I'm persisting
Here we are - New Moon Friday night in May in about the darkest spot in Northern Israel. And look! I found a slab on which to set up.
Just a few (thousands, unfortunately) of folks nearby, as the second photo shows.
SQM meter got down to 20.3 overnight. Only about a third of the sky was noticeably dark. Light domes crept up into most of the rest and washed it out somewhat.
I was showing a number of new observers what could be seen. Had one Northern Hemisphere amateur with me.
It turned out to be a brilliant evening, even with quite a heavy dew forming. Weather was excellent. Dust levels were acceptable. Seeing was amazingly good - I started with Jupiter and the GRS was very well defined - I've never had great success observing it. Also a very sharp shadow transit under way. Later the moon, probably Io, appeared as a pimple on the limb and cleanly lifted off! Later in the night the good seeing was repeated on Saturn - banding and polar variation clearly visible. Cassini division clear all the way round the front - just brilliant. We were working at 300 magnification (with a 5mm eyepiece) and I started adding barlow. x2 gave a better view. x3 didn't improve the view but it didn't fall apart and become unusable. Goodness - 900 magnification - I cannot remember getting there before now. The planet fairly whipping across the field of view but I was successfully hand tracking with the SDM - a simply marvellous telescope.
However the sky quality didn't give galaxy and globular cluster views that thrilled me - but the first time observers were excited. I also worked through the brighter nebulae and for some, my trusty DGM NPB filter provided a much nicer view.
I had also inserted a user catalog in the Argo Navis with selected double stars - a sort of "Goldilocks" collection - not too dim, not too close together, not too far apart, not too different in magnitude and, where possible, with colour variations (look up 24 Coma Berenices). That worked a treat and interested the observers.
One last thing to try. Omega Centauri rose to 10 deg elevation to the south and I was pleased when I could get a general view of it through the mush and dust in the air. Then I could swing the scope to M13. The Northern Hemisphere amateur agreed that yep, OC was significantly bigger.
http://www.astrosurf.com/comolli/d159.htm
My friends trickled away during the night for the hour drive home. I watched a lovely crescent Moon rise, then the Sun rise to shine into the depths (>200m below sea level!) of the Jordan Valley. Waited an hour or so to get most of the dew off the scope, then packed up and drove home - a happy camper!
