Moving to London - Is my Astrophotography Doomed?

[Alaness]

I've landed a decent job with a broadcast hardware supplier in West London and I will be moving there at the end of the month. The chances of being able to get any decent shots in my free time however is looking 'dim'. I'm told the sky is so bright it can be hard to even make out planets...!  

Would moving to monochrome narrowband imaging be a workable option? If so, what filters would I require? Otherwise I'm just going to have to sell my kit and move on to armature radio astronomy or something.

[Astrosurf]

Melsky does fantastic narrowband images such as OIII and H alpha (I hope I got that right!) He said he can do them even in bright moonlight but I don't know about LP. I'm certainly no expert so I'm sure someone will be along in a minute. Do check out astro societies in that area who would know about darker sites. I travel from Buckingham to a dark site in Chipping Norton, 45-50 mins' drive, to be with my group. It's worth it!

[swamp thing]

What not have a chat with Nytecam he's not far from me in a horrendously LP area and images very successfully indeed. He takes superb images very quickly indeed getting great amounts of data.

http://stargazerslounge.com/user/21003-nytecam/

[ronin]

Suspect you will find imaging a lot more difficult, whether narrow band will be the way to go is up to you. Seems to require somewhat longer exposure times and therefore comes across as much more a serious serious form of imaging.

Depends on where you actually end up living and the distance therefore to anywhere dark, equally there will be dark places that no-one thinks of. The general impression being all London is light polluted.

I would guess that the best idea really is wait until you have a place to live, then enquiry about local clubs and see if any have suggestions. Places like QMUC have an observatory for the students so as said there must be relatively dark areas.

[jezhughes]

I live in London but image in Kent. On a good day i can just make out Vega here

You'll probably be okay with narrowband, but i'd think having any serious go at an RGB image will leave you disappointed with how little data you'll be able to get. Does depend on what part of London though, its a big city. Greenwich can be nice!

http://www.bakerstreetastro.org.uk is probably the largest astro group here. Have fun!