Post by RobbW on Sept 15, 2010 16:27:43 GMT -6
Hey all, just checking in from McCarron International airport in Las Vegas. I'm waiting on my flight back to not so sunny and hot Chicago. I've been out of the loop for a bit due to my business trip to sin city. Although I was not physically present for Joe and John's 9/11 session, I was out under the same stars looking upwards. I spent the evening with the Las Vegas Astronomical Society up at Cathedral Gorge State Park, which is about 2.5 hours north of Vegas.
We had exceptionally clear, dark skies. Folks, all I can possibly say is........ WOW!!!!!!!! I have NEVER seen the night sky like that! The group I was with kept raving that this was the clearest most transparent skies they have had in years for their annual star party. I like to think it was due to me being with them!
It started getting dark around 7:30pm and by 9:30-10pm it was as dark as it was going to get. No need to wait until after midnight. Unfortunately, even though Vegas is 150 miles away from this site, it still created a serious light dome on the southern horizon. Oh well, I guess I can't hope for "perfect" skies.
The Milky Way was visible and plain as day stretching from the north horizon all the way over head down to the southern horizon. I had my DSLR with me, but I don't have a fish eye lens. So I couldn't capture our home galaxy from horizon to horizon. I took several photos of the entire sky and hope to stitch them into a nice panorama once I get home to my photo editing software. Unfortunately, I got so caught in taking wide-field images of the sky, I didn't get much scope time with my gracious hosts.
It was so dark out and I was so focussed on my imaging activities that I lost track of time. After what seemed like an eternity, I started getting droopy-eyed and couldn't stay awake anymore. I told my hosts that I intended to take a nap in my rental car for a couple hours and then come back out for more stargazing. When I got back to my car, I took a look at the time. It was only 11:30pm. Holy cow! Apparently really dark skies have the effect of making it seem later than it really is. I wonder if this was some sort of weird response from my Circadian Rhythm. Coming from the heavily light-polluted skies of Chicagoland, my body is used to brightly lit environments late into the night. Being out in almost complete darkness must have tricked my body into thinking it was very late at night. It was a really odd feeling.
Anyway, I settled down into my not very comfortable rental car (well, not comfortable for sleeping anyway) and bundled up. The temperature had dropped from a high of 92 down to the low 40s. I had on jeans, socks, sneakers, t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, scarf, and gloves with a fleece blanket to top it all off (I tried to come prepared). I was still pretty damn cold throughout the night. I fell asleep and woke up to the rising sun. Damn! I missed the rest of the night's observing.
Oh well, the observing I did get in was phenomenal. Once I have some time to process my photos, I will post a detailed narrative. In the meantime, here a few unprocessed images from the evening (unfortunately, several of them are blurred because I could not tell in the dark that my focus had shifted):
We had exceptionally clear, dark skies. Folks, all I can possibly say is........ WOW!!!!!!!! I have NEVER seen the night sky like that! The group I was with kept raving that this was the clearest most transparent skies they have had in years for their annual star party. I like to think it was due to me being with them!
It started getting dark around 7:30pm and by 9:30-10pm it was as dark as it was going to get. No need to wait until after midnight. Unfortunately, even though Vegas is 150 miles away from this site, it still created a serious light dome on the southern horizon. Oh well, I guess I can't hope for "perfect" skies.
The Milky Way was visible and plain as day stretching from the north horizon all the way over head down to the southern horizon. I had my DSLR with me, but I don't have a fish eye lens. So I couldn't capture our home galaxy from horizon to horizon. I took several photos of the entire sky and hope to stitch them into a nice panorama once I get home to my photo editing software. Unfortunately, I got so caught in taking wide-field images of the sky, I didn't get much scope time with my gracious hosts.
It was so dark out and I was so focussed on my imaging activities that I lost track of time. After what seemed like an eternity, I started getting droopy-eyed and couldn't stay awake anymore. I told my hosts that I intended to take a nap in my rental car for a couple hours and then come back out for more stargazing. When I got back to my car, I took a look at the time. It was only 11:30pm. Holy cow! Apparently really dark skies have the effect of making it seem later than it really is. I wonder if this was some sort of weird response from my Circadian Rhythm. Coming from the heavily light-polluted skies of Chicagoland, my body is used to brightly lit environments late into the night. Being out in almost complete darkness must have tricked my body into thinking it was very late at night. It was a really odd feeling.
Anyway, I settled down into my not very comfortable rental car (well, not comfortable for sleeping anyway) and bundled up. The temperature had dropped from a high of 92 down to the low 40s. I had on jeans, socks, sneakers, t-shirt, sweatshirt, jacket, scarf, and gloves with a fleece blanket to top it all off (I tried to come prepared). I was still pretty damn cold throughout the night. I fell asleep and woke up to the rising sun. Damn! I missed the rest of the night's observing.
Oh well, the observing I did get in was phenomenal. Once I have some time to process my photos, I will post a detailed narrative. In the meantime, here a few unprocessed images from the evening (unfortunately, several of them are blurred because I could not tell in the dark that my focus had shifted):
