ScouseSpaceCadet

Ahhh! That took me a minute or two to spot. 😀 . You have captured some structure, so keep trying when the moon is out the way. The thread below may help a bit and has a very encouraging conclusion... @AstroNebulee started the discussion and now two years later has a very ingenius lightweight astrophotography rig. He produces fantastic images.

So LP has become worse for you too? 🙄 The shield LCC fiited to my offensive lamp covers approx. 90%.. Unlucky for you. ☹️

This winter I popped my head out of my loft office Velux window for something or other, looked left and could see the white glow eminating from that park. I'm maybe 4 miles away. Seeing it from slightly higher up really highlighted how intense those lights are. A huge waste of energy. 🙄

I wonder if that's the general pattern? Darker places becoming darker due to the replacement of old lighting stock, while us lot stuck in or on the boundary of cities surrounded by the likes of warehouses, retail parks and bright as day roads feel the pinch? ☹️ Your comment regarding councils and energy prices is totally on topic... If the energy costs continue to rise, surely businesses and councils will need to rethink?

Good news for you.👍 I'm guessing you live in a semi rural or edge of suburbia area? So quite dark beforehand but sensible LED lighting has improved matters?

Very much my experience. To be fair, during the 2020 lockdowns there was an obvious massive consistent, temporary improvement in transparency I'm attributing to less road and air traffic but the sky has without a doubt become brighter over the last year or so.

An article in today's Guardian highlighting the work of CPRE and their conclusion suggesting the latest star count shows light pollution decreased at the beginning of the pandemic and this year continued to fall... Although the opposite seems to be true in my area. Horizon to horizon there is a whiteish glow up to at least 50°. I've no doubt light pollution has increased over the last three years due to the proliferation of LED street lighting plus powerful LEDs at retail parks and huge logistics complexes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/17/light-pollution-falling-amid-soaring-energy-prices-star-survey

Just watched this month's focused on the moon. Thoroughly enjoyable with Pete Lawrence doing smartphone lunar photography. You couldn't get more grass roots!

I'm enjoying a short break in Flamborough on the Yorkshire coast with decent skies above (Bortle 4, SQM 21.32+). Unfortunately the street lighting is a little intrusive, the horizon is not the best and the moon is up, however last night seeing was excellent, so I managed an hour and a half with 15x70 binoculars on a monopod. Too many objects to list but I did particularly enjoy a globular tour. The beach area has been scoped out, so I'm hoping to sneak out late one night and drive down there to get away from the street lights and enjoy an unhindered horizon. Hopefully the weather plays ball. Unfortunately tonight I'm blanketed by fluffy grey cloud. 🙄

That's actually a great image using a mobile phone. 👍

I've no dso ap experience and I'm also colour blind, however... At first glance the top one looks nicer, but after more examination, there's much better detail in the second...

To be honest Alistair I thought about it, but the lack of facilities concerned me. I'm happy to wash using hot water in a mess tin if I have to but only having portaloos on site gives me the shivers!

Also after some nice transparent nights last week, the Saharan sand again arrived at the weekend... The car was really covered yesterday and after washing it off, there's a light smattering of the stuff again this morning...

My cold weather gear is fine for garden observing, when you can nip in for a brew occasionally... Being outside for hours without respite is whole other ball game... So if you are one for regularly travelling to an observing site then higher end cold weather clothing and footwear would be a good investment. Also as you have a van, then the previously mentioned used 12" truss dob would be nice. You would still have plenty left for a portable ap kit.

My circumstances are different, so despite light pollution I'm comfy observing in the garden with occasional trips away and don't harbour particularly expensive kit ambitions. So I'd exchange my 4" ED f7 refractor for an apo around 125mm f8, replace three or four of my eyepieces with Vixen SLVs and change my Celestron AVX mount for an alt az goto mount with a similar (or higher) weight capacity. As the gear being replaced would sell for around £1100 I'd still have around £2k left. That's when the hard decision making would come in and I really don't know what I'd spend it on. Maybe a very very small roll off/roll over obsy & pier or a decent used 12" dob, new camping gear or quality cold weather clothing... There's too many options! Good luck with your choices. £5k for astro kit will get you quality gear to potentially last a lifetime, though the key is spending it wisely... 🙄

Urban observing really feels like a running battle sometimes, but solar system objects, doubles and a clutch of brighter dsos can keep you busy with small telescopes. Even just being out under the sky getting some peace does you good I think. Often I pause observing to just sit there in the quiet and during some of those pauses a meteor or even a cracking fireball will entertain. Building higher fencing, bodging a light shield tarp, persuading the council to shade an LED, laying an observing area in the darkest garden corner and helping a neighbour with adjoining fencing to keep his hedges and trees tidy have all been worth the effort. Especially on those rare golden nights when the moon isn't shining, seeing and transparency are perfect and you're off work the next day!

Just finished watching... and thoroughly enjoyable too. The whole episode felt rather upbeat. The recurring amateur theme stirred great interest. I might write to Brian Cox to ask what moisturiser he uses just in case they call. Cue rambling about staring through tears at a first Jupiter observation, marvelling at binaries under light pollution and a primeval connection with the sky when camping! All with Scouse to English subtitles... Telescope sales would sky rocket when the public realises any poor idiot can do this... 🙄😆

The Skymax 127 Stu. It's a nice grab n go lunar telescope. As you can hopefully see in the shakey hand held snaps, there's a generous amount of detail resolved and sharp. A perfect match for the AZGTI. I'm looking forward to trying some proper lunar ap with it this summer. Nice photo Angel!

Caught them earlier (posted elsewhere). Actually a first time for me and more obvious than expected. Despite the half moon, seeing and transparency are great here tonight, but covid has knackered me and I could feel the cold on the lungs so sadly came in.

If I remember correctly there's approx another hour from now to catch these fun clair-obscur effects... Some very dodgy mobile pics from earlier:

Seeing is fantastic and a post covid treat, the lunar X and V. Excuse the shaky mobile pic... The cat keeping me company...

A fine focus knob! (Winner's lollipop please)

A great cake. Happy Birthday!

All true. I look forward to my late summer/autumn camping trips so much now. Booked on or just either side of new moon. The temperature is usually still warmish and the great British weather doesn't always play ball but when it does... Heaven. In the day time the missus is kept happy with a market and a pub. At night the sky is mine to enjoy. I've said this previously but the best accessories for urban astronomers are a sleeping bag and a tent!

I use an old Samsung S6 android mobile phone as a dedicated handset. There's no need to purchase a tablet to run Synscan or a planetarium app.