Quote:
Originally Posted by Weltevreden SA
So have any of you ever fooled yourself into thinking you saw a tough object that other observer reports indicate that we may be seeing what we want to?
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Yes, I think the phenomenon of "averted imagination" is common enough;
.......not that I would ever accuse the "eagle-eyed globular hunter of the Karoo" of such a thing.
(Though certain other observers definitely have got bad reputations for this sort of thing.)
As I mentioned in the (really excellent) sticky on how to optimize visual deep sky observations, if I am not sure I am seeing something, then I try to convince myself that I am
not seeing the object.
If an object is still stubbornly detected despite my attempts to prove that I am not seeing it, this tends to increase my confidence that I am seeing it.
Object/sky Contrast (strictly Object+Sky minus Sky) is everything in deep sky observing, so maybe your observation is not so far-fetched! Maybe you just have much better skies than the rest of us.
Also, You are so single-mindedly and totally/completely/absolutely obsessed with observing globulars and dwarf galaxies that it is
quite within the bounds of possibility that you are simply expanding the boundaries of what is possible in visual deep sky observation.
In my day (I was a regular visual observer for 25 years), I also
definitely detected objects that few other people or no other people could see at the time.
(e.g. when I was in my 20s, my sensitivity on faint HII regions was
very definitely greater than that of most other observers.....to the degree that I used to idly boast that no nebula could escape me and my OIII filter)
I don't know if anyone has ever tested the actual relative abilities of various Deep Sky observers to detect vanishingly faint light.
I do know that this sort of testing has been tried for angular resolution....and large differences were found between various observers!