was that rain I felt?
The spectacular show was over. I said my goodbyes to the universe, and packed it in.
Only as I was lying down and reflecting, did I realize my scope was only 500mm! I had lost my mind in the flurry of activity. What I thought was over 240x was only 120x. And while I was puzzling over technical problems, I failed to appreciate any of it.
So, the EP report has to wait, and for much poorer skies.
I hosed my seriously foul tennis shoes next morning, and sqeeked to the lake with my son for some fishing, wet feet, and dampened spirits.
Before we left, I told my dad how jealous I was of his pristine skies, and told him to lay off the sausages and eggs every morning. He smiled about the skies and ignored the rest (I am sure).