How do you deal with light pollution?

[RonVen]

Tonight while stargazing a variety of light pollution factors became apparent. The moon, the street lights, the lights in neighbors houses, car lights and on and on and on. I finally moved behind a tree to shield me from some of these annoyances and wished I had a better solution. Outside of physically moving to a remote area, are there any techniques you employ to deal with light pollution?

[Demonperformer]

I have virtually stopped 'visual' at home because of LP. I tend to put my canon into the telescope rather than an eyepiece and take a 10/15 sec exposure, displayed immediately on the laptop (this is also useful for displaying to passers-by what objects look like, rather than having them grab - sometimes literally! - the scope themselves). Virtual Magnifying Glass is useful for getting that slightly more 'up close and personal' feel.

Not as good as genuine visual, and I know a lot of people feel this method lacks the enjoyment they get at the eyepiece itself, but for me it is better than nothing (which is what my streetlights allow me).

[farunj]

That's a problem we all suffer from! A LP filter might help, but the only good solution is to go to a dark site! Nothing can beat that!

[Beulah]

LP has steadily got worse here, short term I'm having a bit of a sulk about it - the drives to darker locations has been enjoyable and has been the saviour of this hobby; long term we are seeking somewhere more remote to lay our hats..

Edited June 17, 2013 by Beulah

[ronin]

Either as you have done and shield yourself from any if it is possible and feasible, otherwise go elsewhere, preferably a short drive to somewhere suitable.

There are lots of complaints about LP, but it is here to stay and in reality we will have to work with it and around it. We tend to live in towns and cities in which we and others want illumination to get around with and be or at least feel safer with.

You mention car lights but if someone drove past at night with no lights we would call them a damn idiot and a few would call the police. If they drive past with headlights on when we are observing we still call them a damn idiot for half blinding us.

If it were possible to have a nearby individual street light turned off that would be good for many of us, often it is 1 specific light that is the major problem. However I would be fairly sure that 4 or 5 people would equally report a street light has broken and ask for it to be fixed.

To my thinking it is not going to go away, and sitting complaining will do close to nothing. Not sure how easy it is for you to visit elsewhere but I do find that organising meets rarely gets anywhere. Identifing a location is not easy then people have to be available at the same time. I can see why an astro club is no bad idea.

Would guess your only real option is to head a bit North or East, South is definitly not sensible and West is a bit wet. Can you get to Croton Point Park ? Looks as if it might be useful. Are there others from Ossining/Croton/Hawthorn that you could meet up with ?

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Tonight while stargazing a variety of light pollution factors became apparent. The moon, the street lights, the lights in neighbors houses, car lights and on and on and on. I finally moved behind a tree to shield me from some of these annoyances and wished I had a better solution. Outside of physically moving to a remote area, are there any techniques you employ to deal with light pollution?

What I Am doing to block out neighbours lights being my next door neighbour is Get out a old curtin and hang it up on the washing line and use trees ect where needed I find it blocks out the light well enough. Also to enhance night sky contrast i would higly recomend for your telescope as it works well on smaller scopes is the (as I use it on my 130eq md (not that I use the MD yet manual is fine for me)) BAADER NEODYMIUM & IR Cut filter from

http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/baader_planetarium/baader_filters_fs.html

I use this company as my astronomy service now if they have what i require as I can not fault their personal customer service, it is first class as is there advice. They bend over backwards to make sure you get what you are after even if not in stock. THe filter also works as a good planetary filter although you may want a darker MOON filter when observing the moon as it can be very bright when fully illuminated and when it is it is the best thing to view as everything is drowned out by it's light.

And this month in from the 22~24th it will be the closest it gets to Earth and will be massive to look at I can't wait for that!

You could ask the above mentioned company Via Telephone or email probably telephone what would be best and get their recommendation for Light pollution but make sure you state what kind of telescope you are using.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Mr Gazza.

[acey]

Outside of physically moving to a remote area, are there any techniques you employ to deal with light pollution?

No. The only thing that works is to get away from it or else choose targets that are very bright. Shielding your eye from surrounding glare will help a bit, and a light pollution filter might also help a bit if you happen to live in an area with old-style orange streetlights. I gave up back-garden visual years ago, and do all my viewing from a rural dark site.

[NGC 1502]

All of the above plus -

As mentioned in post #7, view bright objects - moon, planets, double stars. These objects are least affected by LP. I have the 'Cambridge Double Star Atlas', the sky is stuffed with double stars, it will be a very long time indeed before I run out of new ones to find.

If you are on good terms with your neighbours, it may be worth chatting to them and explaining the problem. Even considerate neighbours will be unaware that their lights could be a problem. Maybe they could be prepared to close curtains, or turn off outside lights when you have an observing session. I have such an arrangement with next door. A quick phone call and they close the curtains at the back of the house, makes a big difference to me. I feed their cat when they are away, saves them a packet at the cattery. It's a win-win deal..........

Regards, Ed.

[RonVen]

Thanks for all your Posts.

Ron

[swamp thing]

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No. The only thing that works is to get away from it or else choose targets that are very bright. Shielding your eye from surrounding glare will help a bit, and a light pollution filter might also help a bit if you happen to live in an area with old-style orange streetlights. I gave up back-garden visual years ago, and do all my viewing from a rural dark site.

I agree with acey. Getting away from it is the only really effective solution. I also gave up back yard observing for this very reason.

[cotterless45]

I bought 9 washing line poles, put 1 ft deep holes in lines around the shed. Got some old dark throws from charity shops and heavy duty clips from £ shop.

Now as required I have an easily erected and removed light proof enclosure. They can be up all night in the toilet, let foxes and cats play in the security lights and have the streetlights on.

