A Dark Sky

I joined the local Astronomical Society on what now has become an annual boat trip in search of a dark sky. The trip took us some 25 miles West of the island on a moonless night.

The night started off with Venus blazing to the West just below Regulus with Saturn just to its East. Jupiter was already dominating the South horizon. As it grew darker, the spectacular view of the night sky unadulterated by artificial light came into view. The Milky Way stretched in an arc all the way from Sagittarius to Cassiopeia writhing in complex patterns of light and dark patches. It was especially wonderful in Sagittarius and Cygnus. Deep sky objects which are usually only visible in telescopes sprang into naked eye view. The M7 shone off the tail of Scorpius, the M8 Lagoon, M20 Trifid and M24 were visible in Sagittarius as was the M17 in nearby Scutum.

It is difficult to list all the objects observed with binoculars but as I hunted down globular clusters I observed the M3, M4, M13, M22. As time passed new constellations rose, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries with Mars in tow, Perseus, Auriga, Andromeda, Pegasus and Taurus. By then the boat had returned to port and the light pollution ended the magnificent spectacle.

With the limiting magnitude estimated at +6.5 the view of the heavens was magical and an experience I hope will be repeated.