Couple questions for the group,
Curious what you folks understand is the standard for naked eye limiting magnitude specifically whether it is direct vision or averted vision. The way I see it, is if you see the stars, you see the stars. I usually pick a constellation I have not done for awhile, and look for every star I can see around the main asterism, and then sketch them out looking them up later to learn how deep I was seeing.
Second,
does anybody have a good idea what the difference between their direct vision/averted vision limit is?
I had a decent nite tonite, and I guess my skies are not as bad as I thought they had become with nearby LP. I note stars to mag 5.6 in Ursa Minor. I could just barely make out the mag 5 star in the bowl with direct vision but I have some floaters these days that tend to be in my direct line of vision. I could see the haze of the milky way, but not the dust lane as I once could. Also have been able to make out M13 in years past. Although the air is just not as dry as it was say 6 or so years ago in the NE. Not as dark as Stellafane as a benchmark that folks might be familiar with especially at the horizon. I cannot see M33 naked eye as I have there.
Regards,
Kevin
Curious what you folks understand is the standard for naked eye limiting magnitude specifically whether it is direct vision or averted vision. The way I see it, is if you see the stars, you see the stars. I usually pick a constellation I have not done for awhile, and look for every star I can see around the main asterism, and then sketch them out looking them up later to learn how deep I was seeing.
Second,
does anybody have a good idea what the difference between their direct vision/averted vision limit is?
I had a decent nite tonite, and I guess my skies are not as bad as I thought they had become with nearby LP. I note stars to mag 5.6 in Ursa Minor. I could just barely make out the mag 5 star in the bowl with direct vision but I have some floaters these days that tend to be in my direct line of vision. I could see the haze of the milky way, but not the dust lane as I once could. Also have been able to make out M13 in years past. Although the air is just not as dry as it was say 6 or so years ago in the NE. Not as dark as Stellafane as a benchmark that folks might be familiar with especially at the horizon. I cannot see M33 naked eye as I have there.
Regards,
Kevin
