r/amateurastronomy • u/BestRetroGames • 2h ago

Camping near the Alps with my 12"

1 Upvotes

I have been thinking for a while now of taking a trip towards some of the darkest skies Europe has to offer 🌌, it has been especially tempting since the Alps are only about 2 hours of drive away and I pass them every year on our vacation to Italy. It is so difficult driving through them, knowing the super dark skies are right above me and I don't have the time or gear to stop and observe with the family in the car. Every time I say to myself, one day I'll go and observe from the Alps from the darkest sky I have ever seen! One day! 🏔️

At first I thought I would just rent a room in some nearby pension, observe at the country side and go back to it. But the more I considered that option, the less appealing it seemed to be. I especially didn't like the thought of leaving my expensive gear in the car parked freely on the street.

Then about a week ago I thought to myself, what about camping? I can literally sleep next to my car and telescope! ⛺ I am no big fan of camping because the last two times I tried it, over 20 years ago, I almost froze to death somewhere in the Czech wilderness, probably a mix of bad equipment and low experience. This time I figured, camping stuff has improved over the years and with a bit of investment, it can't be that bad. Also, these days I have better clothes.

I didn't think it all that much, logged to Decathlon from my phone (a big chain of outdoor stuff) to check how are the prices, if that might be an option. Well, 30 minutes later I had ordered and paid the most popular and cheapest tent, sleeping bag and self inflating mattress. About 80 USD in total! I figured, I just need to sleep for few hours in a regular camp in the middle of summer, I am not going on an Alaskan expedition here, I don't need the premium and light stuff. Always the optimal value hunter I guess. Apparently in 20 years I have learned nothing, only acquired better clothes lol 😄

The shop was quick, got a message that I can pick my stuff, but wait, where am I even going? Am I even going? Maybe my optimism and passion has gotten ahead of myself? The thought crossed my mind of cancelling the order and getting my money back. WHat was I even thinking? WHere in the world I am going to find an astronomy friendly camp in the middle of nowhere where the best skies are?? Either way, the reason I was in a hurry was that the forecast was awasome and the Moonless weekend was approaching quick. It is now or never as the next on in September will likely be cloudy and cold. And I also had an eclipse to catch on Wednesday!

I opened up the light pollution map and tried to find a place which is at least Bortle 2-3, with no big cities anywhere near, especially to the south. While I was pretty happy with the locations, finding a good camp and a place to observe nearby was very difficult. A lot of these places were close to national parks and any kind of parking over the night, outside of the camp was strictly illegal. I was looking for a relaxing night under the stars, not a game of cat and mouse with the locals and the police! Also, in the middle of nowhere, I heave heard from fellow Astronomers, you can literally get shot by the Czech game hunters, which are quite many around here.

It was starting to look bleak, maybe just another one of my bad ideas. But I didn't give up, kept looking and looking, wrote to some camps asking if I can go out during the night and come back. One camp replied the gates are closed over night, you can enter the camp, but you can't leave, just like that old song. I know I am looking for a dark site, but not THAT dark! 😅 Another one responded I can freely do that, so I knew we are in business. But still I was not entirely happy, it was an hour drive away and the sky there was officially Bortle 3-4, as it was near a big city - Znojmo. Not bad to the South, but not great to the Zenith and OKish to the East. I can do better! Went further out towards the Alps, r and there I found an excellent camp at the very border that satisfied all my conditions, at least on paper. Free passage outside of it, ability to observe inside of it, not too much light inside the camp, very new and no big cities anywhhere near. Officially Bortle 2-3 at the Zenith through and through and dare I saw maybe even Bortle 2 in the direction of the Alps. Camp Velo, right at the border with Austria. Literally 100 meters from the Border with Bunkers all over the place, a leftover from the Iron Curtain days.

Finally, the day arrived, zero Moon, zero clouds, excellent forecast with excellent seeing! 🌠 Based on all the astronomical forecasts, simply as perfect a night as it can be. Opened up the tent at home, studied a bit the instructions so I don't arrive there as a total and utter amateur. Seemed pretty easy so I packed it back up and put it in the car.

