[AZ-Observing] Re: Saturn was good tonight

That is sad Al.

Unless you plan to move, I suggest you reconsider the backyard 
observatory even with the bad light pollution. At my place there are 
no big bright lights closer than a mile, but the sky is still pretty 
bright. A couple of my neighbors have decided to keep bright lights 
on all night long in the backyard. I can easily read a newspaper in 
my backyard on otherwise dark nights.

Despite that, I can still so some interesting observing in the 
backyard. I have a hard time seeing 2nd magnitude stars with my naked 
eye which makes finding objects the old star hop way next to 
impossible. However, using setting circles or a goto scope, you can 
find deep sky objects. You may not be able to see some and I have yet 
to see M1 or M51 from my backyard observatories, but you can image 
them and surprisingly easily. filters help immensely. The Moon and 
planets are not affected much so the lights are not a problem. If you 
have a walled observatory, it will protect you from ground level 
light and the wind. Plus you can leave your scope set up which makes 
observing much more pleasurable as you can do a precise alignment 
just once.

So don't get too discouraged, you may still benefit from a backyard 
observatory and you can pray to the photon gods that there will be a 
blackout. :-)

Jeff

At 10:52 -0700 2/1/06, Albert Stiewing wrote:
>I was out on Monday night and Saturn was very good. At 200x I had to wait to
>get steady seeing, but it was there, including good banding detail on the
>planet itself.. I would love an observatory. I had been planning one and had
>come home Monday from the building inspector. They wanted more details on
>the rolloff roof. I threw the plans away after Monday night. The new Lexus
>dealers lights went on. This new dealership, still under construction less
>than 1/4 away , lit up the NNE sky to the top of the big dipper. Despite
>proper lighting. the shear wattage just overwhelms. And all that light is
>just reflecting off the ground. Just imagine what it will be like after
>there are cars there.I can't wait for the new Cadillac dealership to open
>next door. Of course all the other dealership are already here. I now have
>overwhelming  sky glow from Polaris to just west of the southern meridian.
>Add in trees, a streetlight out front, neighbors unshielded 24 hour security
>lights, upward looking spot lights on landscaping and I think I could read
>the newspaper outback. Brian Skiff, if you made it this far, is there a easy
>method for measuring light pollution with a digital or CCD camera?

-- 
Jeff Hopkins
HPO SOFT
http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html
Hopkins Phoenix Observatory
7812 West Clayton Drive
Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A.
www.hposoft.com
--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.

Other related posts: