[Chaos-l] Dark skies

[E. Allen Davis]

I am glad you are enjoying such a wonderful experience.  Keep us updated.  It sounds like the skies I have seen in Arizona and I am envious.  allen

E. Allen Davis
 starstorm151 at embarqmail.com

 "M'Illumino              "I am enlightened
 D'Immenso"              by the immensity."

   -Ungaretti               -Ungaretti

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Lerch" <mark.lerch at quest.com>
To: "Jayme Hanzak" <jhanzak at unctv.org>, "CHAOS" <chaos-l at rtpnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:20:25 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [Chaos-l] Dark skies


friends,

I'm writing this email from Wall, South Dakota, on the edge of Badlands National Park.

As I was returning to my room from dinner last night I glanced up and thought "wow, that's an awfully inky sky."  Then it occurred to me: "Wow, that is an insanely dark sky."

I tossed some gear into my rental car and headed off into the Badlands.  I got out and looked up and was treated to the darkest sky I've ever seen in my life, without a doubt.  The Milky Way was a vast sweeping smudge going almost from horizon to horizon.  The horizons were absurdly low, almost like the ocean, and in the West the Milky Way went almost to the very horizon.  I have never seen such a thing.  In the East it didn't reach to the horizon but trailed off.

Prior to this, the darkest sky I had seen was on Whitetop Mountain, in Virginia.  That night the patterns within the arms were evident.  Last night the galaxy arms were so bright they virtually obscured the wishbone, just like dark skies obscure the obviousness of our familiar constellations.

The Double Cluster was such a bright smudge.  I started trying to pick things out but kept getting lost in the overall grandeur of it all.

can you believe I didn't bring my astrotrac?  I thought of having a friend mail it out to me but I'd also need my tripod.

stunning, once in a lifetime stuff.  As I drove back I felt a tinge of sadness at the disregard for such an incredible natural resource

Mark

________________________________________
From: chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org [chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of Jayme Hanzak [jhanzak at unctv.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:42 AM
To: CHAOS
Subject: [Chaos-l] Skies change in a minuter around here

I was out on my back deck last night talking with my daughter in Ohio. I was amazed at just how clear the skies were and how the stars twinkled and the Milky Way was easily visible. Although I wasn't planning on observing, I couldn't let this night go by without a little viewing. I went inside after saying good bye to Rachel and I told my wife I was going out to observe. I said that the skies were dazzling and I couldn't let it go by. I picked up my eye pieces and headed out the door where I stopped dead in my tracks. The skies were overcast from horizon to horizon. It wasn't like a front passed through, the clouds just appeared out of no where. Jupiter was just barely visible in the clouds. Where did all the clouds come from, they weren't there two minutes ago.



I turned around and went back inside and put my equipment away. It's amazing what you witness as an amateur astronomer.

Jayme Hanzak
CHAOS President

CHAOS
P.O. Box 842
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0842
http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos/

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