Dark as pitch, is an understatement. From my home observatory I can change batteries without the aid of additional light, having no problem seeing the little +- indicators on black plastic thanks to the glow. When I opened the door from the house I could not see my telescope or the other building for that matter just a hundred or so feet away. In fact the only source of light pollution other then inside house lights was the red light from the starshoot autoguider! The few neighbors around don't seem to leave pointless lighting on all night like people do in the city / suberbs. It's just dark. M42 is easily seen with the naked eye. M45 sticks out right away. I'm sure many other messier objects would easily be detectable but since I'm a child of go to, coming from an area where m13 is hard to see in an 8" telescope, looking for dso's with the naked eye is not something I am experienced with yet.
I had some initial focusing issues. In my haste to setup the focuser knob was rubbing the dovetail, so my main image target was ruined, however I did get a nice short exposure image of M42 and a few nice open clusters before it clouded over. Clouding over is something to be seen too. Clouds are invisible. It's like the stars just stop shinning. You can't tell where the tall trees end and the sky begins..
Despite the issues, I deem the initial trial a success. I did have some issues guiding after a meridian flip, despite recalibration, however I will re-examine this next week. For now the CGEM and AT66mm are there, and I hope to bring the 6" RC up soon.
