Galaxies are hard in bad light pollution. I used to live in bortle 7 and when I was galaxy hunting it was more about being able to locate and detect the smudge. Andromeda was only a faint smudge and m110 was only detectable on good night's.

Try the sombrero galaxy m104 it was by far my favorite in bortle 7.

Taking an observing hood to the next level. The way you word it implies to me you cobbled it together yourself and I like to picture the other astronauts watching wondering what kind of shenanigans you are getting into.

When you look at this photo with zero context it is just such a bizarre scene. The other side of the cloth is even funnier to imagine.

Bigfoot do astrology too. From my thorough research of animal planet programming I can also tell you they definetly like fireworks and graveyards as well.

I don't think you are truly appreciateing the extreme depth and scale of the universe.

There are hundreds of billions to trillions of galaxies in the observable universe to distances of billions of lightyears.

Consider this, civilizations on the other side of the milkyway wouldn't be able to see us yet. Out of potentially trillions of galaxies, just as you said they could see our galaxy but would have to wait millions to billions of years before they could see our civilization.

I think Conformal Cyclic Cosmology is a fun idea.

For real space is crazy.

You are stardust. The stuff your body is made from was forged in the hearts of stars and in cataclysmic collisions and explosions that rang the very fabric of spacetime billions of years ago.

And somehow, you, this aggregation of star dust, looks out at the very cosmos we were born from and asks "why?".

With imaging I get how you can beat seeing in photography with lucky imaging.

How would a using filter change the effects of seeing?

Isn't the only reason seeing effects bigger scopes is because you have the resolution to magnify enough to see the bad seeing?

What costly measures are used to eliminate the effects of bad seeing?

That's called scintillation, it's cause by turbulence in the atmosphere refracting the light around. It's mostly noticable on bright objects near the horizon because you are looking through more atmosphere.

The apparent zipping around you described is another interesting illusion.

https://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/autokinetic-effect-2.php

Jupiter or Venus most likely. They move the same speed as the sun, it's the earth spinning 15°/hour.

Download an app like stellarium and check.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_diagram

Titan is hydrocarbon oceans.

I was thinking about it more, do you have any RC plane or drone clubs near by?

Same reason you can likely see the bottoms of clouds at night, light pollution. Birds in light pollution against the sky look like faint glowing orbs and they seem to move really fast because they are quiet so your brain assumes what your looking at must be far away when it is actually very close.

I have many times seen lights flying fast and silent in a V formation. Everytime it has been geese flying, they don't honk much at night.

There are an insane amount of satellites now as well. Sometimes random ones just happen to appear flying in formation but it's just an illusion, with starlink trains as an obvious exception.

I put together a video inspired by this picture you might like. https://youtu.be/2yRO0GtaaZI

Nothing that a handful of wrenches taped to the tube can't balance haha

It's quite spectacular being able to see all three at once with a 31mm Nagler in a 10" dob!

I made a timelapse where there are lots of different DSOs visible including m31 and m33. I thought you might like it. https://youtu.be/sMcwHPqd7l8

You do not need a dark location but it makes it significantly easier.

Oh man they are cool! Check out this one I caught in September. https://youtu.be/6NneAspwqk8

Oh I forgot to say bortle 4 to bortle 2 is a huge difference. I would recommend using an app like astropheric to find a good night for astronomy and just drive out and look, no need for any equipment but if you have binoculars I would bring them.

Bortle 4 is not bad you can see a lot of stuff naked eye in bortle 4. Someone from a city seeing a bortle 4 sky the first time would probably be surprised.

I started in bortle 7 and still had lots of fun with my telescope.

My backyard still has lots of light pollution, we should go find someone else's backyard.

I can see it quite easily in my 10" dob including being able to make out the dust lanes on a good night.

I've looked at in bortle 7 with small binoculars, it's still quite easy to spot but isn't as impressive as you're only able to see the bright core. Still your seeing an object 2.5 million light years away!

This was bortle 4/5.