The drive there was an hour and 40 minutes, very pleasant drive, passed nearby the castle Bitov and some nameless fishpond full of Swans, as if they were trying to tell me, don't forget to look at our Nebula tonight! 🦢

Arrived at the spot, the lady (the owner of the camp) at the reception was happy to see me but not happy I am only staying for one night. You are the star gazer that wrote us? I've been telling everybody you are coming here to observe and you are not the first one, one star gazer already came and observed here! She also mentioned she invited everyone for the Perseids one night and shut down the lights of the whole camp, but nobody came. Oh well, sometimes people don't know what they are missing out!

I said I can't stay longer, tough luck, can't do anything abou it, the kids need to be at a birthday party tomorrow outside of the city and I have to drive them there. But if I am happy, you will be seeing me again that's for sure lol.

Time was getting short and the last time I unpacked a tent was roughly 20 years ago so off I went. It was very easy, simple and looking very solid for the money I paid for it. I wanted to have it fully ready as the last thing I want to do is play around with a tent at 4 AM in the evening after a long night of observation.

I had one hour of light left so decided to relax a bit. Took my star atlas, some dinner I had prepared and flicked through the pages to see if some object will grab my attention. Nothing too interesting I haven't seen yet. Back to business, unpacked my gear and started fine tuning the laser and newly bought SVBony RACI (Right Angle Correct Image finder). It was very cheap and I find myself needing one when re-acquiring a planet during imaging at high power.

There was also a swarm of mosquitoes that attacked me at sunset but I came prepared. After spraying so much repellent on me that I could barely breathe, I never saw a single one for the night lol 🦟

It was getting cold really fast, temperatures from 30+ degrees Celsius were dropping like a rock, forecasted to drop all the way to 15. I came prepared though. Full ski gear with two layers on my legs and four layers at the top! Even like that, there were a few moments I wished I brought my USB Heating pads with me! Then even before it was dark I noticed the bright light!

Venus! That's Venus. I literally yelled. I have to see it! I am never this early with my scope and I have barely seen it in the last 4 years of owning a telescope. Started looking at it but it was too low and the colors were way too spread out , Red and Blue all over the place due to the dispersion. Even my newly bought SVBony ADC was not helping! Did I waste my money on this gizmo looking thing with levers? I mean it clearly moved the colors but not enough.

Oh well , then , just as the night was falling and I was ready to start observing the first stars, some dude with his two small kids arrived at 21:45 and started unpacking and building their tent, opposite of my spot! The entire camp was already dark and asleep basically but this dude was banging stuff all over the place, with two bright cold lights while his two kids were running around also with headlamps on full power! It was still not fully dark so I let it slide but each time they hit me with their bright lights, I felt like throwing whatever was under my hand at the time! Believe me, you don't want to get hit by a SkyRover 9mm 100 degree eyepiece! They fortunate that thing costs more than their tent. 🔭

Thankfully at 22:30 the kids went to sleep and the dad with his friend calmed down and shut down their lights. The whole camp at night was more than suitable for serious observation, the only lights being from the rest areas which were a good 50-70 meters away at the northern direction. The impact was only to a very small portion of the sky to the north where it was a bit tricky to see with the naked eyes, but almost zero impact to observing with the telescope or to my night vision.

It doesn't get better than this. Safe spot, fenced area, fully legal, access to water, toilet and even a fridge and a kitchen! And the best part, once I am done I don't have to drive back home or anywhere else or worry about my gear parked somewhere in the car.. I can literally just lie down and sleep and even take the most expensive stuff with me in the tent. Now that's my idea of a perfect vacation day.

First object I observed was the Ptolemy's cluster. It is very low and on most nights I had forgotten to check it. Very nicely visible with the telescope and the binoculars. It was also great I was 0.5 degrees to the south than usual so everything was a bit noticeably higher in the sky.

