Where do you observe from?

[craigfoot]

Hi

Just generally interested in how you all enjoy the skies?

Do you have a nice garden in a dark area? Or maybe know a place locally you travel to? Or even have the scope setup elsewhere?

Where I currently live has a lot of street lights so not ideal and not had the scope our for a while. I've took the scope to my parents caravan a few times where it is very dark and I saw Saturn here, wanna do another trip soon now I know more about what to look for.

Hopping to get my own house soon with a good view from the back garden to set up permanent. . though prob more important things to look for when choosing a house lol

Craig

[CodnorPaul]

Both back garden and dark sites - find a local club so you are not out on your own and have some company too

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

My garden is fairly dark, but I sometimes take my scope to one of a couple of dark sites (my parents' garden, my colleague's place, my inlaws' garden). I also take the kit on holidays whenever possible

[Skywatcher 200]

Back garden , but i have to wait for the street lights to go out before it gets quite dark

[craigfoot]

Do you travel to a dark site you know or is that part of a club?

I sorta enjoy the being on my own part, relaxing and taking in what's up there, but maybe worth looking at clubs, never considered that really.

[craigfoot]

My other problem is finding time, waiting til its really dark generally means really late which doesn't mix with early starts for work. . roll on winter!

[scarp15]

You could have the best of both, I to enjoy solitary observing from a dark site, yet I also enjoy occasional observing when my club meet, again always from a dark site away from my light polluted home city, I have completely given up on that. You could also add to the mix and look at attending regional star camps. I never venture going out observing if at work the next day though.

[DaveS]

My back garden, which isn't terribly dark, perhaps Bortle 6.5 on a good night. Mind you I'm more of an imager.

[Grotemobile]

Back garden , but i have to wait for the street lights to go out before it gets quite dark

 

I am just the same as you. My front lights go out,

but the back lights stay on.Pain in the neck.

Steve

[PM_ME_URANUS]

In the top of my building, which has 17 floors. I use a long cylinder around the camera to block light pollution

[RobertI]

I currently have no back garden and live in the middle of a small town. Up until recently I put everything into the back of the car and drove to a dark field nearby (with the permission of the farmer). However I recently discovered Electronically Assisted Observing (aka Video Astronomy) and can now observe from my light polluted driveway - much more convenient and something of a revelation.

[Dubhar]

Most of the time in my garden which gives a a reasonably unobstructed view of the sky NE to SW and somewhat SE, under a constant nice orangey glow of course. If I get the timing right I get a nice view at Fort William, its so much better, nice dark skys.

[cutepetgroomer]

90 percent of the viewing I do is done in front of my apt. with light polluted skies most of the time.

[craigfoot]

90 percent of the viewing I do is done in front of my apt. with light polluted skies most of the time.

With good results?

[just_ed]

I hide in the shadows of my back garden in a small town.

[SparrowsEYE]

I hide in the shadows of my back garden in a small town.

hah!  I hide in the shadows of my backyard as well. My little 4.5 dob pulls in some decent objects surprisingly.

The backyard is convenient  for me as a  dark site is hours away.

[L8-Nite]

I have a favorite spot on the nearby mountain which has a panoramic view. My back garden is a work in progress. In the dark its treacherous at best, but sometimes it's the only option.

[Pete Presland]

mostly back garden, but if something is low on the horizon or requires dark skies i will go out into the countryside.

[RichM63]

Luckily I live in a very dark area with no LP and no street lights or neigbours so can pretty much choose anywhere on the property. 

Although I have been known to drive 15mins to the high cliffs and setup there.

[Marki]

Mostly from my suburban back garden. Views are limited by trees to north, my house blocks views to west, and my neighbours "security"lights are a pain, unless I wait til gone midnight. I get a clearish view to the east and south-east (although not down to the horizon), but that's right over the city centre, so the sky is orange quite high up. I can still see a fair amount though, and even a feint milkyway from time to time.

Its still way better than where I used to live which had no backgarden and only tiny front yard on a junction of two roads with a street lamp right on the corner and with a floodlit car park opposite. In fact, when we moved to to our current house, having a darkish back garden was pretty high up on the selection criteria.

I rarely venture out -I've been to a formal star party once (mostly clooudy and wet) and an informal star camp once (lovely weather and pretty dark). I'd probably go again - it was nice to have knowledgeable people around to help identify stuff, and to let me look through some much bigger aperture instruments! Not much of a "club" man, so not yet ventured out to meet my local society - perhaps I should.

I always take a scope (or at the very least some bins) with me when I go on holiday. Had some marvellous viewing in France, but been rather less lucky with holidays in Scotland so far.

[ollypenrice]

I took the radical step of making astronomy a priority (and a small business) and emigrated to SE France for a good sky. In doing so I was surprized by how difficult it was to find the right location. I considered Spain and all of southern France. Having settled on SE France for the sky quality it was still extremely difficult to find the perfect site. Too far south and you hit the coastal and industrial light pollution.  Too far north and you don't get the number of clear nights. Too far east and you cop the Alpine thunderstroms.  In the broad valleys you get the mistrale, which is absolutely vile. And you need to be future proofed.  A little to my south was excellent 20 years ago but is now not up to serious DS imaging. People who used to take astro holidays there have moved north to get away from the rising LP. I spent nearly three years researching possible locations, though that was in my holidays as a teacher, not full time.

When I found a farmhouse with no roads to the south, surrounded by hills on which construction is physically impossible, protected from the village by a bump of high ground... I bought it on the spot!

I expected to find somewhere within a few weeks. It took nearly three years.

Olly

[NotSoSuperNova]

If I'm being lazy then I go into my garden where the whole of my west view obscured by my house. I do get good views on everything else though.

If I'm well prepared then I can get to a fairly good dark sky in about 20 mins but the lay-by I've claimed does seem to double up as the local 'meeting spot' for amorous couples.  

[craigfoot]

Lol think I'd feel a little odd setting up in a lay by!

[kev100]

I usually use the school playing field opposite our house. There's little in the way of street lights in our village, but those there are are shielded by hedges and trees. Sometimes, if I'm feeling energetic (and only when observing with the binoculars), I climb to the top of the hill above the Cerne giant.

[DaveS]

Although my new house is only just darker (Perhaps half a Bortle) than where I was the view is much better. It was, in fact one of the main criteria when looking, that and the absence of floodlit sports grounds and visible street lights. I can only see one streetlight from my garden, and to do that I have to go to the extreme end.

The last few clear nights I could see Capella at 11 o/c, which was impossible at this time of year in my last house, Pegasus and Andromeda are very clear, and Cassiopea is effectivly circumpolar. Those with wide open horizons may snear, but for me it's been nothing short of a revelation. I also saw Antares clearly for the first time in many years, decades almost.

Happy? Yes, pretty much.