Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
I cannot stress enough, how important dark skies are to observing dim low surface brightness targets. Turning the lights out inside the house doesn't make a suburban or urban location "DARK". It is also worth pointing out that non astronomers and new astronomers have a different perception of "DARK" skies to hardened astronomers. To some 5 mile out of the city is dark. Not so.
Cheers,
John B
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Could not agree more - I believe new astronomers who live in the city (and that's most of them) owe it to themselves to head into the sticks at least once, so that they are aware of the difference between 'dark-ish' and
really dark. Even if you reckon taking your scope is too cumbersome, just a pair of binos will do: under a dark sky your binos may reveal more than your scope in your backyard...
In order to look for dark places this work by Kal and Erick may be of help:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.p...63,404,0,0,1,0
Believe me - it's worth the trip. You won't believe your eyes