The difference is amazing, my eyes really adapt better to the dark and I keep tripping over the tripod legs, hopefully in

clear skies,

Nick.

[Superdavo]

The village a mile away from me, and Sheffield about 15, make north and west observing near impossible, but to the south and east, and overhead, it's not so bad for me

[Mak One]

I'm waiting patiently for the kids to grow out of the ubiquitous trampoline in the back garden. By removing the trampoline but leaving the frame (it's a 8-footer) and filing in between the six posts with opaque material that can be raised/lowered as required to avoid it all getting mobile on windy days, I'd have a permanent observing screen that just happens to look like a trampoline. Not quite got how I get the scope in and out of the frame with out having to lift it over the frame ring 3ft off the ground, or perhaps limbo-ing the lot under it...

Funny the schemes you dream up when it's cloudy and the council have gone LED streetlight mad...

[umadog]

Outside of physically moving to a remote area, are there any techniques you employ to deal with light pollution?

I look at Saturn.

[jason.p]

I'm lucky having fairly dark skies, but like many others I have a couple of annoying (to me!) street lights. I've set up a crude sight screen which takes a couple of minutes to roll out. My original was some old blankets on a washing line. Crude but effective

[DoctorD]

A bit like Demonperformer, I rarely do visual from my home location. I

Live in suburban Bradford (red zone) and have a lot of local LP as well from street lights and security lights.

I use my Samsung security camera with 10 second exposure and a Baader Moon and Sky Glow filter to do my viewing. Have a look at my gallery for examples of what I can see immediately on screen.

Clear skies

Paul

[coulthamst]

My preferred solution to my difficulties observing from inner city Leeds is an impenetrable blackout cloth (c/2' square) over my head and eyepiece, and remembering to close my observing eye if I have to emerge for any reason. Of course this cannot approach the conditions obtainable from a truly dark sky, but it works better for me than any of the other methods I have tried.

[Stargazer_00]

My back garden has almost no light pollution pouring into it from neighbours which is great. On occasion though one of them will leave a bathroom light on all night which is only an annoyance really. The way I devised to get around this was using my solid base sun umbrella parasol set up that I use on hot summer's days on my lawn. It's a free standing heavy base in which you stick the parasol/umbrella.. Mine stands about 20 foot tall and can tilt so I jsut set this up so that it shields my observing spot from the offending light source. It works to magnificent effect and has helped me avoid any conflict where I lose my (exceptionally short) temper and start swearing at their window while they sleep.

To add to this, I've since found this can also be used to block direct moon light. Obviously it can't improve the sky but it can help your dark eye adaption a bit if you are looking for planetary nebs.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Stargazer_00

[jetstream]

There is also another thing that may help and it is the subject of exit pupil.As other posters have said as exit pupil decreases it dims the view.Mel Bartles assembled,came up with an interesting obsevation/conclusion.From the page Visual Astronomy at the Telescpoes Eyepiece:"Magnifying the image results in smaller exit pupils,the useful maximum magnification or smallest exit pupil being close to 1mm.The sky glow brightness drops more than 4 magnitudes to close to 26 magnitude as exit pupil shrinks to 1mm."This was from a reference of 21.5mag.The main issue for us (I think) is the 4 magnitude difference at the 1mm exit pupil.So thing is at the 2mm-1mm exit pupil will this provide an appropriate magnification for the existing sky (seeing ) conditions?I have personally obseved this from my light polluted house area.At 27x my scope illuminates the skyglow badly(3.28mm exit pupil),at 63x the skyglow is dimmed quite a bit(1.42mm exit pupil).This also answers my question of my Delos...Why at times did it do better on DSO's from my house?I thought just because it is a premium eyepiece,but at .86mm exit pupil the glow is dimmed to the limit.I can see bright DSO's from my yard-though not great-using the smaller exit pupils.So bascially if going to 1mm-2mm exit pupil puts you in a reasonable magnification range,try it.Along with the other suggestions this may help.

[Nibor]

My preferred solution to my difficulties observing from inner city Leeds is an impenetrable blackout cloth (c/2' square) over my head and eyepiece, and remembering to close my observing eye if I have to emerge for any reason. Of course this cannot approach the conditions obtainable from a truly dark sky, but it works better for me than any of the other methods I have tried.

I, too, have found the blackout hood very effective in my LP site. - I also have made canvas screens which I can quickly put up to provide relief from street lights and neighbours security lights. I am looking at an autumn / winter project using video observing ala DoctorD!!

[jetstream]

For me "light tresspass" into my viewing area from local lighting messes up my night vision,so I take the steps to block that light,but actual skyglow problems are harder to combat. If the lights nearby are messing up nightvision and the sky is bright that is a real problem.I like umadogs reply!

[CSM]

I 'solved' the problem of stray lights by getting a Pulsar observatory. Expensive but worth every penny. No stray lights or wind to chill you out and the scope is permanently setup. Only down side is that you can only see a small section of the sky unless you step outside.

[ollypenrice]

I emigrated. I've always been a bit of an extremist! You get sun in the daytime as well. Highly recommended...

Olly

[planet15]

I am thinking of converting an old wooden shed into some sort of observatory - it would help a lot, but seems kinda big project for me.

[tibbz2]

Luckily we live in the middle of nowhere so I only really have to deal with the LP from Boston which isn't too bad... In the North/NW there is a big depot that destroys the sky but I do my observing on the opposite side of the house East/South/SW way where the sky is darkest!

I can turn the outdoor lights off and the neighbours sometimes have their outdoor light on, which I can mostly shield myself from.

Cars are another matter though, when they approach from the South road they have full beams on, so as soon as I notice one I end up covering my eyes for about 30 seconds at a time!