Quality of town skies.

[cotterless45]

We live on the edge of town and normally the sky is pretty bad. Last time out I counted the number of stars visible to the East.

From Betelgeuse to Pollux up to Capella across to Aldebaran and back to Betelgeuse.

Total counted was 45. This was however an horrendous evening with humidity in the air gripping every light source.

Sometimes I get annoyed at all the streetlights, town and factory lights left on all night. It's a bit darker overhead , but not good for the Dob dance !

Nick.

[Qualia]

From the city I wouldn't even want to start counting the visible stars, for I feel it would be such a depressing outcome However, on a normal night, I imagine I'm seeing something pretty similar to you Nick. Generally speaking, I won't start observing until after midnight and do find that the later one begins the better become the conditions.

I figure that the way to exist as a general stargazer is to work on the principle of 'in spite of'. Despite the fact that most folk will think we're nothing short of odd, despite not caring about contaminating the gorgeous night skies, despite believing we're wasting our time whilst thinking nothing about sitting in front of the TV for hours on end, despite the endless conversations about football and celebrities, we're out there, drinking in the wonders of nature, engaging in some of the greatest and profoundest mysteries known, in awe of the mysteries and wonderful structures of the universe.

In another quantum multi-universe, if such things happen to exist, perhaps it is not us who are considered the weird ones

[scarp15]

From home I have on several occasions, begun to make the most of things by using my allotment as an observing location.  Here I have a shed and paved area in which I have placed a builders pallet that I use as a platform for the scope. It is quite tranquil, I get to see the expanse of sky which is very restricted from my back yard. The allotment feeds into playing fields and the Town Moor and the roads running around are tree lined. 

However although I do not get the neighbour's security and all manner of lighting, roof thermals, fairly recent addition of extra street lights in the back lane -  a Council led  'health and safety' measure aimed at assisting burglars, from putting in accident claims (I think), there are lines of street lights along the Great North and feeder roads that can create a heck of a glare. I much prefer a scenario where there are too many stars to count.

[Beulah]

There's a point to picking the right time to observe to increase the chances of a darker sky.

It feels like I have been doing it wrong in 2013. I just need to figure out how to stay awake until midnight as I am usually dead to the world way before then! 

[jetstream]

I think businesses(factories,mills,malls,gas stations,etc) need to realize the impact of their lighting.The amount of energy consumed to light everything up must be exceedingly high,another problem in itself.