[davidpretorius]

Hi Guys.

down here at my shack, apart from two lighthouses on the horizon and a minute amount of sky glow from a town of 2000 people 30 km away, the sky is dark, very dark.

I took the scope out last night and the jaw dropped.

For those at snake valley, the view of the LMC and SMC was the same as my house back in lton, but down here, breathtaking!!!

I had trouble finding eta carina, due to the extra stars visible!!! But once viewed throught the ultrawide, WOW! Sculptor galaxy, easily spotted with the guide scope!

One thing i had not seen before was the companion to Alnitak (bottom right star of the three in orion). This was with the 2" 80 degree ultrawide. It stood out so much, but i had never come across it before.

Starry night indicates an apparent magnitude of 9.53.

As this will be a future site for dragging my mates from IIS to when they visit me in tassie, i would like to convey the "darkness".

Is there a scale ie apparent magnitude at a rough magnification, or a rough rule of thumb that the more travelled guys use to indicate darkness, a certain star or galaxy???. I have a 10" x fl1250 scope.

Remember this to me was a jaw dropper and I am used to snake valley darkness!!!

Once the wind drops, i am going to have an all nighter. Jupiter and Saturn rising over the ocean will be magic!