FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Visual Limit From Sentinel Last Night

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom;

A NEW observing accessory--a comfortable mattress and a sleeping bag?  Ah, 
horizontal observing.....

I have naked eye notes from a good night at 5000 ft. altitude at Dugas Rd. that 
I rated 7/10 for transparency.  I was able to hold steady a star that was 6.9 
magnitude and glimpse one of 7.2 about 20 percent of the time.  Those notes are 
also from a long time ago and my eyes were younger, then.  It seems that was a 
night that I was doing some binocular observing of Summer Milky Way and so 
didn't have a telescope to distract me from just looking around.  I probably 
used the "how many stars inside the Bowl of the Dipper" thing to get those 
numbers, but I took poor notes and just jotted down the final values.  One of 
these days, I am going to do this again and see how the passage of 15 years has 
effected the results.  Then again, maybe I don't want to know.

Agree with you, Tom, I think that folks who see deep can pick out stars of 7.5 
mag regularly from a good site, I would not dispute that.  

Steve

stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx
Author:  Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist
Saguaro Astronomy Club web site:
www.saguaroastro.org

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