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Backgarden Observer or Full On Dark Sky Enthusiast?


Daniel-K

Backgarden Observer or Full On Dark Sky Enthusiast?  

57 members have voted

  1. 1. Backgarden Observer or Full On Dark Sky Enthusiast?



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Thought id start a poll too see how many of use love to get out under the darkest skys we can find. For me even though observing from home Is doable, I find once you've been somewhere away from LP its hard to observe from home.even if you drive 15 min away your still a Dark sky enthusiast :D

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When I found out how good it is observing from a dark site observing from home with LM 5.3 skies just didn't cut it anymore so for DSO's I'm 100% at dark sites but planets and lunar observing I'm at home. :)

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I use to enjoy making the most from home, too many factors against that now. Developed an appetite for dark sky observing, with lots of good locations in reach to head to either solo or joining my club. The car has become my work horse, dark sky observing only, whether DSO's, planets or whatever, each appears better from a dark non urban location.    

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Most of my imaging is done from my garden. this doesn't mean I'm not a dark sky enthusiest. I just don't see the point of missing a rare clear night because I can't drive 1hr+ each way on a work night. 

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99% of my observing is done from my back garden. I tend to refer to myself as a "Sky tourist" as I mainly seem to view well known targets. Occasionally I'll seek out something more obscure when I get the urge but my garden is mixed in terms of suitability for seeking out the fainter DSO's due to neighbours // street lighting / trees etc.

It's a hobby that we do for fun so everyone should take what they want from it in the way they want to :smiley:

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I guess it also depends upon how built up your home environment is. I live in a terrace Townhouse, so my back yard is quite closely connected to neighbour's even though I have high walls and trellis vines. The biggest issue for me though besides the more obvious neighbour's lights, was the thermal effect from rooftops, which reduced the periods in which planetary (or even lunar to a point) observing was feasible. I later switched to an allotment that I keep, which is situated in a more open environment, but the new and very bright LED street lights even though in the distance and partially screened by trees annoyingly glared a bit into my line of vision.

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I love dark skies. It's so real treat to get away for a weekend or our two weeks annual migration north.

My back garden is awful, last night even before the Moon , I was able to read my notes without a red light. This was mainly high cloud glow. Very rarely we get a night of dark sparkling clarity . The Milky Way and galaxies come out to play.

Whatever your site there's bound to be something interesting, but under

Clear skies !

Nick.

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How do I vote, I live in the middle of fields. My observing compagnions are cows, foxes, badgers, deer, wild boar, rabbits and small buzzy things.

My nearest street light is a good 2 miles away, and this gets turned off when it goes dark.

DARK

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Back garden only, so far. But once I manage to persuade my missus that there really are no nasty gangs waiting for poor little me alone in the dark I'm gonna get me to a dark site.

I have a couple of places in mind but, apart from the above, I also have to make sure I lay off the wine in the evening when planning to go. Hasn't happened yet ...

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I tend to do around 75% from my garden but Travel short distances to nearby hill-tops (Downs)

not just for darker shies, but also to get a view of objects in part of the sky that I cannot

get to from my garden (Mainly low Northwest to Northeast).

For some visitors to the skies and inferior planets etc I even go down to the beach, which due to

the seafront lights has a worse sky than my garden.

So I suppose I'm basically a,,,,,Sky enthusiast.

Mick

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Thought id start a poll too see how many of use love to get out under the darkest skys we can find. For me even though observing from home Is doable, I find once you've been somewhere away from LP its hard to observe from home.even if you drive 15 min away your still a Dark sky enthusiast :D

Honeymoon in Hawaii big island sort of redefined "dark site" spending a night observing at Mauna Kea.. 

So back garden from Guildford.

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What if you buy a house in the Styx then observe from home? ;)

If you buy a house in the Styx don't you only see Hades?

To answer the question seriously, 100% garden ATM but as I've moved further towards the edges of London I'll start looking for dark sites within sensible striking distance.

Note to self:

Stop posting until the effects of the bottle of Golden Pride have worn off. Eye-hand coordination poor for typing.

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Ah, wait a minute. Some persons are voting for both!

I didn't know that was an option. And, further, does that not defeat the point of having a poll?

Come on now. We can see who you are ... (Scott)

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