light polluted back garden session

[singlespeedman]

Still being new to all this I gave my back garden is first proper use tonight, as opposed to venturing of out and about. My back garden is pretty well lot from a street light lighting up the rat of the cul d sac I am on the entrance to. It does have a shield on it but it stops just far enough back to leave the brightest part of the bulb unshielded and casting its nastiness into my back garden.

Despite all that I thought I would have a little session looking at the moon. My garden is quite nicely situated at the east side of my property and the from of the house to the west. Not ideal for sunshine but being a corner plot means I can watch the planets rise and provided they are above 28 degrees elevation (to avoid more houses) I can track them from east to west all night long.

I was pretty impressed with the views and can only dream of what they will be like when the light issue is resolved. At least I now know I can just nip in to the garden, face the tripod north as polaris lines up with the neighbours tree if I am in the centre of my garden, and then observe planets top my hearts content. If it were not for having work tomorrow I would still be there. The wife is out on Wedesday and I am already praying for clear skies so I can park my ass in the back garden all night to look at the moon some more and learn its features.

[Simms]

Just spent an evening session with the moon tonight.. Being pretty much full you lose a lot of the texture and drama that can be found on a half moon or quarter moon - but you can view a lot of the features on a full - but the real `wow` factor is to observe the terminator as the moon is waxing or waning.

[pastiche]

I agree with Simms. The Moon is a fascinating subject especially when not full.

Singlespeedman, do you have a moon filter? I find it makes a real difference to seeing the detail on the lunar surface. Hope you get your nights viewing on Wednesday....

[damnut]

Hi There,

I used two 10 foot lengths of batten, gaffer taped a dogs leg paintbrush to it and half a tin of hammerite, streetlamp sorted..Been on there now for 6 years!.