Mag 5 skies in Brooklyn?

Well, not quite, but if you’re in NYC and reading this tonight (Oct 3) go outside! I spent a few minutes on our front stoop around 7:15 pm and noticed how clear the sky seemed to be. Then using my hand to block out the street light at the end our our cul-de-sac, I let my eyes adjust as was surprised to notice that I could see all four stars in the "body" of Delphinus. The faintest of these is delta Dephini, is listed as magnitude 4.43. And this was from my front stoop with just my hand blocking the street light while it had not even reached the meridian.

I just went out to our back alley to take a second look (about 9:15 pm) and find it’s right at the edge of being visible with direct vision and is easy with averted vision. So I tried for zeta Delphini which is magnitude 4.68. That is at the edge of averted vision, popping in and out of view. Magnitude 4.4 is already the best I can remember. Usually I use the stars in Lyra as a guide. If I can make out all four corners of the trapezoid that forms the core, I know I can see down to magnitude 4.3. And many nights I can’t or I can only do it with averted vision. Since we’re also on the flight path to LaGuardia, I can gauge how much moisture is in the air by looking for the headlight beams from the planes. I’m not seeing any tonight.