Do dark skies REALLY matter?

I've heard comparisons saying that a 4" scope in true dark skies could top a 10" dob in suburbia. Having not been to TRULY dark skies, where one can see the milky way, I don't really know about this. Thanks.

You bet they do Alex. Every time we get what promises to be a clear night, I try to get to a nearby state park where I've found much darker skies than in my suburban location and it really makes observing much more rewarding.

Warren Boyles

In dark skies is where the larger scopes (the adage that aperture is king) really stand out. Even small scopes can really benefit from dark clear skies, but the bigger ones REALLY stand out at a dark sky site.

I did a similar comparison, using a faint open cluster in Orion. It was invisible in my C8 in suburbia, but easily visible with my 80mm scope at a moderately dark site.
Renato

Hi Alex,

Speaking from personal experience, YES! I’ve always done observations from light polluted skies around my home and thought that I was getting decent views. Then I went to the Black Forest Star Party in PA where they advertise magnitude 7 skies. Well, the first night I was there was astonishing, I spent the better half of an hour just sitting in my observing chair looking up. And then I looked through my little 8” dob that I decided to take instead of my 12” LX200 and I was blown away. The same objects that I viewed from home just looked entirely different. Words can’t describe the views and not one time did I get up during the night to go look through someone else’s scope. All the fancy equipment can’t do what dark skies can. If only Al Nagler could produce an eyepiece that could reproduce the views of dark skies he would make another million $.

My advise to you is FIND SOME DARK SKIES!

Some clear skies would help also ;-)
David Pope

Dark skies really do matter. But now that I have dependents it's not important enough to risk falling asleep at the wheel on my way home from a dark-sky site at 3 a.m. anymore. So these days I just observe from my light-polluted backyard. I finished most of my deep-space galaxy-cluster hunting in my 20's anyway. I'm a planetary guy now. :-)

If you're young and single and have a six-pack of Mt Dew in the car, I say drive to a dark sky site if you can!

Having used my 4-incher under a dark skies (LM=6.8) and from my backyard of LM=5.5-6 and now a new backyard of LM=5 (at best :-(), I'd also like to add on top of what others are saying by saying that the DSOs look much better under dark skies, much more contrast. For instance, the Barnard Galaxy just popped right out at me under a dark skies and just wasn't visible under my LM=5.5-6 backyard.

Ron B[ee]

>>I've heard comparisons saying that a 4" scope in true dark skies could top a 10" dob in suburbia. Having not been to TRULY dark skies, where one can see the milky way, I don't really know about this. Thanks.

It depends on the target and lots of other things but the bottomline is that viewing from a dark site is truly wonderful no matter what scope you are using.

Do it the first chance you get.

jon

Yes!!!

Under dark skies, I can easily see the owl and veil nebulas in my 90mm refractor.

In town, I cannot even detect them in my 10".

-Jake