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Some ideas for observing from a cruise ship
Hi guys,
I just returned from a cruise from Sydney to Auckland on the Diamond Princess, which carries 2500 passengers, and thought I would give some tips on the likelihood of seeing much from the decks at night.
Unfortunately, as seems to be the norm lately, we only had one clear night to actually try some viewing. I took my 11x70's in the hope of finding somewhere to check out the sky. The first problem I encountered was finding somewhere that was actually dark. The ship was very well lit and it was quite hard to find somewhere even as dark as my backyard. We found a group of a dozen or so Japanese with binoculars looking toward Crux, I guess they don't see it from their place so it is a bit of a novelty to them. When I pulled out my binos, they were a little amazed I must say as some only had little 30-40 mm ones.
Eventually, we found an area at the front of the ship above the bridge. There are no lights forward of this section of the ship so the crew can see where they are going I guess. So this is the only real choice. I suggest you check out how to get to this area of the ship during daylight hours. If it is too choppy, this may be closed off for safety though (it was closed later in the cruise when it was a bit rough). Because of the surrounding lights, it was still pretty bright even there, but if you shield your eyes with your hands, it will help to darken the skies a lot. I would suggest that you take a pair of black gloves as this would greatly reduce the light reflected off your palms.
Unfortunately, being at the front, you will cop a bit of sea spray so you won't be able to see from about 10 degrees to the horizon. The mist will totally block most of what is visible as it will reflect a lot of light from the rest of the ship.
With the naked eye, no shielding, I could barely make out the belt of Orion and Crux was fairly easy to spot. Shielding your eyes with your hands brought the belt up clearly and I could just make out a bit of haze from the Milky Way. If I had black gloves, I would have picked up another magnitude or so easily.
With the rocking of the ship, it is a bit hard to get a clear view, so 11x is probably a bit much. 7x50's would probably be an excellent choice.
If you want to see parts of the sky other than forward and to the sides of the front of the ship, you will have to wait until the ship is heading that way. From most locations on the decks expect to see as much as you would in your lounge room with the lights on and roof off, the ambient lighting it THAT bright.
You could try lying on a deck chair and gazing up at the stars, but I don't think you will see much as you are bound to be sitting under a light of some sort.
You may also be lucky with the "on board lectures". Most cruises have guest speakers who run a series of lectures on their subject. Unfortunately, our guest gave a series of lectures on stock market investing. The web site for my ship implies that some times they have lectures on astronomy (even lectures on, dare I say astrology). In these cases, they may turn the lights off in certain areas for some observing. On the questionaire about the cruise, we suggested that they could make an area "dark" for observing on clear nights...maybe they will take it up!
I hope you find some of this information of use at some time.
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