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In the field
I observed for about 90 minutes last night before moonage became too much of an issue. In a short, this garment is FANTASTIC.
I observe from moderately light polluted skies on the NSW Central Coast. I have a lot of interference from neighbours’ lights. Last night I immediately experienced the benefit of being able to shut out the world of lights around me. Contrast was massively improved with the hood on. It had the same effect as if I was observing within an observatory structure. A neighbor on one side had some lights coming through their upstairs windows; this problem was almost completely eliminated with the hood in place.
With the hood on, the darkened effect was so good that I was able to observe with my non-observing eye open. I have never been able to master this before, but with the hood it is easily done. The benefit of having the non-observing eye open is that your face is far more relaxed, and so facial soreness or headaches that can be induced by squinting the face, are entirely avoided. I would estimate that my observing perception was improved by half a magnitude with the benefit of the hood.
The only major criticism I have at this stage is that the reading glasses pocket is too tight to fit my usual spectacles, and so I ended up putting those in one of the large bottom pockets during the observing session. The top pockets are set very high up, and are a little awkward to put things in/pull things out of.
One reality of observing with the hood is that you need to move the hood out of your way to use a head-lamp, or to look at star maps / the Argo Navis screen etc. An observer’s dark adaption is also still vulnerable if there is a sudden flash of light during the time that the hood is up.
The other reality is that if you walk in on someone who is not expecting a weirdo in a monkish hooded vest, you are likely to freak them out!
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