Well I’ve been on holiday and have come back to it actually getting properly dark for the first time. I’ve tried to estimate the limiting magnitude for my new area. There is a guide depending on the number of stars that you can see in the Square of Pegasus. I am pretty certain that in my old house the number of stars seen inside the square was zero!
From Coates I’ve counted 11, now I need to double check that over more nights, but that would give me a limiting magnitude of 5.75, I am hoping that it’ll get even better than that once Pegasus is higher in the sky!
30 stars = Mag 6.5
17 stars = Mag 6.25
13 stars = Mag 6
9 stars = Mag 5.75
7 stars = Mag 5.5
5 stars = Mag 5.25
4 stars = Mag 5
3 stars = Mag 4.75
1 star = Mag 4.5
0 stars = Mag 4 (or worse)
I took a little stroll down the lane and sat looking at meteors, I also managed to observe the Milky Way fairly low down. I set up the camera and took some images. This was taken with the 300D and the standard lens at 18mm. I had the F ratio set to F6.5, really could have done with that at F3 – but I forgot to check! I took about a dozen 30 second shots, stacked them in DSS and then processed a little in PS. Click on the image below to see the constellations and a few deep sky objects, I’ve also estimated the height above the horizon of the lowest star and believe that I’ve captured a star a mere 48′ above the horizon.
Southern Milky Way
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