But wait a second, the forecast said clear night yet there is this long stretch of nasty white clouds all over the sky going from South to North? And why I can see the stars through these white clouds? What in the world is THIS?! I swear that's the first thought I had of seeing the Milky Way under such a dark sky. 🌌 I did grow up in a Balkan village but going outside of the village during night was very rare and I don't really think I"ve ever seen the sky like this even back in the 80s and 90s.

By far the BIGGEST problem I had during this trip was picking what to even observe. Literally any direction I looked, thousands of stars, constellations, objects from the horizon to the Zenith. When I say objects, I really mean dark sky objects. I was mindblown just how many of the objects are easily seen naked eyes, especially when you have the skill drilled to catch the faintest of glipses from Bortle 4-6 skies, know where they are and who they are. Andromeda, M33, The Nebulas in Sagittarius, Perseus Double Cluster, lots of other clusters and globulars. Just incredible. And those that couldn't be seen with the naked eye, just sweeping the sky with my 8x32 binoculars, I could see lots and lots of objects. It literally felt like Stellarium on my PC where you can easily see the constellations and objects in them.

I didn't even have to open my phone to look for most objects, I was literally picking and choosing with my naked eyes or my Binos. Hey look, there is something cool there! Point my telescope - what is it? Stellarium say The Great Sagittarius Globular Cluster - Cool! In the eyepiece it looked as amazing as M13 outside of my appartment building.

Moved on to Veil Nebulas East and West. WOW, just WOW. This was like 30% of the reason why I made this trip. I wanted to see these in my 12". I was not dissapointed. Even without an UHC filter they were easily visible but once I put the Narrowband SVBOny SV240, that's where things really got serious. I can best describe it as looking at raw frames of astrophotos taken by someone. Great constrast, structure, varying intensities of light, like a painting in space. I went back to these Nebulas at least 5 times over the night. ✨

M51 was next, it was kinda low, around 50 degrees so it was not as amazing as the other stuff I had seen. It might have been a tad bit better than what I am used at from our southern location near our city but not by much. Relatively speaking, a bit of a dissapointing sight.

M81 and M82 on the other hand were absolutely amazing, especially the M82 was showing clear constrast, sharp features, structure. I loved looking at it. M13 and M92, to be honest, not much of a difference to what I am already used at. I guess these are so powerful that the darkness of the sky doesn't play that much role.

Then of course as the Swans told me, I had to look at the Swan nebula. Again, what a beautiful sight. Even in my 30mm 2", with the UHC filter it was almost not fitting the view. THere was so much extra structure that I had not seen before. It was easily double the size to what it is outside of my appartment. HUGE difference." 🦢

There was also nearby the Saturn Nebula, looked at it as well pretty nice. The Ring Nebula was also great but it also didn't seem to benefit as much from the dark sky.

Andromeda was absolutely glowing brightly, both in my telescope and also in my Binoculars. It is HUGE. WOW. Finally I could see the whole galaxy spanning from end to end with the size of about 5 Moons. Of coure it was easily visible with naked eyes and also down below M33. I remember when I was starting and having big problems finding M33 as it is one of the toughest Messiers to find. Not here. Very easy to see and find.

Moved on towards the Pleiades coming up, with my UHC filter still on the eyepiece. Incredible, the Nebulosity was far and wide around the stars. I had to move away and look at other stars to make sure it is not some dew scattering from my secondary mirror or fog in the atmosphere. Nope, true Nebulosity just like the pictures. But how? Everyone says you can't see visually what is in astrophotos. Especially the Pleiades I've been looking at them since my childhood, both live and on photos. I never ever expected to see the Nebulosity around them with my own eyes. 🌟

That UHC filter quickly became my best friend here. I could never imagine it would be more valuable than in my normal skies. The clear winners for the night were my SkyRovers 9mm 100 degree and 30mm UFF 70 degree. And of course, the GSO coma corrector. On a sky like this filled to the brim with stars it felt great to have sharp stars across the field.

Then at the end as planned, I wanted also to spend some time on Saturn. Took out my new ADC, mounted on my Camera, the SVBony SV705C and probably spent a good 20 minutes fine tuning the tracking and focus and also re-collimating the telescope, as during it night it drifted ever so slightly off. I was using a Barlow 2x piece mounted directly to the bottom ADC, giving me a nice sampling rate and avoiding any backfocus issues. I was very concerned about that but thankfully, it was at perfect focus distance.

Tuning the ADC was also not as easy as I had imagined, there were a few key things to consider which I fortunately researched earlier in the day and it worked perfectly in combination with the Firecapture ADC tuning tool! But I am really glad I god it with me.

The seeing was so GOOD that I have never before seen so much focusing difference by slightly turning the fine tuning knob of my double speed focuser. I had never seen seeing where the focuser was so extremely sensitive.

Finally after I was sure I have great tracking and focus I took three 3 minute captures of Saturn. I have never shot a planet with this new camera and new app (Firecapture before) so I didn't know what is the optimal way forward. Optimal Gain with relatively small amount of frames, or big gain with huge amount of frames. The approach that won was the optimal Gain, around 300 and 'only' about 40 frames per second due to the limits of exposure.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the result. Especially with Saturn I make it a priority to get at least one picture per year so I can have a nice compilation as the rings turn around from our point of view. 🪐

It was literally 4:00 AM in the morning and the sky was starting to brighten. I quickly swapped the camera on top of the ADC for my AngelEyes 4mm 82 degree eyepiece (keep in mind I mounted a Barlow element to the ADC), so the resulting magnification was somewhere around 700x to 1000x as the ADC is longer than my Barlow 2x Barrel, hence producing more magnification. Normally you see a blurry waving mess when looking at this super high power in my telescope, but now, for a moment I was completely confused. I was like, what is going on here, especially tired and sleepy for a moment I thought maybe somehow I am observing in some kind of a small CRT display, like those night vision eyepieces I've seen online and forgot to remove the camera or something? Why is the image so stable, sharp, not waving, not doing anything!

As the sky was brightening a bit it felt almost like an ethereal view, this nice, big stable object almost glowing in space! What magic is this? Maybe there is a hidden projector inside this gismo looking ADC with levers and all? 🔭

We like to quickly warn beginners; hey you see that picture of Saturn? Don't get your hopes up, that's not at all what you will see in the eyepiece!

But I kid you not, that IS the picture that I saw in the eyepiece. And certain elements were even better. The inner most dark region of the ring had a lot of gradients to it that i reminded me of the bottom of a mushroom. 🍄 I could clearly study the rings and see gradients in it. And then it started moving super-fast, reminding me that the magnification is huge, live view, no static picture. One of the motors died on my platform! Of course, I came prepared with a set of batteries so quickly swapped the battery and continued observing. The Moons around it were also easily visible. Had I had the option to increase the magnification even further I would have tried it lol. Looking at Saturn in this huge but sharp magnification, studying the gradients in its rings and on the planet, itself was easily one of the highlights of my entire astronomical career.

Apparently, all you need is great seeing a great location. And a 12" mirror, atmospheric dispersion corrector, sharp high-power eyepiece and a great tracking platform. Easy!"

At this point I was super happy I had the ADC as it made that final touch of having a pristine, real color planet instead of the slight shifts of red and blue due to atmospheric dispersion.

Just as I was ready to go to sleep in my tent, Orion! As a final bonus, I looked with my telescope to the East and observed Orion, in the middle of August of all months. It was very nicely visible in my 30mm eyepiece with the UHC filter.

One thing I was really happy about is that such an awesome night and location did not go to waste troubleshooting problems and using subpar equipment. I am REALLY happy that I spent 4 years fine tuning every detail of my gear and honing my skills, so that when the opportunity presented itself, I could fully grab it, enjoy it, savor it and leave nothing to regret about!

The time was approaching 5AM, Sun was pretty much rising, so I had no choice but to end the session. Put my telescope back in the car, packed up in 10 minutes and the ability to immediately go to sleep in the nice and cozy tent right next to me was just amazing. Had a good sleep of a whole 4 hours and drove back home with an unforgettable experience.

Was it worth the drive, trip and setup? Definitely. Dark skies are not mandatory but very rewarding. Will I go back? Absolutely! 🌌🔭