Rob55

Hi All I'm new to the game. Bought a Celestron 102 for Christmas 6 years ago when I was in Louisiana. The winter nights usually never got colder than low 50s and were clear as a bell. I wanted to start locating and resolving binaries, but moved to Rockville MD and between the buildings and light pollution only set the scope up once. Now I'm in Washington state sorrunded by 100' cedars and clouds. I have enough distance from the trees North to see Polaris, but haven't found it yet through the glow Seattle cast through the haze. In Louisiana I had great views of Neptune, Jupiter, Venus. Last night looking just west of straight up with just my eyes I think I could see Vega fairly well. Anyhow I'm going to try to set up on my deck, but I'm worried about vibrations. The deck elevates me about 8' and gets me off a 20* grade. I have a little concrete patio but useing it it will put Polaris behind the trees and completely cut off my south and west horizon. I retire in a couple of weeks and want to spend some time learning this astronomy thing. Looking forward to learning. Oh I want to hook a camera to my MacBook. Anyhow thanks for letting me join. Rob