Let's get the Double Star Forum goin'

[clydec]

Originally Posted by pizwiz

I started in Astronomy many years ago in the High Desert Country of Southern California. ( I miss those skies)
On very rare occasions in the wintertime I was able to see the six stars in the Trapezium with my 60mm Sans& Streiff Refractor, with the help of an excellent takahashi 0.965 Eyepiece which i still have today.

Adolph

That's an excellent feat Adolph and a testament to your skies and eyes! You're in good company getting all 6 in such small aperture as the veteran observer Alan Jay Freeman reported getting them in his 55mm Vixen Fluorite. Makes me feel inadequate that I can only get 5 in my 70mm scope!

Clyde

[pizwiz]

Thanks Clyde,
But believe me it is not something that happens very often. Maybe once a year if you are lucky.
It needs absolutely steady skies. In the desert it seems to happen most likely after a cold front passes and a good rain clears the atmosphere. Being at about 3000 ft altitude above the typical desert haze also helped.
I did most of my observing in the "Joshua Tree National Monument" where there were absolutely no lights for many miles around.
I know it sounds crazy, but I could actually read a star chart by starlight alone. ( It even sounds crazy to me now when I say it here in the Northeast)

Adolph

[clydec]

Originally Posted by pizwiz

Thanks Clyde,
But believe me it is not something that happens very often. Maybe once a year if you are lucky.
It needs absolutely steady skies. In the desert it seems to happen most likely after a cold front passes and a good rain clears the atmosphere. Being at about 3000 ft altitude above the typical desert haze also helped.
I did most of my observing in the "Joshua Tree National Monument" where there were absolutely no lights for many miles around.
I know it sounds crazy, but I could actually read a star chart by starlight alone. ( It even sounds crazy to me now when I say it here in the Northeast)

Adolph

Yes, totally agree about the need for absolutely steady skies. The times I've gotten 6 in the Trap in my TV-85 over the years have been those dead still winter nights. I've found that if I can get a good split on Rigel at 46x, I have a chance. I've never gotten 6 when I couldn't split Rigel easily at 46x, though there have been many times when I could split it at that power and still couldn't get all 6. E is actually fairly routine in the 85, but certainly not F. I turned 50 this year and though my eyes were 20/10 in high school, they sure aren't that now. I was 20/20 a year ago. I've had a few really good nights lately where E was pretty easy, but no F. Perhaps I've seen it for the last time in an 85mm scope.

Also agree about how dark it can be out in the desert at altitude. The Ski Basin above Santa Fe where I've camped is about 10,000 feet. I couldn't believe it the first time I saw the Milky Way casting a shadow! I've camped at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon too. That's around 8200 feet and also very dark. The Ski Basin is a bit darker though.

[pizwiz]

I am glad that you are the one who mentioned that the Milky way can actually cast a shadow.! !
I thought I had gone far enough with my statement of being able to read a chart by starlight. I figured if i added the milky way shadow that i would have been declared certifiably nuts. Thanks.

Adolph

[clydec]

Originally Posted by pizwiz

I am glad that you are the one who mentioned that the Milky way can actually cast a shadow.! !
I thought I had gone far enough with my statement of being able to read a chart by starlight. I figured if i added the milky way shadow that i would have been declared certifiably nuts. Thanks.

Adolph

I got my wife to verify the shadow! But I'm sure others have noticed it too under truly, truly dark skies. Can you imagine what it must have been like 1000 years ago for the tribes in the Desert Southwest? Wow.

Clyde

[pizwiz]

I have spent many Years working in the middle East and North Africa. I got a glimpse of what it must have been for our Ancestors when working in the middle of the Sahara. Just wish I'd had a telescope with me.

Adolph

[PJ Anway]

Though I live in the U.P. of Michigan under dark skies and can easily see the Milky Way on any clear, moonless night, I have never noticed a shadow being cast by it. However, I did have that experience last summer when I traveled to Manitoulin Island, Ontario Canada. It is a large island with very little nightime lighting - no chain: restaurants, motels, gas stations or stores. I observed at a dark-sky preserve and experienced the Milky Way like I had never experienced it from home. It indeed cast shadows on the ground. Besides that, I was able to point out many more deepsky objects naked-eye. I was particularly suprised when a fellow observer asked me where NGC 457 (ET cluster) was and as I pointed toward Cassiopeia, I was able to pick it out naked-eye. That was a first for me.