Ah Malcolm, nothing quite beats a glorious sky full of shimmer and beauty. So relaxing, just to sit there and take it in. It's incredibly peaceful and shows us just how minute we are.
I don't have the incredible skies you saw at SV, but I really do feel when I just sit and take it all with nothing but my own eyes, I can breathe, really breathe. If that makes sense.
Would you believe when I attended my first star party at Ron's, I spent half of the time just sitting on Ron's deck with nothing but my naked eyes just taking it all in, despite Ron's 16" on hand and my binos on the floor next to me.
Even my dob barely got used (it was dwarfed by Ron's 16" standing right next to it so I used his- no brainer
).
Note to self, when setting up at future star party, ensure one plonks scope next to comparatively sized or smaller scope.
And then I read your last line and I nearly feinted
. I went from a warm and fuzzy feeling within a second to horrified and sick.
Eeeeeow!
I cannot watch the Nat.Geo channel for this very reason, honest.